9/24/09 3 Day Wonder - Cruise Meets, and FEs, and Goombays oh my!

[m_kasch]

I know what you mean about only being able to book through Disney, I tried to book the Sea Lion Encounter directly through Blue Lagoon, and they said that ALL of their spots are contracted out to Disney on days that their ships are in port. I find that hard to believe, especially since there are 3 Carnival ships in port that day, and that is one of the excursions for them too. It's $25 more per person just to book through Disney, and I didn't think it was worth it. But, then I found the cheaper room at the Comfort Suites for Atlantis, which is what I really wanted to do to begin with...so it all worked out!! :thumbsup2

[jenny105]

Typical Disney, charging more than they should so they can make an extra profit. As if they don't have enough of our money already! I love Disney World, the parks, the atmosphere, etc but Disney as a company....:scared:

[karentan]

then again i dont blame them for actually being successful in making money in this economy, they're one of the few making any. at least they're still offering good discounts, eg: the free dining etc so it doesnt feel too much like we're getting totally screwed out of our money!

[jenny105]

They do have good deals going, don't get me wrong. But I don't like the fact that they're laying off people who work in the parks because they "lost" some money. They have billions upon billions of dollars. Why don't the execs take a paycut so the people that make minimum wage in the parks can keep their jobs?

[m_kasch]

My work is the same way. Walgreens is still making money, yet we had layoffs this year. There is such pressure for profits to keep going up up up, that when money gets tight...they do whatever they can to keep profits going up. Companies should not worry so much about what Wall Street thinks...but they need their stock prices to go up, so they do. Who knows...I think it's all crazy!! :confused3

And I agree about the people at the top taking cuts...but they would NEVER do that!! They all just keep getting promoted so that they can get a raise!!

[m_kasch]

Yay, I got my Harry Potter tickets!! I couldn't get it to go through online yesterday, but I decided to try one more time today before I drove out of my way to the theater today on the way home...and it worked!! We're going to this cool theater by my house that has a restaurant, so you can order food and drinks while watching the movie (actually, each person has to order so much I think...). Maybe they have a Goombay Smash??? :rotfl::rotfl:

Less than a week to go....Yay for Harry Potter!

[karentan]

yay for harry potter 6!!! although i'll have to wait a bit longer than you guys!

i've gone ahead and booked an airport lounge for saturday, its only cost me £17.50 but i'm flying out in the evening, so i'm thinking it'd be nice to have a walk round the airport then go find a comfy chair in a quiet lounge and have a quiet drink and read my book.

[disney honeymooners]

i just called disney cruise line to give them our passport numbers and the lady told me that we could already do our shore excursions bc we are past the final payment date i told her that i thoug we had to wait til the 11th but she said we should be able to do it now i will go on their website and check and let you know jen if so this would be great. you wouldnt hav eto wait til monday to get it done.

[karentan]

ooh, you'll have to let us know how you get on!! (i've already made mine but i hope that you guys can make yours early!!)

[karentan]

i've been checking the DCL website every so often to see what categories they're selling (ie: how full the ship is), and for the last few weeks they've only had cat 9s and above. now they've gone back to selling every category. i'm guessing the ship isnt going to be totally full, and i'm presuming that a few people have cancelled because its close to the final payment date.....?

[jenny105]

Yay for Harry Potter! :wizard: I can't wait, Mary!!

Lainey, I'm going to check today. That'd be awesome!

Karen, I'm totally fine with the ship not being sold out. The less crowded the better. ;) As long as no one else from our group cancels!

[m_kasch]

I looked up my ressie today, and it still said that Jen, Joe, Lainey, and Greg were outside of their booking window. Sorry Ladies!!

I was surprised to see that they reopened up the cat. 12 rooms. I really hope that I get upgraded!! :wizard: But if not, I suppose that I will live...:lmao:

My Supervisor is here today, and she was so shocked about how things went with Payroll yesterday!! She asked me if I told our Director, but I didn't because her door was closed all day yesterday. She will be shocked, too!! Yay for cooperation (even if it only happens once, LOL)!!

[jenny105]

Yeah, I just checked, it won't let me book my shore excursions. Oh well, it's just a few more days, no big deal. I shouldn't have any trouble at all booking the Extreme Getaway Package. It's not like they run out of floats and snorkel equipment.

I'm really getting annoyed by my job. Actually, the company. I like my job and I like (most) of the people I work with, but the company is just ridiculous. They've re-worked our department into tiers Level 1 and Level 2. If you don't fall into Level 2, you don't get commission anymore. I don't fall into that because I didn't work here for the entire year of 2008. Such b/s. But since I'm doing so well for 2009, I should be Level 2 next year. :sad2:

You also have to do at least 10 bookings a month, which is fairly easy, except in the winter months when no one comes in. What then?

Ugh. This place gets more irritating everyday.

[karentan]

but at least you can book the awesome TA offers!!! congrats on the WL upgrade!!

[m_kasch]

Jen, if I go anywhere in the Winter, i'll book it through you, LOL! We do have AAA. :goodvibes

I am going to be at work FOREVER today. :scared1: I have to update a bunch of stuff and then try and get 10 more months of my account reconciled. I wish I had help, but it's just me and i'm going NUTS!!

The only benefit is that I can watch the Wonder said, my favorite Thursday activity!! :dance3:

[jenny105]

Can you post the links to the ship cams again, Mary? Work is a little slow right now.

Thanks for the congrats on the upgrade, Karen! :) That made my day so much better. It's worth putting up with the b/s for perks like that!!

For those who don't follow the PTR, I got a TA rate on WL w/a water park option & more hopper and dining for about the same price I'm paying for POR. Needless to say, I switched!

[karentan]

just had a thought does that mean that you lose the free dining?

[m_kasch]

http://www.cocoabeachsurf.com/BeachCam1.htm

that's to watch it come out of the jetty. It should be very soon, it left right on time and takes about 20 minutes. Sad I know that...:lmao:

Congrats on the upgrade!! Yay for WL!!

[karentan]

http://www.portcanaveral.com/webcam.htm
http://www.opusad.com/radissonwebcam/
http://www.cocoabeachsurf.com/BeachCam1.htm
http://www.twopalms.com/

[jenny105]

Well, technically I had to pay to add on the dining but it came out to around $1300 (POR was $1252 w/the free dining promo) so it doesn't really make a huge difference. I priced out WL with the free dining offer with the same options and it's coming out to $2100. :scared1:

[karentan]

wow! as long as the price is the same, yay for (not so free) dining!!

[m_kasch]

Sometimes Free Dining doesn't work out to be a good deal. Last year when we went with FD, it was a very small difference for what we had and what it was with the AP rates. We left it though, because it was only like $5 different.

I just love watching the ships sail!! Only 10 more until it is ours... :wizard:

[jenny105]

It's going to be us on that ship soon!!!

Yup, it's pretty much 50% off the room rate instead of free dining :rotfl: Joe is going to be shocked!

[m_kasch]

There she goes, off to sea!! I'm almost done updating these letters for people, I love people who ask us to overnight their checks because they are in financial crisis or because they are going on vacation or because they need to go shopping, or whatever -- if you had CASHED you paycheck in the first place, we would be having these problems, would we?!? All of the checks I get are over a year old, so...why don't people just cash them when they get paid? I am so perplexed by this!! :confused3

Jen, do you know what kind of view you got? WL is so fun! The boat is very convenient to MK (notice how Magic Kingdom and I have the same initials!!!), and you can rent bikes to go around by Fort Wilderness. So fun! :thumbsup2

[jenny105]

I have a courtyard view. What's funny is that it's a bunk bed room. We have the queen bed in there too of course but if Joe gets on my nerves, guess where he'll be sleeping?? :rotfl:

[m_kasch]

lol!! We had bunk beds the first time we went there too, I was on a trip with Tim's family. His mom was freaking out, because his sister and I were sharing that room, and she didn't want one of us to have to sleep on the bunk beds. It was my very first trip with them. I was like, it's okay, I will live sleeping on bunk beds for 3 nights, I slept on them the first 13 years of my life!! :lmao: She cracks me up!! There is a story about her that one time they stayed at some Disney resort that isn't there anymore (can't remember the name), but they were like cabins or something, and she walked in and was like..."oh, this will NEVER do!!" and called and then they got moved to tower at the Contemporary!! LOL!! :lmao:

[jenny105]

:rotfl2: I don't mind the bunkbeds at all! It will be like reliving college days! I'm super excited. I can't wait to get there already. It's so close!!!!!

[disney honeymooners]

congrats on the upgrade Jen greg is Jelaous he loves the way WL looks but he is looking forward to the Poly and i will be able to see yalls hotel from ours :) and we will be there the day we go to epcot for breakfast at WCC. We are buying our airline tickets this week so disney can have our flight info for the magical express to get our luggage as well as us. yall have bunk beds and we have 2 queen beds so if greg gets on my nerves i can make him sleep in the other bed.
I showed my family the magic leaving PC i havent been able to be home to watch the wonder leave port yet but mary i cant believe that it only leaves 10 more times and then it will be us people see on the web cam my family said that they are gonna watch the webcam the day we leave out.

[jenny105]

Thanks Lainey! I'm so excited! I was thinking of making a breakfast ADR at WCC the day of the cruise. It's a toss up between that or going over to the Poly so Joe can try Tonga Toast. I'm heading over to the online ADR site now to check...

[jenny105]

What is the confirmation number for Ohana? I want to pull all my ADRs up so I can print them all out and put them in my vacation file. :)

[FutureDis]

<waves to everyone>

Hi! How's everyone doing? I haven't been keeping up with the thread a whole lot I'm afraid... been pretty busy with work and potty training our 2 year old... LOL

I was looking over what info I have for the photopass share and just wanted to touch base with everyone about it. It is still $99 to pre-order :cool1: so we'll be doing that of course. This is the info I have:

Donna 9/27-10/4
Karen 9/12 - 9/24
Jenny ?
Lainey 9/20 - 9/24
Mary 9/19 - 10/3
Stacy 9/19 - 9/24

I need Donna's email address, and Jenny's date for the world, if you guys would pm that to me please.

Do I have everyone? Anyone else want to be added? Anyone on the list change their mind, or are you all still in? So far it will be $16.50 + shipping (if you want me to send you a CD vs downloading it from where I put it online)

It looks like Karen will be the first one there, so I'm going to order the CD around 9/5... So shoot for having the money to me a few days before that. I'll send out an email with that info around the end of August. I guess you can either send a check in the mail, or via paypal, which ever is easiest for you. As soon as we get back from the cruise (I'll be home the 28th), I'll send out the account info for the photopass and everyone can add their photopass cards to that account (do not add to your own account, or you won't be in the share!). We'll have 30 days from the first card being added (so 10/28?) to get them all entered and edited. As soon as I hear that everyone is done adding / editing, I'll order the CD. As soon as I get the CD I'll sort the pictured and either burn CDs for you, or send you a link you can use to download them from my work server (it's good to work in the tech field!) which ever you wish.

Any questions from anyone??

I can't wait! Our time is just around the corner!

[m_kasch]

Jen, I PMd you the reservation stuff. I was supposed to go to the water park today with my sister and my neice today, but the weather is not cooperating, so we are going to go see UP instead! And my nephew is coming to the movie too, so that's fun!! I was talking to him this morning while he was watching Dragon Tales, and he asked me if Minnie likes to watch that too, and then he wanted her to come watch it with him, LOL!! :lmao:

Alright, I have to go get ready for the movie now. Have a good day everyone!! Although i'm sure i'll be updated by my blackberry......:goodvibes

[jenny105]

Stacy - I PMed you with my info. Everything sounds great! :thumbsup2

Mary - Thanks!! I'm trying to keep everything organized. UP is great! Have a good time!

[karentan]

i spent ages earlier typing all 14 of my ADRs into my phone, so at least i wont have to take a piece of paper around with me all the time!!

stacy the photopass share sounds great, i'm still in, at some point could you find out a rough shipping cost for sending me a cd to the uk? (surface mail will do, i'm in no huge rush for the photos)

well i'm off to spain tomorrow, i'll still be checking in every so often, otherwise by the time i get back there'll be about 10 pages for me to get through!! :rotfl: i've booked an airport lounge so i've got somewhere nice to chill out in before the flight, me and gary are going to pop into town tomorrow morning then he's driving me to the airport (he's not coming, at the time i booked he wasnt sure if he could come, and by the time he decided he wanted to go the prices hasd shot way up!!). we're going to pop in and see my grandparents for a bit, they live about 5 minutes from the airport.

[m_kasch]

Karen, have fun in Spain!! I'm jealous!! :goodvibes

Jen, I like your new ticker!! Is Joe excited about the WL? It will be fun!!

Up was so good!! Jarrett liked it too, and he was cracking up at the short before hand with the clouds and storks. That was really cute!!

They have the first 4 Harry Potter films playing on ABC Family this weekend, and they are going to have clips from the new movie on. I will have to check that out!

[jenny105]

Karen, have a great time in Spain! We'll try not to be too chatty. ;)

Thanks! Joe doesn't know about WL. I was too excited about it not to say anything at all so I said 'We're going deluxe. There's 8 of them. You figure out which one' :rotfl: Then he asked if we were still staying in ASMo after the cruise and I said 'Nope, whole trip is deluxe.' He keeps trying to get it out of me, what resort it is, but I won't say. I hope he likes the two I picked out!

I know all about Harry Potter weekend. :thumbsup2 I am glued to my tv during those!!

[karentan]

when your new ticker gets to the middle its going to look like the ship is flying!!! :rotfl:
i really wanna see Up, but apparently its not out here til october :scared1:

[disney honeymooners]

have a great time in Spain Karen!!
Well my mom and i just bought our HP tickets she said she is gonna call in to work so she can sleep late the next day.
Stacey im still in just let me know how uch I owe and when you need it by, well our shore excursion has been booked and all of our information is in and printed out so we are ready to go.
I think i have bought enough FE stuff for the kids now i have to get some more for the adults my mom said i need to buy silly string for the FE bags but i think that might be a bad idea but streamers would be cool to give out to everone when we get on the ship to throw towards teh jetty when we leave or those poppers i dont know what do yall think?

[m_kasch]

How was everyone's weekend? Mine was good, I didn't get much studying done though...I really have to get on that!! We bought a bunch of Landscaping stuff for the front of our house today at Home Depot, they had all of that stuff on sale. I'm getting exicited for next weekend, Rascal Flatts here I come!! And Harry Potter in the same week!!

I booked a ressie at Kona Cafe for the day of the cruise, I have been dying to try the Tonga Toast, and we have to go to the Car Care Center to exchange the rental car, so since we are already going to be there, I figured, why not?!? LOL! :cool1:

[disney honeymooners]

Mary what time is yalls ressie you may bump into us in the lobby we are gonna eat at captain cooks they also sell the tonga toast and i have to have it before we leave i know that the bus will be picking us up at 11:30 im sure we will be done eating long before then.
we are going to see HP this week my mom wanted to see the midnigh showing so that she could get ready for when we go to see New Moon in november luckily i have class the next day and not work so i dont have to worry about getting up too early. My weekend was great i had saturday off we went to see Ice Age 3 it was good my brother loved it.

[karentan]

hello from spain!!
its really nice and warm here, bit too hot in the direct sun but guess i´ve gotta get used to it before september! its been nice just chilling out with some good food, and of course the sun always helps!! plus there´s a bar thats opened abuot 5 minutes walk from my parents house out here thats got internet, so i dont have to come far to come say hi to you guys!!
hope everyone had a great weekend :)

[m_kasch]

Hey Karen!! I hope you are having a good trip, sounds like you are!!

Lainey, our ressie is at 7:40am. I'm hoping to get to the ship as close to 10 as possible, so we can get on early and hopefully get an upgrade. We'll see!! :goodvibes

Jen -- are you ready for tomorrow?!?!?!?! I'm so excited!! I didn't get a chance to re-read the 6th book, but maybe i'll skim through it tonight and tomorrow just to make sure I don't forget anything. Can't wait!!

[jenny105]

I am SO excited for tomorrow night. I don't know how I'm going to get through work. :rotfl: I just finished re-reading the book yesterday. The end is going to be so sad.

Karen, sounds like everything is great so far! Have an awesome trip!

I just booked our shore excursion for Castaway Cay. It was the Extreme Getaway Package and they gave me a time to pick so I'm assuming that is for the Stingray Feeding? I picked the earliest one. I plan to be on that island as soon as the ship is cleared.

Lainey, can we get noisemakers too? :rotfl2: It'll be like New Years when we sail away!

[m_kasch]

Jen, what time did you book the Stingrays for? We booked at 10, I read that sometimes there are problems docking and you might get off the boat late, so i figured i'd take the 2nd one. Plus, that way Tim can practice snorkeling in the lagoon first, because he's only snorkeled at Typhoon Lagoon and he didn't like it there because the water was too cold!! LOL :lmao:

I don't remember if I told you guys, but I got little bubbles for everyone for the sail away party. I'll just hand them out when we meet at 2:30 I guess. Only 72 days left!! Yay! :cool1:

[Lilo's Mom]

Happy Monday to One and All!

Everyone here I'm sure knows that when you are in a relationship there is lots of give and take. Sometimes you have to go places you really have no interest in whatsoever, but you grin and bear it because you love the other person. This past weekend was one of those times for me. Bob took me to the Rockford Speedway to watch, Demolition Derby, Redneck Fun, Soccer Played with Cars and a Classic Car Race. I will admit to having enjoyed the Demolition Derby...but Redneck Fun? Seriously? They took a flatbed truck, put a mock up of a living room on it, then blew it up piece by piece...with airbags from cars. We stayed the weekend at a Fairmont Hotel, which was very nice. The downside to that was they were hosting four groups of 8th grade girls basketball teams. There was running and screaming in the hallways at night, and in the morning, you couldn't even get to the complimentary breakfast because there were kids running everywhere! :scared1: Having been a "Band Mom", I have done my share of chaperoning kids...and we would never let them run wild like these girls were. I don't get what is with some parents, did they ever think of how they would feel if it was the other way around and they had to deal with the nonsense that was going on? I guess not!

Because Bob is such a great guy, he knew that after the entire experience I needed something to put me in my "happy place". So he took me to Woodfield Mall, and the Disney Doorway to Dreams Store, so I could take video of the Bay Lake Tower Rooms. :cloud9: I wanted video of the one bedroom unit to show my Best Friend Jeanne (we have known each other since I was 3 and she was 4...so a long long time!) since she is coming with us in May of 2010, Magic Kingdom View :banana:. Anyway in the video I am basically taking her on a tour of the unit. I showed the video to Jeanne this morning (we work together), and she busted out laughing because my monologue about the potty and the bathroom. :laughing: Also, Bob is kind of grumpy in the video, not because of being the model...he was trying to break in a pair of Crocs I bought him at the mall....and well, he kept telling me they rubbed on his big toe. Once I told him to change back into his other pair of shoes, he was much happier. :rotfl: Anyway....enjoy the video

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i271/Drlady729/th_BLTOneBedroom.jpg (http://s74.photobucket.com/albums/i271/Drlady729/?action=view&current=BLTOneBedroom.flv)

[jenny105]

Mary, thanks for the tip. Maybe I should change my Stingray time til later in the day. I got bubbles too but I'm just going to put them in the goodie bags I hand out. Maybe we can use them during the Pirate party.

Donna, great video! You are a good tour guide. :thumbsup2 Just the name, Redneck Fun. :lmao: Wow. You're a good sport.

[Lilo's Mom]

Thanks Jenny! I have video of the studio as well, I just haven't uploaded it yet. Visiting the studio was helpful because it gives me an idea of how big the studio at Kidani is going to be. I wanted to know if you could fit an air mattress in the studio if you had to, and unless you had them take out the table, it just wouldn't fit. I still have no idea who is going to be our 4th person on the cruise. Anthony is trying to get into a specific medical program, and that may or may not effect his ability to go on the cruise, although since he lives about 60 miles from Disney, he could spend the weekend with us at Kidani...but I would need to put him on the floor, since Kelly is in the pull out bed. The cruise there is no problem there is a berth in the cabin. If Anthony can't go, then Kelly is going to ask one of her friends...so then we wouldn't need to put anyone on the floor in the studio.

LOL, I almost bought bubbles too! I saw scented bubbles at the Dollar Store, and I thought they were cool...but decided against them since I already put all the bags together.

Kelly and I are going to see Harry Potter tomorrow at midnight too! :wizard:

[jenny105]

It seems like a lot of people on the boards are going to see HP at midnight. :) I better see someone in a robe, wand, or lightning bolt scar on their head! :rotfl:

[karentan]

you´ll have to take some pics if you see people dressed up!!

did someone mention earlier about silly string? i´m guessing we wouldnt be allowed that but the bubbles sound like fun!!
i´m excited because i´m going back to my original plan for one of my FE gifts. i bought 3 of something to use as a kinda prototype, decided i liked it but when i went back to buy more they were sold out and i havent seen any anywhere since (apart from ebay which was really expensive when i added shipping) :( so i changed idea, which was a cool idea but a lot more expensive. but i´ve found what i was originally looking for here in spain so i´m going back to that idea!! yay!!

[disney honeymooners]

my mom and i are in the large group of people on the boards that are going to see HP at midnight my mom thinks it will be cool i told her it will be CRAZY!! but that when we go see new moon in Nov it will be even more crazy. our theater has 18 screens and i think they have ti showing on all of them the night it comes out bc we are in theater 6 and we got them saturday so by saturday they had already sold out of theaters 1-5 which is unusal since 1 and 2 hold about 187 people or a little more and when we went to see pirates they only had it on 4 screens and they were full but i guess HP has a bigger draw(eventhough i am a POC person)

[karentan]

thats crazy!!! you´ll have to let us know how crazy it all is!! not long to go now!!

[Lilo's Mom]

We have a movie theater about a mile down the street from us, and it is the same company Kelly works for (Kerasotes), so we always go there for our midnight shows. I love going to this theater, for some reason it is NEVER crowded or busy! Midnight show of Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, there were 14 people in the theater, The Dark Knight, around 40 people...it's crazy! Anyway, I took a vacation day from work today...Kelly and I are supposed to go to her Dad's house to pick up some things she has in storage...that is if she ever gets up! I swear my daughter could sleep for days!

[m_kasch]

Uggg, today is like the worst day ever! It took me 2 hours to get to work this morning, there were all sorts of backups on I-294 today. First, there was some debris in the express lane (delay 1). Then a semi hit the debris, punctured his gas tank, and started leaking disel fuel everywhere (delay 2). Then the geniuses that be in this statess construction brain decided that it would be a great and wonderful idea to take the road down from 4 lanes to 3 in the middle of rush hour for some shoulder work (delay 3). Then, when I got to work, I spilled my soda all over myself and my car. Then I got in to work, and we have a letter from the State of TN that they didn't accept our report that we sent 2 months ago because it isn't encrypted property, which I thought that our software system did automatically...but apparently that is only if you copy the report to a DISKETTE -- who in the world still uses diskettes?!? Seriously. So now I had to roll back that report and re do it, and hopefully they will let me email them the new report that is properly encrypted. Great day I am having so far!! But, on the bright side -- HARRY POTTER!!! Yay!! I can't wait. :cool1:

Donna, last time we went to HP, we went to the new Kerasotes in New Lenox. Their parking lot is a disaster though, only one way in and out...so since there were 12 theaters or so full of people all leaving at the same time...it was nuts. Took over an hour to get out of the lot. This time, we are going to Hollywood Blvd in Woodridge. Have you ever been there? They have food and drinks (restaurant style, waiters bring it in to the theater), it's fun. :wizard:

[jenny105]

Lainey, I think HP is going to be a LOT crazier than when New Moon comes out. I know that's a big deal but HP just blows the Twilight series out of the water. No comparison.

9 1/2 hours to go. :banana: I gotta take a nap when I get home.

So remember how I was saying a couple days before our trip, AAA and Universal were hosting a fam for employees? Well, I got approved for it! I'll be there 9/13-9/16, at Hard Rock. I'm excited about that because I've never stayed there. All it cost was $75 to register and I would need money for extras, like anything that isn't included with our stay (extra meals, drinks, etc). I don't think Joe is happy that I'm going without him but it's part of my job. My boss told me I had to go on a fam and it was either this or Grand Canyon...so no brainer there! :banana:

[m_kasch]

I agree that HP will be bigger than Twilight, but Twilight has a crazy following also. Last year Rober P. was at the mall in Orland Park, IL by my house, and there were people camped out there for a couple of DAYS waiting. They eventually had to start handing out wristbands and kicked the people out of the mall, LOL!! But HP is going to be so nuts tonight!! Yay!!

Jen -- yay for a free (or almost free) trip to Universal!! I'll be there a few days after you.

[jenny105]

I'm even more excited for the trip now, if that's possible! I was looking over the itinerary and we get tours of all of the hotels, a VIP tour of the park, and we get to see the Blue Man Group! :yay: I've always wanted to see them!

[m_kasch]

If I got any more excited about the trip, I think i would go NUTS!!! :dance3::cheer2: LOL!!

I'm getting ready to leave work now, to go home and sleep before the movie. After it's over, i'm just coming in to work and then leaving after i've worked my 10 hours. Only 7 1/2 hours until showtime here!!

Jen, i've seen Blue Man Group once, in Chicago. They were good! It was pretty cool, but if you sit up front, look out!! I think the provide ponchos to those people...

[Lilo's Mom]

Donna, last time we went to HP, we went to the new Kerasotes in New Lenox. Their parking lot is a disaster though, only one way in and out...so since there were 12 theaters or so full of people all leaving at the same time...it was nuts. Took over an hour to get out of the lot. This time, we are going to Hollywood Blvd in Woodridge. Have you ever been there? They have food and drinks (restaurant style, waiters bring it in to the theater), it's fun. :wizard:

Hollywood Blvd sounds like Muvico, which my friend took me to. I thought it was awesome, and would like to do it again sometime. I think I would hold out until there was something in 3D that I would like to see. You know make it like a special treat.;)

I'm even more excited for the trip now, if that's possible! I was looking over the itinerary and we get tours of all of the hotels, a VIP tour of the park, and we get to see the Blue Man Group! :yay: I've always wanted to see them!

Bob & I saw Blue Man Group in Las Vegas. Before the show we ordered drinks to take in the theater, I had a Margarita that came in a really cool Sphinx glass. I made the mistake of drinking the entire thing before the show, and it messed me up really bad, which made me hate the lights and the noise. After the show I was a surly drunken mess and needless to say I did not enjoy Blue Man Group at all. Bob stopped by the bar and asked how much tequila was in the drink, and the bartender told him what I had was the equivalent of 3 1/2 Margaritas. Apparently on the cab ride back to our hotel I insisted on sitting with the taxi driver so I could sing with the radio. Bob loved Blue Man Group and wants to try it here in Chicago...without the Margaritas.:rolleyes1

[Lilo's Mom]

Just got back....loved the movie! Work in 5 hours....more tomorrow!

[m_kasch]

I'm at work now, and it's kind of creepy because i'm the only one here!! Way too quiet. The lights were on on my floor, which kind of freaked me out because they turn off automatically -- so how did they get on?? It's a mystery!! I also heard the elevator ding because it moved floors...so maybe it is the cleaning people? I will just tell myself that!! :goodvibes

I really liked the movie!! I thought that there were some parts that should have been in it that weren't...but most everything important was there. One part that was missing though, I would think that they will have to explain somehow in the next movie...and a couple of the things that happened that didn't happen in the book, I wonder how they will explain it in the next movie. I don't want to say though, since Karen hasn't seen it yet! :3dglasses

[Lilo's Mom]

I love to read, but will admit that no matter how hard I have tried, I just can't get into the Harry Potter Books. I couldn't get past the first one...and I tried three times to read it. Now the movies are a different story, it's been great taking the cinema journey with Harry, Ron and Hermione. It is so cool to see how the actors and actress have grown in real life and their roles. In this movie I especially loved all of the teenage crushes and how awkward everything was, it was so cute and sometimes so funny. I will keep it at that until Karen gets to see the movie.

On a side note, there were probably about 200 people in the theatre...so about half full in the auditorium that was showing the movie. This was by fair the largest midnight showing we have been to at this theater. I would say the audience was 98% female and 2% male. Kelly and my niece Erin said that the women fell mostly into the "Soccer Mom" age bracket (that just cracked me up :lmao:) Anyway when the New Moon preview came on the audience went crazy screaming for Jacob (Taylor Lautner). The woman directly behind us was yellling "Oh My God, he is so freaking hot!" Erin turned around and said to her "Get a grip lady he is 17", I thought there was going to be a riot. :eek: That's my Erin, she is has a tendency to call them as she sees them!

[Lilo's Mom]

Almost forgot....Erin was wearing this shirt at the movie last night.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i271/Drlady729/Adventures/EdwardVsBuffy-2.jpg It was comical the reaction the shirt got. Our house (Bob, my brother and my stepson Allen included) are huge Buffy and Angel fans. Have you guys seen this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZwM3GvaTRM
It's really well done and clever. I know the Twilight fans outweigh the BuffyVerse fans but to me the video is amazing how it put the two things together. Pity the two fandoms can't come together.

[m_kasch]

Donna, I love that shirt!! That is very funny. :goodvibes I heard on the radio when I was driving in that some people saw a trailer for Twilight. We had 2 trailers only, one for Shorts, and the other for Where the Wild Things Are. Wish I could have seen the Twilight one!

I'm getting pretty tired here at work...2 hours sleep is just not enough!! I actually am going to go home around 9 or 10, since I got here at 3 and I have to take 8 hours of vacation sometime because the admin in our department screwed up mine and made me have an extra day in march, so now i have to make up for it. Which is fine by me today, because I am crashing fast! :scared1:

[disney honeymooners]

we had like 3 or 4 previews but not the twilight one DANGIT!!! I would have loved to see that one we saw the 2012 preview, shorts, where the wild things are and a new one with steve carrell(cartoon) where his character steals all the national monuments i can not for the life of me remember the title i wanted to see either the Twilight preview or the new Alvin and the Chipmunks preview my mom saw it when we went to see Ice Age 3 but i was getting the drinks so i didnt get to see it she said that they Chipettes are in the movie and they are really cute. yet another movie for me to see this year, our theater was CRAZY!!! they had the movie showing on 16 screens!!! ours was so packed that we had to sit 6 rows from the screen which actually made the view better. But there were people who had been saving seats since 6pm!!! I like HP but not enought to sit there for 6 hours.
I go for my final dress fitting a week from today im gonna get my sis-in-law to take some pictures of me in the dress and i will post them as soon as i can. I cant believe 2 months left :banana::banana:

[karentan]

hiya! dont worry about spoiling it for me, i´m one of those people who will watch a series, want to see the end then go on the net before the final episode to see what happens!! i did that with dexter!! lol

[jenny105]

Am I the only one who thought the movie was a letdown? Don't get me wrong, I did like it, but I don't think it was nearly as good as it should have been. Especially since they pushed it back. Some parts were great but overall, I was disappointed with it. They pushed it back and made everyone wait an extra nine months; it should have been better than it was.

We saw the New Moon trailer. I know he's only 17, but Taylor Lautner IS pretty hot. :rotfl: And I love that shirt Donna!

Oh and stay away from Margaritas on the ship! :rotfl2: Wow, I can't believe how much tequila was in that!!!

[Lilo's Mom]

I have to watch my intake of alcohol. I had gastric bypass surgery in 2002....so my absorption rate is a lot faster than everyone else. Pretty much one drink gives me a major buzz...one drink that I drink quickly will give me the effect of being knocked down drunk. It's like going from zero to 60 miles an hour in about 10 seconds. The incident at Blue Man Group was before I had the surgery, there is no way I could handle the "Sphinx Margarita" now...probably not even a sip of it. The same thing applies to medication for me....some meds have no effect on me at all because my body can't absorb them, others kick in for me within 10 minutes. I had surgery on my hand last November...the doctor gave me Vicodin for the pain...I would take the pill in within 10 minutes I was wasted. Bob tells me it was pretty funny. Rather than say I felt like I was on a Fluffy Cloud...I kept saying I was on a Fluffy Clown. :lmao: Apparently that gave him visions of me bouncing off of Bozo. It would appear that I am a constant source of amusement for him!

[jenny105]

Well, I know to stay away from the Sphinx Margarita if they have such a thing at Universal! :rotfl:

I really need to pick a resort and stick with it. Beach Club is looking mighty good right now and it would be less than I'm currently paying to stay at WL. :scratchin

[karentan]

its only $100 less and i know you originally had your heart on WL, i´d say stick with WL unless maybe you could do a split stay since you´re paying to add on the DDP anyway?

[karentan]

btw i forget (and my list of who´s staying where is on mu computer at home!!), whos coming in and staying at WDW before the cruise? i know me and jenny definately are, who else?

[jenny105]

I can't split the stay because part of the requirement to get the TA rate is a 3 night stay. So I can't do 2 and 2. I answered you on my PTR about everything else. :)

Lainey is staying at the Poly before the cruise.

[m_kasch]

Jen, I would go for the Beach Club. That is my favorite area to stay, it is close to both Epcot (walking in close), and to DHS. Stormalong Bay is AWESOME, especially since it will be September and HOT -- you will want to use the pool a lot. The quiet pool at Beach Club is also one of the best. Plus, there is always something to do at night, even if you just walk around the boardwalk area. I really like the WL...but if I had to choose between WL & BC -- no contest for me, I would be BC all the way!! :goodvibes

[jenny105]

I'm leaning toward BC. I can get a One Bedroom Villa there for less than the price I'm paying for a regular room at WL. WL may just have to wait til our next trip...

[jenny105]

FALSE ALARM GUYS! Lol. I wasn't factoring dining into the price. It would cost more. Way more. I knew something seemed too good to be true!

[Lilo's Mom]

We arrive on Wednesday the 23rd at noon. We are staying at the Hyatt in the airport. AirTran changed our original flight from a 2 pm departure to a 6 pm departure...then they gave us the option of changing flight times without paying a fee, so I took the only other direct flight they had open that day. Now we leave Chicago at 8:35 am. Bob and Kelly were initially not too happy about the change because that means having to get up early to be at the airport. After I reminded them that we have an extra day in Orlando...they are now happy.

[jenny105]

Does this happen with every AirTran flight? I've heard that they and US Airways have been switching people's flights. You're like the 4th or 5th person on the DIS that I know this has happened to!

[m_kasch]

Airtran does that all the time, that's why I fly southwest now! Plus, I like that you can change flights or even days with no fee, not like on Airtran. Once, we were flying on airtran and the price dropped, so I called and the gave me the lower fare...but then they charged me ten dollars EACH for booking on the phone!

[jenny105]

Well, that kind of defeats the purpose of trying to save money! :sad2:

I don't think Southwest flies out of Newark. I've heard their fares have been dropping.

[karentan]

well at least you now dont have to make a decision!!
i´m flying back in a couple of hours to cold old england :( but at least i get to see gary and cerby again!

[jenny105]

Aw, your vacation is over so soon? It seems like you just went!

[karentan]

yeah i'm back at home now :sad: really tired (not been sleeping too well as its been so darn hot at night), i know orlando is going to probably be as hot, but yesterday was 98 degrees in the shade.....
we got pizza on the way home and are just sat watching family guy. i wish i was back in spain, its back to the reality of trying to find a new job now.

but i bought back the rest of what i need for my FE gifts from spain (managed to find what i need over there, couldnt get it here!) so that'll probably keep my mind busy and take my mind off work (or lack thereof) for a while.

i'm going to go see harry potter at some point this week too.

[karentan]

not sure if this is of any interest to you guys doing the stingray thing on CC:
http://www.disunplugged.com/2009/07/13/dcl-castaway-rays-stingray-adventure-review/#more-3556

[jenny105]

It's been really hot here too lately. We have central air but it doesn't circulate too well upstairs so I wake up sweaty and uncomfortable in the middle of the night. Ick.

Good luck with job hunting. I'm sure you'll find something. Just try to enjoy the time off you have right now and keep yourself busy so you don't have time to stress over it too much. And remember our trip is right around the corner. :hug:

I read the stingray article. I'm not too worried about the snorkeling part because we booked it as part of the getaway package. We're going to be snorkeling all day so no big deal if a stingray doesn't come up to me while I'm doing that. I'm just interested in the feeding part.

I saw this stingray at an aquarium in Connecticut. It was like the size of coffee table. I didn't know they could get that big! :scared: They had to hand feed it because all the smaller stingrays were sucking up the food before the big one could get to it. It was crazy!

[m_kasch]

I fed the Stingrays at the Aquarium restaurant in Nashville, it was really cool! I read some of the responses to the story, and it seems to be hit or miss...either there are tons of stingrays around the snorkeling or not. But we'll be snorkeling during the rest of the day, and possibly at Atlantis the day before...so, no worries!!

Jen, Southwest doesn't fly out of Newark. They fly out of Long Island and La Guardia (or however you spell that). I love Southwest!!

The concert last night was really fun!! We had pretty good seats, they were on the field in the 20th row...pretty good!! I love Rascal Flatts concerts, they are always good times. :wizard:

[disney honeymooners]

we are flying airtran i have flown to Orlando with airtran almost everytime and i havent had a problem they haven changed our flight times sofar on any flights we have had with them i have flown with delta 2 times to Orlando and will not do that again the flight was supposed to leave at about 7:45 we didnt leave til well after midnight and didnt get to the GF til about 2am bc the plane got to ATL around midnight but the pilots were over their max amount of flying hours so we had to wait on new ones(this was when i had the fly so by this point i just wanted some nyquil and a bed) and the other time we flew on delta we couldnt fly all at teh same time but we were using buddy passes and that i can understand bc you are considered standby. greg and i have an 8:45am flight out on the 20th and we are planning on upgrading to business class(airtrans first class) it will be about the same as having to pay to get our bags checked(since they dont charge business class guests for their first 2 bags this explains why the last time i flew with them i didnt have to pay to check my bags like everyone else)

greg isnt too happy about the fact that the airport requires you to get there 2 hours before the flight to check in which means getting up at 6am(luckily we are right next to the airport so it isnt earlier but it will take me at least 20min to WAKE HIM UP!!)
karen i hope you had a great time in Spain it does seem like you just left it seems like it was over realy soon.

[karentan]

our outbound flight is at 9am, as its an international flight we've gotta be there 3 hours early. we're staying at a hotel near the airport the night before, and there are buses, but i dont know what time they run, and at that time in the morning they only run every 45 minutes, so we've gotta be up at 4am on out flight day :scared1: we're going to be like the walking dead when we get to orlando, its going to be a VERY long day!!

[jenny105]

Guess I'll be the only one driving unless airfare drops ridiculously low in the next two months. I flew out last year for $130 round trip. Now it's about double that price, plus baggage fees and then paying for the cruise transportation. Flying became more of a pain then ever.

I did just get my airfare for my Universal fam but I didn't have to pay for that! :woohoo:

[karentan]

you must be getting really excited now that you get to go to florida twice!!

i went into town to the jobcentre earlier and theres pretty much no good jobs out there. i'm going to the employment agencies tomorrow to see if i have more luck there, i think i'm going to have to get any job just for a bit of money, but i'm hoping i can get something even semi decent.

i've been looking at possibly going to a gig while we're out in orlando, but cant get over the ridiculous fees that ticketmaster charge!! the face value of the tickets are $36, ticketmaster add another $24 in fees to that!! neither me or gary have ever been to a concert/gig, so we're thinking it may be fun to go! we were looking at secondhand serenade at house of blues, but i've just found out that disney on ice is at amway arena the day after we get there. might be tempted by that instead!

[jenny105]

Good luck, Karen! I'm sure you'll find something, it may just take some time. :hug:

I hate Ticketmaster. Loathe it. Their service fees are INSANE. It tacks on so much extra money and for what I don't even know. If they aren't printing and shipping the tickets, what are they charging a fee for exactly??

[karentan]

yeah my point exactly. they add on convenience fees, admin fees, and i really dont see why i should have to pay them $2.50 for the (not very) convenience of having to pick up tickets at will call. why do i have to pay for something that theres no way of avoiding.

the job thing is really playing on my mind at the mo, i should get paid next wednesday, i'm not very hopeful that my ex boss will keep her word and pay me til the end of the month plus my holiday pay owed. if she does, there wont be a problem as that money will keep me going for a while. but i'm not counting on her doing that, i've figured out how much i'm legally owed (my outstanding holiday pay, and my pay up until i actually left). as long as she pays me that i wont have a problem, but i get the really strong idea that she wont pay me what i'm owed and i'll have to argue it.
i'm relying on my holiday pay to finish paying off the balance of the holiday so i need her to pay me properly. but i guess i'll find out next week.
i really need this holiday now, its one of the only things keeping me going at the mo

[jenny105]

I really hope you get paid what your owed Karen and that you don't have to fight them on it. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

[m_kasch]

Good luck, Karen!! I hope you find a great new job where they treat you better than your old one, and that your old job pays you what they owe you!!

65 days to the cruise, yay!! I got a bunch of Disney gift cards for my Birthday, so i'm going to use those to pay for the Castaway Cay massage. I bought some mini DVDs for our camera last weekend, but then when I got home I realized that we still had a bunch of blank ones...so now I have 8 1/2 hours worth of DVDs for the trip. Hopefully, that will be enough, LOL!! :rotfl: Tim thinks i'm crazy.....

[karentan]

lol, guessing you'll be taping everything then!! lol

i've gotta drop gary off at work tomorrow because he's getting a company car, so he's gotta be able to get there to go pick it up. its about an hours drive away but i might go see harry potter on the way back! its £7.30 (for a cheap seat) at the cinema in town, but £5.30 in the one at the mall about 45 mins drive away. i'm not too far away from there when i drop gary off so might pop in for a look around on the way back

[m_kasch]

I just might be taping everything...better be on your best behavior, LOL!!:rotfl: Since i've never been on the cruise before, I'm sure I will be taping lots!!

I'm so tired this afternoon, and I have to go to Tim's parents after work for my birthday dinner. Minnie got dropped off there this morning when Tim was on his way to work, she gets sooooooooooooooo spoiled by my MIL when she is there!! It's her only grandchild, LOL!!

I just ordered some Safe Sea sunblock to use when we are snorkeling on the curise. It's supposed to keep you from getting stung by jellyfish, it gets good reviews. Hopefully, we won't really need it, but better safe than sorry!! It just makes me happy to buy stuff for the trip.....:lmao:

[jenny105]

Oh no, Mary is going to blackmail us all! :scared1: Lol, just promise you won't post anything on youtube!

I've never heard of SafeSea sunblock. I'll have to look into that. Is there a jellyfish problem on Castaway Cay?

[karentan]

yeah we'd better watch what we get up to, we dont want any dodgy videos hitting the net!

[m_kasch]

That's right, I need many Goombay Smashes or whatever that was called, or you will see yourself all over YouTube!! LOL!!

I don't think there is a Jellyfish problem on Castaway Cay. But there are probably some...especially snorkeling off the adult beach. I would rather be safe than sorry...and, truthfully, I just like to have an excuse to order things for vacation!! Haha!!

You can go to buysafesea.com to find the stuff.

[jenny105]

Thanks! I'll have to look into that. I've heard horror stories of some people coming out of the water there with rashes and bites. :scared:

[karentan]

i ended up with a slight rash on my arm after CC last time, nothing that cortisone cream couldnt clear though. best to be safe than sorry.

gary got his company car earlier and true to form, he's gone out to wash it because apparently the alloy wheels are filthy. i swear he's OCD about car cleaning!

[jenny105]

Guys are obsessed with cars! My friend Alex's car is immaculate and still has that new car smell. He's had it for more than a year.

I'll probably get a bottle of that sunblock and probably the sunburn spray they sell too. Joe tends not to wear any sunblock. :sad2: I want to get at least SPF 30 and he says 15 is the limit. He's nuts.

I need sunblock for my face. I won't put the regular stuff on because it will make me break out. I have it built into my makeup but that's not good enough. I went to the beach this past week and now my face is peeling. :scared:

[karentan]

ooh poor you :( gary burns, he fell asleep in one of the hammocks on CC last year and burnt himself to a crisp!! i just get progressively darker, i dont tend to burn really.
luckily for gary, the AKL provides you with bottles of after sun gel, which we'd taken with us, we put it in the fridge then he put it on, i think it helped, he was peeling badly a few days later!!

[jenny105]

I usually don't get sunburned too badly. Mostly my face, the backs of my legs, and my shoulders. I tend to just turn a deeper tan color except on my face. My face ALWAYS peels. I need to find something with a higher SPF because my foundation is not going to cut it for the Florida/Bahama sun!

[Dr.Girlfriend]

Hey, gang! We're getting closer!!! :thumbsup2:thumbsup2

I can't tell you how excited we've been about this vacation. We've been dying for a vacation since our last Disney Cruise in 2007! Why can't we hurry up and be the night before our cruise?!?!??! LOL.

Anyone get their room assignments yet? We're still booked under a GTY room. Hoping to find out soon.

Plans still in gear for Jellyrolls the night beofre?

[m_kasch]

Oh, I totally understand how excited you are!! I am super excited too!! :dance3: :banana: :cool1: :cheer2: I have a countdown on my fridge that we cross off one day every day. My family thinks i'm nuts, LOL!!

We just went for a bike ride. I am excited because I got a huge bike seat that is WAY more comfie than those super skinny bike seats. I don't know how people ride on those, they hurt my butt something fierce!! The new one is an air gel seat, and it's so much better!! And, I ordered roller blades over th weekend that shipped today, so we can do that soon too! I'm trying to get in better shape for the cruise!!

Karen, are you going out job hunting tomorrow again? If you are, good luck!! :thumbsup2

[disney honeymooners]

Jen i fry in the sun without strong sunblock im not too bad at the parks but when i get on the beach i have to use a pretty strong sunscreen or i will fry!! but since i will have a spray on tan so yall wont have to see my glow in the dark pale skin :rotfl: but i am gonna have to be careful and make sure i use enough sunscreen or i will get burned and may not notice it until my spray on tan goes away after the cruise.
I got a dress to leave the reception in and i am gonna wear it on the cruise(eventhough i DON'T LIKE DRESSES!!) it will be easy for yall to spot me it is blue and it is rather brite but i think it will look good on the cruise or atleast i hope that it will if not i will drink enough goombay until it does look good :rotfl::rotfl: which with the amount of DVDs you have mary that may not be a good idea but i will probably have the same amount of them so we could both be posting videos on youTube when we get home or get home and wonder "When did i we do this?" :rotfl:
karen i'm sorry yall have to get up that early to go to the airport i have had to get up at 3am to go to the ATL airport NO FREAKING CLUE WHY!! our flight was the same one greg and i are taking in sept. 8:45 so there was no reason for it and i didnt go to sleep til after 3am the next night so i was a little loopy.
This is sad but i have already started packing(mainly b/c i am running out of moving boxes) im putting anything in them that i am gonna take on the trip my mom says i have a disney problem i say it is NOT a problem it is a healthy obsession!

[karentan]

steph, yeah we're still on for jellyrolls the night before the cruise. there's also a few of us going to ohanas for dinner on monday 21st, the more the merrier! we've got 2 reservations totalling 16 people!

i had to get up way too early today as gary needed a lift into work so i could bring his personal car back (hes just got a company car), i'm soooo tired now......

[karentan]

whoa!! out of curiousity i checkout out the cruise meet threads for the few 3 nights before our cruise,
september 3rd is 1 page,
september 10th is 5 pages long,
september 17th is 3 pages long,
ours is 141 pages and counting!!!!

[disney honeymooners]

WE WIN!!!! Karen are we all still on for going back to epcot for EMH after jellyrolls? Greg is looking forward to seeing all of yall and the girls i keep talking about like they are my neighbors(which yall are my disney neighbors who happen to live in different states as well as a different country)
I am begining to get stressed out about the wedding now that it is alittle under 2months away.

[karentan]

yeah we're still up for epcot for EMH after jellyrolls!! what better way to spend an evening than late night disney with friends!!
how is the wedding planning going anyway? you'll have to let us know some of your plans!! do a mini planning journal for us!! lol

i'm a bit peeved off, finally got up the energy and enthusiasm to go to the job agencies, went to print off my resume, and my printer is out of ink. well i've got black ink, which is all i need, no colour needed, but because i'm out of red ink, the stupid printer wont let me print off a black and white document! grrr. garys going to pick me up some ink on the way home. i just think its stupid that theres no way of bypassing it, i mean i dont need red ink, wont do for the foreseeable future, but i have to go out and buy some just so i can print a black document.
anyway rant over. i couldnt go out so i did my ironing instead. :)

[m_kasch]

Lainey, i'm sure your wedding will be wonderful!! Try not to worry too much. It goes by SUPER fast! Remember to EAT at the reception, the photographer had me running around taking pictures so much, I missed the salad (luckily, they brought me out a new one -- there are perks to being the bride!!), and I didn't even get a piece of my own cake!! We did keep the cake top though in the freezer and had it on our 1 year anniversary. Surprisingly, it was really good. Imagine how good it was when it wasn't 1 year old!! :rotfl:

So, I think the car rental places probaly hate me and are getting ready to post my picture on their wall with a big red X through it!! LOL!! I just changed my rental AGAIN. Now, my sister and I are going to pick one up at the airport when we get there, and then exchange it on the way to Universal. That way, Tim & I don't have to exchange it on the day of the cruise. We're still going to Kona for breakfast though, our ADR isn't until 7:40, but they open at 7:30 and that's when I plan to be there!! I want to get to the ship early because I am TOO EXCITED TO WAIT ANY LONGER THAN NECESSARY!!! :lmao::rotfl::lmao:

[karentan]

we did that last year, we were at the port by 9.15 ish, had to wait around in the parking lot across the street til 10am, then we got into the port, got boarding card number 2, then had to wait a couple of hours til we could board. i think this time we'll probably leave AKL a little bit later, i still want to be at the port by about 11am, so we can board and get to parrot cay asap for lunch, but maybe not quite so early this time!!

i havent booked my car hire YET, but i have changed my mind about a dozen or so times. we've definately decided to rent a car for the 23rd to 27th, as it works out the same price with parking as the DCL transfers are, but we get to leave some of the luggage in the car.
but i'm still undecided as to when to pick the car up for the first 2 days. we arrive on saturday night, part of me thinks it'll be a lot easier to pick up the car on saturday night, drive to ASM (instead of getting ME), then drop the car back off monday night. but the other option is to pick it up sunday morning (means we'd have to get a cab to DTD) and drop it off tuesday. the plan is to hit seaworld, the malls, and a supermarket in the first 2 days, then disney the rest of the time. but we've got a 5 hour stopover in atlanta, and theres a TGI fridays in the airport (my fave place for drinkies!!). if i hire the car at the airport i cant have a cocktail (or five!) but it'd be easier and quicker to get to the hotel when we land. or do i enjoy the stopover in TGIs then just get the bus and relax. what do you guys think?

[Dr.Girlfriend]

We'll be at the port as soon as it opens, just like we always are! We only live an hour away from it, but we still get up at like 6 a.m. and get out there to be one of the first in line to park. We're both like little kids, "too excited to sleep!!" hehe. HURRY UP SEPTEMBER!!

[m_kasch]

How early do people normally get there to be in line? I am not super attached to the Kona ADR (i'll be there the whole next week!!) and I want to be in line with all the very early birds. I am just getting too excited, I think it is a sickness!! :scared1:

[Dr.Girlfriend]

How early do people normally get there to be in line? I am not super attached to the Kona ADR (i'll be there the whole next week!!) and I want to be in line with all the very early birds. I am just getting too excited, I think it is a sickness!! :scared1:



I *think* the gate to park opens at 10:30 a.m., I'll have to recheck. After you park, you're allowed in the terminal. We usually go in (hardly anyone there the first 30 minutes) and sit and watch t.v. while we wait for the check in lines to open. You'll hear "Whistle While You Work" start playing, and that's the cue for the CM's to head in to work....so cute! We've never waited for more than 5 minutes to check in with someone.

We've planned on having a big dinner the night before and skipping breakfast so we can snarf as much as we want at lunch on the Wonder. LOL. Yes, this is a fantasticly bad idea, but oh well. ;)

We just like to show up early to kick start off our vacation. We're silly like that ;)

[karentan]

we were there waiting when they opened the gate and were within the first ten or so people in the building. to be honest looking back now it was probably a bit too early, we could have stayed at the AKL a bit longer and enjoyed the club level breakfast before setting off and would have still been there with plenty of time to spare. from what ive heard on here i dont think theres much time difference in enbarkation between boarding group 2 and for example 6 or 8.
i dont think we'll be rushing to get there quite as early this time. we spent a lot of time sitting around waiting to board. we were in the terminal itself for just short of 2 hours. and theres not a whole lot to do there. gary sat watching donald duck cartoons and i just wandered around. theres a small shop in the terminal where you can order the stateroom gifts, and they bring the characters out but they do get mobbed a bit. i think this time it may be a bit different in the sense that we'll have met up before so will know some people in the terminal so we can sit and have a chat, but to be honest i was bored last time waiting not so patiently to board!
as soon as we get on though we'll be heading straight for parrot cay for lunch!!

steph, not sure if you fancy it, but as you live in florida, theres a group of us meeting up for dinner at ohanas on the 21st if you fancy coming along?

[Dr.Girlfriend]

steph, not sure if you fancy it, but as you live in florida, theres a group of us meeting up for dinner at ohanas on the 21st if you fancy coming along?

We actually live about 10 minutes away from WDW. :) I'm going to try and meet up for dinner that night if the timing is right...I work until 5, and I carpool with my husband, so I have to try and haul his behind out of work about 5:15 ;) We're usually home about 5:30-5:45. I think someone said dinner was at 8?

And I agree Karen, it can be boring if you get to the terminal early...we just do it to extend the vacation some ;)

[jenny105]

Hi girls! Well it's obvious. We have the best cruise thread BY FAR. :woohoo:

I'm not in a big rush to get to the cruise port. As long as I beat the resort buses there, I'm happy. No offense Lainey. :rotfl: I have an ADR at WCC for 9:30 that morning so I'm hoping to get to the port around 11:30-12. I may switch it for the earlier 8:45 reservation. Not sure yet. What do you guys think?

I'm excited! Just shy of 2 months for us. I believe it's 61 days to go now? :yay:

[karentan]

mary booked a table for 8 people at 8.20, i booked another table for 8 more (wasnt too sure how many people we'd have) for 8.30, so we should be able to tag the reservations together and get one big table. the more the merrier!

[Dr.Girlfriend]

Maybe I'll tell my hubby that will be my birthday meal ;) (my bday is Sept. 15) He's soooo shy and I'm having a hard time talking him into meeting anyone.

Is my ticker way off or something? I keep seeing other people saying their countdowns are 61 days or so...

[karentan]

i think we're aiming for about 11.30 ish too jenny, i think boarding starts about 11.45, so might get there a bit before half past to get checked in. i think the buses get there about 12-1pm ish? so will try and beat them there too.

[karentan]

i make it 65 days too. i think jennys probably started on the goombay smashes a bit too early ;)


ETA: i think its 61 days til you go jenny, you've got 4 days at WDW first right?

[Dr.Girlfriend]

LOL...okay. I was thinking that somewhere I did something wrong. :)

[karentan]

we've got 53 days til we leave, i cant wait!!!

[jenny105]

Yup, I'm not counting down to the cruise. I'm counting down to the day my actual vacation begins. :) We'll be there starting 9/20.

[karentan]

ditto!! less than 2 months!!! and starting next satuday we can start telling people we're going on holiday NEXT month :banana:

[m_kasch]

Yesterday when I went to my MIL's, she was like...I'm excited, only 62 days till vacation. Except that her vacation starts the day we get back from the cruise...so I was like -- I have 65 days till my cruise, so how can you have less than that? She told me to quit drinking (she was j/k), LOL!!! :lmao: Maybe SHE has had too many Goombays!! :rotfl:

I don't know what to do now about getting to the port. I know we don't HAVE to be there super early...but I think I want to be. There's a Cracker Barrel right by the Portifino Bay, so maybe we will just stop there. Tim would like that better anyways, he doesn't eat breakfast so he can get his sourdough toast. Plus, it's about 20 min. each way to get to Kona, and i'm not sure I want to spend that long driving to breakfast...decisions, decisions!!

[jenny105]

There are a bunch of places to get breakfast at Citiwalk too, Mary. You could always take a walk up that way, get something quick, and then head over to the port.

[karentan]

can you try moving your kona reservation to another day?

[Dr.Girlfriend]

Yesterday when I went to my MIL's, she was like...I'm excited, only 62 days till vacation. Except that her vacation starts the day we get back from the cruise...so I was like -- I have 65 days till my cruise, so how can you have less than that? She told me to quit drinking (she was j/k), LOL!!! :lmao: Maybe SHE has had too many Goombays!! :rotfl:

I don't know what to do now about getting to the port. I know we don't HAVE to be there super early...but I think I want to be. There's a Cracker Barrel right by the Portifino Bay, so maybe we will just stop there. Tim would like that better anyways, he doesn't eat breakfast so he can get his sourdough toast. Plus, it's about 20 min. each way to get to Kona, and i'm not sure I want to spend that long driving to breakfast...decisions, decisions!!


Are you staying at Portifino? I know that Cracker Barrel very well, hehehe. It's right next to the now defunct Mystery Fun House.

[karentan]

what was the mystery fun house? sounds, er.... fun! :rotfl:

[Dr.Girlfriend]

Hmm. Does anyone know how full the ship is at this point? I know when I checked a few weeks ago, the Cat 12's for our date were sold out. Now they appear to be available again, but at a higher rate.

[m_kasch]

Are you staying at Portifino? I know that Cracker Barrel very well, hehehe. It's right next to the now defunct Mystery Fun House.

I'm staying there for three nights, my conference for work is there. I'm kind of bummed as the hours are 9am-6pm every day we are there, so I won't get to spend much time at the parks.

What is the Mystery Fun House? :scared1:

[m_kasch]

I think i'll try eating at Kona when my DSis & I are there, maybe before we head out to Universal Monday morning. We're staying at the Bay Lake Tower Sunday night, so it would be close. I really just want to try the Tonga Toast!! I've been meaning to for several years, but never got around to it...

[karentan]

i was wondering about the cruise bookings too, at one point there wasnt anything below a cat 8 available, i think a lot of people must have cancelled when it got to the final payment date as all the categories became available again.
here's hoping for a quiet ship!! plus lots of cool upgrades for us GTY people!

[Dr.Girlfriend]

what was the mystery fun house? sounds, er.... fun! :rotfl:

It was anything but that! LMAO!

Check out this site...it'll give you info (but may take a moment to load):
http://www.bigfloridacountry.com/mysteryfunhouse.htm

It was sooooo cheesy. I think that's why they built Wonder Works on Int'l Drive...to sort of replace it (and I feel it's almost as cheesy).

[Dr.Girlfriend]

I'm staying there for three nights, my conference for work is there. I'm kind of bummed as the hours are 9am-6pm every day we are there, so I won't get to spend much time at the parks.

What is the Mystery Fun House? :scared1:

Oh, yuck. No fun. :( But...Downtown Disney is open until 11 p.m. each night!!!! :rotfl:

Goofy's Candy Store now carries these AMAZING cupcakes. Our favorite is the red velvet. The cream cheese frosting on it is so thick and high on top of the cake that you almost need a fork to eat it. Just a little tip if you find yourself out there one night...:thumbsup2

I posted the link to Mystery Fun House below. When I was a kid, the commercials used to scare me to death! I'm pretty sure you can see some of the bits and pieces on the lawn next to Cracker Barrel still.

[karentan]

lol, i think i vaguely remember driving past that years ago, the wizard thing looks familiar!! oh well, goodbye not-so-fun mystery house!!

[Dr.Girlfriend]

i was wondering about the cruise bookings too, at one point there wasnt anything below a cat 8 available, i think a lot of people must have cancelled when it got to the final payment date as all the categories became available again.
here's hoping for a quiet ship!! plus lots of cool upgrades for us GTY people!

Interesting. Everything but 1, 2 and 3 are available again. And what's even more interesting is the prices have gone up versus having gone down (to entice more passengers). I wonder why that is?

[Dr.Girlfriend]

lol, i think i vaguely remember driving past that years ago, the wizard thing looks familiar!! oh well, goodbye not-so-fun mystery house!!

Did you ever visit Xanadu, Home of the Future? We used to live by it.
:rotfl2:

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/set/xanadu.html

[karentan]

no i never saw them!! they're wierd!!

[m_kasch]

I don't think you can ever see Cat. 1, 2, or 3 online, you have to call because you can't get refunded the deposit and they want to make sure you know that.

You had me worried there!! I was wondering if the Cracker Barrel was in some sort of scary neighborhood!! :lmao: The Mystery Fun House looks interesting, LOL!! They have lots of cheesy places like that up at the Wisconsin Dells. We went there in High School, and went in to a cheesy haunted house, and my friend and I were screaming (for fun) in every room -- I think we freaked out the workers!! Haha!!

We'll probably just go to CityWalk on Tuesday. Monday, we're heading back to 'Ohanas for dinner, and then Wednesday I'm going to Jellyrolls with some crazy Disney freaks (LOL!!) after our "evening event" whatever that might be.

I was just checking, and once this thread gets to 3,000 posts we have to start a new one. It probably won't be long, at this rate!!

[karentan]

I'm going to Jellyrolls with some crazy Disney freaks (LOL!!)

what are you implying?:confused3 ;):rotfl2:

i think you're right, we're definately going to get to part 2 before long!!

[karentan]

steph, not sure if you were aware but we're also doing a FE gift exchange if you fancy joining in?

[jenny105]

Wow, you girls have been chatty this afternoon! We've been busy at work. I had a couple of people come in to pick up their Disney Docs (JEALOUS!) and the one family is staying in WL a month before I do. :) The one client I have has not even answered me when I notified them that their docs had arrived. They were a pain to get in touch with for the final payment so I can only imagine how difficult they're going to make this. :sad2:

Steph, they used to have this place is Orlando called Nightmare on Church Street. My brother and sister told me about it, they went years ago. Is that still there?

[karentan]

i'm sure it'll be easier to get them to pick up their docs than it was to get money out of them, who can resist getting their documents, it means you're going on holiday soon!!

[jenny105]

So far everything with them has been done over the phone. I don't think they realize that I cannot mail out their docs. They have to be in office to sign for it. We'll just wait and see I guess!

[m_kasch]

We have been chatty today!! My day was going really great, but then our accounts payable department didn't send over these checks that I sent to be reissued yesterday, and the girl said that her boss had to call me. So I called him, because I used to sit next to him when I worked in accounting. They were having some huge dramatic problem with reissuing the checks, and blah blah blah...so I was really mad (I really just don't like the accounting department...), but then he called and said he would do them tomorrow, so -- whatever!! Hope they have fun when I have thousands to reissue instead of 13!! I needed a Goombay after my talk with them!! :headache:

Jen, if they don't come pick up their docs, i will pick them up for them and take their trip!! LOL!! I am such an OCD planner, I can't imagine NOT picking up something as soon as it was ready!! :scared1:

[Dr.Girlfriend]

Steph, they used to have this place is Orlando called Nightmare on Church Street. My brother and sister told me about it, they went years ago. Is that still there?

Unfortunately, Terror on Church Street is gone. :( I had always wanted to go, but never had the chance to get there. I *believe* that was turned into Pearlman's space (the guy that embezzled all that money), but I'm not 100% sure. Halloween Horror Nights may be going on during that time, so you could always check that out.

What's a FE exchange? :confused:

[Dr.Girlfriend]

Oh, and document day doesn't seem as fun now as it once was. We did get a packet back when we made final payment on the cruise with a DVD and a booklet, but it was the same one that we had received on our last cruise in 2007. Boo!

[karentan]

lol at gary, once upon a dream from cinderella is playing in the background of a programme we're watching, and garys singing along. i dont know the words to that song, but he does!! :rotfl:

the FE thing is just a bit of fun, basically you hang a bag/hanging organiser off the metal fish outside your room, and you make/buy small gifts, and basically its kinda a secret santa kind of thing. you go and put a gift in everyone's bag who's participating at some point during the cruise, and its just a bit of fun coming back to your room and having a gift waiting for you. most of us going on the cruise so far are couples without kids and we're all having fun coming up with gifts and ideas to use.
you're more than welcome to join in if you want, there's no obligation to though if you dont fancy it.
it is good fun though!!

[jenny105]

Karen, I can't wait to hear your accent. Everytime I read what you write, I try and read it with an accent. :rotfl:

Ah, too bad that place is gone Steph. My brother and sister raved about how crazy and scary it was. I wish I could have seen it!

Ok, Mary, those docs will be coming your way if they don't pick them up. Clear the 3rd week of August! :rotfl2:

[m_kasch]

Will Do!! :goodvibes

I was trying to talk Tim into going back in October for our actual anniversary last night, just for a long weekend. He thought I was crazy!! But I really want to go to the Party for the Senses...I guess I will just have to go next year. :sad2:

But, I think we are going to go back in December, because Tim & his Dad just cannot STAND to not go around Christmas Time. I won't complain too much!! LOL!! :thumbsup2

[Lilo's Mom]

I remember Church Street Station! There was an entire complex, there was Rosie O'Grady's, a dueling piano place..like Howl at the Moon, lots of shopping, an exhibit about trains, and Terror on Church Street.
Tickets from Kelly's Scrapbook
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i271/Drlady729/Growing%20up%20Kelly/Picture088.jpg
Kelly and her Dad waiting in line with tons of Brazilian Tourists
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i271/Drlady729/Growing%20up%20Kelly/Picture013.jpg
And the two of them laughing as they were coming out
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i271/Drlady729/Growing%20up%20Kelly/Picture012.jpg.
I am a BIG chicken, so I wouldn't go in there....people were screaming and running out, so I said "Not for me!" They would take people in groups of 6 or 8 and they had to walk in a single file line with their hand on the shoulder of the person in front of you. Kelly and her Dad were with a group of college kids vacationing in Orlando...they had one guy in their group that was afraid of everything (he wasn't smart like me and decided to stay outside;)). I guess he screamed the entire way through the attraction, and at one point elected Kelly to lead the way through (I somehow have raised a child that LOVES haunted houses). As they were walking out, one of the other guys said in a very southern accent "Damn Elijah you scream like a B**ch!" I snapped the picture as Kelly and her Dad busted out laughing.:laughing:

[disney honeymooners]

MAN im at work for one day and y'all add 3 pages!!
I hope yall like goombay since we have been talking about it so much i hope yall like it. We will be on our second part very soon WOOHOO WE ROCK!!!
I thought the ressie for ohanas is 740? i was gnna check us in since we are staying at the Poly. Karen i will try and do a wedding report but im not making any promises. I am getting my final fitting 2morrow and i hope to have pictures posted after that.
Jen no offense taken the bus leaves the hotel at 11:15 no later(talked to someone who stayed@ the Poly on a Land and Sea trip)and i think we are the last ones on the bus b/c the people who are staying at the GF are in a higher stateroom class so i think they get a "Special Bus", but since the bus is taking us that means i can have one last lapu lapu (gees i sound like an alcoholic) Jen you may want to change to the earlier ressie just incase they cant seat you in enough time.
Mary we are disney freaks but we are all together and we know how to have FUN!!!! If the ship isnt very full it would be like our boards own personal cruise :rotfl:
Greg and i only have a few more things to do on the house and i will b moving in which is good i am running out of room for moving boxes. Oh i got our toasting flutes in today i think they are soo pretty!! I will post a pic of them
2morrow.

[karentan]

jenny, i havent got too much of an accent, garys got more of a noticable accent being from scotland. a lot of people think i'm from australia/new zealand when they meet me, partly because i've got slightly darker skin, and i think because i dont sound like most people from essex do. the essex accent is kinda horrific! people from the UK definately DO NOT sound like the accents that english people on american sitcoms sound like!
i really dont know what tv producers are thinking but i've never met anyone with a "tv-british" accent!! :rotfl:

lol at lainey drinking lapus at 11am!! dont worry though, i'm sure we'll all join in when we get on the ship!!

[m_kasch]

The 'Ohanas ressie that I made is at 8:20...i'm not positive about the one Karen made.

Karen, for the rental car -- Alamo is running a special right now where it's $20 a day for a midsize car, but you can't pick it up until 9am on Thursday, and you have to pick it up and drop it off at the same place -- but they have onsite places at the car care center and at the dolphin.

Lainey, that's exciting about your house being almost ready!! Is your dog going to freak out moving? Minnie was all weirded out when we were packing up our apartment before we moved to the house, but she loves it!! So much more room for her to play in, LOL!! :woohoo:

[karentan]

who knows what cerby will do when we finally get round to moving out, he sulks for days when he sees a suitcase. he gets really depressed!! poor thing!!

my ohana reservation is at 8.30, the way i saw it is that i wasnt too sure how many people we'd end up getting, i booked a reservation for the closest time to yours i could get, so if we do end up with more than the 8 people mary booked for, we should be able to link the two together with any luck.

thanks for the tip about alamo, i'll have a look now :)

the job hunt is not going well, i went into town to hit all the agencies, 2 were closed, one didnt have any office jobs, and the other one only deals with telesales. its not looking good at the mo.

[karentan]

oh well worth a try, i had a look at alamo, it couldnt find anything for any of the near disney rental places. think it might be something to do with the fact that i'm not from the US?

[m_kasch]

Karen, did you go to the alamo.com website? If you click on the Hot Deals tab up top, there is a link there for "weekend rentals starting at $20 per day". Then, if you want to use the Car Care Center, use ORLR72 for the location, if you want to use the Dolphin, use ORLR74. That's strange that it won't work, I read through the fine print and it doesn't say anything about citizenship, only that it is valid at US and Canada locations. :goodvibes

[karentan]

i went through and managed to get a quote this time, and it wanted $170 for thursday to sunday!! :scared1: its about $60 more than budget. thanks anyway though, back to the original plan!

[Dr.Girlfriend]

Hey everyone! Whooooo hoooo lunchtime! :cool1: I've been fairly busy at work today. It's nice to stop and take a little break. I'm thinking about heading over to Starbucks to treat myself to a nice iced coffee with milk, sweetened and a slice of lemon cake later. :thumbsup2

Of course, I've been trying to lose weight before the cruise, so that isn't exactly on the diet plan. :rotfl2:

How is everyone today? I'm getting more and more excited with each hour passing by!

[Dr.Girlfriend]

I remember Church Street Station! There was an entire complex, there was Rosie O'Grady's, a dueling piano place..like Howl at the Moon, lots of shopping, an exhibit about trains, and Terror on Church Street.
Tickets from Kelly's Scrapbook
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i271/Drlady729/Growing%20up%20Kelly/Picture088.jpg
Kelly and her Dad waiting in line with tons of Brazilian Tourists
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i271/Drlady729/Growing%20up%20Kelly/Picture013.jpg
And the two of them laughing as they were coming out
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i271/Drlady729/Growing%20up%20Kelly/Picture012.jpg.
I am a BIG chicken, so I wouldn't go in there....people were screaming and running out, so I said "Not for me!" They would take people in groups of 6 or 8 and they had to walk in a single file line with their hand on the shoulder of the person in front of you. Kelly and her Dad were with a group of college kids vacationing in Orlando...they had one guy in their group that was afraid of everything (he wasn't smart like me and decided to stay outside;)). I guess he screamed the entire way through the attraction, and at one point elected Kelly to lead the way through (I somehow have raised a child that LOVES haunted houses). As they were walking out, one of the other guys said in a very southern accent "Damn Elijah you scream like a B**ch!" I snapped the picture as Kelly and her Dad busted out laughing.:laughing:

:lmao:

[Dr.Girlfriend]

Toasting flutes...I think we got ours from Princess House for our wedding. I have no earthly idea where they are. Maybe under our bed? :confused3 LOL.

So, we're in the process of redoing our "family room". I think it's more of a living room (the room with the couch and t.v.) and the front living room is actually a giant playroom for our 9 month old because it was a complete waste of dead space. Both my husband and I have worked for Disney at one time or another, so we decided to redo the family room with Disney that is somehow tied to our past....tasteful, but not overdone. We found that you can print reprints of the original posters from some of the attractions at DTD, so we're going to get poster sized prints of the Haunted Mansion (because it has a lot of family memories for me), Pirates of the Carribean (my husband used to work that rotation), and in the center a beautiful artist rendering of MK. We're probably going to start buying the pieces to the living room right before our cruise.

I'll have to find the pics again, or just retake new ones, but our back porch looks like the deck of a DCL ship. Okkkkkay, it's not that decorated or anything. :) We just have two loungers and two regular chairs from the deck of the Wonder. We found them on Freecycle and they were in perfect condition!

[Dr.Girlfriend]

OH! And check out what I just found. You can drag it and look around...
http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCC&cp=nr201q88dtgd&style=o&lvl=1&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=15791350&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&ss=ypid.YN185x156745521~pg.1&encType=1

[karentan]

wow, you'll have to post pictures of all your cool disney stuff!!

just looked at that link, i never get tired of looking at pics of the ship, only 64 days til cruising time!!

i really should stop being lazy and use my unemployed time to do some of my FE gifts, you'd have thought that as its holiday stuff i'd be raring to get it done, but i just cant get my head into doing it :(

[Dr.Girlfriend]

BTW....if you guys haven't checked out Barb's site, I highly recommend it:
http://www.*****************/

:thumbsup2


ETA: Weird. It stars it out. Wonder why??

[karentan]

there's certain websites that cant be linked to on the dis, it just blanks it out. you can get round it by spacing it out a bit and we can take out the gaps :)

[m_kasch]

Steph, that is the coolest map, thanks for posting it!! Usually, you can't zoom in so far!! My friend in the cube next door says I am obsessed, LOL!! But she didn't mind looking either!! :lmao:

[karentan]

there's nothing wrong with being obsessed, at least on the dis there's always someone more obsessed than you!

[jenny105]

Steph, awesome link of the ship! I love that! I grinned like an idiot when I saw the Mickey pool. :)

I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait! :yay:

I'm logging onto the dining site now to see if I can switch my breakfast ressie for WCC. Hopefully the 8:45 time slot is still available.

My day has been so busy! For half the day, it's just been me and one of my co-workers here and people were coming in non-stop for awhile. It's quited down a bit after the lunch hours. I hope it stays this way. I need to catch up on my DIS-ing! :)

I'm trying to figure out a day when I'm going to be able to see the Water Parade from WL. I know it's around 9:30 but I have MNSSHP, EMH at Epcot, and Ohana with you guys...maybe I'll catch it the first night I'm there? :confused3

Sweet! I got the 8:45 ADR!

[Dr.Girlfriend]

there's certain websites that cant be linked to on the dis, it just blanks it out. you can get round it by spacing it out a bit and we can take out the gaps :)

Interesting...okay, it's the castaway club.com, take out the gap between the two words. :)

I sit by myself in the back of the office, so no one knows my DCL obsession. Unless they happen to notice the tube of DCL H20 body butter on my desk.... ;)

[jenny105]

Donna, great pics lol. My sister told me that when she was in the Nightmare on Elm Street part of it, she thought Freddy was a puppet because he came in on a wire. He jumped down right in front of her, flashed his claws, and said 'I'm no puppet.' :scared:

[m_kasch]

Jen, you could always watch it from the Poly, too. Even if you had to sneak out for a minute from dinner, it's not that long. It's really good, I love it!! :goodvibes

[jenny105]

I've always wanted to see it but never stayed at a resort where I was able to. One more thing to be excited about! :)

[karentan]

i've just applied for a travel agent job, they didnt say you need experience and they kept going on about enthusiam so fingers crossed?

i might try and see the water pageant too, we saw it from a distance when we took a wishes cruise in 2005, so it'd be interesting to see it again :)

[m_kasch]

Here are the times for the water pageant:

Polynesian Resort -- 9 p.m.
Grand Floridian -- 9:15 p.m.
Wilderness Lodge -- 9:35 p.m.
Fort Wilderness -- 9:45 p.m.
Contemporary Resort -- 10:05 p.m.
Magic Kingdom -- 10:20 p.m. (only during extended MK park
hours)

You should def. see it!! That part of the reason I picked the bay lake view from BLT when I stay there, so we can see it from our room!! One of my favorite things about staying at the contemporary!!

The weather here is lousy, it's like super extended spring, it's only been summery for about 3 days. It's horrible for people with allergies, which usually i am not, but now it's even getting to me. I wish that summer would just get here already!! :headache:

[karentan]

its just been raining here the last few days, just really drab and overcast. i think our sumer is over!

[jenny105]

Karen, that's awesome! good luck! We need a fingers crossed smiley on the DIS!

Thanks for posting the times, Mary! I may be able to make it back from DHS to see it the first night at 9:35 if I take my car rather than resort transportation.

[karentan]

if you dont quite make it back in time you could always park at the CR and watch it from there. it gives you an extra half hour to get back in time?

[jenny105]

True.

Our Royal Caribbean rep came in to say hello and was asking me why I was going Land & Sea Disney rather than Land & Sea Universal. :rotfl: I was like 'Uh...cause Disney's better! Duh!'

[karentan]

lol, bet he didnt like that answer!!

[disney honeymooners]

Hey everyone Karen did you want me to check in for yalls ressie at ohanas also? we will be there already since we will be leaving AK at 5pm so we will be there in plenty of time to check in for both of them so that yall wont have to feel rushed to get there in time to checkin.
Yeah i think i am gonna get a lapu before we leave for the port in my family the saying is just like the song "It's 5 o'clock Somewhere!"
Jen greg and i were gonna try and see the water parade but i am hoping for a room with a view of the lagoon (praying for an upgrade:bride:)
I got my dress fitted today and i took pictures but i'm gonna have to post them alittle later tonight once i get to my house.

[Dr.Girlfriend]

Orlando hasn't been great with weather the last few days. No rain or clouds and HOT HOT HOT. My yard looks AWFUL. I hate all of the brown spots, and we're only allowed to water two days a week.

[Dr.Girlfriend]

...and as soon as I finished writing my last post, the sky clouded up and it started pouring. Gotta love Florida weather!!!

I looked at my ressie online tonight and saw we got our main dinner seating like we requested.:thumbsup2 We've always had late seating and have never had the chance to eat at the pirate buffet.

I keep hoping our room number will pop up, and nothing yet...anyone else get one (that booked a gty room)?

[m_kasch]

Steph, I haven't gotten my GTY room yet either, and I don't think Karen has either. Donna got hers, but only because she had a health reason. We probably still have a month. :sad2: Which is kind of good, because it gives me something to look forward too, LOL!! :lmao: I do check almost every day though...

Do you know, it is July, and it hasn't been 90 degrees here the entire month. I forgot that our hot weather was all at the end of June. It's some kind of record from a long time ago. It will probably be 90 in November. But if it is a better winter than the last 2 -- praise the lord!! I HATE winter. With a passion. Actually like the passion of the burning sun or something. Me and snow do not get along. Or cold. That's why I want to move to FL!! Now, if only Disney would hire me to work with their Unclaimed Property... :wizard:

[disney honeymooners]

here are some pictures of me in my dress after the alterations(i am thinking of putting the modesty panel back in to alter the neck line what do yall think? Please be honest)
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm137/daphnie1985/IMG_4421.jpg
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm137/daphnie1985/IMG_4420.jpg
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm137/daphnie1985/IMG_4424.jpg
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm137/daphnie1985/IMG_4422.jpg
Here are our toasting flutes and a floral arrangement that will go on the table where the guest book will be and greg and i can use it later:
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm137/daphnie1985/IMG_4436.jpg
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm137/daphnie1985/IMG_4434.jpg
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm137/daphnie1985/IMG_4437.jpg

[Lilo's Mom]

Hey Everybody!
Lainey....love love the dress! You make a beautiful bride. Greg's mouth is going to hit the floor when he gets his first look at you. You will take his breath away!

How was everyone's night? Mine was FANTASTIC!!!! I had been having some strange electrical problems with my car..so Bob took me to look for a used car. Well, I ended up getting a brand new car!
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i271/Drlady729/Rav4Sport.jpg
It's a Toyota Rav4 Sport. It has a sunroof, satellite radio, a 6 CD Player, a hook up for my mp3 player, with controls for the music on the steering wheel...I am sure there is more, but I haven't had a chance to go through the book yet. I can't wait to get up in the morning and drive the car! For now I better get some sleep, I have work bright and early in the morning.

Talk to you all later!

[karentan]

mary, lucky you getting a new car :banana: it looks HUGGGEEEEEE!!! i love that about the US, the cars are huge over there!

lainey, you look gorgeous! your dress is amazing!! whats a modesty panel? i'm guessing it will cover up more of the split in the front? you look great in that dress, if you're happy with the way it looks as it is, i'd say keep it the way it is, its gorgeous! if you're having second thoughts about the split, go for what you're going to be comfortable in, its your day, you want to feel a million dollars, so i'd say do whatever you feel is best.
i know that probably doesnt make much sense, but what i'm trying to get at is that if you're happy, leave it as it is, its a beautiful dress and thats the way the dress was meant to be!
your toasting flutes are so pretty too!

you'll have to bring some photos of your wedding on the cruise so we can all see!

that'd be great if you want to check both reservations in at the same time, i'm not sure at the mo if we're going to actually need the second reservation, but i thought i'd make it just to be on the safe side. i think closer to the time we're going to have to have a big organisation session, get final numbers on the FEs, find out who's coming to ohanas, whos coming to jellyrolls etc!!

tomorrow, the cruise will be exactly 2 months away!! :dancer:

[jenny105]

Donna, congrats on the new car! I love SUVs. Except when they are the GIANT ones that pull up beside me and block my view when I'm trying to turn lol.

Lainey, I think your dress is gorgeous! If you like the way it is now, keep it. If you feel more comfortable putting the panel back in, do it. Either way you'll make a beautiful bride. :)

Mary, I hate winter too! The summer weather here hasn't been all that great either. It rained pretty much the entire month of June. I think we had 3 sunny days. July hasn't been that hot. I wonder what August has in store for us. Joe and I want to move to Florida eventually too. Maybe we'll be neighbors. :rotfl:

I'm in the 50s! 59 days to go utnil I am checking in at WL!

[karentan]

If you like the way it is now, keep it. If you feel more comfortable putting the panel back in, do it. Either way you'll make a beautiful bride. :)

thats exactly what i was trying to say until i started waffling on!! :rotfl:

[karentan]

i'm at 51 now, couple of days and it'll be in the 40s!!!

we had an amazing june weather-wise, but july has been back to its normal trick of sun mixed with heavy rain! its just been bleugh the last few days.

i'm off out to go post a job application, keep your fingers crossed for me, i think i need all the luck i can get at the mo!

[jenny105]

LOL Karen. I figured that's what you were getting at!

Good luck!

Does anyone know when the 2010 rates will be out, roughly? I want to plan a possible long weekend for me and Joe's anniversary in April. We will have been together for 5 years. :)

[m_kasch]

Usually the rates for the next year come out around August, I think. Since the passholder rates came out yesterday, i'm going to have to check on a long weekend for Tim & I in December. I do love going at Christmas...

Has anyone else tried to look up their ressie on Disney's website in the last couple of days? For some reason, it won't come up for me. But, on the dining site, it still comes up to associate it with our dining. Hmmmm...more technical problems for the dinsey site, me thinks!! What's new!! :confused3

Donna, I like your new car!! Very nice!! I want to get an SUV when I get a new car, if we still live here in winter death by then. I love love love my car that I have now!! I have a green bug, and it's just wonderful!! I have flower leis around the headrests, and fun stickers in the back side windows...and I ALWAYS have one of my many Mickey antennae toppers on!! Right now it is a new one, a mickey ice cream bar with a bite out of one ear!! I'll have to post a picture of her sometime (It's a girl, and I call her Lulu...and you can just call me crazy!! :lmao::lmao:)

Lainey, your dress is beautiful!! I'm going to have to agree with the others, you should do whatever makes you comfertable. It looks very nice the way that it is...but it would look just as nice with the panel back in. You don't want to be uncomfertalbe and worrying about your dress all day on your wedding day though!! :thumbsup2

[jenny105]

They finally posted more information on the F&WF http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/guides/epcot/events/index.htm. I know some of us will be checking that out. I'm heading straight to the Poland kiosk! Pierogies...yum!

[jenny105]

Ok, so I won't have to wait too long for the rates. I'm hoping they do a travel agent deal again around April because I could get a value resort for practically nothing!

I tried looking up my reservation and it did the same thing, Mary. I had to call Disney to make sure it was still there lol. It's a system glitch.

I call my car Betsy! :rotfl: I have an 04 Chevy Cavalier and I love my car! It's cute, it suits me. :) I have a pink princess mickey head antenna topper. I'm planning on getting a new one during the trip. I think I may get a Mickey pirate one!

[karentan]

i've got a sorceror mickey topper on my car. i've got a reindeer mickey and a gold sparkly topper too but they've never been on my car. who knows why i've got them??!?!!

i had a look at the F&W festival stuff and to be honest i was a bit disappointed. the food looks VERY similar to last year's festival. i mean VERYYYYYY similar! we'll still go though but maybe this year it'll mean we dont spend quite as much as we'll have had a lot of it last year. we're planning on hitting the festival on the day we get off the cruise, its going to be crazy busy as its the first weekend of the festival but its the only real day we can do it, as we fly out monday afternoon. :(

[jenny105]

Joe's got the sourceror mickey on his car!

I can't be disappointed because I've never been to F&WF. What they have looks ok to me! :thumbsup2 We're going to be going Tues 9/28. That's our last full day there. The day we dock is just going to be a hang out at the resort kind of day, maybe go to Typhoon Lagoon.

I'm so excited! :yay:

[karentan]

at some point on drop off day we've gotta go dump the car back to the rental place at DTD and check in to SSR so its going to be a bit of a rush day. hoping to fit in some of F&WF too.

a few months back i bought an A4 magnetic whiteboard, with the intention of putting it on our stateroom door so we/other people can leave messages. one of our FE group did it last year and i thought it was a cool idea.
its since kinda evolved into the idea that i'm going to add a permanent marker to it so people can leave us messages and we can keep it as a kinda cool souvenir :) so then i started thinking of how i could decorate it so it doesnt look so plain.......

please bear in mind that i am the least crafty person around, i'd love to get into scrapbooking and crafting etc but i just dont have the craft gene in me, but here's what i've come up with:
http://i487.photobucket.com/albums/rr238/karenangelatanpearson/random%20stuff/P23-07-09_1824.jpg

if you dont mind, ccould you leave a message if/when you're passing our door, i'm thinking it'd be kinda like those signature plates they have instead of guestbooks at weddings, think it'd be a cool souvenir!

[jenny105]

It looks really cute, Karen! Great idea. I'll be sure to leave you a message even though I'm going to see you lots. :)

[m_kasch]

I'll be sure to leave you a message too!! The boards is very cute!! Just don't leave that permanent marker around when we've all had too many Goombays... :lmao:

[karentan]

that could actually be funny :) :drinking:

[Lilo's Mom]

Donna, I like your new car!! Very nice!! I want to get an SUV when I get a new car, if we still live here in winter death by then. I love love love my car that I have now!! I have a green bug, and it's just wonderful!! I have flower leis around the headrests, and fun stickers in the back side windows...and I ALWAYS have one of my many Mickey antennae toppers on!! Right now it is a new one, a mickey ice cream bar with a bite out of one ear!! I'll have to post a picture of her sometime (It's a girl, and I call her Lulu...and you can just call me crazy!! :lmao::lmao:)

Oh my goodness, you have Kelly's dream car! When she bought her first car last year, she looked and looked for a used green bug...and when she couldn't find it she got a bright blue Aveo.

I am glad there is someone else besides us that gives their cars a name! Everyone in my house does the same thing. The car I traded in was Kyoko, Bob's car is Monty and Kelly's car is "The Tardis" (because it is bigger on the inside then it looks on the outside). When I brought home the new car last everyone wanted to take it for a test drive. I kept repeating "No, it's mine" This morning Kelly decided my car's name is Sookie. The reason she decided on Sookie is that the main female character in True Blood is Sookie...Sookie is dating Vampire Bill. Whenever any other male tries to get close to or hurt Sookie, Bill says "Sookie is Mine" Since I kept saying "No it's Mine" the car is now Sookie.:lmao:

[karentan]

ooh, they've updated the disney cruise website! looks posh!

[m_kasch]

Ooooooooooo the new website is very fancy and cool!! I like it!!

I had to come home from work because I am having mad sinus pressure today. However, it has decided to be summer for the moment and thunderstorm...i swear, as soon as it started to rain I could feel the pressure start to relieve. Plus, I stopped at target on the way home and got the mucinex with the pseudophedrine in it -- i couldn't get it this morning because the pharmacy wasn't open yet -- and that works miracles too!!

I wonder what's going on with the ship, it hasn't left yet. I was bummed because I thought I would miss it leaving, but I didn't, maybe it was just waiting for me??? :rotfl:

[disney honeymooners]

Hey yall im not worried about being uncomfortable at the wedding or reception it was my mom that wanted to make sure i was comfortable i figured i would get some unbiased opinions about how i look in it thank you yall confirmed what i had originally decided and that is the PANEL STAYS OUT!!!!
Donna i like your car my next one is def gonna have to be a suv b/c our driveway is gravel not paved so my little mazda 3 is getting a beating. oh is the f&wf after the cruise?
I will try and get some pictures of the wedding to bring with us but im not making any promises but i will post them after the cruise if yall still want to talk to me after the cruise :rotfl: JK
Karen i coppied your idea but i have run out of crafty ideas so it is just a sad plain white board to put on the door no DRUNK SIGNING!! well that could be a funny memento to have and to show my family :rotfl::rotfl:

[jenny105]

I'll have to check out the new DCL site at work tomorrow. I'm at home now and I'm lucky enough to get on the DIS, this computer is so slow. I plan on getting a new one before the cruise so I can do an awesome TR. And buy Sims 3. :thumbsup2

I was trying to get on the DIS all afternoon but work was SO busy after I got back from lunch. I had like 6 people in a row!! Made the day go by fast though. I think my co-worker jinxed us cause he said we've been slowing down since the beginning of the month. Guess he was wrong!

I was on tripadvisor looking up WL and AKL and they have virtual tours of each resort. You can look at 360 pictures of the pool, rooms, lobby, etc. It was pretty cool. They both look so gorgeous, I can't wait to stay deluxe!!

I have to finish my FEs!! I haven't even bought all of the stuff for it yet! I'm slacking!

[karentan]

i got all my FE stuff out earlier to have a look, i've bought lots of little things, i think i'm going to buy some candy to put in there too but i dont think i'll buy any more stuff, i think the bags i bought are too big though, they just look a bit empty :(

i've gotta drive down to bournemouth (about 3 and a half hours drive) tomorrow, i'm picking up a friend so she can come up here for a few days, she's been a bit down so she's coming here for the weekend. it'll be nice but i'm not looking forward to the 7 hour round trip :(

[Dr.Girlfriend]

:thumbsup2 Lainey...GORGEOUS, GORGEOUS, GORGEOUS! I love it! Man, makes me miss my wedding dress. This was mine in 2005:
http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs118.snc1/4979_1191679870780_1191891137_30564742_7118040_n.j pg



I actually got a lot of flack about that dress from the church we were married in. It was "too revealing"!!! :lmao:

Finally able to get onto the new site, it looks great! I noticed that I was able to fill out some of the online check in stuff today, so I went ahead and did that.

We also talked about breakfast on cruise morning and decided that we're going to just go ahead and do it. We're going to Boma at 7:55 a.m. to get our drink on and our snack on. :thumbsup2 Tried Ohana's and Kona, but they're all booked up.

It was a busy day for me today. Lots of spreadsheets and charts to make.

[Dr.Girlfriend]

at some point on drop off day we've gotta go dump the car back to the rental place at DTD and check in to SSR so its going to be a bit of a rush day. hoping to fit in some of F&WF too.

a few months back i bought an A4 magnetic whiteboard, with the intention of putting it on our stateroom door so we/other people can leave messages. one of our FE group did it last year and i thought it was a cool idea.
its since kinda evolved into the idea that i'm going to add a permanent marker to it so people can leave us messages and we can keep it as a kinda cool souvenir :) so then i started thinking of how i could decorate it so it doesnt look so plain.......

please bear in mind that i am the least crafty person around, i'd love to get into scrapbooking and crafting etc but i just dont have the craft gene in me, but here's what i've come up with:
http://i487.photobucket.com/albums/rr238/karenangelatanpearson/random%20stuff/P23-07-09_1824.jpg

if you dont mind, ccould you leave a message if/when you're passing our door, i'm thinking it'd be kinda like those signature plates they have instead of guestbooks at weddings, think it'd be a cool souvenir!

I love this idea! I'll have to make a midnight sneaky writing run one evening.... :rolleyes1

[karentan]

how was your dress too revealing? :rotfl:
steph your dress is stunning too! i love seeing people's wedding photos, before i got married i wasnt really into weddings, but now i love them!

[karentan]

well i was supposed to be driving down to bournemouth today to go pick up a friend so she can come up here for a few days, but it looks like i'm going tomorrow instead. it means i get a nice lazy day today instead!

[karentan]

just to confuse things even more, the disney cruise website has gone back to the old one :(

[Lilo's Mom]

how was your dress too revealing? :rotfl:
steph your dress is stunning too! i love seeing people's wedding photos, before i got married i wasnt really into weddings, but now i love them!

Since you like wedding pictures...and I have been married twice...and Bob's daughter is married...here you go
My wedding to Kelly's Dad - St. Patrick's Day 1984 - Reception for 565
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i271/Drlady729/Wedding/DonnaFull.jpg
My Dress

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i271/Drlady729/Wedding/NewMrMrs.jpg
The New Mr & Mrs Burns

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i271/Drlady729/Wedding/BridalParty.jpg
My Wedding Party of 15

My wedding to Bob - April 4, 2004 - Reception for 75
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i271/Drlady729/Wedding/B21-Donna.jpg
The Dress

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i271/Drlady729/Wedding/E19-DonnaRaeBob68X10.jpg
The New Mr & Mrs Decker

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i271/Drlady729/Wedding/F6-WeddingPartyHeadTilt.jpg
The Wedding Party of 6

Brittany's Dress
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i271/Drlady729/Brittany/Britt5.jpg
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i271/Drlady729/Brittany/Flowers7.jpg

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i271/Drlady729/Brittany/Portrait51.jpg
The New Mr. & Mrs. Jose Tollenchi

[karentan]

reception for 565???!!! :scared1:
i dont even know 565 people! lol

[karentan]

since we're sharing, here's one of mine:

http://images1b.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp43%3B%3Enu%3D3267%3E275%3E%3B%3A2%3E WSNRCG%3D323337%3A577%3C%3B%3Bnu0mrj

from left to right:
matthew - our DFTW co-ordinator
gavin my brother
my mum
my dad
me
gary
gary's mum
gary's dad
carolyn, grant's wife
grant, gary's best man

[jenny105]

Nice wedding pictures everyone! I have none to share, sadly. :guilty: Lol just kidding. One day, hopefully! ;)

Steph, I really like your wedding dress. How is that too revealing???

565 people????? Did you even get to see all of them??

I just went on the DCL website. Same as it ever was. :confused3

[m_kasch]

I don't have any digital pics from my wedding. Maybe i'll scan them in for you all. I loved my dress!!

I went to the Disney Cruise site yesterday 3 times, one was the new site, the other 2 were the old site. Who knows, they have A LOT of technical difficulties!! :laughing:

[jenny105]

Disney and internet technology do not seem to go hand in hand. :rotfl:

[karentan]

it still makes me laugh when the first thing they ask when you call disney cruise is "are you having technical difficulties with our site". not press one to book, press two for etc......
i know its a very complicated website, but surely a company the size of disney should have some of the best IT people out there?

on a totally different note, i have come to a serious conclusion.......
having to take the dog out + torrential rain + thunder storm + metal framed umbrella = a really BAD idea!!!!!!!!!!!
the rain is the worst we've had for a few months and as soon as i get to the park, it chucks it down. absolutely threw it down...... cerby didnt enjoy it at first, think he got a lot of water in his ears, but he got used to it and had a good run around :)
i'm drying out slowly now i'm back in the warm.....

[jenny105]

My dog used to love going out in the rain. But he hated baths lol. Go figure. He used to run around like a nut whenever he came back in the house after being out in the rain.

[Dr.Girlfriend]

565 PEOPLE?!?! I can't even begin to imagine just how much that must have cost! Whooo! :scared1::scared1::scared1: Love all of the dresses!! Since ya'll are sharing full party pics, here's one of all of us:
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l11/stepharoonie2006/allofus.jpg?t=1248450040

And yes, the church felt my dress was too revealing (as were my ladies in the bridal party). The church specifically asked what the outfits looked like months in advance and I didn't tell them because I didn't know for awhile. They're big fans of covering up shoulders and all of that. Blah! I loved my dress. It had a red lace up corset in the back. Hehe, this was the church where we had to take classes before we were "allowed" to get married, and one full class was designed to teach couples how to "do it". :scared1: There is nothing more disturbing that to have a 65 year old woman tell you how to get busy on a bathroom floor.:eek:

Okay, ladies...I need help! I'm trying to lose 15 more pounds before the cruise. I gained 54 pounds while pregnant with my son and I lost that along with an additional 10 pounds of weight after the fact. I'm sitting at 205 and want to be back down to my wedding weight of 190. The PROBLEM is...I love to eat. I eat a lot during the day, and it's not necessarily good food. Today is donut day at work and there are mounds of donuts in all flavors in there...:sad2: I try not to eat after 7 p.m., but I can't always help it.

I have this dress that I want to wear, and it fits now...but it's kind of tight. I know losing the 15 pounds would help a lot. http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l11/stepharoonie2006/LW2536.jpg?t=1248450546

So...I NEED HELP! Motivation! Ideas!

[karentan]

There is nothing more disturbing that to have a 65 year old woman tell you how to get busy on a bathroom floor.:eek:

i have nothing to say at the mo except from :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

[karentan]

i was on a diet up until about a month ago, i was on it for 3 months, lost about 20 pounds, but then i fell off the wagon and put about 5/6 back on. i think i've kinda assigned myself to the fact that i'll never be skinny, i'm about 185 at the mo, and would ideally like to lose about 10-15 pounds but i know that my head isnt in it at the mo, so its pointless me trying to diet when my head isnt in it.
on a side note, you look amazing in your wedding photos steph, there's no way you look 190 pounds in that photo. you carry it very well. me on the other hand, not so much, lol, but i've learnt to live with being pooh sized!

[karentan]

just noticed my ticker and its officially 2 months exactly til cruising time!! :banana: with any luck, in exactly 2 months we'll be in parrot cay having lunch, or up on deck 9, having just had lunch!

and i've now officially started on my main FE gift! i've had the stuff for a while but not actually put it together, but i've done 3, at the mo (present FE list) there's 4 to go. but i've run out of the bits i need to put it together!

[jenny105]

Steph, you definitely do NOT look 190 in your wedding photo! You look itty bitty! I try to keep myself working out but I love the junk food...mainly french fries. I try to stay away from a lot of fast food but it's hard because I've been so busy at work and that's all we have around here! I don't necessarily want to lose weight...just tone up a bit and be healthier overall. Have you tried cutting soda out of your diet? That helps drop weight fairly quick.

I think I'm going to do lunch at the buffet on deck 9. I forget what it's called lol. That's become a sort of a cruise ritual for Joe and I. Get up to the top deck, eat, have a beer, and then tour the rest of the ship until it's lifejacket drill time!

[jenny105]

Is everyone making an FE gift? I couldn't think of anything to make. Call me un-crafty lol. I'm buying little things and some candy to put in everyone's FE.

[Lilo's Mom]

When Kelly's Dad, Pat, and I got married, we chose St. Patrick's Day because his grandparents and my grandparents both were married on St. Patrick's Day...so we thought it was kind of neat if we did too.

We invited 600 people to our wedding (we got 565..there was a blizzard the day we got married), the list was his large Irish Catholic Family, my large Irish Catholic Family, the people he worked with & his friends, the people I worked with & my friends, his mother's friends, the people my father worked with and my mom's friends. We sat down to cut the list because it was so huge, then my parents who had been saving for my college tuition/wedding since the day I was born decided they could swing 600 people at the reception. I paid for everything else, except the flowers and extra bar bill, Pat paid for that. Also, don't forget these was 1984 dollars...the reception which was Open Bar for 6 hours (premium brands), dinner (Served Family Style, Cream of Broccoli Soup, a Tossed Salad. Entrees were Roast Beef, Chicken and Stuffing, Mostacolli & Sausage, Mashed Potatoes & Gravy, and String Beans. Then we had Mint Chocolate Chip Sundaes...because we needed something green.)...the total bill for the hall was around $13,000.

Things I Paid For:
My Dress/Veil/Shoes
Invitations
Cake
Photographer
Flowers
Attendant Gifts
Band

Things Pat Paid For:
Hotel Rooms for Attendants
Brunch the next day for Attendants
Extra money for the band to not play any Polkas
Rental of 4 Towncars
600 Green Carnations for Wedding Guests (to wear)


As for knowing the people...you are right, I did not know them all. What we did was Pat and I went around the room and visited all the tables that had people we knew...then he went with his Mom and visited her friends, and I went with my parents and visited their friends and co-workers. Also since there were so many people and it was St. Patrick's Day, we got married at 3:00, it was a full mass, so it was over at 4:30. We started the reception at 6:00, but there was a party going on at the hotel that our guests were staying at before the reception started. Officially what my parents paid for ended at Midnight...Pat paid for the bar and the band to pay until 2am. It was a really long day! The next morning we went back to the hall and had brunch with the wedding party and our parents....then we went to the airport for our 3 week long honeymoon.

I really loved my dress, it was $800 ...you can't see it in the pictures, but it has pearls all over it, and my headpiece was a juliet cap that had pearls and crystals...and pearls were all over the veil too. I wanted to wear my mom's dress...put it had yellowed and they couldn't restore it. It was satin and had crystals on it. The picture is so old and torn...but I love how young they look! My mom was 19 and my dad was 24
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i271/Drlady729/Wedding/MomDad.jpg

[karentan]

i'm making one of mine, and its not that crafty. i'm not the most creative of people so i think what i've done is actually quite good for me!!
candy is always good though, i love all the different candy you guys get over there, i think i'm going to try and get some UK candy that you cant get over there, i'd love to bring you some uk chocolate over (it tastes so much different than american chocolate) but theres no way i could keep it from melting in the 12 days before the cruise! so its non choc stuff i'm afraid.
i've got about 5 or 6 small gifts in my FE bags, and there's going to be some candy in there too, the bags i bought are a bit too big though so they kinda look a bit on the empty side :(

i think we'll head towards parrot cay, thats what we did last time and it was nice having a sit down lunch, i've heard that beach blanket buffet can get a bit crowded and hard to find somewhere to sit.

i drink sooooo much soda, but its diet soda so dont think that counts? although my big downfall diet-wise is baileys and chocolate.

but its banana dance time....... i've just paid by balance off for the holiday!!! :banana: :dancer: the only thing major things that are left to pay is the car hire, and the dining plan for when we're staying at the AKL, but both of those arent payable til we get there. i still have to pay for MNSSHP and divequest, and a few more little things, but thats the majority of it all paid off!!!

[Dr.Girlfriend]

I think our final count at our wedding was 120. And I didn't know all of them...HAHA. You're probably thankful there was a blizzard that day, right?

Yes, I was 190 in those pics...but I'm really tall (6ft1"). My husband is 6ft5". I am really wanting to get back down to that weight! Right now, I look like I have huge saddle bags hanging off of my butt and a pouchy baby belly (I have a 9 month old son and an 8 year old daughter).

The church that we were married in required you to have these pre-marital classes, and the very last one was all about how to do it. They even gave us books with pictures and detailed descriptions on how to take each other's clothes off after the wedding and reception. :scared1: The worst part was, at that time I had a 4 year old from a previous marriage, so I OBVIOUSLY knew how everything worked anyways. ;) I was looked down upon for that, too.

[Dr.Girlfriend]

And Karen...woot, woot for paying off your holiday! :cheer2:

[Lilo's Mom]

Almost forgot...Karen your FE is in the mail...they tell me it should be anywhere from 4 -10 days.

We have one thing in our FE gifts that was crafty (that will be in the bag on the second day;)) The rest was stuff I bought.

All this wedding stuff was kind of fun...we should do our baby pictures next!:happytv:

[karentan]

Extra money for the band to not play any Polkas

:rotfl:

[Dr.Girlfriend]

Is everyone making an FE gift? I couldn't think of anything to make. Call me un-crafty lol. I'm buying little things and some candy to put in everyone's FE.

I think I'm going to do this, just have to figure out what to make. I make a lot of decorations for the kid's rooms so I have a little bit of craftiness in my background. I'll have to find the pics from my son's room tonight...I made his name letters and pictures that are hanging up in his room.

We're going to eat a PC this time around. We've always had a hard time trying to balance our stuff and fight the crowds at BBB, so we thought we'd give PC a whirl. :)

[Dr.Girlfriend]

Steph, you definitely do NOT look 190 in your wedding photo! You look itty bitty! I try to keep myself working out but I love the junk food...mainly french fries. I try to stay away from a lot of fast food but it's hard because I've been so busy at work and that's all we have around here! I don't necessarily want to lose weight...just tone up a bit and be healthier overall. Have you tried cutting soda out of your diet? That helps drop weight fairly quick.

I think I'm going to do lunch at the buffet on deck 9. I forget what it's called lol. That's become a sort of a cruise ritual for Joe and I. Get up to the top deck, eat, have a beer, and then tour the rest of the ship until it's lifejacket drill time!


I'm not a big soda drinker, but I'll be honest...my biggest fault is grande iced coffees with milk, sweetened from Starbucks. ;)

[karentan]

havent got any kids yet!!! but do furry kids count?
here's cerby (my little 3 toed baby :rotfl: poor thing!)

http://i487.photobucket.com/albums/rr238/karenangelatanpearson/random%20stuff/P01-07-09_1848.jpg

donna, thanks again for the FE, i'll be sure to let you know when it shows up :)

i must be the odd one out, my guest list was everyone in the photo i posted. grand total including us of 9! we both decided we didnt want the big wedding as we wouldnt end up knowing half of the people who came. plus our DFTW was in the time when the escape packages could only include 8 guests without them charging you extra

[karentan]

steph, are you in for the FE then? yay for more people!! its great fun!!
if you are in, i'll post the updated list again for everyone :)

[jenny105]

I could never get away with having 9 people at my wedding. If Joe and I got married, he has 3 brothers plus their girlfriends/wives would go so that's 6 people from his side alone already! He's Italian and has a HUGE family!

I think diet soda is actually worse for you than regular soda! There may be less calories but there is more sweetener. I am not a soda person in general really...unless it's mixed with liquor! :rotfl:

Congrats for paying off your trip!

[Lilo's Mom]

I think our final count at our wedding was 120. And I didn't know all of them...HAHA. You're probably thankful there was a blizzard that day, right?

Yes, I was 190 in those pics...but I'm really tall (6ft1"). My husband is 6ft5". I am really wanting to get back down to that weight! Right now, I look like I have huge saddle bags hanging off of my butt and a pouchy baby belly (I have a 9 month old son and an 8 year old daughter).

The church that we were married in required you to have these pre-marital classes, and the very last one was all about how to do it. They even gave us books with pictures and detailed descriptions on how to take each other's clothes off after the wedding and reception. :scared1: The worst part was, at that time I had a 4 year old from a previous marriage, so I OBVIOUSLY knew how everything worked anyways. ;) I was looked down upon for that, too.

I was kind of glad that some of the people didn't show up! It was a great party. Even though Pat and I have been divorced for 6 years, people still talk about the reception.

What kind of church did you get married at? Pat and I had to do 4 works of marriage classes to before we could get married in our Catholic Church. At the last class the Priest asked us if we would be using birth control...Pat said yes. I thought here it comes they are not going to let us get married..cuz birth control is a big "no no". The Priest said, "I think it is smart for young people to really get to know each other before they start a family" I was shocked. Not as shocked as 6 months later when the priest left the church, got married and became a travel agent. :lmao:

When Bob and I got married, there wasn't really a class we had to go to but the minister wanted to talk to us to make sure we were ready to get married. It was really a very nice visit...and it turned out that the minister's son is a famous comic book artist named Alex Ross who does Marvel Comics..he even made his dad a character in a series called Kingdom Come.
So we got married by a Minster that was Comic Book Character!
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i271/Drlady729/Wedding/kingdomcome_card6_thumb.jpg

[karentan]

oh my god, the weather has just got so bad! The clouds looked like they were about to form a twister. We've just had a really bad lightning storm and the power has gone out. Luckily I'd just finished cooking dinner when it went! We had really bad hailstones too. Luckily my mobile internet is still working :)

[Dr.Girlfriend]

Karen, you live in the UK, right? I didn't know you guys had thunderstorms. My Aunt and Uncle come over from Warrington all the time and they REALLY don't like our thunderstorms here, for sure!

Sure, sign me up for FE exchange! How many things do I need to make? And I guess I have to make one of those extenders as well, right? :rotfl2:

[jenny105]

Not as shocked as 6 months later when the priest left the church, got married and became a travel agent.

:rotfl2:

Pretty cool story. Do you know his comic book character name or was it the same as his real name?

[Dr.Girlfriend]

When Bob and I got married, there wasn't really a class we had to go to but the minister wanted to talk to us to make sure we were ready to get married. It was really a very nice visit...and it turned out that the minister's son is a famous comic book artist named Alex Ross who does Marvel Comics..he even made his dad a character in a series called Kingdom Come.
So we got married by a Minster that was Comic Book Character!
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i271/Drlady729/Wedding/kingdomcome_card6_thumb.jpg

I'll have to tell my husband about this. He works in that industry!

[karentan]

i live about 30 miles to the right of London, i really don't mind storms, i just hate it when the power goes out. Last time it went out for about 5 hours in the middle of winter so it was pitch black, at least at the mo its still light outside.
for the FE exchange there's currently 9 rooms participating so at the mo you'd need to do gifts for 8 rooms. There's going to be a cut off point for people joining in but that'll be closer to the cruise. You can make a FE if you want but anything will do. Last year i used a tote bag, some people have used Christmas stockings in the past, its up to you, as long as it fits on the metal fish outside your door, you can use it. The gifts can be big or small, you can give out gifts each day or just once, its up to you? You can give out your gifts whenever you want. Once we get final numbers I'm going to do a map for everyone so we can find the rooms. Basically its just a bit of fun, you can take it as light hearted or as seriously as you want. There's no real hard rules about it. :)
once my power comes back on I'll post the list of who's in each group so you know who you're buying/making for. You can do one gift per cabin or one per person, its up to you. I'm personally doing one gift bag per cabin with lots of little bits in.

[jenny105]

You've gotten so good at explaining this, Karen. :)

[Lilo's Mom]

I'll have to tell my husband about this. He works in that industry!
The character is Norman McCay and the book he is in is Kingdom Come

[Lilo's Mom]

Here is what Pastor Ross really looks like
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i271/Drlady729/Wedding/D35-GreetingGuests2.jpg
So it is pretty close to how he looks in the comic!

[Lilo's Mom]

Karen,

I just watched the slide show of your wedding. Your pictures are beautiful! I love your Magic Kingdom photo shoot, very pretty. Does your dress have white embroidery or it or is it silver? I would have loved to have a Disney Fairytale wedding. We talked about it, then told Bob's parents that is what we wanted to do. They ended up asking us to have it in Chicago, because Bob has so many elderly aunts and uncles who wanted to be there (they hated Bob's first wife...and thankfully they love me) and it wasn't feasible to ask them to travel to Orlando. So I am hoping that one day I get to have a Disney Vow Renewal!

Steph, I love the black and red in your wedding party...and the red accent in your dress is striking. One of my favorite shows is Platinum Weddings, and so many of the brides on that show wear colored wedding dresses. They recently had an episode where the brides dress was a black ball gown, it was a pretty dress...but reminded me of prom for some reason. :confused3. Anyway if you like weddings it's a good show...and the people on it don't really have a budget, so the sky is the limit for these brides and grooms.

Boy have I been chatty today....it's cuz it's Friday and I don't want to do any actual work, LOL. :dance3:

[karentan]

my dress was ivory and i'm not 100% sure but i think the embroidery was a darker shade of ivory or cream. the original dress i was looking at were seperates, the top was red and the bottom was an ivory skirt. i want to have a vow renewal sometime too, after this trip we wont be going back til at least 2012, so it maybe for our 10th anniversary in 2015?

we decided to go out to the pub for a drink as our power went off and it was getting dark. we'd have had to shut cerby in the dining room as we'd have had the candles out, so we decided to go out instead. but happy to report that the power is now back on!!

[karentan]

now that i've got the marvel of electricity back on my side :), here's the updated FE list:

jenny105 - jenny nieczypor (26) and joe
m_kasch - mary kasch (27) and tim
karentan - karen tan-pearson (29) and gary pearson (27)
disneyhoneymooners - lainey neal (24) and greg
futuredis – stacy crotser(35), DH chris (37), and DS Kaleb (3)
lilo's mum - Donna and Bob Decker, daughter Kelly (23) and one other person, to be determined
duchessandkittens - amy, DH, 3 sons (14, 12 and 6), dad, brother, niece (4) and nephew (5) - 2 cabins participating
dr girlfriend – Stephanie varner and DH paul

there's 9 cabins so far, so we've all got 8 gifts to make each so far.

[karentan]

steph, have you got a room assignment yet? a lot of us have booked GTY rooms, so we wont know our room numbers til closer to the time.
i'm keeping a list of who's where so it makes the FE organising easier :)