March 20, 2010*** Mickey's Magic Matey's Cruise the Western!***

[mommyofthreeboys]

I didn't see a link for this in the cruise meets post so I figured I'd start one. If there is already on started, please let me know!

So is anyone else from the DIS booked on this cruise?

BTW, I am a first time cruiser. We are really breaking our budget for this vacation. I was thinking about keeping it a surprise for the kids until Christmas.

So, anyone else going on this cruise?



mommyofthreeboys: christina (34), Jared (37), Bradley (15), Brett (10) and Nolan (8) *1st cruise*

dytx: Dee (65) Don (66) and Allen (42) *2nd cruise*

rkwier: (41) and DH (43) *2nd cruise*

wegs3000: Angela (44), DD (9) and dad (69) *1st cruise*

Clari: (33) and mom (56) *3rd cruise*

Bellamickey: Belinda and Shawn *5th cruise*

[dytx]

I didn't see a link for this in the cruise meets post so I figured I'd start one. If there is already on started, please let me know!

So is anyone else from the DIS booked on this cruise?

BTW, I am a first time cruiser. We are really breaking our budget for this vacation. I was thinking about keeping it a surprise for the kids until Christmas.

So, anyone else going on this cruise?

Hi Christina; we three (dee 65 don 66 and allen 42) will be on the cruise with you. this will be our 2nd cruise (1st was oct 08 on the Magic on the 7 day eastern swing). we loved it so much that we are going again. we arent experts but if we can help you in any way; plz let us know. I am retired USAF and Dee is retired from the local school district and still working as a teachers aide sub. allen is our live at home son. we are scheduled to be in same room (2566) as our earlier cruise and we will be at the early dining. just a tip if you contact carol zwerner at toll free 866 522 0312(she is a disney authorized cruise planner) and was able to get us extra on board credit and still keep all arrangements we had made with disney cruise line originally.

dee don and allen

we hope to hear from you

[dytx]

sorry about calling you christina


for some reason my mind picked up that name.

don

[rkwier]

I was so happy to see this thread! DH (43) and I (41) will be joining you. This was supposed to be our first cruise with DCL, but now it will be our second because we gave in and booked the July 2 3-day as well. :goodvibes

[dytx]

hi rkwier; we are in abilene, tx and will be looking forward to meeting you all on board.
dytx42@sbcglobal.net

[wegs3000]

I just booked for this cruise this morning and I am so excited - and I just can't hide it - that I feel like a kid again. This is all of our first cruise. I do not know the abbreviation for my dad but it is me (44), DD (9) and my dad (69) who are going together to celebrate spring break. My dad takes DD and me (his DD) on a trip every year. I am posting lots of questions and learning a lot. I look forward to seeing all of you on board!:goodvibes

[dytx]

I just booked for this cruise this morning and I am so excited - and I just can't hide it - that I feel like a kid again. This is all of our first cruise. I do not know the abbreviation for my dad but it is me (44), DD (9) and my dad (69) who are going together to celebrate spring break. My dad takes DD and me (his DD) on a trip every year. I am posting lots of questions and learning a lot. I look forward to seeing all of you on board!:goodvibes


hi wegs3000; welcome to the cruise. this is our 2nd and we cant wait to go again.

dee,don, and allen

[Clari]

Hi, my mother(56) and I(33) are going too, mother/daughter getaway:cloud9:. This will be our 3rd cruise with Disney. First was the Land and Sea, the second was the West Coast Mexican Riviera Cruise. We Love It. :banana: We're in Room 7014.

[dytx]

Hi, my mother(56) and I(33) are going too, mother/daughter getaway:cloud9:. This will be our 3rd cruise with Disney. First was the Land and Sea, the second was the West Coast Mexican Riviera Cruise. We Love It. :banana: We're in Room 7014.

welcome to the room Clari; we are glad to have you and your mother along for the ride. we are looking foward to meeting you. here is our email address: we are booked for room 2566 (same as last oct)

dytx42@sbcglobal.net

[mommyofthreeboys]

we three (dee 65 don 66 and allen 42) will be on the cruise with you. this will be our 2nd cruise (1st was oct 08 on the Magic on the 7 day eastern swing).
dee don and allen



Awesome!!! Thanks for posting!

sorry about calling you christina

for some reason my mind picked up that name.

don

My name is Christina....it's in my signature so that's where you got it from. So that's okay!! :goodvibes


I was so happy to see this thread! DH (43) and I (41) will be joining you. This was supposed to be our first cruise with DCL, but now it will be our second because we gave in and booked the July 2 3-day as well. :goodvibes

Welcome aboard our cruise!

I just booked for this cruise this morning and I am so excited - and I just can't hide it - that I feel like a kid again. This is all of our first cruise. I do not know the abbreviation for my dad but it is me (44), DD (9) and my dad (69) who are going together to celebrate spring break. My dad takes DD and me (his DD) on a trip every year. I am posting lots of questions and learning a lot. I look forward to seeing all of you on board!:goodvibes

I know the feeling! I am sooo excited too!!!! I decided to keep the cruise a surprise until Christmas. That way, I can cut waaayyyyy back on the presents this year.

If you have any questions, ask away! This is my 1st cruise but I have been doing ALOT of research!!!


Hi, my mother(56) and I(33) are going too, mother/daughter getaway:cloud9:. This will be our 3rd cruise with Disney. First was the Land and Sea, the second was the West Coast Mexican Riviera Cruise. We Love It. :banana: We're in Room 7014.

Great! Glad you posted! Since you been on 2 cruises, you'll have to share some of your best tips! :goodvibes




Can't wait to meet everyone!!!
:cool1:

[dytx]

[quote=mommyofthreeboys;31677343]Awesome!!! Thanks for posting!



My name is Christina....it's in my signature so that's where you got it from. So that's okay!! :goodvibes




Welcome aboard our cruise!



I know the feeling! I am sooo excited too!!!! I decided to keep the cruise a surprise until Christmas. That way, I can cut waaayyyyy back on the presents this year.

If you have any questions, ask away! This is my 1st cruise but I have been doing ALOT of research!!!




Great! Glad you posted! Since you been on 2 cruises, you'll have to share some of your best tips! :goodvibes




Can't wait to meet everyone!!!

christina; sorry bout the confusion--chalk it up to a senior moment on my part (LOL). Since we just cruised on the magic in oct 08; we are willing to help any way that we can

dee and don

[mommyofthreeboys]

christina; sorry bout the confusion--chalk it up to a senior moment on my part (LOL). Since we just cruised on the magic in oct 08; we are willing to help any way that we can

dee and don

Super!!! You'll have to share your tips or things that we shouldn't miss! :)

[dytx]

we had early seating for dining and it worked out well for us. we were in a room on 2nd deck (2566) which was just around the corner of the hall to the elevators which gave a easy access to the dining rooms of Lumeries(spelling), parrot cay and then up to 9th deck for the soda stations. If you have a large refillable mug to take along-it makes for easy fill ups at the soda station. we then left the mug for our room steward (Donovan) who was tickled to get such a large mug for himself. this is just a little tidbit of information; but please let me know what you are interested in and we will try to help

dee and don

[Clari]

one of the best tips is just enjoy everything. If you can't decide between two of the desserts at dinner...order them both. :thumbsup2 the Quiet Cove Pool is a great place for adults to relax. Do things that you like, even if some would think they are just for kids. We are all kids at heart. ;)

[wegs3000]

I have been doing a ton of research also as I enjoy the planning as much as the doing. I am particularly happy to do this cruise as I think my daughter will remember it her whole life and she gets great memories of her with her grandpa. I enjoy traveling as an adult with my dad now (not the long car trips when I was kid!!!!) so these are special moments in all three of our lives. My husband is a total disney grouch so we are leaving him at home which is just fine.

I booked the second dining as we live on the west coast and that will feel more "normal" I think. I've never heard of anyone losing weight on a cruise:lmao: I'm hoping DD (8) can make some quick friends. Can't imagine that's a problem.

I struggled on the room/deck/options but we ended up in a category 6 on deck 6 and let's hope it's a good room!

I look forward to all the good info from the rest of you!

[rkwier]

wegs3000 - we are on deck 6 also - 6076 on the port side. We may be neighbhors! :woohoo:

My advice to new cruisers is to be careful with all of the wonderful, yummy food that is so readily available. I gained weight on our last cruise (I won't tell you how much, but it was not pretty. :rolleyes1). I thought that I was being so careful, even spent time on the treadmill, but it was the dinners that got me. We usually just have a regular meal at home. On the cruise we had appetizers, dinner, dessert - every night.

[wegs3000]

Because I have 10 months to plan, overanalyze, replan, and then plan some more I already changed our dining time request to the early rotation. Several posters commented on not eating until 9pm on the late seating and then immediately went to the dessert buffets and other stuff so full they couldn't enjoy them. I don't think any of us can make it until 9 to eat and rkwier, your point is well taken! I intend to enjoy my vacation - eat, drink, and be merry so I will starve all year to go for it. The thought of me in my swim suit post buffet should keep me in check:scared1:

Here's what I think I've decided to do to get to port: DD and I are on west coast so we need to fly in on Friday. We will meet my dad at MCO (he's on east coast) and rent a car, then drive to Port Canaveral, get beer and water at store and stay at the Raddison for the night. Saturday I will have my dad drop me, DD and all our bags at Port and have him return the rental car while I check us in. Then he can take the shuttle back and meet us. Anyone else thought about this? Any other ideas?

Can't wait and I sure look forward to getting good tips from the rest of you! And meeting up with you somewhere (the dessert buffet stuffing our faces???).

[rkwier]

Can't wait and I sure look forward to getting good tips from the rest of you! And meeting up with you somewhere (the dessert buffet stuffing our faces???).

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

We are going to try early dining this time also. Hopefully this strategy will help some or I will need to buy new pants when I come home!

[Clari]

we were going to do the early dinner but then we would miss the Sunset in Key West. And most say that is something to see. As for the buffets, just take it back to the room for a REALLY good breakfast the next morning.

[dytx]

we will be at wdw (SSR) 12-21 may. that way if any one leaves messages; we will respond upon our return


dee and don

[rkwier]

dee and don - enjoy SSR - we love it there! It is so peaceful and relaxing. We will be going there again in September.

[Clari]

we will be at wdw (SSR) 12-21 may. that way if any one leaves messages; we will respond upon our return


dee and don


I want to go:yay::yay::yay:

[dytx]

come on along; we would love to have you with us

dee and don

[dytx]

Hi everyone; we are back from wdw. It was very wet while we were there but we grabbed our ponchos and kept on truckin.

dee and don

[rkwier]

Hi everyone; we are back from wdw. It was very wet while we were there but we grabbed our ponchos and kept on truckin.

dee and don

Welcome Back! DH and I were watching the weather last week. I thought of your trip when the reports said rain all week long. I am glad that the weather did not dampen your spirits too much. It was gorgeous here in North Texas. :upsidedow

[wegs3000]

Dee and Don-
Glad you had the right attitude and didn't let it rain on your parade, so to speak. I thought about what to do if it rains on our cruise and then I decided I didn't care because I will be on the cruise!

My gang went to WDW last year during spring break and found out our week (third week of March) is the second busiest of the entire year at the park. We were really glad the Wilderness Lodge was so nice (the park had it's moments...). And that's another reason we want this cruise - I don't have to share it with 200,000 other people. I cannot wait.

It is going to be hard to be patient (I should be saying this to my daughter, not her to me!).
Angela

[dytx]

we have been to wdw many times over the years so rain may slow us down but not stop us. we bought heavier type ponchos (with linings) that are black with the DVC member logo on them and then we went to xmas shop in downtown disney and had our names embroidered on them. for this cruise (20-27 Mar 2010) we will arrive at wdw two days prior to cruise and stay at one of the dvc resorts(right now scheduled for SSR) and then go on the cruise from there. if any you are staying a nite or so prior to the cruise; maybe we can getogether one evening and meet and greet.

dee and don

[rkwier]

dee & don

We will probably go down the night before and stay in a DVC resort also. We just have not decided which one yet.

Where did you find your DVC ponchos? Were they at the SSR gift shop? I looked for some the last time we were there (I want to keep them in my OL) and did not see any. Are they something that you have to specifically ask for?

[dytx]

dee & don

We will probably go down the night before and stay in a DVC resort also. We just have not decided which one yet.

Where did you find your DVC ponchos? Were they at the SSR gift shop? I looked for some the last time we were there (I want to keep them in my OL) and did not see any. Are they something that you have to specifically ask for?

we found the ponchos at SSR and at Boardwalk resort gift shops. If you would like a picture of the poncho; send me your email address at mine(dytx42@sbcglobal.net) and I will send you a picture.

don

[rkwier]

Hi Dee & Don

I sent you an e-mail today.
Thanks so much!

[wegs3000]

Waiting until next March to cruise seems like cruel and unusual punishment but I've been keeping busy reading the board and getting things on sale wherever I can. I live in the rainy Northwest so I know that next March when I want a rolling collapsible soft sided cooler there won't be one to be had yet so I picked that up on a super sale and stuffed it in the closet. I also got some craft supplies at Michaels on sale so I can make door magnets. There are some awesome ideas from posters here. I have a pretty mature DD who will be 9 at cruise time and I'm going to try letting her go by herself on board in little bits and see how it goes. But to help her out I'm going to decorate the door so she can find it easily (easier??? on a floor with hundreds of doors that all look alike). Plus I think it's cute but I understand everyone has a different sense of cute. Which brings me to Pirate Night - I've been scoring the super cheap Dollar Store pirate items too. Me and DD want to dress up. Don't know about my dad yet, might depend on how many Bud Lights he's had that day (I kid, I kid) but I'll bring some stuff just in case.

Anyone else have any good tips to share? How are you biding your time? My husband is a certified Disney grouch so he isn't joining us on the cruise [which we are totally fine with us as there is nothing worse than dragging along someone who doesn't want to be there] so me and DD have "secret meetings" in the car on the way to school every day. That alone has made the time go by faster.

Dreaming of Bahama Mamas and white sandy beaches...

[mommyofthreeboys]

I've been keeping busy by trying to figure out the clues to the scavenger hunt I'm making the kids go on Christmas morning!!! That's when they will figure out where they will be going on Spring Break. I hope they like it!!!

So until then....I have to keep everything a secret so I can't make t-shirts, magnets or be caught looking at cruise trip reports!!!

[wegs3000]

Christina-
What part of Indiana are you from? My dad grew up in Wabash and I spent every summer there at my grandparents' house when I was a kid. I come from a long line of Purdue graduates and unfortunately I'm the only one so far who didn't have the grades, or desire, to go there [heartbreaking for my dad but he's gotten over it]. My daughter has good science and math skills and my dad jokingly said he would start working on her Purdue application (she is 8) and my daughter asked if they have cobras in Indiana - she was confused with India and Indiana. We love that story.

Anyway, maybe my 8 year old and yours can be playmates in the Ocean Lab or cream each other on the pool slide!
Cheers,
Angela

[Bellamickey]

Hi Everyone!!!

My name's Belinda and my husband Shawn and I just got back from our 4th Disney Cruise!!! We cruised the western on May 16 and had a vow renewal on board.
We booked again for the March 20th cruise!!!! We are so excited to go back, we loved that itinarary so much!!

We ar really excited to be joining another dismeet group. I have to say that was the hightlight of our trip. Meeting everyone and doing the fish extender gifts!!! So fun!!


I look foward to getting to know all of you and meeting you all on board!!! I love the dismeets, everyone is always so magical and fun!!!!

Also, I'd be more than happy to keep a list for the FE exchange if you guys would like for me to, then as it gets closer and we cut off a deadline, I can make a spreadsheet with everyones room number for the FE exchange. (and it will be easier to find the rooms)!!

Just let me know and I will be more than happy to! Some of the things our last group did was also name our group, then we made custom magnets to hang on our doors.

Can't wait to talk to you girls!!!;)

[dytx]

hi bellamickey (belinda and shawn) we welcome you and look forward to meeting you on board (or at wdw if you will be there a nite or two before the cruise). this will be our 2nd cruise. our first one we were able to partake in the fish extender/gift exchange and it was wonderful.

dee and don

[mommyofthreeboys]

Christina-
What part of Indiana are you from? My dad grew up in Wabash and I spent every summer there at my grandparents' house when I was a kid. I come from a long line of Purdue graduates

Anyway, maybe my 8 year old and yours can be playmates in the Ocean Lab or cream each other on the pool slide!
Cheers,
Angela

Hi Angela! I live in Southeastern Indiana...about 40 minutes from Cincinnati so I live near the Ohio border. My brother is a huge Purdue fan! Imagine his disappointment when his oldest daughter choose to go to Indiana University last year. So now the house is divided...half PU....half IU. :goodvibes

I hope our kids get along well. Maybe after the surprise is revealed, maybe the can write to each other???

Hi Everyone!!!

My name's Belinda and my husband Shawn and I just got back from our 4th Disney Cruise!!! We cruised the western on May 16 and had a vow renewal on board.
We booked again for the March 20th cruise!!!! We are so excited to go back, we loved that itinarary so much!!

Also, I'd be more than happy to keep a list for the FE exchange if you guys would like for me to, then as it gets closer and we cut off a deadline, I can make a spreadsheet with everyones room number for the FE exchange. (and it will be easier to find the rooms)!!




Hello Belinda!!! So glad you joined us!! Especially glad that you enjoyed the cruise!!!

This will be our first cruise so I am new at things. If you want to organize the FE exchange, that would be GREAT!!! I know I want to participate.

Anyways, welcome!!!!

[mommyofthreeboys]

I started a list of the DIS'ers who are going on the March 20th cruise....

mommyofthreeboys: Christina (34), Jared (37), Bradley (15), Brett (10) and Nolan (8) *1st cruise*

dytx: Dee (65) Don (66) and Allen (42) *2nd cruise*

rkwier: (41) and DH (43) *2nd cruise*

wegs3000: Angela (44), DD (9) and dad (69) *1st cruise*

Clari: (33) and mom (56) *3rd cruise*

Bellamickey: Belinda and Shawn *5th cruise*

[wegs3000]

Count me in for fish extender! I think it sounds fun. Thank you, Belinda, for offering to be the info. keeper.

For anyone with kids, one of the posters had an ebay link to a gal who embroiders pillowcases with Disney characters and puts the kid name on it in the Disney font. It was only $13.99 delivered. You take the pillowcase with some sharpies with your name and cabin number in a zip lock to guest services and the characters will autograph the pillowcase for a great souvenir.

Christina - I can only imagine how hard it is to keep this big secret from your kids but what a great suprise for them. I think it would be great to have my daughter email your son and they can have a no pressure pal to look forward to meeting.

So glad we are all connecting!

[Bellamickey]

I started a list of the DIS'ers who are going on the March 20th cruise....

mommyofthreeboys: Christina (34), Jared (37), Bradley (15), Brett (10) and Nolan (8) *1st cruise*

dytx: Dee (65) Don (66) and Allen (42) *2nd cruise*

rkwier: (41) and DH (43) *2nd cruise*

wegs3000: Angela (44), DD (9) and dad (69) *1st cruise*

Clari: (33) and mom (56) *3rd cruise*

Bellamickey: Belinda and Shawn *5th cruise*

Awesome Christina!!! Thanx;) I've copied it to a spreadsheet and will try to get on here daily to see if we have any new members to the group. Hopefully our group will grow much larger in the next 9 months!!! The FE was so much fun on our last cruise. I still listen to the cd's I got and dream of that beautiful ship!!

I love the scanvengar hunt idea that you are doing!! Keeping it a secret must be driving you crazy!!!! It will be so much fun to see their faces light up!!:thumbsup2
You are going to love this cruise. If you have any questions or want to see photos or need help with magnets, please just let me know. I will be more than happy to help any of my disfriends out!!:grouphug:

[Bellamickey]

Count me in for fish extender! I think it sounds fun. Thank you, Belinda, for offering to be the info. keeper.


So glad we are all connecting!

Hi Angela;) Not a problem at all!! I love the FE exchange and the dismeets on the ship!! It's wonderful to connect with people online and meet them in person, and what better place!! We had a really big group this last time and had a group photo taken on the stairs the last day at sea.

I think this group is going to be so much better though!!!:grouphug:

If I can help you with anything, magnets,ect, just let me know. I'll be happy to help:goodvibes

[rkwier]

Hi Everyone!!!

My name's Belinda and my husband Shawn and I just got back from our 4th Disney Cruise!!! We cruised the western on May 16 and had a vow renewal on board.
We booked again for the March 20th cruise!!!! We are so excited to go back, we loved that itinarary so much!!

We ar really excited to be joining another dismeet group. I have to say that was the hightlight of our trip. Meeting everyone and doing the fish extender gifts!!! So fun!!


I look foward to getting to know all of you and meeting you all on board!!! I love the dismeets, everyone is always so magical and fun!!!!

Also, I'd be more than happy to keep a list for the FE exchange if you guys would like for me to, then as it gets closer and we cut off a deadline, I can make a spreadsheet with everyones room number for the FE exchange. (and it will be easier to find the rooms)!!

Just let me know and I will be more than happy to! Some of the things our last group did was also name our group, then we made custom magnets to hang on our doors.

Can't wait to talk to you girls!!!;)

Hi Belinda! Welcome and congratulations on celebrating your anniversary! I can't imagine a better place for a vow renewal. How many years did you celebrate?

Thanks for being willing to be the organizer for the fish extenders. I think it would be really fun to participate. (DH will think it is silly, but too bad so sad for him! I think that he will get into the spirit once on board. :upsidedow) Now it is time to plan...

Have a great week everybody!

[Bellamickey]

Hi Belinda! Welcome and congratulations on celebrating your anniversary! I can't imagine a better place for a vow renewal. How many years did you celebrate?

Thanks for being willing to be the organizer for the fish extenders. I think it would be really fun to participate. (DH will think it is silly, but too bad so sad for him! I think that he will get into the spirit once on board. :upsidedow) Now it is time to plan...

Have a great week everybody!

Aww...thank you!;) It was beautiful and thank goodness, the weather was perfect outside. I will try and upload a pic this week to share with you. We celebrated 10 years together.:lovestruc

Belive me, once Shawn got on board and started seeing the FE filled everytime we got back to the room, it started to be a race to the door with my husband yellling (literly) we got stuff honey, we got stuff!!!:lmao::lmao::rotfl: Like a kid in a candy store!!! I still laugh about it:goodvibes
Your hubby just might suprise you, believe me, mine did!!!:lmao:

It was so much fun and it was so exciting too!!!


Oh, here is another idea for our dismeet group!! We did this last time and loved it, although it makes it much harder to say goodbye, but worth it!!!


Ok, If everyone will let me know if they are on first or second seating, I will add that info to the spreadsheet also.

Here are the ones I've found so far: (please let me know if I need to change any or add any)

MOMMYOFTHREEBOYS - Christina I didn't see yours listed :( just let me know and I will add it :)

DYTX - EARLY DINING

RKWIER - EARLY DINING

WEGS3000- EARLY DINING

BELLAMICKEY - SECOND DINING

CLARI - I didn't see yours listed :( just let me know and I will add it :)



Reason....Once it gets closer, alot of of us linked our dining reservations so that we could sit together for dinners. It was really nice to be able to spend that time at dinner with people that you already feel like you know:grouphug:
Although it was so hard to say goodbye....I cried like a baby!!

I will also add shore excursions booked and the stateroom numbers once it gets closer. Alot of us ended up on the same shore excursions, which was so nice!!! and for the kids it was great too!!!:goodvibes

[wegs3000]

We ultimately decided the main seating would work better for us as we didn't think we could wait until 9 to eat dinner. Add that to finishing dinner and then walking upstairs for a turkey leg on pirate night or the dessert buffet and we decided we better have dinner earlier so we switched to the main seating.

I look forward to putting fish extenders together with my DD as that will make the time go by faster. Thanks again!

[Bellamickey]

We ultimately decided the main seating would work better for us as we didn't think we could wait until 9 to eat dinner. Add that to finishing dinner and then walking upstairs for a turkey leg on pirate night or the dessert buffet and we decided we better have dinner earlier so we switched to the main seating.

I look forward to putting fish extenders together with my DD as that will make the time go by faster. Thanks again!

Not a problem Angela, I totally understand:) I got ya changed. And those turkey legs!!! I don't think I've ever seen them so big, the hubby was in total heaven!!!:goodvibes

Be sure to take pics when you start doing your FE, I would love to see them!

[mommyofthreeboys]

MOMMYOFTHREEBOYS - Christina I didn't see yours listed :( just let me know and I will add it :)



We will be at the SECOND dining seating! :goodvibes

Thanks so much!!!

[dytx]

Hi everyone; plz add us to the fish extender. we have done it once and it was wonderful. Just let us know what we are to do and keep us posted.

we will be in room 2566 (same as last cruise--right around the corner from the elevators. we booked on our last cruise and dcl gave us 200 dollars on board credit. we then contacted our disney travel agent in dallas and she gave us and additonal 200 dollars on board credit. if anyone wants to contact he; let me know and I will give you her toll free number. she bends over backward to help. we combined over 20 of us cruisers and carol helped all of us and we even got a cocktail party paid for by her.

dee and don

[Bellamickey]

Hi everyone; plz add us to the fish extender. we have done it once and it was wonderful. Just let us know what we are to do and keep us posted.

we will be in room 2566 (same as last cruise--right around the corner from the elevators. we booked on our last cruise and dcl gave us 200 dollars on board credit. we then contacted our disney travel agent in dallas and she gave us and additonal 200 dollars on board credit. if anyone wants to contact he; let me know and I will give you her toll free number. she bends over backward to help. we combined over 20 of us cruisers and carol helped all of us and we even got a cocktail party paid for by her.

dee and don

No problem Dee;) I've added you to the FE list! I am continuing to update it with each new member to our group!!

On our cut off for new FE joiners (Feb 1st) I will email the spreadsheet/newsletter that I'm doing to everyone so that all of you have the room numbers of each FE member along with the DIS meet times and places and shore excursions everyone booked.:goodvibes

Hopefully we get alot more people to join our DIS meet before than!!:grouphug:

I noticed that you live in Texas!! Your not to far away from me and the hubby, we live 3 hours from DFW in Oklahoma:)


Is anyone celebrating any special occasions while on the cruise, such as BIRTHDAY,ANNIVERSARIES, ECT? Please let me know and I will add them to the spreadsheet/newsletter!:goodvibes

Hope all my DIS friends have had a great week. I'm on here everyday (so addicted to the DIS) so I hope to talk to all of you alot more!!

Have a great weekend everyone!:wizard:

[Bellamickey]

:confused:WOW! I'm not used to a DIS Meet Thread being so dead.........Where is Everybody:confused:


Hope all is well with everyone:)

[mommyofthreeboys]

:confused:WOW! I'm not used to a DIS Meet Thread being so dead.........Where is Everybody:confused:

Hope all is well with everyone:)

Busy! Busy! Busy! Work has been crazy! :scared1:

I haven't had a chance to read the boards in awhile. Haven't thought anymore about excursions. Haven't looked to see what day is best to book Palo. So many things to still think about!!!!
I did look at a Oriental Trading book to get FE ideas though. :goodvibes

Hope all is well with everyone else!

[wegs3000]

I'm here! Just don't want to bore everyone to death with my overplanning. I have as much fun planning as I do going.

I got my Pluto pillowcase for DD and it is awesome. I also decided to order a fish extender from the same gal - I am not crafty and I went to Joanne's and Michaels and even "on the cheap" I would have spent $50 making my own because I would need to buy everything. Not worth it and it would look like I made it myself :eek:

I've also got my fish extender gift mostly figured out but I'm not tellin! This is the fun part after all.

I go back and forth on the early vs. late dining but I think I've decided early will work best for us. There are so many decisions. My next big hurdle is that if we don't do a dolphin excusion in Cozumel my DD is going to jump ship. I'm figuring that all out also. Anyone else have their excusions figured out?

[wegs3000]

Belinda: forgot to say that we are in 6628. Thanks again for all the enthusiasm and taking charge of this! Can't wait to meet all of you.

[Clari]

Sorry Work :confused3
My Mom (Sandra) and I will be in the late dinner. We don't want to have to run back on shore days.

[dytx]

WE ARE HERE TOO: what are some of the guidelines for the FE gift exchange? can you give us an idea of price range for gifts?

dee and don

[Bellamickey]

Hi my Dis Friends!!:grouphug:

Christina - I got your PM;) I will be pm'ing you back girly. Hope all is well. Try not to work to hard!! :flower3:

Clari and Angela - I got your info on your dining times and stateroom number. I have added them to the spreadsheet! Thanks girls!!:flower3: This is going to be a wonderful group!


Angela- GIRL!!!! DON'T ever think you'd be boring us!! Believe me, after 10 trips to WDW and DCL's, I am just as bad with planning!! I LIVE FOR IT!!!:lmao:
I am on here everyday, so please don't hesitate to post, even if its just to vent about daily life!:goodvibes
I love the DIS and am looking foward to a great cruise and lasting DIS friendships:grouphug:

Dee - On the FE's. Really their is no price range. It your preference and what you want to spend. Over the years, I've seen a lot of different gifts that people give. Things as simple as post cards, candy, magnets, treat bags, to mini bottles of liquar stuffed mickeys and cd's.
It's not the price of the gift that matters though, its just the fun of going back to your stateroom and finding a little something from your DIS friends.

Some people do one gift for the whole week, others do 2 gifts and deliver them two different times in the week.

The last cruise we did, I did two. One gift was a cd that I made and the other was a bag of candy with pirate coins and stuff.

Its going to be so much fun!! I will post of pic off all my FE gifts from this recent cruise. It was a large DIS group, lots and lots of stuff.

Can't wait to meet all of you. I'm so excited!!!:grouphug:

Here are my last FE gifts:
http://i457.photobucket.com/albums/qq298/harley458/DCLVowRenewalMay2009208.jpg

[dytx]

Belinda; thanks so much for your answer on the gifts and the picture. It clears the idea a little for us and we will run with it. thanks again. we are really looking forward to this cruise as I think we will have a more involved group than we had on our first cruise.

Dee

[Bellamickey]

Dee- Not a problem, if theirs anything I can do to help just let me know. :flower3:

I think we have a great group so far, I hope more people join as the months go by. 8 months is going to fly by!!!!:woohoo:


Anyone else have their excusions figured out?

I'm still in the debating stage:goodvibes I know that we are going to do the dolphin swim in Grand Cayman but I'm still not sure yet about Cozumel. Oh, boy we don't want your daughter to jump ship, that would be a shore excursion all its own:rotfl2:
We recently did the island tour in GC which was nice. I think in KW we are going to rent an electric car and go shopping and go to the beach.
This last time, we just ventured it on foot, which was awesome. We did see alot, and walked to the southernmost point. Beautiful!

[Clari]

Dumb question.... Do you need to put to and from labels on the gift??? :confused:

[mommyofthreeboys]

Christina - I got your PM;) I will be pm'ing you back girly. Hope all is well. Try not to work to hard!! :flower3:




We are going through a restructure at work. STRESSFUL!!!! :headache:

Only what...269 more days until I can be unstressed????

Anyways.....



DINING-- We (well I) chose the late dining for various reasons. My DH and I like to have a few drinks with dinner. Alcohol + food = sleepy people. At least for us anyway. I knew if I wanted to see any shows, it would have to be before dinner. Also another deciding factor—I feel it gives me a little more time to get ready for the show and dinner on our excursion days. I didn’t want to have to rush back to the ship. And besides, the boys are so busy with sports year round that we are used to eating late.

ROOMS—I forgot to add that we will be in 6134 and 6135. I’m a little nervous about the 2 rooms but by then, my oldest will be 16 and should be able to handle it. Before I booked, I did look into a category 4 but due to cost savings—and the 2 bathrooms--decided to go with the 2 separate staterooms. Especially since a “secret” stateroom was open!

EXCURSIONS—Key West—I am thinking about taking the trolley tour. The one you can get off and on. The only thing I HAVE to do here is get a picture taken at the Southern Most Point AND eat some KeyLime pie. So with that said-- I only want to spend 3-4 hours at Key West. Being the first day, I think I want to enjoy the boat and get familiar with my surroundings.

I also want to do a dolphin swim. Not sure when or where. I want to add some toy dolphins to a clue for the scavenger hunt (at Christmas) but I can’t think of a rhyming clue. Maybe “Have you ever swam with these? I’m sure it’ll be a breeze!” (even though I don’t think I’m using ‘swam’ right)

CC- I want to lay on the beach and relax! But I think I want to book the bike rental and go for a family ride!
I’m not sure about the other excursions. I don’t want to plan too much. DH says I tend to over plan our WDW trips so I think he was looking forward to this being a relaxing trip. (We’ll see!)

[Bellamickey]

We are going through a restructure at work. STRESSFUL!!!! :headache:

Only what...269 more days until I can be unstressed????

Anyways.....



DINING-- We (well I) chose the late dining for various reasons. My DH and I like to have a few drinks with dinner. Alcohol + food = sleepy people. At least for us anyway. I knew if I wanted to see any shows, it would have to be before dinner. Also another deciding factor—I feel it gives me a little more time to get ready for the show and dinner on our excursion days. I didn’t want to have to rush back to the ship. And besides, the boys are so busy with sports year round that we are used to eating late.

ROOMS—I forgot to add that we will be in 6134 and 6135. I’m a little nervous about the 2 rooms but by then, my oldest will be 16 and should be able to handle it. Before I booked, I did look into a category 4 but due to cost savings—and the 2 bathrooms--decided to go with the 2 separate staterooms. Especially since a “secret” stateroom was open!

EXCURSIONS—Key West—I am thinking about taking the trolley tour. The one you can get off and on. The only thing I HAVE to do here is get a picture taken at the Southern Most Point AND eat some KeyLime pie. So with that said-- I only want to spend 3-4 hours at Key West. Being the first day, I think I want to enjoy the boat and get familiar with my surroundings.

I also want to do a dolphin swim. Not sure when or where. I want to add some toy dolphins to a clue for the scavenger hunt (at Christmas) but I can’t think of a rhyming clue. Maybe “Have you ever swam with these? I’m sure it’ll be a breeze!” (even though I don’t think I’m using ‘swam’ right)

CC- I want to lay on the beach and relax! But I think I want to book the bike rental and go for a family ride!
I’m not sure about the other excursions. I don’t want to plan too much. DH says I tend to over plan our WDW trips so I think he was looking forward to this being a relaxing trip. (We’ll see!)


Hey Girly!:)

I'm sorry about work.....just think in 8 months, you'll be on the ship with no worries!:thumbsup2

I totally understand about dinner. We love , love , love the late seating! We like drinks with dinner as well. We usually go do Rockin' bar D every night after dinner. We had so much fun this last time. They have alot of really fun adult things going on.

You will love KW! The island is beautiful and has become one of my favorites. We walked all the way to southern most point from the ship. Really not that far. I will have to post a pic to share with ya;) On the way, you can stop in at the butterfly conservatory. Just the gift shop is worth a peek. It is beautiful with butterflies everywhere and they even give you a big one to pin to your shirt which is so pretty!!

There is also an icecream shop right off the pier when you step off the ship. You can't miss it. It has a huge ice cream cone and sundae outside! The best icecream ever. I had what they called the "garbage can"! It had 8 different kinds of brand name candy bars in it! Believe me, I was in heaven!!:cloud9:

We are going to do the dolphin swim in Grand Cayman! I hope you decide to do that excursion too! It will be a lot of fun!!

Hope you had a great day today!:flower3:

[Bellamickey]

Dumb question.... Do you need to put to and from labels on the gift??? :confused:


Hi Clari:)

Yes alot of us put labels on our gifts, that way you know who they are from. And in case their is something you just especially like, you can thank them personally.

But their we're some gifts that I got this last time that had no names on them:confused:

I personally put a label on them with my user name from the DIS. It just makes it a little more personel.

The only gifts I didn't put names on, was the kids:)

It's going to be alot of fun!!:banana:

[Clari]

Hi Clari:)

Yes alot of us put labels on our gifts, that way you know who they are from. And in case their is something you just especially like, you can thank them personally.

But their we're some gifts that I got this last time that had no names on them:confused:

I personally put a label on them with my user name from the DIS. It just makes it a little more personel.

The only gifts I didn't put names on, was the kids:)

It's going to be alot of fun!!:banana:

Thanks and I think you're right you can personalize the thank yous if you know who it's from. Thanks.
Now I'll add a page or two to the scrapbook I've started for the trip for this :flower3:. I can't wait.

[rkwier]

Hi Everyone!

I just wanted to say hello and let everyone know that we are still breathing. :upsidedow We have been up in Michigan visiting our families. It was so pretty there and we got a nice little break from the Texas heat. It was fun to see everyone, but now we are exhausted! We are looking forward to a little relaxation over the long holiday weekend coming up.

I have been making a nice little list of ideas that would make nice FE gifts. (Most of the ideas I ran across from other DISers. I am so glad that people are willing to share their ideas since I am creatively challenged. ;)) I am glad that we decided to have a FE exchange so early so that it gives us time to plan and gather items a little bit at a time. (I love planning vacations almost as much as taking them.) This is going to be fun! :thumbsup2 The only thing that eludes me is the fish extender itself. I think that I will need to join the camp of ordering one.

We haven't even begun to think about shore excursions. That will probably happen closer to the end of the year. We have been to Cozumel and Grand Cayman before, so we may just explore on our own. We will be going to CC next week on a 3-day, so we may just want to be slugs there, but I am guessing that a cabana massage will definitely make the list! :goodvibes Too early to tell right now.

[wegs3000]

I know we want to do the stingrays in Grand Cayman so that means dolphins in Cozumel. Captain Marvins and Native Way in GC get raves on the DIS boards and they are book it yourself so there is a big cost savings. I haven't figured out which one we will do yet. My DD is a fish but has never been snorkeling so that will be fun also. I will book the dolphin encounter in Cozumel if I can't get it through DCL. The 75 day wait makes me nervous that everything we want to do will be gone by then but I will figure it out.

I'm with Christina on Key West; we will probably go for a walk but will try to use that day for less crowding in the ship pools and exploring the boat. And if I can catch a first run movie in the theater I am definitely on it.

I'm still struggling with the early vs. late dining but the only day we are after 5 on all aboard is in Key West and I will be ready for a good meal after the excursions! My dad and are beer hounds also (curse of the Irish!) and I've got my soft sided cooler to bring on board so we can just enjoy a cold beer on the verandah. Could we leave now???

[Bellamickey]

I know we want to do the stingrays in Grand Cayman so that means dolphins in Cozumel. Captain Marvins and Native Way in GC get raves on the DIS boards and they are book it yourself so there is a big cost savings. I haven't figured out which one we will do yet. My DD is a fish but has never been snorkeling so that will be fun also. I will book the dolphin encounter in Cozumel if I can't get it through DCL. The 75 day wait makes me nervous that everything we want to do will be gone by then but I will figure it out.

I'm with Christina on Key West; we will probably go for a walk but will try to use that day for less crowding in the ship pools and exploring the boat. And if I can catch a first run movie in the theater I am definitely on it.

I'm still struggling with the early vs. late dining but the only day we are after 5 on all aboard is in Key West and I will be ready for a good meal after the excursions! My dad and are beer hounds also (curse of the Irish!) and I've got my soft sided cooler to bring on board so we can just enjoy a cold beer on the verandah. Could we leave now???


Ahhhhh.......a cold beer on the Magic!!!:cloud9: I'm with you, lets GO NOW!!!!:thumbsup2

The new refillable beer mugs are great!!!

Try not to stress to much about the 75 day mark . We used to book at that time frame, but now we book at 105 days. But, we NEVER had a problem. I worried on our first cruise that everything would be booked too, but they really do reserve alot of space, yes the chance is their of something being full, but I'm sure you'll be just fine;) and the good thing is, like you mentioned, they do have independent excursions that you could always book too:)

Don't forget to try that ice-cream shop I mentioned in a previous post, You'll love it!:cloud9: It's so yummy!!!

I hope everyone is having a great week! It's almost Friday, WOO-HOO!:cool1:

I booked my pre and post WDW stays for the cruise!! Before the cruise we will be at AKL and after the cruise we will be at CBR!! Now, I'm really wanting to GO NOW!!!:goodvibes

Anyone else doing a pre or post night WDW stay?

[mommyofthreeboys]

Anyone else doing a pre or post night WDW stay?

No. :sad2: booo!

Since we are going during the kids Spring Break, if we do a pre or post stay, we would have to take the kids out of school.

We do plan on going to DTD Friday night but that's about it.



Have a great day!

[wegs3000]

We are in the same boat as Christina - can't take extra time off from school so no WDW this trip. Although, our spring break starts on Friday, March 19 for some reason. Me and DD are flying from Oregon that day, meeting my dad who is coming down from New York at MCO at 4pm and we are renting a car and driving to PC so that we be at the terminal at 10am on Saturday. I booked a room at the Radisson in PC. We are all flying home on the afternoon of the 27th so we can take our time getting back to MCO with another rental car.

Belinda, thanks for the reassurance on the excursion booking. I am only mildly worried about having to book my own as my Spanish stinks but if that's how it works out we will be just fine.

I have just about worn the ink off my PassPorter. I love that book!

[Bellamickey]

Hey girlys!

I hope everyone is having a great week! Thank goodness, it's almost Friday. This is my weekend off, so I'm looking foward to tomorrow!!:goodvibes


Ok, so, I'd like to make a magnet for our group so we can put it on our door with the rest of our magnets!! WOO-HOO:dance3:

BUUUUUUTTTTTTT, we need to think of a name for our group and a color?

(The reason for the color is so that we can make mickey heads, in that color and put them on our doors and put one on our bags, lanyards, ect so we can easily recongnize that we're in the same group!;) and DIS buddies!

Any ideas? Let me know what you guys think of. Once we decide on a name and color, I will put a magnet design together and email it to all of you to print out;)


Ok girls, give me your name and color thoughts?:cheer2:

Heres mine : Mickey's Magic Matey's Cruise the Western!
Color - Hot Pink

Hope you guys have a great nite! Can't wait to meet everyone!!:grouphug:

P.S. You can go to home depot and get the mickey head paint chips and cut them out and laminate them. It works perfect for the lanyards, bags, door and stuff!

[Clari]

Ok girls, give me your name and color thoughts?:cheer2:

Heres mine : Mickey's Magic Matey's Cruise the Western!
Color - Hot Pink




I like the name and my two colors are Hot Pink and Teal:thumbsup2.

[Bellamickey]

I like the name and my two colors are Hot Pink and Teal:thumbsup2.

Here is another color that I acutally like better than my hot pink. How about bright orange? Thats a good "mexico" color. Teal is a good choice too.


Suggested Group Name choices "so far" :

MICKEY'S MAGIC MATEY'S CRUISE THE WESTERN


Suggested group colors "so far" :

hot pink

Teal (blue)

bright orange

Let's keep the ideas coming so we can name our group!!!


Let the planning begin!!!!! Only 8 more months!!!!:cool1:

[mommyofthreeboys]

Love the name!

I vote for bright orange! Pink won't go with my 3 boys :)

[Bellamickey]

Love the name!

I vote for bright orange! Pink won't go with my 3 boys :)

Thats funny!! Shawn said the same thing, "oh Belinda, you and your PINK"!!!:lmao::rotfl::lmao:

I LOVE the orange too!! I think thats a good Mexico color!!

I'm gonna try and work on some of my magnet designs this weekend since I'm off!:thumbsup2

The last time we cruised, 8 months out went by so fast!

[wegs3000]

Love orange! Perfect choice. My daughter hates pink (did not get that from me!). I love the name also.

Is anyone else going to dress up for Pirate Night? I really want to but I do not want to be the only dorks doing it. And I don't mean that I'm going to trot out looking like I lost my ticket to the Renaissance Fair - I'm thinking pretty simple and easily packable.

Happy Friday, everyone!

[Bellamickey]

Happy Saturday Everyone;)

Well, It seems like "bright orange" is the color of choice!:thumbsup2 and everyone seems to love the name, "Mickey's Magic Matey's Cruise the Western!!!:cheer2:

We're official now!!!:cool1:

Mickey's Magic Matey's Cruise the Western!!!!

Don't forget, you can get bright orange mickey head paint chips at Home Depot to help with your planning!!!:goodvibes

Shawn and I will have one on our lanyards and all over our door around our other magnets, oh and also on my beach bag on excursion and sea days!
That way my DIS friends can spot me!:flower3: You girls do the same so we can spot eachtother:grouphug:

Christine- Feel free to edit the name of our post with March 20, 2010 Mickey's Magic Matey's Cruise the Western!
I'm so excited about your scavenger hunt. Just PM me and let me know if you would like to use the "little" surprise. I am more than happy to share them with you!:flower3: You should feel special, I wouldn't share with anyone else!:lmao::lmao: I love my DIS FRIENDS!!!:grouphug:



Is anyone else going to dress up for Pirate Night? I really want to but I do not want to be the only dorks doing it. And I don't mean that I'm going to trot out looking like I lost my ticket to the Renaissance Fair - I'm thinking pretty simple and easily packable.

Happy Friday, everyone!

Angela - Hey girly! We dressed up for pirate night this last month. Nothing to extravagent, just a shirt, do-rag, and some pirate jewerly. Just enought to fit in with the theme and it still looked great in photos! Believe me hunny, you won't look like a dork. Some people went WAAAAAAYYY out and some did just as we did. It was still alot of fun and the good thing was, I was comfortable. I even wore black flip flops. Here's our pic from pirate night, thought I'd share with you to give you an idea of what we wore:


http://i457.photobucket.com/albums/qq298/harley458/PirateNight.jpg

Either way, your going to look great and no matter what you dress up in, your going to have a blast!!!!

I have some pics of the deck party pirate buffet also, if any of you want me to post them so you can get a peek!;)

Have a great day everyone:flower3:

[wegs3000]

Great pic! I was thinking along those lines also and Belinda, your husband is obviously a good sport. I'm already thinking about overpacking...

[Clari]

Was there a specific (NAME) orange paint chip anyone got at Home Depot?? :confused::confused:

[dytx]

Was there a specific (NAME) orange paint chip anyone got at Home Depot?? :confused::confused:

Clari; at our home depot; you go to the paint department and there is a large display with all of the Mickey heads in all the colors.

on the orange chip; it reads DC1B-50-5 (orange blast). it also has 1B-50 on the paint chip card. I have found that the mickey head will come off the cardboard with careful peeling. (that works better for me than trying to trim it with sissors. I have scanned several of the peeled mickeys on to my pc and placed them in "my pictures" where I can get to them.

Dee

[Clari]

Clari; at our home depot; you go to the paint department and there is a large display with all of the Mickey heads in all the colors.

on the orange chip; it reads DC1B-50-5 (orange blast). it also has 1B-50 on the paint chip card. I have found that the mickey head will come off the cardboard with careful peeling. (that works better for me than trying to trim it with sissors. I have scanned several of the peeled mickeys on to my pc and placed them in "my pictures" where I can get to them.

Dee


Thank you :hippie:

[rkwier]

Hi Everyone!

Long time, no post. We just got back Sunday from a 3-day on the Wonder. All I can say is - WOW! This was our first DCL cruise and truly it was a wonderful experience. I admit that I had VERY high expectations and I am more than pleased to tell you that they were both met AND exceeded! Embarkation was sooo smooth and effortless. It took ~30 minutes to go through security, check in and get our key to the world cards, get our pictures taken and board the ship - and about 15 of those were spent taking pictures of the terminal! We knew from then on that this was going to be a great cruise, and we were not disappointed! I am also pleased to tell you that I was not in the least bit seasick - yippee! :cool1: It was truly one of the best vacations that we have ever taken. The only thing that was slightly disappointing to me was that we did not see even one fish extender. Not only that, but we were the only ones who put magnets on our door. DVC put magnets on all of the member doors, but that was it. DH said that someone asked if DCL had given us the magnets. I said "did you tell them, no, my crazy wife made them?" He just laughed. :) I also came home with a nasty cold. :sick: I swear that I cannot come within a 10-mile radius of Orlando without getting sick. Oh well, vacations that good are soooo worth it.

While we were on board, we went ahead and re-booked our March cruise to receive the 10% discount and OBC. We switched rooms because we wanted to try the starboard side of the ship, so now we are in cabin #6596. We also switched to late dining so that we are not rushed to get ready for dinner after a busy day in port. Sorry to throw a wrench into the planning!

[mommyofthreeboys]

Hi Everyone!

Long time, no post. We just got back Sunday from a 3-day on the Wonder. All I can say is - WOW! This was our first DCL cruise and truly it was a wonderful experience. I admit that I had VERY high expectations and I am more than pleased to tell you that they were both met AND exceeded! Embarkation was sooo smooth and effortless. It took ~30 minutes to go through security, check in and get our key to the world cards, get our pictures taken and board the ship - and about 15 of those were spent taking pictures of the terminal! We knew from then on that this was going to be a great cruise, and we were not disappointed! I am also pleased to tell you that I was not in the least bit seasick - yippee! :cool1: It was truly one of the best vacations that we have ever taken. The only thing that was slightly disappointing to me was that we did not see even one fish extender. Not only that, but we were the only ones who put magnets on our door. DVC put magnets on all of the member doors, but that was it. DH said that someone asked if DCL had given us the magnets. I said "did you tell them, no, my crazy wife made them?" He just laughed. :) I also came home with a nasty cold. :sick: I swear that I cannot come within a 10-mile radius of Orlando without getting sick. Oh well, vacations that good are soooo worth it.

While we were on board, we went ahead and re-booked our March cruise to receive the 10% discount and OBC. We switched rooms because we wanted to try the starboard side of the ship, so now we are in cabin #6596. We also switched to late dining so that we are not rushed to get ready for dinner after a busy day in port. Sorry to throw a wrench into the planning!

Welcome home!!! So glad to hear you had a great time!!!

[rkwier]

Welcome home!!! So glad to hear you had a great time!!!

Thanks so much! We really had an amazing time. When we were leaving port, RCL Freedom of the Seas was docked next to the Wonder. I told DH that I might like to try that ship sometime. He just looks at me and says "really???" I think he is dead hooked on DCL. :)

[wegs3000]

I am so glad you had a great time and I am so envious. Of course a three day must have seemed like a tease so at least you have the 7 day to look forward to. How did you get to the Port? I think I have it figured out but having never done it before the theory may not execute as well as I'm hoping. We are getting into MCO at 4pm on the Friday before, renting a car and driving to the Country Inn and Suites in Port Canaveral. Then me and DD are being dropped at the dock with the baggage while my dad returns the rental car and takes the shuttle back to the dock. This allows us to be at the dock early with no worries.

I will have our door so decorated it will be obnoxious. I also am ordering a cool fish extender as I can't sew beyond a button. If the rest of the boat doesn't participate it will be easier to find us;)

Also, I went to Home Depot and sampled the Disney mouse ears samples to my heart's content. Great resource.

I can't wait for March!

[rkwier]

It was over quickly, but we so enjoyed it. We have had many wonderful trips, but this one really ranked up there despite it being so short.

I prefer to fly in the night before just to lessen my stress, but since we needed to fly out the day of departure, we went ahead and used DCL to schedule air and transfers. I had priced flights before hand and it worked out to be about the same, plus I liked that we would have some assurance if there were delays. It was sooooo painless. I think that it was well worth it.

Where did you decide to order your fish extender from? I was looking at the "no sew" instructions and they boggled my mind.

[wegs3000]

I looked at the no sew directions also and that sealed the deal this was way beyond my capabilities. I bought a pillowcase on ebay from someone who goes by the name "gradysmommy" and she also does fish extenders that are awesome. Rules on this board prevent posting the link but she is taking this month off and will put stuff back up on ebay when she is back. I searched fish extender on ebay and found it right away. I haven't ordered it yet so I will post here when she is back up.

The DCL air and transfers were much more expensive than booking ourselves so that went out the window. I've got to blow that money on excursions!

[rkwier]

Thanks for the info. I will take a look at ebay for possibilities. I try not to go on there unless I am specifically looking for something because I can do wayyy too much damage.

We will probably be booking our own air in March, especially since we are hoping to fly in the night before. I am thinking that the only reason that prices for flights were similar for the last cruise was because we were flying during a holiday weekend. It is killer to fly during those times.

Have a great weekend everybody!

[mommyofthreeboys]

Happy Friday everyone!!!

I made another payment on the cruise today. It's always so hard to let go of that money but I know this trip will be worth it (right?) !!!!!

[rkwier]

Happy Friday everyone!!!

I made another payment on the cruise today. It's always so hard to let go of that money but I know this trip will be worth it (right?) !!!!!

Good for you!!! Funny how that is the one payment that always makes me smile when I make it. :goodvibes

[wegs3000]

Hey, Belinda, where are you? I'm missing your stirring us towards our cruise date to make it seem sooner rather than later. I want it sooner!

[rkwier]

It has been pretty quiet around here lately. If you are all like us, you are busy busy busy!

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer - Happy Friday! :goodvibes

[mommyofthreeboys]

I won't be around this week. 4-H week!!!! Yahoo!

Hope everyone has a great week!!!

[Clari]

Exactly 8 months and counting:banana::cheer2:

[wegs3000]

At least the summer activities keep us busy as I can resume my cruise overplanning in the fall. I've already had to change a reservation - I had us booked on Friday night at the Radisson but lately the DIS reviews have been terrible including bugs in the room! So that caused a rebooking to the Country Inn and Suites which is actually a little bit closer to the Port. It makes me wonder how many things I will redo as time goes on... I need to stop myself before someone gets hurt:lmao:

Hope everyone is having a good July and thinking warm, fun March thoughts.

[rkwier]

Exactly 8 months and counting:banana::cheer2:

Whoo hoo! :cheer2:

Well folks, DH decided that we need another get away in November. He has very limited vacation time, so we try to take advantage of long weekends whenever we can. We have extra DVC points that we would have to book into next year annnnd we have enough miles for airline tickets to MCO. Sooo, now we are booked on the November 12 3-day on the Wonder, making the March cruise our #3 with DCL! (I think someone said before that this was addicting - I had nooooo idea!!! ;)) The best part is that we get a great vacation for less than $200 out of pocket - yippee! :yay:

[wegs3000]

Oh, lucky you! That is so great that you are getting an extra cruise in and at a great price to boot. Congratulations!!!! Please save up all those tips and share. Also, if you do a fish extender on another cruise please share how it went and if there is anything you would do differently.

It is going to be 100 here this weekend which is not normal for us. I need some Pixie Dust...

[rkwier]

Oh, lucky you! That is so great that you are getting an extra cruise in and at a great price to boot. Congratulations!!!! Please save up all those tips and share. Also, if you do a fish extender on another cruise please share how it went and if there is anything you would do differently.

It is going to be 100 here this weekend which is not normal for us. I need some Pixie Dust...

Thanks! We are so looking forward to it! I doubt that we will do a fish extender for just the 3-day. I would rather wait to make it more of an event when we go with ya'll. :goodvibes

Oh my, I will send you some pixie dust about the heat! :wizard: Be super careful not to be outside too long. I get sooo sick if I am out more than 30 mins or so in that kind of heat - which unfortunately is not uncommon here. I have been thinking that we will have to move some place cooler when we retire because I have been having so much trouble with the heat over the last couple of years.

[pixie08]

Hi everyone:goodvibes

My name is Mary (will be 32 at cruise time) and Dh's name is Dan (will be 31 at cruise time). I would love to join in on the party party:

This will be our 2nd DCL western but I have never doen the FE. I would love to join in! (Now I just have to figure out how to make one!:rotfl2:). We have the second seating for dinner. I need to verify my room number but I know we are on deck 6.

Edit: We are in 6092

[mommyofthreeboys]

Hi everyone:goodvibes

My name is Mary (will be 32 at cruise time) and Dh's name is Dan (will be 31 at cruise time). I would love to join in on the party party:

This will be our 2nd DCL western but I have never doen the FE. I would love to join in! (Now I just have to figure out how to make one!:rotfl2:). We have the second seating for dinner. I need to verify my room number but I know we are on deck 6.

Edit: We are in 6092


Welcome Mary!!!! Glad you joined in on the fun! We are on deck 6 also. I can't wait!

:cool1:

[pixie08]

Thanks Christina!

I look foward to knowing people on the boat!

[pixie08]

So I was wondering what you all thought of GC and Cozumel being switched?

I am trying to figure out rotations (so I can figure out what days I want to book Palo and brunch) and this theowing a loop in my plannning. What night do you all think pirate night is going to be?

Our last cruse was on DCL (western as well) but it was in Jan 08' and they have changed a few things.


OH PS I should warn you all I am a compulsive planner (as you can see by my 3 thousnad plus posts):eek::rotfl:

[wegs3000]

Mary-
I will join you in the compulsive planning club. But that is what makes me enjoy my vacations and I try to leave the non-compulsives alone. I posted last week on the DIS board regarding the port of call change up and the answer back was that it won't affect any of the dining or theme nights which would keep Pirate Night on Wednesday I believe. The real change is in making sure that you and DCL stay clear on booking excursions and if you book your own you are clear with the operator on the schedule change.

My biggest struggle right now is I flip flop on the dining rotation time. I just don't think any of us can wait until after 8 to eat dinner but I hate to be rushed to hit 5:45. I can argue both sides (and frequently do with the little voices in my head:rotfl:)

Did you do a dolphin excursion in 2008? I'm thinking Dolphinarius in Cozumel.

Glad you are with us! I'm fish extender crazy. My husband just thinks I'm crazy.
Angela

[pixie08]

Hi Angela!

Great! I am happy there is another a type planner on her lol! We had the secon dinner seating last time and it worked out great. We did not want to be rushed on excursions and plus we didn't want to be pooped out for the shows.We also usually eat way earlier than 8 but it worked out because there are so many places to have a snack before dinner!

Really you just have to figure out what is best for you and it is going to be a great trip.

No we never did the dolphin thing on a cruise. This June we did the Discovery cove thing so I think we may do the catamaran, snorkel, beach thing on Cozumel. Last year we did Tulum which was awwesome but way to much travelling time to get to the main land! If you have never done a swim with the dolphins thing I highly recommend it. It was one of the coolest things I ever did.

[mommyofthreeboys]

On my to do list: book the night before the cruise hotel room.

However…..

Slight problem.

Well, the latest battle in my head is what day should we leave?

We will be driving down. Originally I was thinking Thursday after school—the kids would miss a day of school but this is worth it (right?).

Right?

Missing school is a big deal for them as they usually get perfect attendance but after seeing the so-called “award” for perfect attendance this past year, I’m not too worried about it.

By the way- the award was a coupon for a free kids meal at Frisch’s with the purchase of an adult meal.

I think the value was 3 bucks.

But I have to buy a meal…so I have to spend money to get this “award”.

Ohh…valid in the dining room only and not the drive through so add the tip and I’m now this free coupon is really costing me.

I mean….

I am appreciative of the gesture however…

Wait…

Let’s be honest.

No, I’m not really. :)

I mean…I know budgets are low or even non-existent but take a piece of paper and create a certificate saying “good job!”

Do you know how many doctor visits, dentist appts, and other activities I schedule AFTER school so they are always in school?

And the vitamins I make them take to keep them healthy?

And don’t get me started on the gallons of milk I buy every week because of all the commercials I have seen that says “milk does a body good”.

Where’s the love? :lovestruc

Anyway…back to the regularly scheduled madness in my head…..

So we’ll leave after school around 4pm. We will drive through the night arriving somewhere in Florida around 9am. (depending where we stay) Which brings up another question in my head—where is “somewhere”?

To me—a trip to Florida is not complete if we don’t stop somewhere in Disney so I was thinking we could do a little shopping in Downtown Disney. (and eat at Wolfgang Puck Express- a favorite of mine!)
BUT if I shop before the cruise, that’ll be less money we’ll have for the cruise. So would even a little stop at DTD be worth it?

BECAUSE we are coming from Indiana and we can take 75 to 95 (coming down through Jacksonville) and by-pass Orlando all together. This would save us an hour of driving time.

AND driving through the night, we will be exhausted and probably won’t feel like shopping at DTD BUT I would love to start off with a little bit of Disney.

SO we could leave Wednesday after school which would give us an extra day before the cruise.

But that means the kids would miss TWO days of school AND another vacation day used for mom and dad.

But with an extra day--We could check in and relax when we arrive in Florida on Thursday and then shop on Friday??? Then we would be really refreshed before the cruise. But then I go back to “spending too much money before the cruise”.

THEN I think about the several things I would like to do in the Port Canaveral area and that sounds fun too. If we leave Thursday after school and drive straight through to PC—we would arrive somewhere between 8am-10am on Friday. We would check in and relax (sleep!). If the room isn’t ready, we normally find a lounge chair and relax by the pool. We then could have a nice dinner and then get a good nights sleep before the cruise. But this doesn’t leave us any time to sightsee the area.

Like the space center. Remember I have 3 boys….they would love this—right?

BUT my head is also telling me of other options—like staying in Jacksonville instead—stopping at the outlet mall that has a Disney store in it (about an hour past Jax)—visiting St. Augustine and the list goes on.

Why stay in Jacksonville instead? Well, I am booking the hotel room using my Marriott Rewards points and Jacksonville is wayyyy cheaper than Port Canaveral. 7,500 vs. 20,000. But then there is always that risk of staying in Jax and driving to PC on Saturday morning….

….the risk of missing the boat!

***GASP!!!*****

Yes, if I have nightmares, that’s what it is about.

Missing the boat.

So I THINK I should do whatever it takes that this doesn’t happen…..which means staying in PC the night before.

Because ANYTHING could happen between Jax and PC.

Car trouble.

Traffic.

My youngest gets car sick VERY easy. It would be my luck that he would get car sick that morning and then denied boarding due to vomiting.

***GASP!!!!****

Did someone say denied boarding?

I didn’t even think about that…..


I think my mind just made up its mind.


Leave Thursday after school. Drive through the night. Arrive in PC around 9am with plans to relax all day. Check in at Residence Inn using points. Dinner somewhere nice. Have a good night sleep. Wake up, repack and head to the MAGIC!!!!

After ALL of that….

What do you think?
:confused3

[wegs3000]

Christina-
You just articulated the kind of ongoing conversations I have in my head regularly regarding planning although my "what day to leave" issue was resolved because we have to fly from Portland and our school district is off the Friday BEFORE spring break because I guess the teachers need one extra day to prepare for the 10 days off following! What evs. We are leaving on a 6am flight on Friday and will be at MCO at 4pm. IMO, and everyone has one and man the flaming dialog on the DIS board regarding this issue is crazy, one or two days off from school won't hurt your kids, their teachers or their continued educational development. Two weeks is a different story. And for me, going to WDW but not having time to do the park or any piece of it for more than a bit is just a big tease. We are bypassing it entirely and getting our Disney on at the Port.

Also, keep this in mind. We went to WDW at spring break 2008 (same week every year) and it was the second busiest park week of the entire year (Christmas week is #1). I did not know that or we would have picked another time. It was insane. Everything around the park was insane. We hung at the Wilderness Lodge pool more than I wanted but the parks were crazy. So you will have to deal with a lot of extra people, cars, buses and crappola to even swing through downtown Disney. Counter point: if your trip will not be complete because you didn't go and you will regret it for the rest of the year then do it! Those are things only you can decide.

We did do the Kennedy Space Center and it is terrific. Your boys might get really into it. There is a space shuttle similator ride that is great. My dad is an aeronautical engineer so of course WDW was for us and Kennedy was for him that week. We had lunch with an astronaut which turned out to be really interesting. So I would highly recommend that if you have the time.

We are staying in PC on Friday night at the Country Inn and Suites for all the reasons you just listed for potential panic attacks. We will be at the port between 10 and 10:30 when the gates open and will hope for early boarding. If you end up doing the same maybe we can meet up in the terminal just to say hi - that goes for all of you!

Good luck with all the planning! My big ones right now are much uncertainty over main dining time making us mental in rushing to dinner and getting us booked on a dolphin excursion in Cozumel. I guess I could have worse things to worry about...

[Clari]

We are also on the West Coast so we are getting there Friday and staying at the Hyatt. i won't go through what happen on our last trip to WDW. The person who booked our flight booked it for the wrong day. We were supoose to leave here on Nov 30 on a red eye to arrive there on Nov 1st. But when we got to the airport they told us "no your filght is tomorrow Nov 1".:scared1::eek: And I had called Disney about this like a month before we left.:headache: and they said everything was fine that it was a typo. But luck was on our side they had 8 seats left on the flight we need to get to WDW when we needed to. Now I look very closely at the time and dates on the flight.

[pixie08]

Christina-

I agree a trip to Fl. is not complete with out some Disney but remember you are going on a Disney cruise and you will have your fill!:rotfl:

No but seriously we drive from NY sometimes and if we were I would skip Disney, stay near the Port (there are a lot of good recommendations on the board) rest and wake up early, maybe take a dip in the pool, have breakfast and go to port. The days on the cruise are sooooo long and there is so much to do. The first day is so much to absorb I say be rested, but that my opinion.

Last time we flew in late Fri night and stayed at MCO Hyatt. It was a great experience. In March Dan and I may take Fri off so we will fly in Thurs night so we have a day in WDW. Otherwise I would skip it all together.

[pixie08]

every now and then to keep things interesting and get us more excited (like we need motivation to get excited lol) I thought I would post a DCL pic...feel free to join in!

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y165/marymerges/cruise%202008/D045.jpg

[Clari]

found this picture online.
http://www.floridaspacecoasttoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/disney-cruise-image-header.jpg

[mommyofthreeboys]

That picture is beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!


My friend at work just got back from the Western cruise and brought me back her navigators and other paperwork. The excursion packet really caught my eye. So I’ve been spending the last 2 days looking at excursions.

I know I want to swim with the dolphins. There are so many options that I don’t know which one to go with! Here are my options if I book with Disney:

Grand Cayman: Dolphin Extreme Swim and Turtle Farm (at Dolphin Discovery Cayman) $625 for our family.

Cozumel: Dolphin Push, Pull and Swim (at Chankanaab) $695 for our family.

Cozumel: Dolphin Swim (at Dolphinaris) $789 for our family

They all look pretty much the same (at least for what I am looking for). All are the same length (between 3-4 hours).

Sooooo….I don’t know which one to do. I guess I’ll go read reviews and decide. I know I want to take an underwater camera in the water with me but I know some don’t let you do that.

I would also like to find out how much each charges for the pics and DVD at the end. I’m always a sucker for them.

Decisions….Decisions…..

PS. She went on the (new?) Four Elements: A Mayan Experience in Cozumel and LOVED it. Too bad it’s for 10 and older….boo hoo!!!

[pixie08]

Awesome pic Clari!

Christina they all look great and swimming with Dolphins is an amzing experience. Is there something else you prefered to do on GC or Cozumel? That's how I would make up my mind which port I chose for Dolphins. Also did you read the reviews in the faq section? That might help.

[wegs3000]

Those pictures are great! And inspirational as I get more excited every day. Yesterday I found navigators in a pdf file online from a June 2009 Western and I combed them last night. PM me and I will send the file to you if anyone is interested. I change my mind regularly on our excursions but as I've posted before, if my daughter doesn't get to swim with dolphins there will be hell to pay so that is the #1 priority. None of us have any other driving desire to see anything in Cozumel and since we are going there first this trip I'm getting the dolphins done first. We are all interested in Boatswains in Grand Cayman - I really want to do the stingrays but my daughter is not very keen on it (looks too scary out in open ocean) and my dad sounds like he could take or leave it. Boatswains sounds like it has enough for all of us to be happy even though it is spendy.

Please keep the photos and the explanations coming as it is really helping me plan!

Christina- for $700 you ought to be able to take a dolphin home with you!

[mommyofthreeboys]

Ugh! These excursion options are giving me a headache. I don’t know what to do. Just when I think I got it figured out- something else pops up.

For example: When did Disney change the itinerary? :confused3 Cozumel is now before Grand Cayman??? I found that out yesterday. Where have I been?

Apparently stuck in all these navigators and the excursion list. Oh- and reading all kinds of reviews on the excursions.

Anyway…flip flop the 2.

Got it. :thumbsup2

That means less time in Grand Cayman and more time in Cozumel (if my calculations are right)

I’m not sure about the dolphins. I really want to do this. Notice the emphasis on I.
I wish I could ask the boys. I can’t.

Remember- this is a surprise. They won’t find out until Christmas.

So I can’t ask them. I can’t ask DH- he could care less. I can’t even bring up the cruise with him. I’ve been doing all this planning by myself….well…that’s where you come in. You all get the privilege to read all this mindless stuff.

Privilege?

Yeah right.

I know…but keep reading.

So about the dolphins. I have been thinking. Angela- you're right-- $700 is a lot of money. :eek: I have been looking into the stingrays instead. I thought I had a lot of options with the dolphins. Shoot—there are even more stingray options!

I think I got it narrowed down between 2 different options in Grand Cayman- running about $300 for the 5 of us.

For Cozumel, I really like the option of an all inclusive beach. :umbrella: Nachi Cocum gets good reviews. That’ll run $151 to get in. $20 for a tip. $40 cab fare round trip. I think 2 of the kids might want to parasail there so I better budget another $100 for that. Plus souvenirs……so the total I have budgeted would be about $400.

That leaves Key West. I have read a lot of people don’t even get off the ship here but we have never been so we intend to get off and explore. Probably the trolley…go to the Southernmost point….get some key lime pie…have a drink at Hogs Breath….maybe a few other things. My budget estimate is $250 for this day.

Then I start thinking.

I know scary.

Budget.

I am going to add up all these “extras”. OMGosh…I’m not sure I should have done this.

Have ya’ll done this yet?

Yes, I said ya’ll. Get used to it. :goodvibes

Here’s what I came up with:

Gratuities: $450
Key West: $250
Grand Cayman: $400
Cozumel: $300
Castaway Cay: $250
Shutters: $300 (I am planning the big package….I can always downgrade!)
Alcohol on board: $100 (drink of the day, wine, beer….options are open)
Bingo: $100 (I know its expensive and a rip off BUT I have to try it at least once)
Souvenirs/misc: $500 (I have NO idea what I should budget. This is a wild guess)
Parking at terminal: $120
Gas: $200 (remember we are driving)
And finally…rebooking on board: $750

WOW!
:guilty:
WOW!
:sad2:
WOW!
:sick:

And another one because I am still shocked……WOW!:eek:

Why did I total this all up?

Oh yeah…the total. $3720.

Maybe we can’t do this cruise.

Where is my backspace key? I didn’t just write that.

We are going. I just need a plan.

A better plan.

We don’t do credit cards so that’s not an option. I guess we’ll be pinching our pennies even more.

That’s A LOT of money….for us anyways!

Am I way high on this? Just right? Or even too low?

I look back up at the budget and I am trying to figure out what I can cut out or minimize.

The first thing that catches my eye is our Cozumel day. We can cut out the all inclusive beach and just stay on the boat…that’s a “free” all inclusive excursion. We can get off and do a little shopping….maybe have a drink at Senior Frogs.

What do you think? Will I feel like I am missing out on something?

We can always cut out the rebooking expense. I mean- it’ll be 2012 before we can afford to go again. That’s the year my oldest graduates high school so we might not be able to afford to go then either. Who knows. In 2013 my entire immediate family…33 of us…are planning a trip for our mom and dad’s 50th Anniversary. So any longer than that and I feel the rebooking is not worth it. IMO.

Anyway…I don’t see anything else I can cut back on. What do you think?


On to other questions I have…

***I looked at the cruise tips….why do they have duct tape on the packing list?

***If we leave our car parked at one of the hotels (instead of parking at terminal), will we be able to get a ride/shuttle back to our car quickly? We don’t want to spend a lot of time waiting around.

Check that.

DH will not want to wait.

At the end of a vacation- DH loses his patience. That’s why it may be worth it just to pay for parking at the terminal. Getting there will be no problem—we’ll all be excited. It’s departing that worries me.

***the ice cream on deck….are there really no cones available?



Okay—that’s my ramblings for the week. How is everything going with you? :hug:

[Clari]

I got a letter in the snail mail about the change in itinerary. I think it came in like 2 months ago. :confused3

[wegs3000]

I noticed the port schedule change when we booked and I posted on the main board asking if this would affect any other shipboard activities and moderator Lisa said no. Just need to know when making excursion plans especially if you book your own.

This is not a cheap vacation by any standard and Christina, you are not alone in the pricing panic attacks. I guess you have to decide what your pain threshold is and what are hills to die and then make it work. It would be a shame to have to miss excursions when you've already spent this much to get there. Castaway Cay seems like a place where you can have a great time and not spend one extra nickel. I expect your load to lighten considerably after Christmas when you can tell your kids, get their feedback and get excited as a family to do things. Of course you only have until Jan. 4to get cracking on booking stuff! No time to dawdle. And I am selfishly hoping for lots of dawdlers so I don't get aced out of the dolphin excursion I want but can't book early as a first time cruiser...

Speaking of, I made the mistake of reading Trip Advisor dolphin excursion reviews and now my head hurts. I'm a huge animal lover and have a mini dr. doolittle gig at home but I'm no PETA member. So the threads on TA were filled with animal rights activists posting on dolphin encounters and I just backed out and won't do that again. Blah. Now I'm partially conflicted but will go with a tinge of guilt. This clearly had as much flaming posts as the topic of non-potty trained kids in this ship pools!:scared1:

A much more entertaining and valuable post was written by a guy who had just come off his DCL cruise and posted on his experience with all the tips. It was hilarious. He didn't understand the need for duct tape, shoe holders and many of the other tips. You could probably search to find it. I suppose a tip is only valuable if you loved it and used it!

Glad we have each other to share. And more photos please! I love them.

[mommyofthreeboys]

A much more entertaining and valuable post was written by a guy who had just come off his DCL cruise and posted on his experience with all the tips. It was hilarious. He didn't understand the need for duct tape, shoe holders and many of the other tips. You could probably search to find it. I suppose a tip is only valuable if you loved it and used it!



Any idea what the title was or the poster? I would love to read it.

[wegs3000]

As is getting more and more usual now that I'm over 40 (please do not ever acknowledge that! aack!) my memory is crappy. After way too long searching, I did find this post which was what I was thinking of but I'm obviously mixing it up with another post in which a guy commented on the tip stuff they brought and never used and then wondered why they ever thought they would use it:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2188149&highlight=don%27t+understand

Happy Friday everyone!

[pixie08]

I created a pretty in depth spread sheet for costs. It has formulas so it adds and subtracts (it's in excel) if you know excel a little it may really help (or I can help you if you want) PM me if a anyone wants it!

[pixie08]

Happy Friday!

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y165/marymerges/cruise%202008/D061-1.jpg

Sunset from deck...Key West

[Clari]

http://www.destinationsunlimitedbb.com/files/images/travel/disneycruiselines1.jpg

[pixie08]

Amazing Clari! Why can't it be Feb?????:rotfl:

[disney-akj]

I am so glad I found this thread! My family will also be on board this cruise. We are so excited. This will be our first cruise and I am sure I will be full of questions! I am a big planner as well! I would like to participate in the FE if there isn't too many in our party. There are 8 of us. My father-in-law (75), mother-in-law(71), my mother(67), DH(32), DD(9), DD(7), DS(3), and myself (Michelle). We have requested the early dining time. Can't wait for the cruise!!!

Christina, My kids are also interested in swimming with the dolphins at Dolphinaris in Cozumel. I have read several places that it is only a 1/2 mile walk to Dolphinaris from the port and you can book through Dolphinaris cheaper than the Disney excursion. Just thought since you seem concerned about the $$$$, that I would pass that information to you. I know I am going to look into it for my girls, if I find anything else out I will let you know. Money is going to be tight for us I know. We are unsure of our Key West plans, we are thinking about renting an electric car. I have no idea about Grand Cayman yet?? So excited!!!!!!! : ) Michelle

[wegs3000]

Welcome, Michelle! It is great to have your "big" group doing FE with us! The more the merrier. Christina has a son and I have a daughter that will both be 9 at cruise time so we will have the 9 year old dream team.

As you can tell from my posts, the only excursion that matters to DD is the dolphins and I've been posting on the regular DIS board to figure it out. WE are definitely doing Dolphanarius in Cozumel and yes, you can walk from the ship and yes it is much cheaper to book yourself. The downside is no Chakanaab park after the dolphins but we are ok with that. And I think we've decided on Boatswains in Grand Cayman. My DD is a bit freaked out to be in open ocean with the sting rays even though that would be my pick. That's ok - I'm happy to do anything on that cruise.

We are a blended group also with my dad treating myself and DD to this cruise as our Christmas present. These trips with my dad getting to go on great adventures with his granddaughter and daughter have been priceless.

Clari - thank you for the great pics!!!! They keep me going.

Mary (or anyone) did you figure out the tip calculator electronically? I need help there.

It's almost Friday...
Angela

[Clari]

Mary (or anyone) did you figure out the tip calculator electronically? I need help there.

It's almost Friday...
Angela

What Tip calculator are you having trouble with? Maybe i can help.

[wegs3000]

Thanks, Clari! I do not find the tip calculator to be intuitive as there were a couple things that took me too long to figure out what to do in the column headers (and I'm sure that is me with pilot error). I just tried again and got the amounts and quantity of $ bills to transfer across - now do you have any idea how to print it?

[Clari]

Thanks, Clari! I do not find the tip calculator to be intuitive as there were a couple things that took me too long to figure out what to do in the column headers (and I'm sure that is me with pilot error). I just tried again and got the amounts and quantity of $ bills to transfer across - now do you have any idea how to print it?


I just sent you a PM.:thumbsup2

[disney-akj]

I really hope my acceptance into Mickey's Magic Mateys isn't based on my ability to sew a FE : ) I know realize why I scrapbook instead of sew. I believe that was the third time I have ever used my sewing machine, possibly the last???

[mommyofthreeboys]

I really hope my acceptance into Mickey's Magic Mateys isn't based on my ability to sew a FE : ) I know realize why I scrapbook instead of sew. I believe that was the third time I have ever used my sewing machine, possibly the last???

LOL....I know the feeling! I'll be buying mine off of e-bay. Or maybe sweet talk my SIL into making me one :goodvibes

I tried to sew onto a scrapbook page once....even that was a disaster!!!

[disney-akj]

I have been spending most of my rainy day dreaming about March. I am a teacher and I am back to work tomorrow, but it will be a good thing. Time always goes by quickly when I am busy, so the cruise will get here faster that way. Even though it is sad that another summer went by so quickly!

I have read that Clari and Christina scrapbook. Are there any others in our group that scrapbook?? Also a few other questions from a first time cruiser. How dressed up do you guys get on formal/semi-formal nights?? Also about how many rooms would you estimate to plan for on the FE gift exchange?? My kids will dress up for the pirate night (they are very excited about this) and possibly my husband and myself?? I am sure I will have more questions later I am sure! Thanks in advance for the advice.

[wegs3000]

I have zip, zero, nada crafting skills of any kind but I thought I would try the no sew FE and took the instructions to Joanne's. When I hit the $50 mark on the supplies I would need I said forget it. I'm going to pay the $35 for a beautiful personalized one from a great gal on ebay who did a pillowcase for me already.

DD and I will dress up for pirate night for sure. And I need to be a smart packer so I have a couple little black dresses that are easy to dress up as needed and they don't wrinkle and don't take up much space. I need more room for shoes...:eek:

Happy back to schooling. I'm not ready yet. But I do like the idea of time flying by quicker!

[Clari]

http://i394.photobucket.com/albums/pp26/Clari476/th_IMG_0937.jpg
I just made a quick one. The back is a Tink pattern and the white is a princess one. Just stitched it together. I asked my grandma to sew the top loop. Everything cost me about 15 dollars at Joanne.:confused3

[wegs3000]

Clari, that is great! Is it one pocket? Maybe I need to try harder and be a smarter shopper. Super cute.

[dytx]

Hi everyone. just a couple lines to let you know that we lucked out this morning with member services at DVC. today is our 7 month window for 18 Mar; so we were able to switch our two days prior to the cruise from Saratoga Springs to a studio at Bay Lake Towers at WDW. We are so thrilled that it was open (bay lake view) and grabbed it.

dee and don

[Clari]

Clari, that is great! Is it one pocket? Maybe I need to try harder and be a smarter shopper. Super cute.

Thanks, yeah it is one pocket about 9 in. deep cuz i didn't want to crop the glittery princess picture of sleeping beauty.

dytx, congrats. :thumbsup2 Take pictures that you can share with us on the ship.

[dytx]

Thanks, yeah it is one pocket about 9 in. deep cuz i didn't want to crop the glittery princess picture of sleeping beauty.

dytx, congrats. :thumbsup2 Take pictures that you can share with us on the ship. thanks clari. last cruise I took over 100 pics and now have a different camera; so I plan on a bunch more

don

[disney-akj]

Very cute FE Clari! Mine did not turn out nearly as cute. I made two, since we have 8 people and two rooms. They are both in need of a little extra ironing, but I am just happy that I accomplished finishing them: ) The first one is green and purple with Tink. It has two deep pockets. This was my first attempt, which you can probably tell by the uneven pockets. I am almost tempted to redo the pockets, but do I have time and will my kids really notice???
http://i611.photobucket.com/albums/tt199/johnd28/Picture103.jpg
The second one turned out a little better I think. It has 4 smaller princess pockets. Still not a seamstress, and the sewing machine is packed up for another 3-5 years, but it all only cost me $13. Thank you Hobby Lobby : )http://i611.photobucket.com/albums/tt199/johnd28/Picture104.jpg

[Clari]

I think they look great disney-akj. You can't tell they are uneven. If you haven't said anything I don't think anyone would know. :thumbsup2 The fact is made them and you great job.:cheer2: Now all we need is for it to be March.

[disney-akj]

Hopefully March will get here quick. The more time I have to plan, the longer my packing list is becoming : ) 7 months from today we will all (most of us) be Florida bound and 7 months from tomorrow aboard the Magic : )

[wegs3000]

Dee, Don & Alan - congrats! Sounds like you will have a really nice vacation both before and during the cruise.

Clari & Michelle, you have inspired me and thanks for posting pics of your FE! I think they both look great and I'm going to make my own also. A one pocket version ought to be in my capabilities (hah, I say now!).

All, wasn't it great reading that it is only 7 months away? Better than 8.:woohoo:

[Clari]

Also about how many rooms would you estimate to plan for on the FE gift exchange??

Do we have a count of how many staterooms??:confused:

[DisneyMom92]

We are returning this year for the Spring Break cruise. This will be our fourth cruise this time of year, fifth total including a Mexican Riviera cruise in 2008. My sister and I have two rooms, each rooming with my kiddos. DD17 will room with my sister and DS14 will room with me. We will have second dinner seating, it works better for us. We most likely won't have any plans for excursions, we will stay onboard to enjoy the ship while everyone else is enjoying the ports we have already seen. We have done dolphins twice in the past and loved it. Toured Grand Cayman, as well as shopping. Key West we do enjoy on our own sometimes. The trolley tour is great and easily done on your own.

Ummmm, count us in on FE too. I made some several cruises ago the night before the cruise and they looked tacky but they did the job. Embellished a little last cruise and they looked less tacky and still did the job. If I can find them I might do a little more and they might not look tacky, but don't count on it. LOL

What else...my kids will most likely be the loudest, possibly the most obnoxious kids on the ship. If they aren't they will be hanging out with them. They will dance in the talent show, and would love support because it's more fun that way. For those who don't know, there is a talent show toward the end of the cruise, can't remember if it's Thursday or Friday. There's a rehearsal the day before when the crew sees what the talent actually is. It's a lot of fun and was a highlight last year.

I was pretty excited to see such an active group. I will try very hard to get back in here often.

[disney-akj]

I guess Sundays have turned into my planning days. A few questions and a lot of rambling. Sorry!!! Has anyone done the tea party and does it usually fill up quickly? I have been doing a lot of thinking about Excursions. So here is my ramblings. I think we are going to rent an electric car in Key West (a few in our party might go on the Thrill Boat ride?). We will have to rent through a private company though because Disney requires you to be 5 or older where private companies do not. I plan on finding a company for this soon. I will add that to my to-do list. We will probably drive around the island. We plan on going to the Southern Most Point, looking at the 6-toed cats at Hemingway's house, visiting the beach, a stroll on Duvall Street and Mallory Square while there. I am disappointed about the ship leaving before the sun sets though. I have been to Key West and it is a beautiful sight to see. I looked up the time of sun sets and it is a little past 7:30 in March which is disappointing because I believe our ship leaves at that time : ( I guess we will be on the Magic and will have to get the view from the deck. Things could be worse : ) I believe while in Cozumel, my daughters want to do the kids swim with the dolphins and I will watch them. My husband and mom plan on going to the Ruins, while my in-laws watch DS (3) on the boat. At GC some of us plan on going on the semi-sub and snorkeling excursion. At CC we plan on relaxing. Maybe do a little snorkeling. We thought about doing the sting rays, but we just got to pet some at the STL zoo for free, so probably won't pay to do it on the cruise.

We plan on driving. We are going to try to rent a hotel in PC for Friday night so we are there ready to leave Saturday morning. Does anyone know if any of the hotels in the area offer free shuttles to the port, and allow you to leave the cars at their hotel. Since there are 8 of us, we will have two cars. We would rather not have to pay $30 a day for parking if possible???

Since I started this thread a little later than some, I went back and scanned through some posts. I tried to count how many people and rooms we have so far? I hope I didn't miss anything and if I did I apologize in advance. I hope everything is ok with Belinda because it has been a while since she has posted?
mommyofthreeboys-christina (34), Jared (37), Bradley (15), Brett (10) and Nolan (8) Late Dining 1st cruise

dytx-Dee (65) Don (66) and Allen (42) Early Dining 2nd cruise

wegs3000-Angela (44), DD (9) and dad (69) Early Dining 1st cruise

Clari (33) and mom (56) Late Dining 3rd cruise

Bellamickey- Belinda and Shawn Late Dining 5th cruise

rkwier (41) and DH (43) Early Dining 3rd cruise

Pixie08- Mary(32) and Dan(31) Late Dining 2nd cruise

Disney-akj Myself (Michelle 32) father-in-law (75), mother-in-law(71), my mother(67), DH(32), DD(9), DD(7), DS(3) Early Dining 1st cruise

Disneymom92- Disneymom, Sister, DD (17), DS (14) Late Dining 5th cruise

I believe I counted 12 staterooms since (Christina, Disneymom, and me have 2 staterooms) and 31 people. I hope I didn't miss anything.

Done Rambling now : )

[wegs3000]

This is the best place for rambling! I have learned so much from the DISers and it is so great to have a thread just for our cruise.

Michelle - there is a thread under stickys on the main DIS page with FAQ. In that section is a list of Port Canaveral information compiled by Shirley from The Perfect Gift. She lists everything you could want to know about PC and then some. The hotels with cruise packages, distance to port, manager name, everything is there. And yes, you can park at several hotels and take the shuttle. Here's my recent tip: I initally booked us at the Radisson but recent reviews have been terrible (bad service, bugs in the room!!!, slow shuttle, etc.) so I cancelled and booked us at the Country Inn & Suites.

I too have been back and forth on the excursions. I can't see any reason to spend the $$$ on Disney booked excursions in Key West, however. There are no language, travel to and from the boat, or foreign country issues to deal with and you can easily do any of them on your own and save the $ for something else. I'm getting confused with the costs/age restrictions/timing that you see on the excursion providers' web sites vs. what DCL says. I need to just figure out what we want and map out the options to pick best. They don't make it easy on you and as first time cruisers I'm worried anything with the word dolphin in it will be long gone well before the 75 day mark.

My dad asked me yesterday what could he possibly wear on pirate night? Hah! He has just issued me a challenge. We're talking closer to Barbosa than Jack Sparrow but hey, it's the thought that counts.

Thank you for compiling an updated room and name list!

My DD and I have figured out our FE gift. We are really excited as it gives us something to do to pass the time a little bit quicker.

[disney-akj]

What other excursion providers' web sites are you visiting? I need to spend more time planning apparently or buy a planning guide : ) I have learned so much already from the disboards though, but I am sure a book would help.

[wegs3000]

I bought the 2009 Passporter and I have read it multiple times cover to cover. I highly recommend it.

However, I want to book Dolphinarius in Cozumel because we can walk from the ship and I am not worried about getting lost or getting hung up in traffic and not making it back on the ship on time on a DIY-booked excursion (as opposed to a DCL-booked where they have to wait for you if it gets delayed for any reason). But the Dolphinarius web site says kids must be 10 or over to swim with the dolphins (not the touch one as it is too much money for a kiss and a wave). DD will be 9 and when I talked to her about it she got tears in her eyes because she thought she wouldn't be able to swim with dolphins and "fudging" her age is a big no because that is lying and lying is wrong. I can't really refute that as a responsible parent. Just to make it perfect, the DCL site said 8 and above to swim with dolphins but you have to book through them and pay more.

Adding to my dilemma is that the second Cozumel dolphin swim is Dolphin Discovery at Chakanaab park but DCL does not offer the Royal Swim, but you only have to be 8 years old or above to do that. You can book it on your own but then you have the make it back to the boat on time issues.:confused3 You see my dilemmas?

And then the new DCL web site, which I love the new design, doesn't have all the excursions listed any longer so I had info. before to compare but now they only have four listed for Cozumel and none are dolphins.

So you are not the only one with rambling! I can get a headache with all these options.

And I still waver on the dang eating times but I'm sticking with main dining. For now. If there was a 7pm option it would be perfect... Like when to eat is such a big problem. I know, get over it!

[Clari]

I love my Passporter too. Lots of info :thumbsup2. And worksheets to organize your travel info and itinerary.

[disney-akj]

I also noticed the changes on the DCL website, but found them in a different location. I don't remember where because I stumbled upon it by accident after I logged on. They are categorized by water, sightseeing, etc. My youngest daughter will turn 8 on April 10 so she will barely miss that excursion, so I will have to choose a different one. I will have to get the Passporter book. I reserved a book at the library too, that I will pick up tomorrow. Can't remember the title off the top of my head though.

[dytx]

hello folks; we received a call from DVC this morning. when we called last week for a room at Bay Lake Towers; there was not a 1 BR bay lake view available for the thurs, fri nite that we wanted so we were quite happy with the studio. we received a call from the same member services lady that we talked with last week. a 1 br bay lake view has come available for those two nites--were we still interested? Dee jumped for joy and we now have a 1 br for those two nites. so if you see three people floating on cloud nine the two nites prior to the cruise--you have spotted the Young family LOL.....

[wegs3000]

Youngs - I guess pixie dust comes in all places so lucky you all! We will try to lasso you to the boat.:wizard:

[wegs3000]

I monkeyed around on the new DCL web site and found that if you search for shore excursions at the top you will get the entire list but if you just go to each port you only get three or four. The full list is organized alphabetically by excursion title which was a clunky to sort through but descriptions, pricing and photos are listed for all of them.

[disney-akj]

Angela, good to know :) Have fun Young family : )

[disney-akj]

We made adorable count down calendars for the kids to color and cross off each day until the cruise which we started today. 200 days : )

[mommyofthreeboys]

Well, I might have to jump ship!!!

YIKES!!!!

Fast—talk me out of it!

Ya see, with Disney announcing the new “kids sail free” offer on most 3 and 4 night cruises, it might be a deal we can’t pass up.

What would you do?

This is our first cruise. I initially wanted to do a 4 night cruise just to test the waters to see if cruising was for us. But then I priced it out and decided a 7 night was a better deal for us. But now…..with the deal, the 4 night might be better. But we would be going to 1 room (pros and cons of that)

So…here are the options

7 night as planned—2 rooms (cat 7 and 11) $7,200
or
4 night deal—1 room (cat 4) for $3,500….(a $2,300 savings)

With the savings, I think it’s a no brainer for us. Unless you tell me I am missing something????

Also, with the 4 night—the boys wouldn’t miss a day of school and DH wouldn’t miss an unpaid day of work.

But then I would miss out on meeting ya’ll!

AGHHHHHHH!!!!

Just when I think I have everything figured out.

I wonder if Disney will come out with a deal for the 7 night….then that would get me to stick with the 7 night.

All these second guesses are driving me crazy!!!


HELP ME

[disney-akj]

That is a tough decision, because that is a lot of money. I guess your family would have to decide how excited they were about the different ports/excursions they were going to do on the WC. Plus would your family care about missing some of the things that are not offered on a shorter cruise? Good luck with your decision, I am sure you will make the right one for you and your family : ) It would be nice to have you on our cruise, but I understand completely. I know I personally wouldn't end up saving that money though because if I drove that far for only a four night cruise I know we couldn't resist stopping by Disney for a few days too then. There my savings would go : )

[wegs3000]

I saw the kids sail free extension through April 2010 and quickly went to check it out on the DCL site and found that of course the 7 day cruises are not included. So then I went to the ever trusty DIS board and saw several other people scratching their heads over the same issue and the concensus is that 7 days sell without kids sail free so they won't be offering it.:headache:

In your situation $2300 is a lot to think about. We took the 7 days because we are flying from the west coast and 4 days just does not seem long enough. Also, we ruled out a land/sea option because as I've posted before we did WDW at this week of the year (our spring break is always the same week) two years ago and it was a nightmare. A CM told me it is the second busiest week at WDW after Christmas. It felt like it too.

I selfishly hope you all join us but it is totally understandable that with a $2300 savings you would go to the 4 day. Only you can decide if the three days is worth the extra money.

I bet that didn't really help. I'm sorry. I say stay with us! But I don't have to pay your mortgage...

[shinez]

Hi All! We're headed on the Magic the 20th too! Any Friends of Bill W. out there??:grouphug:

[DisneyMom92]

I think we are going to rent an electric car in Key West (a few in our party might go on the Thrill Boat ride?). We will have to rent through a private company though because Disney requires you to be 5 or older where private companies do not. I plan on finding a company for this soon. I will add that to my to-do list. We will probably drive around the island. We plan on going to the Southern Most Point, looking at the 6-toed cats at Hemingway's house, visiting the beach, a stroll on Duvall Street and Mallory Square while there. I am disappointed about the ship leaving before the sun sets though. I have been to Key West and it is a beautiful sight to see. I looked up the time of sun sets and it is a little past 7:30 in March which is disappointing because I believe our ship leaves at that time : ( I guess we will be on the Magic and will have to get the view from the deck. Things could be worse : )

The Magic will stay in port during the sunset. They sail away just after the sun is below the horizon. It'a unique perspective to be on deck rather than on land. I have some pretty cool pictures both of the sunset and of the crowd gathering for the sunset. If any one is interested, I will try to find them to post.

I believe while in Cozumel, my daughters want to do the kids swim with the dolphins and I will watch them. My husband and mom plan on going to the Ruins, while my in-laws watch DS (3) on the boat.


We have done the Chankanaab dolphin swims, the first time with Disney and the second time the Royal swim on our own. The Disney one is a little watered down, but great and less time consuming. Leave a little extra time for the park; it's really pretty.

We plan on going on the semi-sub and snorkeling excursion. At CC we plan on relaxing. Maybe do a little snorkeling. We thought about doing the sting rays, but we just got to pet some at the STL zoo for free, so probably won't pay to do it on the cruise.

Do you live in St. Louis? We are just a little east of there in Evansville, IN. It's about a 2-2 1/2 hour drive.




I too have been back and forth on the excursions. I can't see any reason to spend the $$$ on Disney booked excursions in Key West, however. There are no language, travel to and from the boat, or foreign country issues to deal with and you can easily do any of them on your own and save the $ for something else. I'm getting confused with the costs/age restrictions/timing that you see on the excursion providers' web sites vs. what DCL says. I need to just figure out what we want and map out the options to pick best. They don't make it easy on you and as first time cruisers I'm worried anything with the word dolphin in it will be long gone well before the 75 day mark.

If you do decide to book on your own, there is little need for currency exchange. Almost everyone takes American dollars in the tourist areas. Even shopping in both Grand Cayman and Cozumel take American dollars without exchanging.

My dad asked me yesterday what could he possibly wear on pirate night? Hah! He has just issued me a challenge. We're talking closer to Barbosa than Jack Sparrow but hey, it's the thought that counts.

Lots of men wear their Carribean or Hawaiian style shirts that night, but lots of people get pretty into the Pirate dress.

My DD and I have figured out our FE gift. We are really excited as it gives us something to do to pass the time a little bit quicker.

Did not realize we were doing FE. Who's organizing it and is there a list of rules? We really have really enjoyed it in the past.

Well, I might have to jump ship!!!

YIKES!!!!

Fast—talk me out of it!

Ya see, with Disney announcing the new “kids sail free” offer on most 3 and 4 night cruises, it might be a deal we can’t pass up.

What would you do?

This is our first cruise. I initially wanted to do a 4 night cruise just to test the waters to see if cruising was for us. But then I priced it out and decided a 7 night was a better deal for us. But now…..with the deal, the 4 night might be better. But we would be going to 1 room (pros and cons of that)

So…here are the options

7 night as planned—2 rooms (cat 7 and 11) $7,200
or
4 night deal—1 room (cat 4) for $3,500….(a $2,300 savings)

With the savings, I think it’s a no brainer for us. Unless you tell me I am missing something????

Also, with the 4 night—the boys wouldn’t miss a day of school and DH wouldn’t miss an unpaid day of work.

But then I would miss out on meeting ya’ll!

AGHHHHHHH!!!!

Just when I think I have everything figured out.

I wonder if Disney will come out with a deal for the 7 night….then that would get me to stick with the 7 night.

All these second guesses are driving me crazy!!!


HELP ME

If you would be going to 1 room, but have 2 in the 7 night and you would be going to 4 nights instead of 7, it seem to me that you are getting almost 1/2 on the 4 night that you get on the 7. That explains most of your price differencial away. We have discussed this ad naseum, especially now that we are embarking on our 5th cruise. They are costly, but they are well worth it, in our opinion. One thing we notice, even after so many cruises, is that it takes 2-3 days to get comfortable with where everything is. Then the rest of the time is taken up with relaxing. For us it is the perfect vacation, with the kids able to do their own thing safely and us coming together when we want to. We don't want to do a shorter cruise; I think we would feel cheated.

[disney-akj]

Shinez- I do not know Bill : ) Glad you will be on the magic with us. If you want to join our FE gift exchange let us know.

DisneyMom92- Thanks for the info. About the FE exchange group, I don't know if there is an official organizer (our hostess maybe going on a different cruise possibly?). Two of us have offered to keep track of all of the members (# of people, ages, stateroom #, dining times, etc.) myself and Belinda (who hasn't posted in a while so I hope all is well). On post #139 there is a list of FE participants so far (I had counted you because of what you wrote on post #138, I hope that is o.k.) As far as rules, the following was previously posted :

"On the FE's. Really their is no price range. It your preference and what you want to spend. Over the years, I've seen a lot of different gifts that people give. Things as simple as post cards, candy, magnets, treat bags, to mini bottles of liquar stuffed mickeys and cd's. It's not the price of the gift that matters though, its just the fun of going back to your stateroom and finding a little something from your DIS friends. Some people do one gift for the whole week, others do 2 gifts and deliver them two different times in the week."

That is the only guidelines I have seen posted. If someone else know something different because I started a little later than some, let us know.

I hope everyone is doing well : ) I love three day weekends!!!!!!!!!!! We are almost to our 6 month mark !!!!

[wegs3000]

Thanks, DisneyMom92 for the good info. I appreciate it. For several of us this is our first cruise and I'm looking for all the tips I can get especially from you veterans.

FE is for everyone - Michelle and I volunteered to keep a list with names and room numbers to distribute prior to the cruise so if you would rather not post personal details on the thread please PM either or both of us. If we get a whole bunch of participants we can thing of breaking into groups but we seem to have a great manageable size going now.

It rained on our three day weekend so DD and I got out the DCL dvd and watched the whole thing. It got us both very excited!

[dytx]

Wegs; we had 26 members(families) in our FE on our cruise last october. our coordinator assigned x amount of members to deliever their gifts on certain days and it worked out well. as far as the gifts they ranged from a few pieces of candy and a pen or pencil; up to stickers, bandanas, sunglasses to name just a few. our particular package to others includes small candy bars, packs of texas bluebonnet flowers and such.

dee and don

[wegs3000]

Dee and Don:
Did you break the FE families down by deck location? Or how was it done?

Having not ever done this before I have no idea what works so any ideas from all of you are most appreciated!

We certainly want to keep it manageable so it stays fun.
Angela

[disney-akj]

Dee and Don: I have read that assigning people to certain days to deliver their FE gifts work well. That way by the end of the week your FE isn't empty, because everyone delivered their goodies the first few days from excitement : ) So everyone still delivers to the whole FE group, just on certain assigned days right?? Just making sure I understood you correctly. I'm glad we have experienced cruisers in our group : )

I have also read that people have to break their FE groups up into smaller groups for the exchange because they are too large (one group had about 100 staterooms in the exchange), but right now our group is a very manageable size, like Angela said. I guess we will have to wait to see about the # of staterooms in our exchange, but I do think the assigned days is a nice touch. I believe the cut off posted for joining in the FE exchange was Feb. 1st (I could be wrong, but I thought I read that somewhere on here) so hopefully we will still get some more members : )

Angela- Our Labor Day weekend was rainy too. Good idea for the rainy day though, watching the cruise DVD : ) We are still marking down on our count down calendars. I think the next few months will go by fast with Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, New Years, etc.

[dytx]

Dee and Don: I have read that assigning people to certain days to deliver their FE gifts work well. That way by the end of the week your FE isn't empty, because everyone delivered their goodies the first few days from excitement : ) So everyone still delivers to the whole FE group, just on certain assigned days right?? Just making sure I understood you correctly. I'm glad we have experienced cruisers in our group : )

I have also read that people have to break their FE groups up into smaller groups for the exchange because they are too large (one group had about 100 staterooms in the exchange), but right now our group is a very manageable size, like Angela said. I guess we will have to wait to see about the # of staterooms in our exchange, but I do think the assigned days is a nice touch. I believe the cut off posted for joining in the FE exchange was Feb. 1st (I could be wrong, but I thought I read that somewhere on here) so hopefully we will still get some more members : )

Angela- Our Labor Day weekend was rainy too. Good idea for the rainy day though, watching the cruise DVD : ) We are still marking down on our count down calendars. I think the next few months will go by fast with Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, New Years, etc.

our delievery day was thurs (almost everyone was assigned a day while we were "at sea" to keep from messing up days in a port
allen (our son) and I broke down all staterooms by deck then started with the smallest amount on a deck and then moved on to the next larger rooms on a deck. we were on deck 2 (and same on this cruise); so it was easy for us to take off. it was a ball. if we dropped off at a room that we knew had children and if it was a decent time of day-- we knocked on the door and boogied away.

dee and don

[dytx]

for your information. go to QVC.COM website and check on halloween masks for the cruise. they have a pirate mask with hat and hair for $13 and change (shipping was free yesterday when we ordered for allen. it is a rubber mask that looks pretty cool-especially for the price and free shipping.

don

[wegs3000]

I followed Clari's advice and went back to Joanne's today to get fish extender materials (for the door) and I scored. There are a lot of pirate prints out there now because of Halloween and I adjusted my expectations on what I need to make one myself. I got a great remnant for $5 and spent $10 on the rest. If it looks dorky please be kind...I am no Martha Stewart!

Dee and Don, great tip on the qvc mask. I'm sharing my Joanne's success because I think there is a lot out there to get now that will help with pirate night etc. later and it will be slim pickens come March (unless you go with a leprechaun theme!).

Have a great weekend, everyone.

[Clari]

I followed Clari's advice and went back to Joanne's today to get fish extender materials (for the door) and I scored. There are a lot of pirate prints out there now because of Halloween and I adjusted my expectations on what I need to make one myself. I got a great remnant for $5 and spent $10 on the rest. If it looks dorky please be kind...I am no Martha Stewart!

Dee and Don, great tip on the qvc mask. I'm sharing my Joanne's success because I think there is a lot out there to get now that will help with pirate night etc. later and it will be slim pickens come March (unless you go with a leprechaun theme!).

Have a great weekend, everyone.

I'm so happy that you were able to get a great deal. I just got back from two days at the D23 Convention. It was great. Now I'm off to Puerto Vallarta for a week. See you guys when I get Back. :lovestruc

[disney-akj]

Have fun Clari!! Good luck with your FE Angela. I have to work on mine more. It is too wide!!! I didn't realize they had to be only 8-9 inches wide.

[disney-akj]

6 months to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Plus I was very excited by this thread http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2288940

[wegs3000]

Michelle-
Thanks for the link! I too am super excited about the Pelican Plunge and it says adults can go on it... If you hear me yelling get out of the way.:lmao:

Only six months to go is a great thing to read!

[Clari]

I guess we are all really busy now since the board is so quiet.

:banana:5 month and 2 Weeks left:banana:

[disney-akj]

I know our house is very busy! I am sure October, November, and December will all fly by in record time like always. This will be a good thing though because that means closer to our cruise. I am sure I will have a lot to say or a lot of questions closer to my 75 day window. I keep thinking more people will join in our fun, but we don't seem to be getting too many new additions. Maybe closer to time?? Hope everyone is well : )

[addieandreece]

Hi Everyone!

We will be joining you! I am more of a lurker than a poster, but with school back in session and all the crazy stuff and schedules that go along with that, I need a happy place to come to :dance3: We live in central Illinois and will be driving down to Florida (staying in AKV the night before-shhh! the kids don't know that part!)

We have done two 3 night Disney cruises, but this will be our first 7 night and we cannot wait!! It will be me, DH, DD (10) and DS (7). My daughter REALLY wants magnets and is eyeing all the FE talk! We might just have to jump on board. . .although creative, I AM NOT!

We are the family that stays on board and doesn't do excursions, so we can save up for more Disney vacations. We even moved to a MUCH smaller house and live with a whole lot less, so that money can be put to better use;). The kids know the drill!!

Anyway, just wanted to introduce ourselves and can't wait to chat!
Dawn

[wegs3000]

Hey, Dawn. Welcome! You are among company on the non-crafty but willing to give it a go with me. My daughter and I are really enjoying the FE planning but I am no Martha Stewart so we will do our best.

We are in the back to school frenzy and super busy every weekend which is largely my own doing so I am trying to keep it all balanced. I am very excited to have cruise planning/crafting to keep us entertained on the dark and rainy winter weekends. They don't call us web foots in the Northwest for nothing.

Right now we are busy scooping up pirate gear cheap because of Halloween. FYI - we've scored at WalMart and the Dollar Store.

Let's hope for a quick winter!

[disney-akj]

Welcome Dawn! I hope you jump on board for the FE exchange! No craftiness required : ) I live in the STL area on the missouri side so we are relatively close to each other. We are also planning on driving unless we catch a good deal on flights (which I am not counting on!!) We are also crazy busy! Oct., Nov., and Dec. always seem hectic!!! Also, I am a Cardinal fan (which you might be too??) so I might get busier if we do well in the playoffs??

[dytx]

Hi Everyone!

We will be joining you! I am more of a lurker than a poster, but with school back in session and all the crazy stuff and schedules that go along with that, I need a happy place to come to :dance3: We live in central Illinois and will be driving down to Florida (staying in AKV the night before-shhh! the kids don't know that part!)

We have done two 3 night Disney cruises, but this will be our first 7 night and we cannot wait!! It will be me, DH, DD (10) and DS (7). My daughter REALLY wants magnets and is eyeing all the FE talk! We might just have to jump on board. . .although creative, I AM NOT!

We are the family that stays on board and doesn't do excursions, so we can save up for more Disney vacations. We even moved to a MUCH smaller house and live with a whole lot less, so that money can be put to better use;). The kids know the drill!!

Anyway, just wanted to introduce ourselves and can't wait to chat!
Dawn

Hi Dawn and family. we are Dee and Don and Allen. we will be at WDW thurs and fri nite before the cruise and will be staying at BLT villas @ Contemporary Resort. I (Don) am originally from Heyworth Ill (just south of Bloomington) . we are looking forward to meeting you and maybe even see you fri nite at disney.
here is email if you need it dytx42@sbcglobal.net:surfweb:

[DisneyMom92]

I lost track of who asked this, but there will be several events planned for Bills friends and, if I'm not mistaken, there are usually several on board.

BTW -- I am not on this board much because we are planning a WDW trip over Christmas right now. Once it's organized, I will be here more often.

Happy planning.

[MrsPMC00]

Hi All!! We are now going to be on board this cruise too! We were originally going to WDW, but somehow I managed to get a PIN for the cruise! CAN'T WAIT! This is our family's first cruise ever!!!

[dytx]

Hi All!! We are now going to be on board this cruise too! We were originally going to WDW, but somehow I managed to get a PIN for the cruise! CAN'T WAIT! This is our family's first cruise ever!!!

glad to have you and we are looking forward to meeting everyone

dee and don

[disney-akj]

Welcome MrsPMC00! This is my family's first cruise too! Let us know if you want to hop on board with the FE gift exchange!!

[MrsPMC00]

Welcome MrsPMC00! This is my family's first cruise too! Let us know if you want to hop on board with the FE gift exchange!!

Hope I don't sound too silly, I have not gotten through all the cruise info....what is an FE gift exchage? But...I am guessing I am more than happy to participate!! :)

I am not sure who is more excited...my husband and I or our kids! :thumbsup2

Look forward to learning from all of you experts!
Patti

[addieandreece]

Hi All!! We are now going to be on board this cruise too! We were originally going to WDW, but somehow I managed to get a PIN for the cruise! CAN'T WAIT! This is our family's first cruise ever!!!

That is so great for you, Patti! I saw there were pin codes being emailed for kids sailing free on 7 nights!! I keep checking my email!;) Glad to see a fellow Illinoisian!!

Dawn

[addieandreece]

Hi Dawn and family. we are Dee and Don and Allen. we will be at WDW thurs and fri nite before the cruise and will be staying at BLT villas @ Contemporary Resort. I (Don) am originally from Heyworth Ill (just south of Bloomington) . we are looking forward to meeting you and maybe even see you fri nite at disney.
here is email if you need it dytx42@sbcglobal.net:surfweb:

We definitely know where Heyworth is!! As a matter of fact, my daughter has a b-ball game over there in a couple weeks. We grew up in this area and are on a farm outside of Saybrook (tiny town east of Blm). It's a small world after all:)

Dawn

[disney-akj]

What is a FE (fish extender) gift exchange? I will try my best to answer that. I am also new to cruising, so if I am wrong someone feel free to correct me. There is a fish outside of every stateroom door. People create an extender to hang from the fish with pockets in it. Then people in the FE gift exchange group (that signed up) put a little present in every group member's FE (you will be given a list of room #'s and number/ages of people in each room). People put a gift in each FE for the whole stateroom or for each individual in the stateroom?? (That is up to you) There are several threads on here with FE gift ideas and how to make a FE itself. If you ever get a second to look through the old post on this thread, there are pics of people's actual fish extender too. The old post might also give you a better idea of what to do than I just did too! Hope I helped?? I signed up because my kids will love getting little presents throughout the cruise! If you want to join, let us know.

[MrsPMC00]

What is a FE (fish extender) gift exchange? I will try my best to answer that. I am also new to cruising, so if I am wrong someone feel free to correct me. There is a fish outside of every stateroom door. People create an extender to hang from the fish with pockets in it. Then people in the FE gift exchange group (that signed up) put a little present in every group member's FE (you will be given a list of room #'s and number/ages of people in each room). People put a gift in each FE for the whole stateroom or for each individual in the stateroom?? (That is up to you) There are several threads on here with FE gift ideas and how to make a FE itself. If you ever get a second to look through the old post on this thread, there are pics of people's actual fish extender too. The old post might also give you a better idea of what to do than I just did too! Hope I helped?? I signed up because my kids will love getting little presents throughout the cruise! If you want to join, let us know.

That sounds GREAT! My kids would love it! how do I sign up? I will do some reading of the older posts for ideas!! :thumbsup2 Thanks so much for the help!

[disney-akj]

Considered yourself signed up :) There are a few of us keeping track! Your group is, you (34) DH (38) DD(6) DD(3). Is that correct? You just need to let us know your stateroom # sometime in the next few months. You can send it in a PM if you feel more comfortable doing that as well (to myself or Angela, wegs3000) Also, will you be eating early or late??

[wegs3000]

I just had to go read on the DIS board about the PIN numbers and kids sail free - congrats to anyone who was lucky enough to score that! I am not ever that person so I'm just happy with what we got.

If we get lots more FE participants for our cruise we will break into groups to keep it manageable. Getting the treats will be fun but DD and I are having a ball now creating our FE so that has been a great way to while away the time until we go.

I moved from Chicago to Portland in 1992 and my dad grew up in Indiana so we have quite the midwest contingency on our cruise!

[wegs3000]

Fellow cruisers: I just reread every post on our thread (ok - my posts are too long and I apologize!) to make sure I have an accurate head count for FE. I've got an Excel spreadsheet going that I will email to all participants a month before we go. I'm picking one month out as a cut off date so that we all have enough time to make/get our FE stuff. OK??? Michelle is also keeping track and keeping a Word file - this is our attempt to keep it accurate.

We have 9 groups so far with 11 rooms. Anyone else want to join?

I am missing room numbers for disneymom92 (two rooms). I completely understand not wanting to broadcast to the world so if you wouldn't mind PMing me I will get it on the spreadsheet and share with Michelle.

Have a great weekend everyone!
Angela

[disney-akj]

My in-laws decided that we should fly instead of drive, which is a lot better and I am happy about. They went ahead and booked through disney. I have heard mixed reviews about this, but expense is the main complaint I have heard. Anyone else know of any more complaints? My main concern is that with Disney, they typically fly you in that day, which makes me nervous. I am also afraid that we will arrive at port later than planned and miss good times on the ship. With me being a planning machine, changes make me crazy : ) Tell me your thoughts about all of this!

[addieandreece]

My in-laws decided that we should fly instead of drive, which is a lot better and I am happy about. They went ahead and booked through disney. I have heard mixed reviews about this, but expense is the main complaint I have heard. Anyone else know of any more complaints? My main concern is that with Disney, they typically fly you in that day, which makes me nervous. I am also afraid that we will arrive at port later than planned and miss good times on the ship. With me being a planning machine, changes make me crazy : ) Tell me your thoughts about all of this!

Flying always gets my vote! We have been to Disney World/Disney Cruise many times and this will be our first time driving down. We have the extra time this time and there are no cheap flights to be found for us. So, anyway, I'm excited for you that you are flying!!

I do understand your concern, though, with flying in the day of. . .do they already have the flight scheduled and know when your times are? When my husband and I did our 10th anniversary cruise we did it all through Disney and our flight down was the morning of (earliest I could get it. . .I think we got into MCO 10:30ish) and everything turned out just fine! We were on the ship in plenty of time to enjoy everything! That being said, we now always plan to come in the night before just because it makes ME feel better ;), especially since it seems that airlines are changing flights times more and more! I would just make sure that you get the earliest flight down that way if flight schedules are shifted a little bit they have you covered. Or, is there anyway that it can be scheduled the day before if it's through Disney. . .I don't know, I've never tried! And maybe this is all null and void if the flight is already booked and I'm just babbling! If that is the case, go with my story that we did it once and it turned out perfect :goodvibes.

Dawn

[Clari]

disney-akj

Since you book the flight through Disney they try to get you with time but anything can happen. The flight could be delayed or it could have problems, Disney won't know that. But you could fly in the day before and the hotel is included. When I booked, there was no price difference between arriving day of and arriving the night before.

[disney-akj]

That is my fear flying in the day of is having flight delays, etc. So Clari, Disney allowed you to arrive the day before with no price difference? That is great! Is that something I would tell my TA?

[Clari]

I booked everything through Disney so....but since there is still 5 months to go I would call Disney for Q&A. Then tell your TA.

[dytx]

That is my fear flying in the day of is having flight delays, etc. So Clari, Disney allowed you to arrive the day before with no price difference? That is great! Is that something I would tell my TA?

Oct 08 when we cruised we set everything with DCL and we flew out of DFW Sat morning. we were worried about same day flight but all worked out. we arrived at MCO just after noon (12:45). we went straight to DCL station in the airport and was put on a DCL bus. we arrived at approx 2:pm and had plenty of time to get processed, go to our room, get something to eat and then to our lifeboat drill and then to the sail away party. just remember DCL will do whatever it takes to get you there and it will all fall into place

dee and don

[disney-akj]

5 MONTHS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :cool1::cool1::cool1::cool1::cool1:

[Vegaslover]

Hello all! My name is Lydia. I'll also be on this cruise with my DD Elsa (4) and my DH Dan. This will be my second DCL cruise. Can't wait!!!!

Would love to do FE exchange. We had so much fun doing it on our last cruise.

Lydia

[wegs3000]

Lydia, welcome! I read a post on the DIS board this week from someone who started a cruise thread and offered to lead the FE on her cruise and not one person joined her thread. I was so bummed for her that I wanted to send her FE stuff at home. I am so glad we have an active group and everyone on this thread is so nice. My DD and I are having a blast putting our stuff together and scheming our cruise stuff.

Anyway, please PM me and Michelle (disney-akj) as we are keeping track of the FE list to distribute before we go. I need your stateroom number and dining time.

I have my cruise waiting defined by holiday chunks: get through Halloween, then Thanksgiving, etc. and by St. Patty's Day we are there!

[pixie08]

Unfortunately we will not be on this cruise..we had to cancel:confused3 but we did get to replace it with a med cruise in May. Have an awesome time guy!

[Vegaslover]

Just wondering if anyone will have a 5 year old girl with them on this trip. My DD loves the Oceaneer's club and is not afraid to go by herself, but it's always nice to have a buddy.

Lydia

[disney-akj]

I believe Patti (MrsPMC00) has a 4 year old daughter. My daughters are a little older. One will just be shy of 8 and the other is 9, so I plan on them both being in the lab together (they should let my 7 year old move up). This is our first cruise, so I figured that they would like being together better :hug:

[Vegaslover]

I didn't realize the age group if from 3 to 7, Elsa wll be closer to 6 by the time the cruise rolls around. She will have fun with any girls between 4 and 7!
Can't wait. I think i'm driving my DH crazy with all the cruise talk!

[scrappindentist]

My family will be sailing on this cruise...myself-Kary(42), Kevin (42),
Shawn (14), Zach (11) and Hope (9)...our first cruise with Disney! I am a Disney freak so we have been to DL and DW several times but never on a cruise. We are all really excited!

[dytx]

My family will be sailing on this cruise...myself-Kary(42), Kevin (42),
Shawn (14), Zach (11) and Hope (9)...our first cruise with Disney! I am a Disney freak so we have been to DL and DW several times but never on a cruise. We are all really excited!

hello kary,kevin and family and welcome to our group. we too are a disney freak family. we are looking forward to meeting everyone.

dee and don

[wegs3000]

Kary-
Welcome and I'm glad you are joining us. If you are interested in doing the fish extender with us (no pressure - it's totally up to you) then please PM me with your room number and your dining time (main or late). Michelle and I are keeping track and will send out a distribution list four weeks before we cruise.

I need to get through Halloween so I can go back to my cruise obsessing!
Angela

[Vegaslover]

Angela, don't forget Thanksgiving and Christmas. You can't really start obsessing until after that.

[MrsPMC00]

I believe Patti (MrsPMC00) has a 4 year old daughter. My daughters are a little older. One will just be shy of 8 and the other is 9, so I plan on them both being in the lab together (they should let my 7 year old move up). This is our first cruise, so I figured that they would like being together better :hug:

You are right! At the time of the cruise, I will have a 4 year old and a 7 1/2 year old - both girls. :)

[Vegaslover]

Great Patti! Elsa would probably love to meet them.

[disney-akj]

Kary glad you are sailing with us! It is our first Disney cruise as well : )

I agree that the holidays have been giving me less time to plan too but the time is flying : ) I am sure I will be full of more questions as Jan. 4th approaches.

[MrsPMC00]

Great Patti! Elsa would probably love to meet them.

They would love it too! They are very social little things! :rotfl2: They love meeting new kids and finding new people to play with!

[Vegaslover]

Hello all!
For the FE exchange, just wondering if we decided to do exchange for kids only. Or, are we including adults? I truly don't care either way. On our last cruise we did kids only because they are easier and fun to shop for. Personally, I don't need any gifts. But, I am up for anything!!!

[disney-akj]

I don't believe there are specific rules, but if I am wrong someone please correct me. I do know that there are some cabins participating in our FE gift exchange that have only adults though, so I don't think the kids only idea would work. Lots of adults enjoy the fun too : ) Personally, I am giving one gift per cabin, and then if it is a cabin with children- a gift for each child. I know others may only give a gift for each individual or a gift for each cabin??

Wow! Time is flying by! Halloween has passed and Thanksgiving/Christmas will be here before we know it! Hope everyone is well since it has been so quiet here lately! I am sure it is just lack of time and holiday craziness like our hectic lives has been! Still keeping my fingers crossed that Pelican Plunge will open early :dance3:

[Vegaslover]

I already have some gift ideas for adults. Should be fun!

[dytx]

we have booked the aug 2011 5 day double castaway cay cruise. although it is a long way off; that particular cruise is selling out pretty quick.

dee and don

[Clari]

;)That should be a great trip. We were thinking of waiting until the Fastasy was ready that way the Dream wouldn't be as full.:confused3but who knows maybe we wont wait so long.:idea:

we have booked the aug 2011 5 day double castaway cay cruise. although it is a long way off; that particular cruise is selling out pretty quick.

dee and don

[Vegaslover]

I just bought a whole bunch of stuff for the FE exchange! I'm so excited.

[wegs3000]

I'm slowly working on my FE stuff also. Halloween was a great time to go pirate. We are busy with school and all the holiday stuff which is good because it keeps my mind off of "are we there yet?" I'm ready now...mentally anyway. I can't even begin to think about packing!

[disney-akj]

Was busy yesterday so I didn't get to post this so it is a day late : )
4 MONTHS TO GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:cool1::cool1 ::cool1::cool1::cool1::cool1:

[wegs3000]

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

[dytx]

happy turkey day everyone

dee and don

[wegs3000]

Just thought I'd be a sap and say that among the many things I am grateful for this cruise is on the list. This is a big deal for us and I am so excited to share this experience with my daughter and my dad -- and then all of you! I can't wait to see you all sunning, funning and regularly applying sunscreening. Can you believe it is almost Christmas and then us first timers can finally book our excursions! Me neither.

Happy Holidays, everyone. And if you didn't see Disney's A Christmas Carol yet I highly recommend it (not for the littlest kids). It will make you feel the holiday spirit!

[disney-akj]

I agree with you Angela about everything you said! I can't believe Thanksgiving weekend is almost over and Christmas is right around the corner! Did you decide for sure on the dolphin excursion you are going to try to book? We are going to try for the dolphin extreme swim at Grand Cayman because we want to do the turtle farm too. This way we can do both. Plus in Cozumel we want to do one of the Mayan excursions?? Not sure which one yet. In Key West we thought about getting an electric car through an outside company, but since everything is in walking distance from port that we want to see (southern most point, mallory square, etc.) We are going to save the money and hoof it I believe. Now we just have to keep our fingers crossed that everything we decided on is opened for the first timers.
Has anyone else made anymore decisions regarding excursions yet? Getting more excited : ) Hope everyone enjoyed Thanksgiving and enjoys this holiday season!

[wegs3000]

I think we've decided we are doing dolphins at Dolphinarius in Cozumel because it comes first and waiting another day is too torturous; we are doing the full Boatswain's park in Grand Cayman so we can snorkle, play and see turtles; and we will do Castaway Rays on Friday so I can play with rays. I think we are going to get off and walk around for an hour in Key West so we can say we saw it and then go back and enjoy the ship since this is our first time cruising.

I will trade my chance at Palo ressies for you all letting me have dolphin time in Cozumel!

[disney-akj]

I am very excited that our countdown cruise calendars have left the triple digit numbers and are down to double digit numbers! 98 days to go : ):cheer2::cheer2::cheer2::cheer2::cheer2:

[IrishCowboy]

Have a great cruise! :thumbsup2

[Vegaslover]

Have you all been following the post about the kids club changes? They are removing the age barrier and allowing kids to do what ever actitivies they like between the lab and the oceaneer's club. At first it looked like it was the Wonder only, but some of the replies say it will be for the Magic too.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2334294

[disney-akj]

Interesting- Thanks for sharing.

[Clari]

:banana:Happy Dance. I can start booking stuff this weekend.:banana:

and i've got my FE gifts ready to go. :woohoo:

[Vegaslover]

me too!! I'm all paid in full!!!!! :cool1:

[wegs3000]

Aww, save some good stuff for us!

I did go and check on orbitz this week just for the fun of it and you can still book a category 12 for our cruise. I guess they won't start the discounts until after the final payment date for everyone???? At this point with the cruise paid for I don't want to know about any discounts for anyone else...keep me in the dark.

I did a quick look at food and drinks on the DIS board and I am even more excited!

[Vegaslover]

I don't think there will be any discounts. But, ya never know. I think the discount is the category 12. Sometimes they offer other gty categories.

[Vegaslover]

I booked my stuff today! Just a brunch and a dinner at Palo. And, an inner tube for castaway cay. I think we'll do the excursions on our own. We booked our Dolphin Encounter at Cozumel on our own. Much cheaper than through Disney.

[disney-akj]

Good for you! I can't wait until the 4th when we get to book. Hope what we want is open : )

[Vegaslover]

I hope whatever you want is open too.

[Clari]

We got what we wanted. Parasailing at Castaway Cay, Palo Brunch, and Snorkeling in Cozumel.:cool1::woohoo:

There were still ALOT of things open last time I looked. SO I'm sure you will get everything you want too.

[gourt]

Hello all - better late than never - thankfully I found this thread!

Our family will be joining you on this awesome trip - me (39), DH (40), and DD (13). We have done one cruise before, but this is our first Disney cruise. We are celebrating our 21st wedding anniversary on this trip. Tried to do the big 20th last year, but timing didn't work.

We are booked in cabin 2103 and would love to do the FE exchange! We are also booked for the 1st seating.

For excursions, we are busy planning that now as we are days away from our booking date. We are thinking:

Cozumel - dolphin encounter, but not sure which one yet
Grand Cayman - 7 mile beach or semi submarine
KW - walking tour on our own
CC - relax!

I am looking forward to this so much - now that I'm in "the zone" of planning!!:cheer2:

Laura

[r_loverton]

Hi All,

I've been here a few times, but haven't chimed in. Just wanted to say hi to everyone now that we are coming into the home stretch. I will be traveling with my extended family: DD(5) DD (20mos) DW (36), Dad (58), Mom (56), Bro (35), SIL (29), Niece (2), Neph (5mos), Aunt (64) & Cousin (37).

[RLP817]

Is anyone in this meet with the E. Jones Diversification group?

[disney-akj]

Welcome to all : ) I hope everyone had a good holiday. I am excited that tomorrow night we get to book our excursions : )

Laura, got your family down for the FE gift exchange.

[disney-akj]

Hope everyone had good luck booking their excursions. We didn't get the dolphin swim at Grand Cayman, which my seven year old was very disappointed about : ( She is a few weeks shy of being 8 to do the swim at Cozumel. Otherwise we got everything else we wanted.

[MrsPMC00]

We didn't get the Dolphin encounter we wanted either in Cozumel. But we got the kids a different one so they have something. We got Palo though!

Hope everyone had good luck booking their excursions. We didn't get the dolphin swim at Grand Cayman, which my seven year old was very disappointed about : ( She is a few weeks shy of being 8 to do the swim at Cozumel. Otherwise we got everything else we wanted.

[gourt]

We didn't get the Dolphin Encounter, either. I booked the Dolphin Swim at Dolphinaris but might cancel later - not sure that's what we want and for that price. Didn't get the Atlantic Sub Explorer in GC so that will now be a beach day - fine by me!

Got Palo for our anniversary night, but for 8:30 - I think I'll try to get an earlier ressie once we're on board.

Laura

[Vegaslover]

DCL must be having trouble filling our cruise. They are still offering catagory 12s.

[disney-akj]

I went to the DCL website to double check that no excursions opened up, etc. Everything that I saved previously was gone. I was in complete shock, upset, and___________________ (fill-in-the blank). So I decided while I was there I would see if the dolphin excursion was opened at least. It was and I booked it. I logged out and logged back in just to see if it worked. Everything that I had previously booked was suddenly there again plus the dolphin excursion. I saw several threads on the disboards later that the DCL website was giving several people trouble, so I don't know if it was a website error or what?? We will have to see?? I am going to stay hopeful. : ):goodvibes

[RLP817]

Hi Everyone...

Just wanted to say Hello! We are on the March 20th cruise with you. It's myself (39), DH (43) and DD (8). It will be our 2nd Disney Cruise. Our first was a land/sea in July 2008. Looking forward to the Western intinerary! Have our excursions booked and ready to go. No so much in to the FE, but wanted to introduce ourselves and look forward to trading cruise stories :)

[wegs3000]

Hello, everyone! I've been out of action lately. No one feels too sorry for me but I just got back from almost two weeks in Hawaii. For those of you in cold climes, this is the last I'll mention it.

Welcome to the new posters on our trip thread!

I did get to a computer for brief moments and did book the three excursions I really wanted. We are doing dolphins in Cozumel at Dolphinarius, Boatswains in Grand Cayman, and Castaway Rays in CC. We are passing on Palo this time so thanks for the pixie dust karma on giving me the dolphins in return.

Michelle, I read your post about the lost excursion reservations, panicked, swore and then found all mine as I had booked. Whew. I'm just glad you got what you wanted in return for the scare.

Here's my big score for the day: several posters on the DIS board said they did Priceline for Country Inn & Suites for $49 plus taxes. We already had a room booked there for $149 plus taxes. I just Pricelined and got the cheap rate - saved $100 for the same room! This is for Friday, March 19. More money to blow on excursions, thank you.

Last call for FE is February 20. Please let me know if you are interested but haven't let me or Michelle know yet.

Enjoy your last days of planning!:cool1:

[mariei@japan]

Hi Im marie. we two me and DH will be on the cruise with you.
its will be our 3rd cruise.

i cant wait to be in cruies!!!!
:rotfl:
i really interested in FE exchange.but its first time to join in.
so plz teach me how to join in!!
Our room is 7122.

i hope i can join in FE exchange!

marie:yay:

[wegs3000]

Marie-
Welcome! You bet you can join FE. I thought we were coming a long way from Portland to Port Canaveral but you win coming from Tokyo!

Michelle posted FE guidelines in a post earlier in this thread. There a specific directions also in the FAQ on the DIS Board. You can PM me if you still have questions.

There are 12 cabins participating in FE (including you) so the number is very manageable if anyone else is interested in joining.
See you soon.
Angela

[disney-akj]

Welcome everyone! Can't wait for the cruise!!! Marie, let us know if you have questions about the FE exchange after reading over some of the previous posts. Hope everyone is doing well :goodvibes:goodvibes:goodvibes Life is good but busy here! I thought I would slow down after the holidays but now it is basketball/cheerleading time:cheer2::cheer2: in our household. I really need this vacation.

[MrsPMC00]

That is great to know that we have 12 cabins!! Will help me with my planning!!! I am getting soooo excited!!!! :cool1:

Marie-
Welcome! You bet you can join FE. I thought we were coming a long way from Portland to Port Canaveral but you win coming from Tokyo!

Michelle posted FE guidelines in a post earlier in this thread. There a specific directions also in the FAQ on the DIS Board. You can PM me if you still have questions.

There are 12 cabins participating in FE (including you) so the number is very manageable if anyone else is interested in joining.
See you soon.
Angela

[mariei@japan]

Thank you for joining me!!
i cant wait to be in cruise!!

i read all previous posts, so i understand how to enjoy FE.
Thank you everyone:goodvibes:goodvibes
i need to add my info,Our dinner is last.

you know, im Japanese that not native speaker in English.:confused3
so,i worry about communicate with you in English.
I think you guys who join in this thread are very nice people!!
and you try to understand my English.
so i dont need worry about it. is that RIGHT??

Have a nice FRIDAY and weekend!!
the cruise life is almost soon:cheer2:

[wegs3000]

Marie-
Your English is just fine and it is obvious you are trying really hard so do not worry about it! All of us will be united in one goal - having a great time on our Disney cruise - and that's a common language for all of us.

Happy planning!
Angela

[dytx]

I(don) came real close to having to cancel this cruise; but all is doing better now. I had a heart problem (after 23 yrs in USAF; I thought I didnt have one lol) and spent 4 nites in a hosp til they get me squared away. as it stands right now you will still have to put up with us in about 60 days.

dee, don and allen

[wegs3000]

Wow, Don, that must have been scary. I'm glad everything is ok and you will be with us! We will look for you leading the conga line:cool1:
Angela

[disney-akj]

Don, I am happy to put up with you in about 60 days :) Glad to here that things turned out for the better. Sending a little pixie dust :tink: your way