Turkey Day Gang 2009 Live Thread

[ICEMANPAD]

OK, I admit I am a couple days early, but since many of the Turkey Day Gang are migrating to the Orlando area early, I have decided to start the "Live" thread now. As always, I will be posting live from the ship on what will be our 6th consecutive Turkey Day Gang trip on the Disney Magic and 9th Disney cruise overall. We will be sailing from Nov. 21st-Nov 28th.

Chuck:cool1:

[The LK 4]

Can't wait!!!:woohoo:

[Tinkerbell 99 Mom]

Looking forward to trip !!!

It wil be a lot of DISNEY MAGIC :yay::yay:

[lck33]

Tooooo excited to sleep!......:woohoo::woohoo::woohoo:

[LAMPSKIES]

Where you at Ice? 63 degrees here today in NW Indiana......how's the carribean?


Disney Magic

Last reported at 2009-Nov-22 13:00 UTC. Time now 2009-Nov-22 14:41 UTC.
Position N 25°30', W 076°24'.


Wind from 090 at 10 knots

Waves 2.0 meters (7 feet), 3 second period


Barometer 1016.0 mb
Air temperature 26.0 ° C
Dewpoint 20.0 ° C
Water temperature -0.0 ° C

[ICEMANPAD]

OK, a day late, but posting from the sunny Caribbean....The port yesterday was a sea of blue...that is b/c this year the T-shirts are blue instead of green, but I will note they photographed very well...I think there were 80+ T-shirts purchased......A very good and active Disboards group this cruise...we have been seeing each other all over the ship thus far...FE final tally is somewhere around 40-50 cabins and well over 130 total participants..

Our dinner link has worked well for the 8 or so cabins participating and the wait staff has cooperated with our rearranging the seating..ie we put all the kids together and then filled in the remaining seats with the adults...and we are likely to switch it up nightly...

Lisa/Mason (my DW and DS) won at Disney Mania last night, but due also in part to the audience participation from Wendy and family, Karen and family and Chun and family...then at DVC this morning Lisa managed also to win the next to final bonus drawing for the always popular DVC beach towel that is given away after every one in the room has claimed a prize..too bad we could not get the shipboard credit...poor Chun thought he was going to be left out as he was one of the last couple names finally called...

The weather has been good...a little bit bouncy but not too bad for most...best wishes to Steve to get his sealegs and look a bit less green today...but even he was enjoying a few beers at the sail-a-way party...and speaking of which, th sail-a-way party was very well attended....

The group is loaded with prior Turkey Day Gang members primarily from 2005 and 2007 (or both), together with many new members, though the large majority have cruised before on Disney, even if not on Thanksgiving.

We enjoyed Palo brunch this morning as did Charlie/April (Ratt), Rob/Priscilla (MickeyHugger) and Michelle/John (Cruizcrzy)....

Anyway, so far we have had a great time...Mason did have to go to the infirmary - before we even left port - as he managed to cut his ankle, but got that cleaned up and he does not even notice it now...

The 5J's say hello...I spent Friday evening checking out some of the CoCoa beach establishments such as Fishlips with John and julia who have relocated to the Orlando area...

OK will post more later....

Chuck:cool1:

[LAMPSKIES]

Thanks for the post Chuck, tell all Lampy says "hi"

[ICEMANPAD]

Monday...still at sea...weather still pretty good...a few occasional clouds...but overall good weather so far...did character breakfast...exciting..not really....

Golden Mickeys last night...Mason was again a dwarf (6th time I think) and got to talk to Rona Rivers....Rona commited a faux pas when she introduced the cruise director as "Christian", who is a cruise director....but...this week's cruise director happens to be Clayton instead...

A bunch of The Turkey Gang is signing up for the 8/16/11 Disney Dream 5 night cruise...to beat the rush, that is done...there are also a number of other trips being booked..for us it looks like we will do the 4 day Wonder next Turkey week (ie 2010).

Tonight is Twice Charmed...basically a very pleasant first 3 days...tomorrow is St. Maartin...will post then...any questions or comments, please feel free to post..

Chuck:cool1:

[LAMPSKIES]

Glad to hear weather is good and seas are smooth!!!! Anyone living up to the "origional Turkey tradition?"

[WMILLER86]

Hello Ice and all of the 2009 Turkeys!

I hope you have as good a time as we had in 2004 and 2005! Make friends and memories!



Willie Miller

[WMILLER86]

Glad to hear weather is good and seas are smooth!!!! Anyone living up to the "origional Turkey tradition?"

Whoa Lampy! Do you mean the hard partying? Or the couples that were "au naturel" in the hot tubs at 3:00 AM? :rotfl:

I bet those security guys still have that security camera video tape stored onboard for "training purposes." ;)

[LAMPSKIES]

Whoa Lampy! Do you mean the hard partying? Or the couples that were "au naturel" in the hot tubs at 3:00 AM? :rotfl:

I bet those security guys still have that security camera video tape stored onboard for "training purposes." ;)

LOL....I see you are finally believing the fact that REALLY did see them in the hut tub! And not just in a "drunkin stooper" made it up!

[ICEMANPAD]

Hello Willie and Lampy...

There will be a new thread up for the August 11, 2011 5 night Dream that many of us have signed up to take..

Reporting today live from St. Maarten..a couple brief rain showers this PM, but no big deal...Pirate's tonight....not announced yet, but hopefully a prem-ear tomorrow for the new Travolta/Williams movie...but we shall see...

Had to cancel our regatta plans as Lisa still recovering from surgery and that excursion was too strenuous, but shopping worked well...a ring and matching earrings this time in St. Maarten...and i picked up a signed storyboard from the guy who designed Yoda....he has a store here.

Last night saw John Charles again....but he really is very good as many of you know..

Tomorrow will be St. Thomas, and for us, Coral World...I know there are mixed comments there, but we are going anyway...maybe pick up some sea lion art (no, i am not kidding)...

Disboards group collectively having a great time and the FE's are as active as we have ever seen them...about 140 people participating...and we know all about FE's...

As to Lampy's question, Chun did get a great picture of someone sprawled out asleep on deck 4, but I will not print any of those names here...LOL

Chuck:cool1:

[LAMPSKIES]

Hello Willie and Lampy...

There will be a new thread up for the August 11, 2011 5 night Dream that many of us have signed up to take..

Reporting today live from St. Maarten..a couple brief rain showers this PM, but no big deal...Pirate's tonight....not announced yet, but hopefully a prem-ear tomorrow for the new Travolta/Williams movie...but we shall see...

Had to cancel our regatta plans as Lisa still recovering from surgery and that excursion was too strenuous, but shopping worked well...a ring and matching earrings this time in St. Maarten...and i picked up a signed storyboard from the guy who designed Yoda....he has a store here.

Last night saw John Charles again....but he really is very good as many of you know..

Tomorrow will be St. Thomas, and for us, Coral World...I know there are mixed comments there, but we are going anyway...maybe pick up some sea lion art (no, i am not kidding)...

Disboards group collectively having a great time and the FE's are as active as we have ever seen them...about 140 people participating...and we know all about FE's...

As to Lampy's question, Chun did get a great picture of someone sprawled out asleep on deck 4, but I will not print any of those names here...LOL

Chuck:cool1:

Asleep? Unless they were "un-cloathed" they weren't true "Turkeys" LOL Glad you are having fun.....you got me and Willie thinking about Turkey sailings......

[Tinkerbell 99 Mom]

No secrets here. It was Larry and it was a great picture!!!
Fast asleep on deck 4. With People magazine in hand

[Tinkerbell 99 Mom]

Golden eagle cat was Great. The kid really enjoyed it

We are in St Thomas today. Magens bay is fantastic

we have been on our own. But prefer the Disney excursion
better. Not as much hassle

[LAMPSKIES]

Think I got a pic of Willie and Doogie on St. Marrteen

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y134/lampskies/WillieDoogie.jpg

[ICEMANPAD]

Well it has been an interesting evening thus far here on the Magic..OK weather was great all day...Coral World was all right...shopping was actually pretty good in town...

Now for the exciting stuff, but I do not want to minimize the quick response thus far of the crew on the Magic...

Coming out of St. Thomas they cranked the engines for the sprint back to CC...and...there was a fire in the real smokestack...so for a short while, no electricity...elevators stopped....sea doors shut...but all appears well now an hour or so later...

We are moving again...just not sure if we are really headed anywhere just yet or whether we are circling to stay in range of St. thomas until all systems check out...

Palo tonight for us...

Everything seems to be back to normal....

Will post later as I can..

Chuck:cool1:

[DMMarla07860]

Well it has been an interesting evening thus far here on the Magic..OK weather was great all day...Coral World was all right...shopping was actually pretty good in town...

Now for the exciting stuff, but I do not want to minimize the quick response thus far of the crew on the Magic...

Coming out of St. Thomas they cranked the engines for the sprint back to CC...and...there was a fire in the real smokestack...so for a short while, no electricity...elevators stopped....sea doors shut...but all appears well now an hour or so later...

We are moving again...just not sure if we are really headed anywhere just yet or whether we are circling to stay in range of St. thomas until all systems check out...

Palo tonight for us...

Everything seems to be back to normal....

Will post later as I can..

Chuck:cool1:

I heard about the electricity stuff happening from people I know who are in Soul Drive

[dustermom02]

Hey! Just had to check in. Hope its ok to post here. I'm the only one in the cabin awake and I really want to see old dogs at 10:45 so I have to stay awake. Been a fabulous trip so far!

I think I'm a couple steps behind everyone though. We came in Saturday morning on the auto train. No delays and our car was #60 out of 188 so it wasn't bad. Got to my sisters house by 11 and then were picked up by the van service at 11:30am. Were at port before 12 but by then many people must have been on board. Glad we missed the huge line - we got on very quickly after a picture with mickey in his sweater - that was a new one for me.

Got settled into our cabin easily. Realized we packed WAAAAAY too much. This has to be the messiest cabin Rex, our cabin steward, has ever seen. And I forgot dh's suit jacket and tie although I did pack his tux.

Ran into Wendy almost right away. Gorgeous lady with a beautiful southern accent. She got us set up with our mini- navigator - not that we've done well at making it to things though. Sorry about that. And the fe group - holy cow! We are going to need another suitcase to take everything home- people are so creative and generous! From bags to scrapbooks to hairbands its been so exciting for the kids to see what arrived. And Chun - the name tags have been fantastic for identifying people. Thank you so much everyone! We've done one run so far and still have stuff to deliver but haven't made it out again. Will have to work on that tomorrow.

I still have to figure out who Chuck, Lisa, Mason, Karen and Andrew are. That's on the list for tomorrow too.

I also have to go online and find a cove cafe mug since they don't carry them any more.

So far the memories that stick out are

1. the huge group of blue shirts at the sail away party. Very cool.

2.sat night the adult scavenger hunt (oh my word!!) followed by the so you know your spouse game(!!). I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. I was going through tons of cocktail napkins I was crying from laughing so much. Couple #3 was related to a turkey and I can't remember who right now, Ellie & John I think were their names and married 46 yrs I think.

3. DS9 is thrilled with his boy scout patches!

4 After our spa visit we stopped at the hot tub monday night and who should be in there but Prince Charming! I didn't recognize the other person. He was talking about doing Christmas shopping on friday and was wondering if there were any good internet sales going on that he could take advantage of. So I told him that I was told by a reliable source that Vera Bradley is discontinuing some more fabrics on friday and that he should be able to find them on the internet. He looked at me and said - 'My mom doesn't sew." :rotfl: I thought that was too cute.

5. Tues we did the bernard tour - thank you whoever recommended it we loved it. as we were leaving orient beach bernard asked, so did you like what you saw? (our family had the first 4 chairs right where the nude beach/non nude beach met). and the bus is silent until my ds9 mutters - not EVERYTHING. Then again as we were heading back to port we started quizzing the 3 older cousins, (my mom's a teacher- can't help it-in the genes or something), about the island and they talked about 2 sides and I asked so - tell me some differences between the 2 sides. And dnephew goes - the FRENCH side has the NAKED people. Ah well, hopefully they got a little more out of it than just that.

6. our servers are fabulous and since my dh, dsis & dbil loved the tuna appetizers they have been bringing them every night - even when they aren't on the menu any more. this is our 3rd time crusing and we've always had good servers, but these two are amazing.

7. paradise point didn't have great reviews but we just loved it . we rode up and sat up there for hours enjoying the view and their famous bushwackers. i could do that every day. if anyone has the recipe for a bushwacker - please post it - its fabulous.

That got longer than I expected - can you tell its been great!!

And everything was fine during the power outage. I heard one engine overheated and made a bunch of smoke but that it was under control. We will be late to castaway cay though. I think they said we'll arrive at 10am. hopefully my dmom will get to go parasailing since we are scheduled for 10:30.

tomorrow should be a blast. characer bkfst, brunch at palos, galley tour, tea with the mad hatter.... can't wait.

[LAMPSKIES]

It has been brought to my attention (as you know I have an "in" at DCL) that the necessary repairs may be done at sea and at CC. DCL will have the engine diagnosed and torn down, parts that aren't already onboard will be delivered to CC before the ship arrives and will most likely be fixed before she sails for PC. Keep and eye out you may see some different things.....boats our even that runway may get a little use!

[ICEMANPAD]

OK, was not able to finish this at sea, but it was a great trip overall...it did take 3 attempts to land at CC due to a strong front coming though, but we did get on the island about 1pm....the Disboards group was very active and a great time was had by all....more later as we have just gotten home...ok we stopped at the outlet mall at Vero on the way...

Chuck:cool1:

[Pixie Dust for Me!]

Hi all,

Made it to Chattanooga tonight...will head the rest of the way in to St. Louis tomorrow. All in all, this was a terrific cruise! The "official" count of t-shirts (yes, I'm the t-shirt lady and Andrew, we are STILL using your design :rotfl2: shoulda copyrighted that thing a few years back :rotfl2:) was 78 t-shirts!

The FE group was very inventive, thorough and fun! We had so much stuff that we stuffed a suitcase full!

The "event" out of St. Thomas was handled very, very, very well by DCL staff. We were down, dead in the water, for about 90 minutes from the start of thick black smoke coming from the smoke stack to getting under way again. Our poor Captain really got a work out this cruise....poor man likely needs his own vacation!

Friday's trip into Castaway Cay was....interesting. Captain tried to get us in...no luck. Tried again...no luck. Came on the loud speaker and said he would try again in 45 minutes....NO LUCK! So, the DCL staff started passing out "updated" activities guides and got things well underway. We got a "bonus" :thumbsup2 of pulling up beside the Wonder and having a horn war...that was a ton of fun. Can't wait to see/hear the video my DS took.

Finally, a bit after Noon the very determined Captain made another attempt and....SUCCESS!!!! We were at Castaway Cay! Activities at CC were very limited that day, but we were all glad to be on the magical private island...even if our trip there was short. Our kind Captain extended our time on the island a bit and it made sailaway really pretty with the sun setting and all. I felt bad for the staff who set up to go to CC...then had to set up for us to stay on the ship...then had to reset again for us to go to CC. They all worked really hard that day and I know my family appreciated their efforts tremendously!

The only "bad" part of the cruise was how rough and rocky the boat was. My DH (Steve) had trouble on Saturday night...and most other nights too. But he finally learned that keeping something in your tummy and getting air helped a lot. I had problems on Thursday evening. This was my 4th cruise...1st Eastern and I don't know that I'll go East again from Port Canaveral. I'm honestly not sure that the stabilizers were ever used on this trip! I'm confident they weren't on the 1st, 6th and 7th nights. Let's just say that walking down the halls was....interesting! And, now that I am on land I'm still rocking!

[So now, my DH (hmmm...maybe DSH is more descriptive....:laughing:) is looking over my shoulder asking what DH means....oh no....maybe now he'll get hooked on the Disboards too :scared1:! ]

But, even with the bad there was the truly terrific! Steve, Andrew and I are making plans to go see Captain/Uncle Chun and his family, we've booked on the 8.16.2011 cruise and are thinking about a cruise in July with Mickeyhugger and Tinkerbell99Mom and families. Thanks to all our Turkey Day Friends for making this cruise so incredibly special.

Hope to see you all again real soon!

Karen

[LAMPSKIES]

Hi all,

Made it to Chattanooga tonight...will head the rest of the way in to St. Louis tomorrow. All in all, this was a terrific cruise! The "official" count of t-shirts (yes, I'm the t-shirt lady and Andrew, we are STILL using your design :rotfl2: shoulda copyrighted that thing a few years back :rotfl2:) was 78 t-shirts!

The FE group was very inventive, thorough and fun! We had so much stuff that we stuffed a suitcase full!

The "event" out of St. Thomas was handled very, very, very well by DCL staff. We were down, dead in the water, for about 90 minutes from the start of thick black smoke coming from the smoke stack to getting under way again. Our poor Captain really got a work out this cruise....poor man likely needs his own vacation!

Friday's trip into Castaway Cay was....interesting. Captain tried to get us in...no luck. Tried again...no luck. Came on the loud speaker and said he would try again in 45 minutes....NO LUCK! So, the DCL staff started passing out "updated" activities guides and got things well underway. We got a "bonus" :thumbsup2 of pulling up beside the Wonder and having a horn war...that was a ton of fun. Can't wait to see/hear the video my DS took.

Finally, a bit after Noon the very determined Captain made another attempt and....SUCCESS!!!! We were at Castaway Cay! Activities at CC were very limited that day, but we were all glad to be on the magical private island...even if our trip there was short. Our kind Captain extended our time on the island a bit and it made sailaway really pretty with the sun setting and all. I felt bad for the staff who set up to go to CC...then had to set up for us to stay on the ship...then had to reset again for us to go to CC. They all worked really hard that day and I know my family appreciated their efforts tremendously!

The only "bad" part of the cruise was how rough and rocky the boat was. My DH (Steve) had trouble on Saturday night...and most other nights too. But he finally learned that keeping something in your tummy and getting air helped a lot. I had problems on Thursday evening. This was my 4th cruise...1st Eastern and I don't know that I'll go East again from Port Canaveral. I'm honestly not sure that the stabilizers were ever used on this trip! I'm confident they weren't on the 1st, 6th and 7th nights. Let's just say that walking down the halls was....interesting! And, now that I am on land I'm still rocking!

[So now, my DH (hmmm...maybe DSH is more descriptive....:laughing:) is looking over my shoulder asking what DH means....oh no....maybe now he'll get hooked on the Disboards too :scared1:! ]

But, even with the bad there was the truly terrific! Steve, Andrew and I are making plans to go see Captain/Uncle Chun and his family, we've booked on the 8.16.2011 cruise and are thinking about a cruise in July with Mickeyhugger and Tinkerbell99Mom and families. Thanks to all our Turkey Day Friends for making this cruise so incredibly special.

Hope to see you all again real soon!

Karen

Chatting with my "friend" at DCL who happened to be on the ship the stabalizers weren't out on the 6th and 7th night due to the fact that they had to make up time from the "fire" and the delayed stay at CC. The stabalizers keep the ship from rocking but also slow it down....The Eastern is DEFINATELY our favorite, but the Turkeyday Western had 2 stops @ CC.....COME ON CHUCK!!!!! Where is that trip report? Jess and Alli have told me they want to do the Turkeyday sailing next year....might book next week

[alwayslisad]

Hiya all - great report - :) :)