20060902--Eastern Sept 2nd, 2006

[Luckymommyx2]

I've made several calls out and thought I'd try again. Is there any Dis'ers out there on the ship with us? I'm starting to think we're going to have it all to ourselves!!!

[cbcable]

if it makes you feel any better i am on the cruise to the west when you get back, Sept 9,2006 i have the same feeling about having the whole ship to ourself.

i hope you have a great cruise and the waters are calm

western 9-9-06

[Luckymommyx2]

I got really excited when I saw a reply to my thread! LOL! Oh well, it's still over a year away but I thought maybe someone from the DIS would be on our ship by now!

Best wishes for a magical cruise and smooth sailings...

BTW...welcome to the DIS! :wave:

[taeja71]

Hello all! never mind.

[joshua121301]

We will be joining you on the Sept 2, 2006 Eastern Cruise. I have been twice before, but not for five years. It's the first time for my DW and DS3 & DS2 & DD due next month. I hope to find more people cruising so that we can meet up. Hope to see you there. :wave:

[Luckymommyx2]

Welcome aboard! :wave: I'm glad to see someone else sailing with me. Actually it will be me, DH, DS and DD. We were on the Wonder way back in 2003 and the kids had a blast. I have a few WDW trips planned between now and then to "get us through" until the cruise. DH can't wait to be on a seven day, and neither can I!! What category stateroom did you book? We're in a six because we love the balcony so much and last time we were in a six we were right above the kids club and had a two minute walk to get them in the evenings. Hopefully there will be some more joining us between now and our sailing.
Chat with you again soon!
BTW...Welcome to the DIS boards and congrats on DD next month!!

[joshua121301]

Thanks for your congrats on our newest addition to the family. We booked two rooms, one in catagory six for my in-laws, and one in catagory one for us. We are new to the board, but excited about the enthusiasm that everyone shows for all things Disney. We are regulars at the Disneyland Parks ::MickeyMo (about 40 times last year), but relative newbies to the Florida parks. :sunny: I have visited when I was young, but not the DW or DS's. I hope that others on the board will join in later so that we can all meet up onboard. :grouphug: It is soooo far away right now. :hourglass We drove down to the port of Los Angeles on Saturday just to stare at the Magic in port. :earseek: We are booked for the early seating for dinner and am not certain that this is the right thing to do. Our kids are still pretty small and not sure if this will help us to get dinner or help us to miss shows. Anyhow, thanks for your reply and here's looking forward to many more in the year to come.

[joshua121301]

Just bumping :cool1:

[joshua121301]

Well maybe we will be the only ones on this cruise. I hope not, I was really looking forward to making friendship :wave2: s prior to sailing.

[ksumom]

We may be on the ship with ya all!! We're going this Sept. 17th on the Eastern and may re-book for next Sept. around Labor Day.... Eastern is the only one at that time... I figured we'd just do different excursions, or if we like it well enough, the same ones!!! We may be cruising with DH's family, this year we're going with my Sis, her family & my mom.

I'll keep ya posted if we'll be on the ship!!

Susan :cool1:

[joshua121301]

We hope to see you there. I wish that I was going this year with you!!

[joshua121301]

Well Lucky, it looks like it might be just us for now. Maybe the hurricane season is fending them off. I would love to host a dis-meet party on board, but it might just be our families.

[Monstro]

I don't have a lot of time to post many specefics now, but we're on this cruise with our friends from Georgia. We have 14 total in our party in 4 cabins on decks 5 and 6. :) We did some fun things with our disgroup on our last cruise.

More later....

Jeff

[Luckymommyx2]

Wow, our group just took quite a leap! I heard that this is supposed to be a really bad hurricane season, but no one ever knows for sure until it happens. It does remind me that I still need to get my cruise insurance! I've had this booked (through Costco) since the day the dates opened up in Sept/Oct of last year! Has anyone used insuremytrip.com? (I think that's the site everyone keeps talking about.) Here's to calm seas for our trip.

[joshua121301]

Now that is quite a leap in numbers for only one post. Welcome aboard!! It will be great fun to travel with such a large group of friends and family. We will be a party of 7 ourselves and are waiting for the days to pass so that we can see the look on the faces of our kids. They already talk about it all of the time. We even drove to the port of Los Angeles to see the ship in port. I hope to hear lots of suggestions in the future that might maximize our trip.

[Monstro]

Thanks! We're excited! This will be our 6th disney cruise - 1st eastern.

[Monstro]

We will be a party of 7 ourselves and are waiting for the days to pass so that we can see the look on the faces of our kids. They already talk about it all of the time.

Us too! The kids get so excited for our cruise vacations. I'd recommend riding the disney shuttle to the port. Once you're on the bus... your vacation has started. :cool1:

They plan a little video about the cruise and disney music... it's a great kick off.

[joshua121301]

We are planning to book our own air trans, but take the bus either to the port to to WDW for a few days prior to the ship. We haven't made any arangements for the WDW portion yet, so we haven't booked the transfers. They aren't difficult to get last minute are they? And if I make the arrangements for our air, do they still retrive the baggage from the :confused3 air carrier?

[Monstro]

We've always arranged our own air as well. It's difficult for us to get a flight to get in early enough on Saturday so we always fly on Friday. We stay near the airport at a hotel with a complimentary airport shuttle. I've heard if you stay at the Airport Hyatt the night before Disney will pick the luggage up from your room.... not sure if that is true or not. I'd imagine they have shuttles running from the WDW area if you're staying at a WDW resort hotel the night before. I'd check into that.

One of the things we liked about riding the shuttle on our first cruise was seeing the Magic for the first time. You can see it when your about 5 miles out - The energy in the bus goes through the roof when the driver points it out to people.

Ask as many questions as you'd like. I'm going to get my freinds from Georgia on this thread with us. This will be their 7th Disney Cruise. I'm sure they'll have a lot of good tips for you.

[rocketralph]

bump :cool1:

[joshua121301]

Just Bumping :rolleyes1

[Erik]

We will be on the 9-2-06 eastern curise also.
We booked last December.
Family of 5, DD18, DS15, DS6 at time of curise
2 cabins deck 6, cat 7 and cat 11.

[joshua121301]

Welcome aboard!!

[gouodux]

We were on the Magic this past week and booked this cruise. However, then they announced the 11 day cruise on Friday. We couldn't believe the ports so we switched our booking to the 11 day.

Now that we are home, we have some friends that may want to go. The 11 day is a little to costly for them at this time (just moved into a new home). So, we may be joining this cruise again. We will know later this week. Either way, we can't wait until next September. We enjoyed the Mexico cruise, but nothing beats the waters of the Carribean.

[atakaratemom]

Hi everyone!

We just booked today for the 9/2/06 cruise. We live in California and did the West Coast cruise a couple of weeks ago. We had such a great time that we decided to book again for next year and take our friends with us.

We are two families, DH42, DW40(me),DS11 and DD6. Our friends are a mother and son(8). We are so excited to be cruising from Florida. I know it is more than a year away, but we are already counting the days. We will be looking forward to meeting all of you.

Mary :flower:

[quangr]

2 cabins booked. Wife and I and our daughters 4 and 2 (cruise ages) as well as the in-laws next door. can't wait.

[bielen]

We'll be on the 9/2 Cruise. This will be our first cruise ever. We'll be traveling with our 3 year old twin duaghters. We're really excited. We're from New Jersey.

Anyone have recommendations on what to plan in advance?

[rocketralph]

We'll be on the 9/2 Cruise. This will be our first cruise ever. We'll be traveling with our 3 year old twin duaghters. We're really excited. We're from New Jersey.

Anyone have recommendations on what to plan in advance?
Enroll your twins in the oceaner's club. You should be able to do this online.

[bielen]

What are the hours of the Oceaneers Club?

Is there a place children can rest while if we wanted to go out one evening?

[joshua121301]

We'll be on the 9/2 Cruise. This will be our first cruise ever. We'll be traveling with our 3 year old twin duaghters. We're really excited. We're from New Jersey.

Anyone have recommendations on what to plan in advance?
Welcome!!
It looks like we will have a group of great people onboard!!
You can plan almost everything in advance. DCL's website now accepts reservations for excursions, palo reservations, many spa treatments, and online registration of your kids. The boards are full of information and their are additional sources of information available outside the boards. Will you be visiting WDW before or after the cruise?

[joshua121301]

What are the hours of the Oceaneers Club?

Is there a place children can rest while if we wanted to go out one evening?

The hours of the OC are from 9:00AM to Midnight.

The activities in the club wind down a bit going into the evening. A little less jumping around and eventually leading to PJ movie parties or the like. The kids truely do love the club. This will help with the initial guilt of dropping the kids off at all during a vacation. The kids end up wanting to stay in the clubs, they really do have a great time. The evenings are a time of choices though because the shows on board are really worth seeing with the kids if they aren't too tired. Feel free to ask as many questions as you like.

[joshua121301]

The club puts out mats for resting later in the evening and most of the childred end up sleeping peacefully until the parents pick them up.

[bielen]

We will arrive on late afternoon on Friday and probably stay at the Airport Marriott. After the cruise, we are thinking either a day in Cocoa Beach or Orlando before going back home.

I know you must pay the full balance before making reservations? Do I do the reservations directly with Disney or my travel agent? The vacation was booked by Cruise<dot>com, but the charge went through Disney Cruise Lines.

We are looking to meet others with similar aged children (3-year old twin girls) to do things together.

[atakaratemom]

My only advice for you would be to make sure the twins have some exposure to Disney and the characters in advance and that they are comfortable separating from you. We just got back from the West Coast cruise a couple of weeks ago and it was amazing! We sat with another family at dinner and their little boy was three years old. Unfortunately he refused to stay in the club. He cried until they paged his Mom. He had never really been separated from her before. Also, he had never been to Disney and was really afraid of some of the characters. He was such a cutie and they had a wonderful time, but Mom and Dad were limited in their adult activities.

Mary :flower:

[bielen]

My only advice for you would be to make sure the twins have some exposure to Disney and the characters in advance and that they are comfortable separating from you.
Mary :flower:

I don't think this will be a problem. The girls have been in day care since they were 6 months old. They have many friends and are relatively outgoing. They know a few Disney characters such as Minnie Mouse and Winnie the Pooh. I think they will have a lot of fun in the club, but we also want to spend family time with them as well.

[atakaratemom]

If they have been in daycare they will have no problem at all. The clubs are so much fun and they make sure that the activities keep changing so the kids don't get bored. My daughter is 5 and she adores the princesses. She got to meet most of them and get autographs and pictures. She was over the moon with excitement!

Mary

[joshua121301]

We are looking to meet others with similar aged children (3-year old twin girls) to do things together.

Our kids will be DS4, DS3 and DD 1 (She is due to arrive in 11 days). We hope to meet others who have kids in the same age range as well :)

[gouodux]

Gonna stick with the 11 day.

[joshua121301]

Gonna stick with the 11 day.
Can't say that I blame you. Have a great trip!! ::MickeyMo

[Lisann22]

Hi Everyone...

My family will be on this cruise also. Me (42), Aunt (54), Cousin (34) and her boys (13) and (5). 2 rooms on Deck 6; 1 cat 6, 1 cat 7.

We are so excited, it's our first cruise. I've got lots of questions. ;)

[joshua121301]

Well welcome to the Dis Board. I'm fairly new too, but I have found a great deal of information here, and the people are very nice and helpful. We too are very much looking forward to the cruise. Our kids are excited a full year out, although I don't think they quite understand me when I explain that we have to wait one year!! We are also attempted to exchange our Palm Desert time share for a week at a Disney Vacation Club resort prior to the sailing. Does anyone have any experience with this?? What excursions are best for children under the age of 5? Most of the listings are for older children. I am hoping to make the DCL a yearly trip for our family and have already sent in a request for the 2007 sailings. Here's hoping that they come out very soon, but not next week as we will be in the hospital adding yet another member to our family. :Pinkbounc

[atakaratemom]

Just bumping up this thread to let our fellow 9/2/2006 cruisers know that Joshua121301 just had a baby girl. Here is a link to the thread on the main forum. Thought you might want to send him best wishes!

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=894399

Mary :flower:

[joshua121301]

A couple of pictures!!Sorry for the delay. As you all know, the first few days are full of duties. Mom and Alexandra are both doing very well!! A few hours of sleep are even being found by both. Alexandra is eating very well which helps with some of Mom's issues!! Relief is found when she eats well. I have been busy with the boy's DS3 and DS2. Keeping them busy makes them feel important, and gives them the attention that they both deserve. So the days have been busy, but what did we expect moving up to three kids all under 4 years of age. Thanks again to all who have expressed their congratulations and prayers!! :goodvibes We are finding out exactly what kind of people are on the DIS and love it all the more. What started out as a quest for information will end in good and enduring friendships, this I am sure of.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b330/joshua121301/Home1.jpg
Precious Girl

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b330/joshua121301/Home2.jpg
The Brothers Charged With Her Protection

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b330/joshua121301/Home3.jpg
:Pinkbounc

[ksumom]

What a cute little girl!! :cloud9:

The little guys are pretty cute too!!


Congratulations!!

[joshua121301]

Thank you very much!! I think that they are pretty cute too!! :)

[atakaratemom]

What a little beauty! I am certain she has you wrapped around her finger already! My son was so excited when we brought his little sister home and I am sure your boys will be very protective big brothers just as he was and still is. Congratulations on your lovely family!

Mary :flower:

[Monstro]

A couple of pictures!!Sorry for the delay. As you all know, the first few days are full of duties. Mom and Alexandra are both doing very well!! A few hours of sleep are even being found by both. Alexandra is eating very well which helps with some of Mom's issues!! Relief is found when she eats well. I have been busy with the boy's DS3 and DS2. Keeping them busy makes them feel important, and gives them the attention that they both deserve. So the days have been busy, but what did we expect moving up to three kids all under 4 years of age. Thanks again to all who have expressed their congratulations and prayers!! :goodvibes We are finding out exactly what kind of people are on the DIS and love it all the more. What started out as a quest for information will end in good and enduring friendships, this I am sure of.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b330/joshua121301/Home1.jpg
Precious Girl

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b330/joshua121301/Home2.jpg
The Brothers Charged With Her Protection

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b330/joshua121301/Home3.jpg
:Pinkbounc


Very cute! Congratulations.

[JanDave]

Hello All! My DH and I will be cruising with you on 9/2/06. We just got off the Magic yesterday. Had a great time as usual. Next cruise will be DCL #7 for us. If you have any questions, perhaps I could answer them.

We plan to fly to Orlando from Detroit the day before the cruise. We're thinking of using our DVC points to stay at Old Key West. Last week, we stayed overnight in Cocoa Beach at the Holiday Inn Express. Great hotel. New and clean. We spent some time with Shirley and Norm from the Perfect Gift.

Several other families from the 9/3/05 Magic plan to cruise on 9/2/06 also.

Jan

[markncheryl]

We are bringing the whole family, wife, myself two kids, my inlaws and my mom. We have two cat 2 rooms booked I think on Deck 8. First time on a disney curise so we are all looking forward to a great time for everyone. Maybe the grand parents will keep the kids entertained and we can relax by the pool or on the beach.

[markncheryl]

Well I may be mistaken, we are booked on the 4 day bahama, on Disney Wonder departing on 9/3/06, is this the same saling for this thread.

[Monstro]

Nope. This is the 7 day Eastern. Why don't you change and Join us. - you sound like a fun bunch.

Jeff

[Monstro]

We are bringing the whole family, wife, myself two kids, my inlaws and my mom. We have two cat 2 rooms booked I think on Deck 8. First time on a disney curise so we are all looking forward to a great time for everyone. Maybe the grand parents will keep the kids entertained and we can relax by the pool or on the beach.


The clubs do a great job at keeping the kids entertained. You can all relax by the pool. :sunny:

Enjoy your cruise.

[markncheryl]

Oh Sorry about that, well we will stick with our 4 days, you know too much time with the family is not good. I didn't see thread for that one so maybe we will have it to oursleves. Have fun everyone

[Monstro]

OK ... I'll welcome you. WELCOME Jan and group. Awww the excitment of just returning. I'm jealous. This will be our 6 Disney Cruise (my wife and I are going solo in January) - first Eastern. Maybe you can post some pointers along the way. I'll be certain to ask questions as they arise. I hope we dock near the tram in St Thomas. I want a picture of the Magic from the top of the tram.

Good to have you with us - looking forward to getting to know you.

Jeff

[gdulaney]

Hi everybody! We'll also be on the 9/2 Eastern sailing. We just returned from the 9/3 Eastern and are going through withdrawals. It's hard to function when you realize your phone doesn't have a "room service" button and nobody is making up the bed and leaving towel animals.

We had searched for a Sept 2 thread and didn't see one, so Andy had also started one. One of the other folks saw the thread and gave us the link. Thanks Jeff!!

Hi Jan and Dave!! I'm glad you guys are going to cruise next year.

Ginny :cutie:

[Monstro]

Ginny,

We've been waiting for you :) We have freinds from Guyton Georgia that will be on this cruise with us - met them on our first Disney Cruise. If you've seen my posts in the "picture of the day" thread - you've seen some of their kids with ours.

Jeff

[Monstro]

We'll be on the 9/2 Cruise. This will be our first cruise ever. We'll be traveling with our 3 year old twin duaghters. We're really excited. We're from New Jersey.



Twin daughters - Wow! You are going to have sooo much fun!

[Monstro]

We will be on the 9-2-06 eastern curise also.
We booked last December.
Family of 5, DD18, DS15, DS6 at time of curise
2 cabins deck 6, cat 7 and cat 11.

ERIK,

I have A DD 18(She'll be 19 at cruise time). She just left for a year studying abroad in England. Boy was that hard - sending her off.

[gdulaney]

Hi Jeff! Where's Guyton Georgia? We work in Atlanta and live about 35 miles East of Atlanta in Covington.

Ginny

[HollyTyler]

Hello fellow cruisers! :wave: I'll be joining you guys with my son, Tyler (4 at time of cruise). We just got off the Sept. 10 Magic and are already going through withdrawals! :sad: I keep looking around for somebody to refill my DCL beer mug! :drinking1

Jan, it looks like you beat me to joining this thread!

[bielen]

HollyTyler:

We will have our twin daughters who will be 3.5 years old on the cruise.

This will be our first cruise. The refillable beer mug sounds good!

[HollyTyler]

HollyTyler:

We will have our twin daughters who will be 3.5 years old on the cruise.

This will be our first cruise. The refillable beer mug sounds good!

Hello! You're going to have so much fun! Yup, the beer mug is great. It's a 22oz glass souvineer mug for $9.99 plus the cost to fill it with beer. I think my total was $13 or so. Then you can refill it at any bar all week long for $3.25, which is the price of a 16oz draft. GREAT deal! Unfortunately, I didn't purchase mine until the last night because my son didn't want to go in the kids' club until the end of the cruise, but I made up for it that last night! :cool1:

Your daughters are going to LOVE the kids' club! Once I finally coerced my son in there, he loved it and always wanted to go back. And the best part of the cruise, I think, is seeing the look of amazement on your kids' faces when they get to meet the characters all week long. :flower:

My son will be happy when I tell him about kids almost his age he can play with.

Welcome! And just be aware that Dis cruises are addicting!

[Monstro]

Hi Jeff! Where's Guyton Georgia? We work in Atlanta and live about 35 miles East of Atlanta in Covington.

Ginny


I think it's a a little Northeast of Savannah.

[gdulaney]

We don't have any kids, but if anybody is interested, I'd be happy to share some of the kids activities our DIS meet group did on our last cruise.

Ginny :cutie:

[Erik]

ERIK,

I have A DD 18(She'll be 19 at cruise time). She just left for a year studying abroad in England. Boy was that hard - sending her off.

Monstro,
Our DD will turn 18 two weeks before the cruise, she doesn't know if she will join the teen group or just hang out on the ship. Sending someone off to school is hard. We will have that decision also next year.
This cruise is to celibrate our 20th anv, also 4 of us have a B-day within a few weeks of the cruise. So we plan on celebrating all the events over the week.

[joshua121301]

Are we there Yet!!

[gdulaney]

Not yet....and I sure would love a Mickey bar.

Ginny :mickeybar

[joshua121301]

[/QUOTE]My son will be happy when I tell him about kids almost his age he can play with.

Welcome! And just be aware that Dis cruises are addicting![/QUOTE]

We have two boys that age one will be 4 1/2 and one 3 1/2. Seeing that you are from Michigan, I will leave their Ohio State Jerseys at home!! JK :rotfl2:

[HollyTyler]

[/QUOTE]We have two boys that age one will be 4 1/2 and one 3 1/2. Seeing that you are from Michigan, I will leave their Ohio State Jerseys at home!! JK :rotfl2:[/QUOTE]


Hahaha! :rotfl: Wouldn't bother me one bit! I'm not loyal. :blush: My son will be 3 months shy of 4 1/2 at the time of the cruise, so I'm sure he'll be playing with your boys lots in the kids' club! We should definitely introduce all of them on the first day so they can see who they'll be playing with. But it's too early to plan on when everybody is going to meet. Last time, we had a Dis meet in the Promenade lounge after sailaway.

[gdulaney]

I'm so excited...I just found out that our friends will be cruising the Sept 2nd Eastern next year. They did the Panama Canal "Bringing the Magic Home" cruise this year and were getting off the ship as we were getting on it.

It's so cool the way you meet folks and connect. We had been sitting next to a young girl, her mom, and her grandmother every night. It was a brief "hi" and wave...with light conversation before the show.

Fast forward to the next year....we're standing in line in the terminal and I nudge Andy ... "those folks look like the family we sat next to last year"... Well, a little later I got the opportunity to say hello and sure enough...it was the same family. We sat next to each other in the shows and sat with them at both the Castaway Club party and the DVC meeting. We exchanged email addresses and decided to link our dining reservations together for the following year.

Fast forward again... we ate dinner with Sam (the 12-yr old young lady), Sue (her mom), and Grammie. We even did dinner at Palo with Sue and Grammie.

For 2005, they did the PC crossing and we did the Eastern.... but I just found out that they are definitely going to do the Sept 2nd Eastern. YIPPEE!!!

Ginny

[gdulaney]

Are there any DVC members who are planning to cruise on points? If so, we can book on Monday!!!

Ginny :cutie:

[gdulaney]

It's official...we're booked!!

Any other DVC folks booking today?

Ginny :cutie:

[joshua121301]

It's official...we're booked!!

Any other DVC folks booking today?

Ginny :cutie:
Welcome Ginny,

It will be here before we know it. We have been putting off this cruise for newly four years and can't wait!! (We had three kids during those four years) I am really looking forward to meeting everyone. I have cruised twice before, but that was prior to finding the disboards. What kind of get togethers and activities usually take place involving the dis people??

[gdulaney]

Our DIS meet last month was wild! We started off with a meet 'n greet in the Promenade Lounge. A couple of folks had "taken the lead" and compiled a list of all the DISers (names, city/state, and DIS name)... one person made name tags, and one person made little photo albums for all the kids.

The next day, we had a treasure hunt (for hidden Mickeys) for all the kids. The older kids were "captains" and a parent went with each group. While the teams were out searching, the moms (and me...I got drafted) filled "loot" bags. We had a list that showed the number of kids, boy or girl, and age. We had three piles of loot bags.... one for girls, one for boys, and one for tots. Alot of folks brought items to donate......such as pirate coins, beads, gums, crackers, glow sticks, stickers, etc. Also age appropriate items for the small fry...such as "Pirate" rubber ducks, and other toys....not candy or things they could choke on. We did have one very generous (and brave) DIS mom that made tie-dye tees for all the kids. I'm not sure if she got a great deal on tee shirts or what, but all of our little pirates had matching tees. Very cute!!!

Since all of the kids got a loot bag, nobody felt left out. The total time was probably about 30-45 minutes and the parents got a lot of cute photos.

One of the dads was able to get about a dozen Mickey bars (I think Guest Svs helped out) and the dads had a "Mickey Bar" eating contest... very funny!!!!!

I've never seen such a huge DIS meet....it was really fun. We're still exchanging emails with some of the folks we met!

These are just some ideas. I'm sure other folks probably have ideas too. :)

Ginny

[joshua121301]

It sounds like you had a great time!! What a great way to personnalize your cruise and make everyone feel like part of a special group!! I hope that as we get closer we can put together activities like these. I would love to help when the time comes. I be glad to assist anyone in anyway.

[tekmnky]

Hi all!
Hi JanDave!
Hi gdulaney!

I may be joining you on this cruise! I'm seriously thinking of abandoning ship for the 11-nt and booking this one. It's a more efficient use of available vacation time - two 7-nighters instead of one 11-nighter with a few days left over for WDW!

Look forward to sailing with you again!

[gdulaney]

Hi Bill :wave2:

Ginny

[HollyTyler]

Bill and Ginny: I work with Jan (JanDave) and she's told me how nice you both are! :) I'm looking forward to meeting you!

[tekmnky]

Hi Holly!:wave:


Look forward to meeting and cruising with you. You've got a great workmate there!

[gdulaney]

Hi Holly,

Jan is wonderful. We had a blast hanging out with her and Dave. Look forward to meeting you.

Ginny :cutie:

[tggrbuny]

HI!

I am excited to say that DH (46) and I (41) are booked on this cruise. This is our first Disney cruise, also never been the eastern route. :sunny:

Really looking forward to meeting all of you. We don't have any children, but we act like kids, so you'll never notice the difference.

In answer to Ginny's question, we are DVC too. :goodvibes

I have read several of your trip reports from this year's cruise (same route and week) and now can't hardly wait.

Robin :wave:

[gdulaney]

Hi Robin :wave2:

Welcome to the Eastern DCL 9/2 thread!! Have you guys ever cruised before? We love the Disney Cruise Line and have aways had a blast!!!

Ginny :cutie:

[tggrbuny]

Ginny,

This will be cruise number four for us. We avoided Disney in the past because we thought we might be out of place without kids. After a lot of research, we have come to see that isn't true. Looking back now it seems stupid. We go to the parks once or twice a year and always have a good time and rarely feel left out. :wizard:

We still get star struck when we see the characters, we love to cruise...it seems like a match made in heaven. DH is already looking for a puffy pirate shirt! pirate:

It will be nice to know people on board. On our last Royal cruise, we didn't know anyone. The first morning we ate at a table with a large family that refused to noticed us, of course, we ran into them all day no matter where we went! Serves them right :rotfl2:

Robin :wave:

[gdulaney]

Robin,

I know what you mean...it's alot more fun when you know folks...or are at least on "waving" terms. We've been pretty fortunate with our dining companions. This year was the hardest....but by a couple of nights into the cruise, we were all getting along wonderfully.

Isn't it crazy --- you see a huge ship and you know that you'll never see folks...and yet, everywhere you go...there they are. It's pretty cool.

Ginny :)

[tggrbuny]

Ginny
I agree. We have met some of the most interesting people during our meals on cruises. We had the pleasure of dining with two British WWII vets and two Michigan school teachers last time. The gentleman had been in Africa and Germany during the war and had great stories. The teachers were fascinated with the Olympics and had managed to attend in many different locales. Their stories about Greece were worth the price of the cruise.

We often eat breakfast in the dining room to make waving buddies for the rest of the trip. :wave:

DH is sitting next to me now, can’t hardly wait to go. It hardly seems to matter to him that the trip is 10 ½ months away or that we are going to the parks in three weeks! He is amazing on cruises. He eats everything in sight and manages to lose the extra weight within two or three weeks of being home!

Robin :wave:

[gdulaney]

Wow Robin,

You've had some great dining companions! During one of our first cruises we were seated at a table with two other couples...after a night or two, I asked one of the gentlemen if he worked for Disney (don't ask why I thought that)...but it turned out that he was in Risk Mgmt at WDW. That was pretty cool.

I'm pretty excited about the cruise too...even if it's 10 months away!

Ginny :cutie:

[joshua121301]

Are there any DVC members who are planning to cruise on points? If so, we can book on Monday!!!

Ginny :cutie:
I guess we are DVC Members now!! When I arrived home from work today, my DW advised me that she purchased with DVC today. So I need to update my signiture now!

[gdulaney]

I guess we are DVC Members now!! When I arrived home from work today, my DW advised me that she purchased with DVC today. So I need to update my signiture now!

Congratulations!!!!

Ginny

[joshua121301]

Turns out she got a great deal direct from DVC 350 at $83.30/pt for SSR :Pinkbounc

[gdulaney]

What a great deal!!! Is this your first buy? It's totally addicting.

Ginny

[joshua121301]

What a great deal!!! Is this your first buy? It's totally addicting.

Ginny
Yes it is our first buy!! We are pretty excited, my DW did it as a surprise, and quite the surprise it was. I have heard of people buying site unseen, but she has never even been to the state of Florida!! Now that is a leap of faith. I'm sure all will be great. We own with MVCI and are happy with them, so how can we be disappointed in DVC!! Now we can't wait to go. We will try to book a week prior to the cruise next year. We still are not very sure how the program works and have not received our member packette. Anyhow, if you have the time maybe you can bring us up to speed over a beer on the cruise. If not just the beer would do nicely!!

[Luckymommyx2]

Congrats on the DVC purchase and as we like to say....

Welcome Home

We've only been members for over a year and would buy more points today if we could! It is sooo addicting. We're not cruising on points because it just figured to be way too much. We've had this cruise booked for what seems like forever! We have one DVC trip planned in January to give us our "fix" until the cruise.

DH and I have been looking forward to this cruise--our first 7 day--for a very long time! We've done the Wonder 4 day way back in Aug/Sept 2003 just to see how the kids would do on a cruise and needless to say everyone had a great time.

I need to take time to go back over the thread so I can get caught up on everything. Sorry if this has been covered but has anyone purchased their cruise insurance yet? We originally booked through Costco and didn't take their insurance. We've never had cruise insurance before but this time I think it would be a good idea.

Glad to see so many people here!!

[joshua121301]

Welcome back Lucky!! I was wondering where you went! I don't know alot about the insurance, we used the insurance through DCL, however the passporter suggest using www.insuremytrip.com. I hope that this helps!! We are so excited about our new DVC home. But now that we have it I can't wait to go,,just something else to wait for. waiting, waiting, waiting...

[HollyTyler]

Congrats on the DVC purchase and as we like to say....

Welcome Home

We've only been members for over a year and would buy more points today if we could! It is sooo addicting. We're not cruising on points because it just figured to be way too much. We've had this cruise booked for what seems like forever! We have one DVC trip planned in January to give us our "fix" until the cruise.

DH and I have been looking forward to this cruise--our first 7 day--for a very long time! We've done the Wonder 4 day way back in Aug/Sept 2003 just to see how the kids would do on a cruise and needless to say everyone had a great time.

I need to take time to go back over the thread so I can get caught up on everything. Sorry if this has been covered but has anyone purchased their cruise insurance yet? We originally booked through Costco and didn't take their insurance. We've never had cruise insurance before but this time I think it would be a good idea.

Glad to see so many people here!!


I've used Travelex for my trip insurance a few times. A co-worker told me about it. She always uses it because it's pretty cheap. However, I didn't compare prices with other companies...just took her word for it. I think it was like $100 for 2 of us on our last 7 day cruise. They're located at www.travelex.com if you want to check it out.

[gdulaney]

Yes it is our first buy!! We are pretty excited, my DW did it as a surprise, and quite the surprise it was. I have heard of people buying site unseen, but she has never even been to the state of Florida!! Now that is a leap of faith. I'm sure all will be great. We own with MVCI and are happy with them, so how can we be disappointed in DVC!! Now we can't wait to go. We will try to book a week prior to the cruise next year. We still are not very sure how the program works and have not received our member packette. Anyhow, if you have the time maybe you can bring us up to speed over a beer on the cruise. If not just the beer would do nicely!!

:drinking1 No problem... just let us know what you've got questions about and if we can't answer....I bet somebody on the DVC boards can. :)

Ginny

[udflyer00]

Well it's official!! We are booked!! It will be myself, dw, ds, dd, mil, and fil!! We can't wait!!!

I have some catchup reading to do, I have been watching this thread ever since we started talking about booking. I need to find out what are the good shore excursions for families... Any one have any quick suggestions?

Thanks and can't wait to discuss our cruise!!
Mark

[gdulaney]

:wave2: Hi Mark!

What kind of stuff do you like to do? Have you ever been on the Eastern route? There are alot of fun excursions and St Maarten has two of my favorites... first, the 12-Metre Regatta and second, the Rhino Rider. The 12-Metre Regatta gives you the opportunity to "race" former America's Cup boats. You can be as active as you want (or sit back and be a "timer" or "drink wench"). Rhino Riders are like oversized jet-skis that seat two people and are suitable for riding in the ocean. You ride along the coast, have snorkle time, and ride back. In St. Thomas, you can visit a beach, take an island tour, or take a tour over to St. John. The US Virgin Islands have some of the most beautiful beaches in the world and some of the best shopping! :)

Ginny

[udflyer00]

Ginny,

Thanks for the reply... We have never been on the eastern route before. My wife and I took a 4-day Disney Cruise for our honeymoon back in 99, but this will be our first trip since. And we liked it so much we wanted to take a different route and longer trip this time... We chose the Eastern route because I am really looking forward to the days at sea, and the Eastern route has more than the western... :)

As for what we like to do... Well we are open to hear about all, but the one thing is they have to be activities suitable for little ones... We will have our ds (4) and dd (2) with us so the activities have to accomodate them as well. I thought someone mentioned a submarine ride? I will have to look that up and see where that is, but that is the only thing with our excursions is our kids have to be able to participate as well... :) What island should we be sure to hit a beach at for sure? St. Maarten or St. Thomas?

TIA,
Mark

[tggrbuny]

Hi Mark,

I was so excited to see someone from the area on the cruise! We live in Middletown. I had nothing of value to add to the shore excursion question, but I wanted to say hi since we are neighbors. :wave:

Will you be flying or driving? We are planning on book AirTran for the non stop on Friday morning. We flew down on the same day as our cruise last September and I was nervous right up till the moment I saw the ship from the cab. :goodvibes
Robin (and Dave)

[udflyer00]

Robin,

We will be flying down as well... And I hope to get the NS flight on AirTran as well... The one thing we still have to hash out is when we want to go down... I was just thinking today that since Monday, Sept 4th, is labor day then we could maybe fly down on Thursday night and take Friday off with our vacation hours we would've used on Monday!! So many decisions to work out between now and then... Let me know if you see the AirTran flights come out for our trip!! :)

Makr

[Bender]

I just wanted to say that we booked this cruise a couple of weeks ago while on the Wonder 3 night and are looking forward to it! My wife and two daughters (4 & 6) will be along for a much longer trip that the extraordinarily short three nighter. See you all on board!! :banana: :banana:

[Luckymommyx2]

Welcome back Lucky!! I was wondering where you went! I don't know alot about the insurance, we used the insurance through DCL, however the passporter suggest using www.insuremytrip.com. I hope that this helps!! We are so excited about our new DVC home. But now that we have it I can't wait to go,,just something else to wait for. waiting, waiting, waiting...


Thanks! I have been swamped with the kids' activities and planning all of our trips! I want to be around more but something seems to always be pulling me away from the computer. I'll probably be around a lot more after the holidays and our next DVC trip. I'm going to try to look into the trip insurance sometime in between--thanks for the info. The cruise sounds so good but of course anything Disney sounds really good now.

Do you get the Mousesavers newsletter? I loved reading about all the new things added to our cruise. The movie screen will be really nice for the kids...okay, me too!

I'm off to quickly look around the boards before I have to dart off again. I'm sure I'm missing some good info somewhere. Check in later...

:wave:

[tggrbuny]

Mark,

I just checked ... right now AT only runs a ns in the am going south and pm going north. (Flights 703 and 708). They have been using these same numbers for the last few years, so it does make it easier for me to check. We have changed planes many time in Atlanta and never had a serious problem, I just like not having to worry about moving between gates, mechanical mess etc so we always take the ns.

We have already reserved two cars (one each way to & from the port) and I already thinking about what to pack. This is pitiful because we are leaving for Orlando in 7 days and I am devoting all my excitement to the vacation in 10 months!

We are AT+ members, so we get lots of email regarding specials. I will post when the September rates are available.
Robin

[gdulaney]

Welcome Bender & family!!!!

Ginny :wave2:

[udflyer00]

Okay, so I guess my current issue right now is what would be a good family excursion (ages 2-50) for our group?? Our son will be 4 and our daughter will just be 2... So any tips on what would be good that they could also enjoy? Or just trips to the beach?? :)

Thanks,
Mark

[gdulaney]

Hi Mark,

We've never done any of the "beach" excursions, so I'm not sure which one would be the best. Perhaps one of the other folks on our cruise could recommend one...or you might want to the post the question out on the cruise board. That way you'd get a bunch of suggestions.

Ginny

[Luckymommyx2]

Morning everyone! Just wanted to check in to see what's going on. I'm getting really excited since I bought our cruise insurance yesterday through insuremytrip.com---Thanks to everyone here that recommended it! I also booked the Hyatt for the night before since it's practically a tradition for us to stay there before all our DCL and WDW vacations. Is anyone planning on coming in the day before? :sunny:
Just getting a few minor things taken care of yesterday made things seem more "official" and not as far away. Silly, I know! We still have a DVC trip planned with the in-laws in January but this is our next family vacation and I can't wait!! :cloud9:

[gdulaney]

Is anyone planning on coming in the day before? :sunny:

We're probably going to drive down the Tuesday or Wednesday before and stay at Saratoga Springs. Guess I should try to motivate myself to make reservations, but I can't decide if we should do a studio or splurge for a 1-bedroom. Any suggestions?

Ginny :cutie:

[Luckymommyx2]

I'd probably do the studio for several reasons:
1. save the points
2. it's only one night
3. it won't be such a shock from going from a studio to your cabin compared to a 1 bdrm to your cabin (only exception is if you're staying in a cat 3 or higher :) )

JMO though! Good luck deciding!! :sunny:

[joshua121301]

We're probably going to drive down the Tuesday or Wednesday before and stay at Saratoga Springs. Guess I should try to motivate myself to make reservations, but I can't decide if we should do a studio or splurge for a 1-bedroom. Any suggestions?

Ginny :cutie:
We will be staying at Saratoga Springs the week before the cruise as well. Hope to meet you there!!

[gdulaney]

We'll actually be down in Orlando at least 3 nights...maybe 4. We've always done a studio in the past...but we've been thinking about splurging to a 1-bedroom.

Joshua -> maybe we'll see you out and about at Saratoga Springs.

Ginny

[udflyer00]

Just giving our cruise a little bump... It has been awhile since we have heard from anybody... :) Let's see what have I been doing... Trying to figure out the most cost effective way to move 6 people (4 adults & 2 children (4yo & 2yo) between WDW-->Port-->WDW-->MCO... I would really like to stay the night before at one of the DVC rooms as well as the night the cruise returns and then fly out on that Sunday... Not really sure if that is cost effective in terms of transports, but what I have gathered is that we should look at a company outside of Disney for price savings... Anyone have any experience working a stay like this into their cruise vacation?

Thanks,
Mark

[bunny]

Hi everyone. My husband and I will be cruising with our 2 sons, ages 3 and 7. This is our 2nd DCL Eastern cruise. We are very excited. We are also DVC members and are thinking of staying the night before at SSR and the night after at Vero Beach. I can't wait to meet everyone. My husband loves to meet new people and will definitely be into hooking up with your group.

[bunny]

I just read this entire thread and saw where someone said about bringing their Ohio State shirts. I am a Penn State alumuni. Go Penn State!

[gdulaney]

Hi Bunny! :wave2:

Mark -- we drive down, but I know some folks rent a van or use a car service

Ginny

[tggrbuny]

We have aranged rental cars for each way. Picking up at MCO on Friday, dropping at the port Saturday and the reverse upon return. It was about 40.00 each way, which is great in both money and time for us. We like to be in control of timing. When we did Royal earlier this year we used the bus to the port and a car service back. Worked fine...just not on our schedule.

We just got home from a Halloween at WDW. What a great place to act like we are still young enough to trick or treat! Of course we started looking for the pirate clothing we will need for the ship party. Yes, we will be some of the sad adults that have to act like they are 7! Hey if I am going to 20.00 for a picture, I want it to a fun picture!! pirate:

Even though we are going to WDW in January, I can hardly wait for the cruise. I am hopeless. :wave:
Robin

[alexandmaddie]

Hi everyone!! :wave: We will be joining all of you on the 9/2/06 Eastern! We were on the 10/15/05 Eastern and had so much fun, we're doing it again next year! There will be 7 of us. Myself, DH, DD10, DD5, DS3 and my mom and dad. We have connecting Cat 10's on deck 2. We will be at Boardwalk from Wed. until Sat. morning.

As far as transportation, we are thinking Magical Express to Boardwalk on Wed., then limo service to Port on Sat. and back to MCO on the following Sat.

Looking forward to getting to know everyone. Krista

[gdulaney]

Robin - I don't know if you have "Dollar Tree" stores where you live, but they have some pirate stuff right now.

Hi Krista! :wave2: Welcome to the thread. We'll be at Saratoga Springs before the cruise, but will probably head over to the Boardwalk for lunch at the Big River Grille one afternoon.

Ginny :cutie:

[joshua121301]

Wondering how many of us from the board will be cruising?

[gdulaney]

Wondering how many of us from the board will be cruising?

We will!!

How's everybody doing? Can you guys believe that Thanksgiving is almost here? Amazing!! I was at the mall today and Santa was already there. Wow! After the holidays, we'll hit the new year and then our cruise will be here before you know it!

Ginny

[alexandmaddie]

Good morning! Hope everyone is doing well. My DD5 ended up coming down with the Chicken Pox (and she had the vaccination) on Friday. I am just so thankful it didn't happen last month when we were getting ready to go on our cruise.

Ginny, are you DVC members? When you said you are staying at Saratoga Springs, it got me wondering. We joined DVC in 1998, we have points at OKW, BWV and just added on at SSR while on our last cruise. We use our points to cruise, even though most people don't think it's very wise.

Hope everyone has a great day! Krista :sunny:

[gdulaney]

Hi Krista!

Yes, we're DVC members. We bought initially at Hilton Head, then added on a little from Vero and Saratoga Springs. We use our points to cruise too!! :)

Ginny

[tggrbuny]

We used our points too. I did some math and although you might be able to more by renting them to others, my actual cost will be 6.75 a year for each point (assuming a modest annual increase for maintenance fees). It a fair trade for cruising.

I called and added our special events to our booking today. We will be celebrating our 20th anniversary and DH birthday. I don't know if this will work but I also requested PLA for our dining rotation so we will be in Lumiere's for formal night and DH birthday. He looks so cute in a tux! Have any of you every had any luck with rotation requests?

Ginny--thanks for the tip on the dollar store,we got most of our pirate stuff. pirate:

We are considering booking Vero Beach for the night before? Is that too far away? Would you save it for the end of the trip? Any suggestions??
Thanks
Robin :flower:

[udflyer00]

Krista,

We are also DVC members and only have an allotment of 210 points per year. I was able to rent out 200 of those points @ $10 per/point to offset the cost of our cruise. For our family of 4 it would've been about $2400 in our cat 9 room, and I'm not sure the whole points cost, but I think the DVC point started about 150 points for the same cat 9 room... Not rich by any means so for us it was better to rent than cruise on points since we would've had to borrow points from a number of years to cover the 4 of us... Just my .02.

Mark

[gdulaney]

We used our points too. I did some math and although you might be able to more by renting them to others, my actual cost will be 6.75 a year for each point (assuming a modest annual increase for maintenance fees). It a fair trade for cruising.

I called and added our special events to our booking today. We will be celebrating our 20th anniversary and DH birthday. I don't know if this will work but I also requested PLA for our dining rotation so we will be in Lumiere's for formal night and DH birthday. He looks so cute in a tux! Have any of you every had any luck with rotation requests?

Ginny--thanks for the tip on the dollar store,we got most of our pirate stuff. pirate:

We are considering booking Vero Beach for the night before? Is that too far away? Would you save it for the end of the trip? Any suggestions??
Thanks
Robin :flower:

Robin -
Congrats on your upcoming anniversary!!!! :bride: :groom: We've never requested a specific dining rotation ahead of time....but we did switch dining rotations a couple of years ago, so we could sit with some friends. The dining folks were very nice and fixed us right up.

I don't think Vero would be too far away. I think it's an hour or so south of the Port. You could post over on the cruise board or the DVC board and I'm sure somebody has done it and could give you the scoop. We usually stay in Orlando, but we've also stayed in Cocoa Beach and Melbourne.

Ginny :cutie:

[gdulaney]

Krista,

We are also DVC members and only have an allotment of 210 points per year. I was able to rent out 200 of those points @ $10 per/point to offset the cost of our cruise. For our family of 4 it would've been about $2400 in our cat 9 room, and I'm not sure the whole points cost, but I think the DVC point started about 150 points for the same cat 9 room... Not rich by any means so for us it was better to rent than cruise on points since we would've had to borrow points from a number of years to cover the 4 of us... Just my .02.

Mark

Mark,
We've talked about renting our points, but haven't done any homework on it. Was it pretty simple or a headache? :headache:

Thanks,
Ginny

[gdulaney]

Good morning! Hope everyone is doing well. My DD5 ended up coming down with the Chicken Pox (and she had the vaccination) on Friday. Krista :sunny:

Krista,

How is your daughter feeling?

Ginny

[udflyer00]

Ginny,

I didn't find it too hard to rent out our points. I will say it is a lot of phone calls to check on availability. Of course it all depends on the time of the year the individual wants... I feel we were very lucky with our renters and they were all very prompt with their payments... If you ever want to do it just be firm with your price and your payment options and it should go pretty smoothly. I think it took me about a month and a half to deal out all 200 points, and with renting points the phrase "early bird gets the worm" definitely applies... Lots of people looking to rent and literaly jump on new requests as fast as they are posted... :) I had a good time renting points and it was pretty nice to share the DVC experience with others. :cool1:

Mark

[alexandmaddie]

Krista,

We are also DVC members and only have an allotment of 210 points per year. I was able to rent out 200 of those points @ $10 per/point to offset the cost of our cruise. For our family of 4 it would've been about $2400 in our cat 9 room, and I'm not sure the whole points cost, but I think the DVC point started about 150 points for the same cat 9 room... Not rich by any means so for us it was better to rent than cruise on points since we would've had to borrow points from a number of years to cover the 4 of us... Just my .02.

Mark

Hi Mark, It was quite a few points for us to cruise. 636 to be exact. There are 7 of us in 2 Cat 10 rooms. It really does make sense to rent them out. I am just such a chicken of things going wrong. I should look into doing it next time though. Thanks for telling us of your experience. :)

Krista

[alexandmaddie]

Krista,

How is your daughter feeling?

Ginny


Hi Ginny, Thanks for asking about Madeline!!! She is back to school today. She had the vaccination, so she had a very mild case. She only had about 10 Poxes (or maybe the plural is Poxi, not sure) and never had a fever at all. She did great about not itching them! Pretty good for a 5 year old. Now I'm just waiting to see if my other two kids end up with them!!

Krista

[alexandmaddie]

I called and added our special events to our booking today. We will be celebrating our 20th anniversary and DH birthday.:flower:

Hi Robin, Did you just call DCL and let them know about your anniversary and DH's birthday? The reason I ask is that my DH's birthday is Sept. 2nd. I'd love to have it recognized with a cake at dinner. Thanks. :sunny:
Krista

[gdulaney]

Hi Ginny, Thanks for asking about Madeline!!! She is back to school today. She had the vaccination, so she had a very mild case. She only had about 10 Poxes (or maybe the plural is Poxi, not sure) and never had a fever at all. She did great about not itching them! Pretty good for a 5 year old. Now I'm just waiting to see if my other two kids end up with them!!

Krista

Hi Krista,
I'm glad she wasn't too itchy!!! Hopefully your other kids won't get 'em.

Ginny

ps -- I'd be a bit worried about renting points too -- just in case something went wrong. It would be my luck that I'd rent to some crazy who'd get kicked off property.

[Erik]

We used our points too. I did some math and although you might be able to more by renting them to others, my actual cost will be 6.75 a year for each point (assuming a modest annual increase for maintenance fees). It a fair trade for cruising.

I called and added our special events to our booking today. We will be celebrating our 20th anniversary and DH birthday. I don't know if this will work but I also requested PLA for our dining rotation so we will be in Lumiere's for formal night and DH birthday. He looks so cute in a tux! Have any of you every had any luck with rotation requests?

Ginny--thanks for the tip on the dollar store,we got most of our pirate stuff. pirate:

We are considering booking Vero Beach for the night before? Is that too far away? Would you save it for the end of the trip? Any suggestions??
Thanks
Robin :flower:

Congrat on your 20th anniversary, We will also be celebrating our 20th anniversary(9/7) along with 4 birthdays, DW, DD18th, DS7 and mine.

[gdulaney]

How cool....we're celebrating our anniversary too!!

Ginny

[bielen]

Anyone from the New Jersey/New York area on this cruise?

[tggrbuny]

Krista,
I actually called member services since we booked the cruise on points. They called the cruise line and set up Sunday night for Dh's birthday and Monday for our anniversary. I really don't know what they we will do, But I thought it might be cake. I know that you need to contact whoever is your booking agent for the cruise. You only call DCL yourself if you booked yourself.

In the sprirt of getting to know each other before the cruise I wanted to share an exciting new development in our lives. DH is a trying to start a custom chocolate business. Our friends opened a bakery this weekend and invited DH to peddled his candies in their shop. It is official, he actually made money selling chocolate. Of course at this rate it would take 5 years to pay for the cruise (LOL) at least one of his dreams is coming true. :wizard:

Maybe we should try and have an afternoon party on the cruise to celebrate all of our occasions together? :goodvibes

Robin


[Robin, Did you just call DCL and let them know about your anniversary and DH's birthday? The reason I ask is that my DH's birthday is Sept. 2nd. I'd love to have it recognized with a cake at dinner. Thanks. :sunny:
Krista[/QUOTE]

[alexandmaddie]

Krista,
I actually called member services since we booked the cruise on points. They called the cruise line and set up Sunday night for Dh's birthday and Monday for our anniversary. I really don't know what they we will do, But I thought it might be cake. I know that you need to contact whoever is your booking agent for the cruise. You only call DCL yourself if you booked yourself.

I will call member services because we booked on points also. So, your DH's birthday is the 3rd?



In the sprirt of getting to know each other before the cruise I wanted to share an exciting new development in our lives. DH is a trying to start a custom chocolate business. Our friends opened a bakery this weekend and invited DH to peddled his candies in their shop. It is official, he actually made money selling chocolate. Of course at this rate it would take 5 years to pay for the cruise (LOL) at least one of his dreams is coming true. :wizard:

Wow, congratulations to your DH. That is so great that he is going after his dreams! What a neat business to get into!



Maybe we should try and have an afternoon party on the cruise to celebrate all of our occasions together? :goodvibes

Sounds like a great idea!

Maybe we should do kind of a roll call, or make an updated list of who will be on our cruise. I can try and put one together later on today or tomorrow if anyone is interested. :)

Krista

[gdulaney]

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!!! And if you are going BF shopping...good luck and happy shopping!!!

Ginny :cutie:

[CRSNDSNY]

Hi everyone!
My husband, daughter and I are officially booked on the September 2 - 9, 2006 Eastern!

This will be our 5th Disney Cruise (2nd 7-night and all others have been 4-night cruises). We'll be celebrating our 5-year wedding anniversary onboard and it'll be our daughter's first cruise.

We'll be in a CAT9 and have first dinner seating.

Can't wait to get to know everyone!

Melody

[atakaratemom]

Hi everyone! Just checking in again as its been awhile. My DH, DD6 and DS11 will be with me on the cruise. I have been sort of focused on our Western cruise in February, but we are also very excited about the Eastern in September! Yes, we are going on two cruises in one year. I am sure it seems crazy, but by booking at off-times we are actually paying less for two cruises than we did for our summer cruise from the west coast this year. We love the Magic and just can't get enough!

[gdulaney]

Hi everyone!
My husband, daughter and I are officially booked on the September 2 - 9, 2006 Eastern!

This will be our 5th Disney Cruise (2nd 7-night and all others have been 4-night cruises). We'll be celebrating our 5-year wedding anniversary onboard and it'll be our daughter's first cruise.

We'll be in a CAT9 and have first dinner seating.

Can't wait to get to know everyone!

Melody

Hi Melody...welcome!!! :wave2: Our thread has been a little slow lately, but I bet we start picking up speed soon.

Ginny

[gdulaney]

Hi everyone! Just checking in again as its been awhile. My DH, DD6 and DS11 will be with me on the cruise. I have been sort of focused on our Western cruise in February, but we are also very excited about the Eastern in September! Yes, we are going on two cruises in one year. I am sure it seems crazy, but by booking at off-times we are actually paying less for two cruises than we did for our summer cruise from the west coast this year. We love the Magic and just can't get enough!

Hi Mary!! A cruise in just a couple of months...have a great time! Wish we could hide in your luggage.

Ginny

[CRSNDSNY]

Hi Melody...welcome!!! :wave2: Our thread has been a little slow lately, but I bet we start picking up speed soon.

Ginny
Great! I look forward to getting to know everyone!

[gdulaney]

Happy Holidays everybody!!!

Ginny

[allears]

Hey there everyone,

We booked about a week ago and just checked to see if there was a thread. Haven't read all of the posts yet, but will. This will be our 6th DCL cruise and we're way excited. We swore we would never cruise during hurricane season again, but we just can't argue with the price.

[udflyer00]

Hey everyone,

Well I have some Great News, which also equals bad news... If anyone has been paying a rough calculation to how many months away our cruise is they might have an idea......

......

.....
If you haven't guessed, my wife and I just found out late last week that number 3 is on the way!!! :cool1: :banana: And of course expected due date is August 31st... I'm not quite sure, but I don't think we will make the cast off... :) My wife is excited, but depressed all in the same breath because she was so looking forward to this cruise as it would be our first DCL since our honeymoon back in '99. I have been trying to put together prices for some DCL sailings in April/May/& June... Man the 7-day jumps up a bunch!! :sad: I think we may end up on a 4-day in May, which would be just about the same price we are paying for the 7-day!! :sad: Not sure if we will do this, but the price only goes up for next year as we would be a family of 5 and have to jump up room categories... So I am not really sure what we will do as of yet, but I will let you all know what happens... Anyways, I hope you all have a wonderful time, and I actually joked with a co-worker back in December that this might happen with booking something 9ish months early... I think it just jinxed us... We are very excited none-the-less and we will hopefully make it on a cruise this year!

TTYL,
Mark

[joshua121301]

Congratulations!!! :banana: We cancelled two cruises before this one for the same reasons, each of them worth the sacrifice. Once again, congrats to you and your family!!

[gdulaney]

Hi Allears!! Welcome to the thread. :)

Congrats Mark on your new addition!!!

Ginny

[eznunzit]

Hi everyone! :wave: I am so excited. Last year we went on our 1st 7 day cruise to the Western Caribbean on the Carnival. We went the week of Thanksgiving and were slipping through in between hurricanes. We don't worry to much about hurricane season because we live in the Fl. Keys and at least on the ship you can dodge the storm! In 2004 we went on Royal Carribean for a short 4 day trip. We didn't think that a Disney cruise would be possible so I started planning a WDW trip for the week of Sept. 2nd. But I just couldn't imagine going a year w/o a cruise. Sept. 1st is our 9th Anniversary and the 4th will be our DS 4th Birthday. Hopefully our DD (8 @ sailing) won't feel left out. We even talked my mom and fiance into going and they bumped up our rooms! :banana:

I just wanted to say a quick hello...

Dena

[HollyTyler]

Hi Everybody!! I'll be joining you with my son (will be 4 then). It will be cruise #3 for us. I posted a couple times a while back, but haven't had time recently to keep up.

I've been online checking into possibile dates for cruise #4 and thought I'd stop by here and catch up with everybody!

[gdulaney]

Hi Dena! Welcome to the group. We've been a bit quiet, but I'm sure we'll start chatting the closer we get to cruise time.

Hi Holly --- did you have a good time?

Ginny

[HollyTyler]

Hi Holly --- did you have a good time?
Ginny


Hi Ginny,

Yup...I had a great time on both of my Disney cruises, so great that I don't think I can wait until this one on 9/2/06! I'm trying to see if I can squeeze in a short one in April. Depends on how large my tax return will be! ;)

My son, who wears his pirate outfit about 4 days a week, is already bugging me about getting my outfit for pirate night. I think we'll both go insane with anticipation by Sept. 2! :hyper2:

[eznunzit]

That is too funny Holly! We spent the weekend searching online for different costumes for everyone! We have 2 for DS already but found a mickey mouse pirate outfit that would make perfect torture pictures later in life. We found a cute outfit for our DD and something for DH. I am having trouble finding anything for myself. The women's costumes our a bit on the sexy side for my taste. I might just make something. Haven't heard back from their Nana and her fiance about dressing up. Pretty much told them they are. They are pretty good sports, he is a captain for his charter boat and my mom is working her way up to be one. They are pretty zany. I don't really care if we our the only ones but do a lot of other ppl dress up? It would make it more fun. pirate:

[HollyTyler]

Hi Dena,

On both cruises we've been on so far, we've seen quite a few people dress up for pirate night, but not an overwhelming amount. Definitely less than 25%. I got my son's outfit on ebay (Captain Feathersword Halloween costume) and I got mine at Halloween USA (which opened the week before our cruise last Sept). Unfortunately, mine fell apart in the washer, so I'll probably just get a new one on ebay or maybe even put something together from thrift shops to save money. And most of the Dollar stores usually have some pirate accessories (eye patch, sword, etc.)

Sounds like you're traveling with a great group!

[gdulaney]

Holly -- he sounds so cute!! pirate:

Dena -- is your DD going to be a pirate too? pirate: or a princess princess:

Ginny

[eznunzit]

Ginny,

DD willl also be dressed in a cute pink pirate costume. I saw it on a site called costume craze. Last night I found some great patterns to make myself a costume. My DH just laughs. For last year's cruise I bought 2 beautiful patterns to make my formal wear and never had time to get them out of their envelopes.

The other nights that are not formal she will wear princess costumes. The girl wears a tiara to the grocery store so it only seems natural.

[HollyTyler]

Dena,

Funny about your daughter wearing her tiara everywhere because my son wears a firefigher costume EVERYWHERE, even on top of his pirate outfit! We visit the fire station weekly and they say, "Here comes Tyler, the pirate firefighter!" :firefight pirate:

So when you see a pint-sized firefighter on the ship, that will be us! :rotfl:

[nuzmom]

We are booked for this cruise, too. We are a family of 5 - DH, DS10, DS5, my mom and me. This will be our first cruise EVER and I'm a little nervous as to what to expect. I've been doing my reading, but still a bit nervous. Anyway, just wanted to check in and subscribe.

[HollyTyler]

Welcome nuzmom! When we went on our first cruise, it was WAY more "Wonder"ful and our 2nd one was WAY more "Magic"al than I had imagined!

WARNING: Disney cruises can be addicting!

[snoopyandpooh]

The count just increased by 2! It is DD's first cruise and my 2nd, just hope Sept can hurry up and come faster!

[gdulaney]

Ginny,

DD willl also be dressed in a cute pink pirate costume. I saw it on a site called costume craze. Last night I found some great patterns to make myself a costume. My DH just laughs. For last year's cruise I bought 2 beautiful patterns to make my formal wear and never had time to get them out of their envelopes.

The other nights that are not formal she will wear princess costumes. The girl wears a tiara to the grocery store so it only seems natural.

Shouldn't we all be able to wear our tiaras to the store? princess:

Ginny

[gdulaney]

Dena,

Funny about your daughter wearing her tiara everywhere because my son wears a firefigher costume EVERYWHERE, even on top of his pirate outfit! We visit the fire station weekly and they say, "Here comes Tyler, the pirate firefighter!" :firefight pirate:

So when you see a pint-sized firefighter on the ship, that will be us! :rotfl:

Holly,
At least Tyler is ready for anything.... plundering for treasure or rescuing the princess. :firefight pirate:

Ginny

[gdulaney]

We are booked for this cruise, too. We are a family of 5 - DH, DS10, DS5, my mom and me. This will be our first cruise EVER and I'm a little nervous as to what to expect. I've been doing my reading, but still a bit nervous. Anyway, just wanted to check in and subscribe.

Welcome Nuzmom!! If we can answer any questions, please let us know. The Eastern route is alot of fun!!!

Ginny

[gdulaney]

The count just increased by 2! It is DD's first cruise and my 2nd, just hope Sept can hurry up and come faster!

Hi SnoopyandPooh!!! Love your name!! I'm a huge Snoopy (and Peanuts) fan....and who doesn't like Pooh?!? Welcome to the cruise. How old is your daughter?

Ginny

[HollyTyler]

Welcome, snoopyandpooh!!!!!! :)

[gdulaney]

Only 7 months!!!!

Ginny :wave2:

[Monstro]

Hi Dena,

On both cruises we've been on so far, we've seen quite a few people dress up for pirate night, but not an overwhelming amount. Definitely less than 25%.

Here is me and my DBIL on Pirate Night. - June 2005

http://images9.fotki.com/v199/photos/3/300185/2352720/2005DisneyCruise134a-vi.jpg

[allears]

Hey bielen,

We're from southern nj, just across from philly.

Hey everyone, I really didn't think I'd be hitting the boards as much as I have since we still have a "few" months to go, but we are just so excited to be looking forward to our next cruise. Of course we're hoping this hurricane season mercifully leaves this trip alone.

We'll be sailing with our best friends who are from South Carolina, a family of 5 also. And they are super excited as well.

Can't wait to get back on "our" ship. It's been just over a year since my DW and I were on the Magic and we're anxious to get back.

Along with the other veterns on this thread, we'll be happy to answer any questions or dispense our opinion on the experience. This will be number 6, 4 of which our kids were with us. They will be 19, 16 and 10 this time.

[HollyTyler]

Hi Everybody! I'm hoping somebody has info on this. I heard a nasty rumor that the Pirate Night theme is changing to a different theme. :eek: YIKES! I've wasted part of today checking the boards for a thread about it and can't find the info. :confused: Sombody told me they heard about it on the boards. Does anybody know anything about this terrible rumor? :sad2:

[allears]

Wow, I hope it's an unfounded rumor. I was just thinking last night, as we were watching Pirates..., that they will probably find the theme just as popular by the time we board, with the sequel coming out in July. pirate:

[dahuffy]

DH and I will be on Deck 7 (not sure of the stateroom #). We'll have our Passporter Name Badges on,so if you see us say howdy!

[allears]

Welcome aboard dahuffy!

[snoopyandpooh]

Hi SnoopyandPooh!!! Love your name!! I'm a huge Snoopy (and Peanuts) fan....and who doesn't like Pooh?!? Welcome to the cruise. How old is your daughter?

Ginny
DD is 20, she wants to think she is still a kid, lol. At first I had to drag her to come to crusie with me, but once booked, she couldn't wait to go!

[HollyTyler]

Hi Everybody! I'm hoping somebody has info on this. I heard a nasty rumor that the Pirate Night theme is changing to a different theme. :eek: YIKES! I've wasted part of today checking the boards for a thread about it and can't find the info. :confused: Sombody told me they heard about it on the boards. Does anybody know anything about this terrible rumor? :sad2:

Hi Everybody! :wave: I asked my the person who told me about this for more details and she said all that was mentioned was that you never know when they might change the theme---NOT that it will be changing. I got all worried for nothing. Sorry for mentioning it!!! :guilty:

After all, I can't think of another theme that would fit so well with being out in the middle of the ocean on a ship!! pirate: Besides, my little boy still would have worn his pirate costume for most of the trip anyway! Good thing they have laundry on the ship, huh?! You know how kids get when they just have to wear the same thing ever day! :crazy2:

[eznunzit]

A big PHEW Holly! I just won on Ebay the cutest boot covers that should be here any day now. Now for the rest of the costume. I saw a mickey Firefighter outfit that made chuckle. The hat (helmet) has Mickey Ears in it!


Monstro thank you for sharing the picture of you with your DBIL, you guys look like you had a blast!!! "Arghhh...." pirate:

[HollyTyler]

Hi Dena,

WOW! A firefighter Mickey? Oh my gosh! I'm going to have to check ebay for that one. And I've come to the conclusion today that Tyler's pirate outfit won't last until cruise time because he wears it so often. :rotfl2: So I'll be on ebay anyway looking for a new one! Crazy kid! :rolleyes:

[gdulaney]

DD is 20, she wants to think she is still a kid, lol. At first I had to drag her to come to crusie with me, but once booked, she couldn't wait to go!

Gosh, you guys will have so much fun!! Are you going to do the Palo brunch or Tea? Bet you'll have to drag her off the ship. :teeth:

Ginny

[allears]

Our DD will be 19 on by this trip, which will be the first one she no longer can be a "teen". But man is she excited about going to Palo :bounce:

[gdulaney]

Our DD will be 19 on by this trip, which will be the first one she no longer can be a "teen". But man is she excited about going to Palo :bounce:

YUMMO!!! We didn't do Palo for the first four cruises, but now... well, it's an addiction. I love the brunch...especially when we have a group of folks!

Ginny

[allears]

YUMMO!!! We didn't do Palo for the first four cruises, but now... well, it's an addiction. I love the brunch...especially when we have a group of folks!

Ginny

Same here, our first cruise was a 4 night and we didn't want to skip a meal with the kids. Since there however, we don't miss a chance to dine at Palo. And bruch is the best. Our server last time introduced me to the combination of their stallen (sp) bread, slathered with rasberry jam and topped with the fresh whipped cream. :goodvibes Could I go for some now!

[gdulaney]

Isn't it the best? I love their directions..."take a big piece and slather it with jam, then pile on the whipped cream"....

Ginny

[udflyer00]

Man all these threads are making me jealous!!! I want to go!! Anyway, Molly is getting better... She has been having a hard time with this one and the morning sickness... I hope we can make a cruise next year!!! I will just have to live vicariously through everyone else going...

Mark

[gdulaney]

Mark,

Hope Molly is feeling better soon!!!

Ginny

[Monstro]

Our DD will be 19 on by this trip, which will be the first one she no longer can be a "teen". But man is she excited about going to Palo :bounce:

Same here. Our daughter truns 19 in July and she is soooo excited about going to Palo. Our other two DD are 11 and 13.

[allears]

She is excited. Our other kids, sons will be 16 and 10. Both looking forward to their stuff, especially the new Ocean Quest area for the tweens.

[Monstro]

OK - Let's get started! I've started a virtual cuise site for our disgroup at

http://public.fotki.com/Draperdog/family/vacations/virtual_disney_crui/

Check it out!

Thanks to everyone who I stole pictures from. Thanks to everyone who will contribute pictures. I hope you all will. I'll password protect this album next week. The password will be given to members of our DisGroup via private message. Those of you who are comfortable sharing - please send me a picture of your sailing party and I'll get it added to the album. Let's get all the decks represented. If you're not comfortable sharing a picture of ypur sailing party send something that represents your hobbies, your home town or a pet... Anything. I will PM each of you my email address so you can send me a picture or pictures. For those of you who have been on the Eastern cruise, send me your favorite pictures of the ports. I'll replace the current pictures with yours.

This will be fun. We did it on our last cruise. It made it easier to get to know each other. It will also help us recognized each other as we cross paths during our magical week.

Let's Party!

[HollyTyler]

What a great idea Monstro! :thumbsup2

[eznunzit]

We were going to sail with you guys but I had some bad news this week. We had invited my mom and her fiance to join us and she was suppose to pay the deposit and didn't. They own a charter boat and the fishing has been too good to remember anything else...

The prices have now gone up past what we can stretch and pay. Since we cruised Carnival last year we can get a great discount and have a fantastic room on deck 11 with floor to ceiling windows. I was really looking forward to cruising with all of you, especially the Pirate night!

Happy sailing to everyone....

[HollyTyler]

Dena, we're sad to see you go! :sad: Have a great time on your Carnival cruise! :sail:

[mickeymedic]

Hello everyone!

DH and I will be cruising with you on 9/2. :cool1: This is our first cruise ever!!!!! We are very excited. We just got back from WDW last week; so now I'm obsessing about our cruise. We will be celebrating our 5 year anniversary on 9/8. Can't wait....

Debbie

[CHELE73]

We are also booked on the 9/2 cruise.Me,my husband,DD12 & DS 7.This is our first Disney cruise and we are all so excited.We've been to Disney World 3 times in the past 3 years and decided it was time to do a Disney cruise.

[Monstro]

Hell everyone!

DH and I will be cruising with you on 9/2. :cool1: This is our first cruise ever!!!!! We are very excited. We just got back from WDW last week; so now I'm obsessing about our cruise. We will be celebrating our 5 year anniversary on 9/8. Can't wait....

Debbie

Welcome Mickeymedic and Family! I'm sure you meant to say hell "O" :) We're glad to have you along. Check post 186 and let me know what you think. We're excited to meet you and your family.

Jeff

[Monstro]

We are also booked on the 9/2 cruise.Me,my husband,DD12 & DS 7.This is our first Disney cruise and we are all so excited.We've been to Disney World 3 times in the past 3 years and decided it was time to do a Disney cruise.

Welcome Chele73 and family! We have a DD's 19, 13, and 11. You are going to love cruising. Our kids choose it over so many other places and things for vacations. Check out post 186 and let me know what you think.


Jeff

[mickeymedic]

Silly me....typing too fast again. I know I've got to try to keep this "family friendly" :hyper:

[gdulaney]

Debbie --

That's our anniversary too!!! Happy Anniversary!

Ginny

[renae0118]

Hello everyone!

DH and I will be cruising with you on 9/2. :cool1: This is our first cruise ever!!!!! We are very excited. We just got back from WDW last week; so now I'm obsessing about our cruise. We will be celebrating our 5 year anniversary on 9/8. Can't wait....

Debbie

Debbie,

We will be celebrating our 5 year anniversary on 9/1. We also honeymooned at Caribbean Beach Resort, actually we did the land/sea vacation. It was awesome.

We are so excited. It will just be DH and I this time. We hav a 14 month old son, but he will be staying at grandma's during this trip. This will be our first 7 night cruise. Anyone have any suggestions for excursions or port trips? Or tips that we should know? I don't think I can wait another 6 months!!! :)

Renae

[atakaratemom]

Hi everyone! It's been awhile since I checked in here. We just returned from our Western Cruise and we had a fabulous time despite less then perfect weather. Now we can start counting the days until our Eastern cruise! We can't wait to get back on the Magic!!!

[Monstro]

OK - Let's get started! I've started a virtual cuise site for our disgroup at

http://public.fotki.com/Draperdog/family/vacations/virtual_disney_crui/

Check it out!

Thanks to everyone who I stole pictures from. Thanks to everyone who will contribute pictures. I hope you all will. I'll password protect this album next week. The password will be given to members of our DisGroup via private message. Those of you who are comfortable sharing - please send me a picture of your sailing party and I'll get it added to the album. Let's get all the decks represented. If you're not comfortable sharing a picture of ypur sailing party send something that represents your hobbies, your home town or a pet... Anything. I will PM each of you my email address so you can send me a picture or pictures. For those of you who have been on the Eastern cruise, send me your favorite pictures of the ports. I'll replace the current pictures with yours.

This will be fun. We did it on our last cruise. It made it easier to get to know each other. It will also help us recognized each other as we cross paths during our magical week.

Let's Party!


Not much response here... Anyone interested participating?

[mickeymedic]

Monstro,

I'll send you a picture of DH and I as soon as DH shows me how. I'm just a little bit challenged by technology. :scratchin

[mousie4531]

Not much response here... Anyone interested participating?

Hi Guys.. and Gals, :cheer2:

Looks like you will have two canadians on board with you!!! We are sailing the magic for our Honeymoon! pixiedust: The 6 months seem so long and far away. This is the first time in my life that I wish The year would just fly by!!!!!! :teeth: this also is our first cruise ever and i'm getting really excited.. just by reading all the posts of the people coming off of their cruises.. Is making me Jealous and wishing that september was here already. LOL

I was wondering does anyone want to set up a meeting place on the Magic? I think it would be really nice to see the faces that go with the typing :goodvibes Oh and Monstro I would love to join your thread.. but umm how do I do that? Yeah I'm still earning my ears here LOL. Oh.. As soon as I can figure out how to add a picture of my Hubby and me to be I will.

Take care everyone :wave:

Mousie aka Jo

P.S. We're on Deck 7 starboard side.

[mickeymedic]

Hi Guys.. and Gals, :cheer2:

P.S. We're on Deck 7 starboard side.



Hi Jo!

DH and I are also on deck 7 midship (starboard, too I think.)

Debbie

[gdulaney]

Hi Mousie!! Welcome aboard :)

Ginny

[mousie4531]

Thank you for the Warm Welcome.. It's really nice to meet all these great people that are just as excited about crusing disney as I am!!!


Mousie

[gabe'smom]

The count down is on-6 months and counting!!!!! Come on everyone, where are you????? Is anyone as excited as I am?

For those of you how have done this particular cruise before, what is the best? What excursions do you recommend/not recommend? DH and I will be celebrating our 5 year anniversary with this cruise. We did the 4/3 land sea trip for our honeymoon, but this is out first 7 night. I am so pumped!! :banana: Who's with me?????

princess: Renae
pirate: Jason

[mickeymedic]

I'm really excited! I haven't had time to post much here - a little work stress going on. Maybe someone can distract me for a few minutes with some great disney cruise stories. Come on people...please help me out... :crazy2:

[Monstro]

We have a tradition with our friends. We call it midnight pizza. Sometimes we do it twice a cruise, but we always do it the last night. It is so great to sit up on the top deck on a nice evening eat pizza and visit with friends. Not much of a story until I add that we met these friends on the Magic in 2002 and we've met up every year since - minus 2004. This will be our 4th cruise together as families.

Hey Gordons! :)

[Luckymommyx2]

Hi there! Just checking in to see how everyone was doing. We (officially) don't have any more vacations planned until the cruise so it's easier to concentrate on just this vacation. We were in WDW last month and brought a nasty flu bug home with us! Everyone has recovered and I'm ready to do some heavy-duty planning!

So much has changed since we were on the Wonder in 2003. I know there are certain things you can book on-line and register the kids, I believe. I guess I'm going to be hanging out on the cruise boards a little more trying to catch up.

Time to put on some Disney music and get to work!
See ya' real soon!!

[gdulaney]

The count down is on-6 months and counting!!!!! Come on everyone, where are you????? Is anyone as excited as I am?

For those of you how have done this particular cruise before, what is the best? What excursions do you recommend/not recommend? DH and I will be celebrating our 5 year anniversary with this cruise. We did the 4/3 land sea trip for our honeymoon, but this is out first 7 night. I am so pumped!! :banana: Who's with me?????

princess: Renae
pirate: Jason

For St. Thomas -- If you want to go over to St. John, it is absolutely beautiful. We've done the St. Thomas Island tour and the St. John Island tour. Both give a good overview of the island...but what I really love to do is walk & shop.

For St. Maarten -- I highly do not recommend the "Under 2 Flags" tour. I've never hated a tour so much. I think it would have been better with a smaller group, but we had a tour bus FULL. And one clueless couple who was in their own little world (with special watches). We both loved the Rhino Riders and the 12-Metre Regatta is very cool!!!

Let me know if you have any questions.

Ginny :)

[tggrbuny]

Just wanted to say. We are still here, we are still going...just been very busy . This has been the strangest of all years. We just back from WDW in January so we are now focusing all of our attention on this trip. Costco has some nice silk shirts, perfect for the cruise...I pick several up for Dh yesterday.

Dh lost his job due to downsizing, lost our truck in a hit and run the month before that...and still we are going. We had already paid for the trip in full and we will not be pulled off course. We have been talking about moving to Florida for many years. This may be just the opportunity we were looking for.. how knows, we may be driving to the port! Regardless, we are going!!!

Can't hardly wait!!!!!!!!!
Robin

[mousie4531]

wow!!.. what a great way to have an extented family/friends. :)

We have a tradition with our friends. We call it midnight pizza. Sometimes we do it twice a cruise, but we always do it the last night. It is so great to sit up on the top deck on a nice evening eat pizza and visit with friends. Not much of a story until I add that we met these friends on the Magic in 2002 and we've met up every year since - minus 2004. This will be our 4th cruise together as families.

Hey Gordons! :)

[atakaratemom]

Robin it sounds like you need a vacation! I am glad you are still going. We have been a little preoccupied planning for our Western cruise a couple of weeks ago. But now with that just a very fond memory we are ready to gear up for our next adventure on the Magic. Our weather was a little disappointing on our recent cruise, so I am really looking forward to warmth and sunshine in September!

[mousie4531]

welcome aborad!! I am so looking forward to the :sunny:, i'm just planning on packing a lot of sunblock and of course to get that gold tan first.. suntan lotion lol. Robin it sounds like you need a vacation! I am glad you are still going. We have been a little preoccupied planning for our Western cruise a couple of weeks ago. But now with that just a very fond memory we are ready to gear up for our next adventure on the Magic. Our weather was a little disappointing on our recent cruise, so I am really looking forward to warmth and sunshine in September!

[disneylandfamily]

We are going to be on the 9/2/2006 cruise. We just realized it would be the last time we would have the whole family together before our daughter goes off to college. Does anyone have room 5522 the secret porthole room. Could you PM me at ptamomc@pacbell.net if you do. We have the rooms on both sides and would love to have the ajoining cabins 5524 and 5522 if you wouldn't mind switching 5520 for 5522. Thanks!!!! The boards are great.

[Luckymommyx2]

Welcome disneylandfamily! :wave:

Hopefully someone here will be able to help you out!

[CourtneyMc]

Just wanted to join the party! DH, DS (7), and DD (4) will be on the 9/2 cruise with a friend and her DD (7). Can't wait! My friend and the two 7 year olds (then age 5) did a 3 day on the Wonder in 9/04 and I'm hooked! Had to wait until DD was old enough to go in the kids club so we could all go. I booked over a year in advance- last year they offered some amazing FL resident rates for the Sept. cruises but by the time i looked into it they were sold out. My TA told us we could book for Sept. 06 and if they end up offering a FL resident later this year (crossing fingers!!) we can rebook at the lower rate. It's been really hard booking so early though-- I'm so excited and it's still forever away.

I was wondering did that site monstro posted ever get up and running, and if so how would I get the password? Is it just a picture site?

I've been to St. Thomas and St. Martaan before on other cruiselines, but never Castaway Cay- it was closed due to hurricane damage (Jeanne) so we had an extra day at sea instead in '04. I'm very excited to get to see disney's island! Hopefully it won't be wrecked again!

I guess that's all for me- looking forward to chatting with you all.

-Courtney

[Monstro]

I was wondering did that site monstro posted ever get up and running, and if so how would I get the password? Is it just a picture site?



Welcome aboard CourtneyMC and family! It'a always good to have more cruisers. :)

The site I was trying to get going was a photo album in Fotki. I wanted to get everyone represented by deck (and cabin if people wanted to list it)so we could get to know faces prior to our cruise. - Only one person seemed interested. - I've still got the site available. I'll remove the password if you want to take a peek.

We did this with our last cruise and people loved it. It would spur all kinds of thread conversation (posts) with each new picture. We did however have people on that cruise that were determined to keep our thread on the front page of the cruise meets forum.

Here's the link - it is unlocked.

http://public.fotki.com/Draperdog/family/vacations/virtual_disney_crui/


Jeff

[gdulaney]

Hi Jeff --I'm so technically challenged...which is why I didn't send a picture. But I do like to keep the thread on the front page...so, I volunteer to help do that. :)

Ginny

[angela barklow]

I just heard about this web site, it' s really cool, We will be taking our first Disney Cruise 9/2/06 with 19 others in our party on deck 6. My DH, DD 11, DD 8, and DD 2 1/2 are all looking forward and counting the days away, but they just seem so far away. I looking for things to do as a family for the shore excusions that can include my 2 1/2 year old leaving her on the ship is not an option for me, nor would I think about it? Any one with any ideas or recommendations? My oldest daughters and myself really want to go swimming with the dolphins.

[gdulaney]

Hi Angela!! Welcome to the thread! We don't have any kids, so maybe somebody else can post the answer to your questions.

Ginny :)

[bbaltes]

Hey gang... just put our deposit down tonight.

Anyone else going with a 3 1/2 year old (at the time of sailing) - would love to share ideas, fears, information, etc.

Ben, Jenny and Lily.

By the way - why doesn't this area show the posts like the main cruise site does? Seems to be easier to skim through?

[gdulaney]

welcome bbaltes!!

Ginny

[Monstro]

Here's the photo album link - it is unlocked.

http://public.fotki.com/Draperdog/family/vacations/virtual_disney_crui/



Welcome Aboard bbaltes!!

All,
I don't want to give up on the photo album link. It really does make it easier to get to know each other when you can put a face to a name. Just email me a picture (with a description) and I'll take it from there.


Jeff

[bielen]

Hey gang... just put our deposit down tonight.

Anyone else going with a 3 1/2 year old (at the time of sailing) - would love to share ideas, fears, information, etc.

Ben, Jenny and Lily.

By the way - why doesn't this area show the posts like the main cruise site does? Seems to be easier to skim through?


Hi bbaltes. We are going to be on the cruise with our 3 1/2 year old twin girls. We are from New Jersey.

[bielen]

We are staying at the Hyatt the night before the cruise and still determining how we are getting to the Port. Anyone staying at the Hyatt? How do you plan to get to the Port the day of the cruise?

[Monstro]

bielen,

One option is the Disney Shuttle from the airport. I've heard that if you stay at the aiport hyatt disney will pick up your bags saturday morning and get them to the ship. We've never done that, but it sounds pretty easy. I think the shuttle is about $29.00 per person, but I'm not sure.

[gdulaney]

It's almost down to the 5 month mark!!! :cheer2:

Does anybody else use Disney dollars for their shipboard account?

Ginny

[disneylandfamily]

Last cruise I used Disney Dollars to pay off the account balance. It was very easy. This time I will be using the VISA rewards card and maybe some Disney Dollars. Depends how much fun we have!!!!

[CourtneyMc]

I got a disney visa card right after we booked our cruise (almost a year in advance!) and I'm hoping to have enough for a hot stone massage and maybe some wine =) by the time Sept. rolls around. Does anyone know, I have a $25 Disney gift cert. that I got when I signed up for the card- can I use it on the ship? It doesn't say whether it would be valid on the cruise or not. I figure worst case i can bring it along and if it can't be used on board I'll use it some other time when we go to Downtown Disney or something.

thanks!

Courtney

[gdulaney]

We have a Disney dollar savings plan.... every payday we try to buy $ 40 in Disney dollars.... so by cruise time...woo hoo!! :woohoo: We also have the Disney Visa, so we'll be using rewards dollars too. I'm so excited!!!!!

Ginny

-ps- Courtney -- I'm not sure about the certificate, but you could always call DCL and ask.

[gdulaney]

Are there any NASCAR fans on our sailing? :car:

Ginny

[fkwok]

Not sure, but I think I am on the right thead, but my wife and 9 yo daughter and I are booked on the DCL Magic sailing 9/2/06. This will be our first Disney cruise.

[Luckymommyx2]

You're on the right thread fkwok! Welcome aboard and welcome to the DIS boards!!! :wave: :welcome:

[gdulaney]

Welcome aboard fkwok!!

Ginny

[fkwok]

Thanks! I can not wait to go. Any tips from the veteran cruisers?

[CourtneyMc]

I keep forgetting to ask, does anyone have a daughter who will be in the 3-4 age group at the kids' club? My dd will be 4 1/2. her brother and a friend of his will be in the 5-7 age group and I'm afraid she'll feel left out not knowing anyone in her group. It would be nice to tell her about someone she'll meet in the kids club.

thanks!

Courtney

[CourtneyMc]

Oops, forgot one other thing I wanted to ask the group. Has anyone actually counted to see when our 90 days in advance will be so those of us returning cruisers can book Palo, etc? I'm just lazy and havent' pulled out the calendar to count and wondered if anyone else has yet. The booking online in advance wasn't available when I went last time (Fall '04) so I haven't ever done it. Has anyone else had success with booking things in advance? I haven't decided if I want something badly enough to get up at 3 am to book it. Any thoughts?

thanks!

Courtney

[disneylandfamily]

Hey Guys,
Good news! We got the connecting SPH rooms. Disney came thru for us. My TA got to a supervisor who said she would gladly call the guests in the room between us. They said yes!!!! I'm doing the happy dust. Thank you for sprinkling pixie dust our way.
Disneyland Family

[gdulaney]

Oops, forgot one other thing I wanted to ask the group. Has anyone actually counted to see when our 90 days in advance will be so those of us returning cruisers can book Palo, etc? I'm just lazy and havent' pulled out the calendar to count and wondered if anyone else has yet. The booking online in advance wasn't available when I went last time (Fall '04) so I haven't ever done it. Has anyone else had success with booking things in advance? I haven't decided if I want something badly enough to get up at 3 am to book it. Any thoughts?

thanks!

Courtney

Courtney -
I'm sure my husband has...I'll ask him and post.

Ginny :)

[gdulaney]

Hey Guys,
Good news! We got the connecting SPH rooms. Disney came thru for us. My TA got to a supervisor who said she would gladly call the guests in the room between us. They said yes!!!! I'm doing the happy dust. Thank you for sprinkling pixie dust our way.
Disneyland Family

pixiedust: Congrats!!! That's great news.

Ginny

[gdulaney]

Thanks! I can not wait to go. Any tips from the veteran cruisers?

fkwok --

It looks like you are a cruising veteran, so you probably already know the best tip--- don't try to do everything. :)

What not to miss? Gosh, that's hard. If you have kids, then maybe the character breakfast and pix with the various characters. For us, it's eating a Palo, hanging at the pool while drinking a cold beverage (frothy drink for me, beer for hubby), and shopping. Okay, the shopping part probably isn't my husband's favorite "not to miss" thing...but I'm posting, so it stays. :goodvibes

Ginny

[bbaltes]

My wife, Jenny and my DD Lily (3.5 by that time) will be going. We'd love to make some friends before sailing! We're going to be in room 7044.

[CourtneyMc]

My wife, Jenny and my DD Lily (3.5 by that time) will be going. We'd love to make some friends before sailing! We're going to be in room 7044.

That's great, your DD and mine will be in the same kids club group. Maggie will be almost 4.5. It will be fun to be able to tell her about some other kids in her age group!

-Courtney

[quangr]

I keep forgetting to ask, does anyone have a daughter who will be in the 3-4 age group at the kids' club? My dd will be 4 1/2. her brother and a friend of his will be in the 5-7 age group and I'm afraid she'll feel left out not knowing anyone in her group. It would be nice to tell her about someone she'll meet in the kids club.

thanks!

Courtney
Our Daughter Katie will be a couple of weeks shy of her fourth birthday on the cruise.

[Monstro]

We have new pictures in our virtual cruise album. More castaway's representing deck 5. Welcome aboard to Erik and his party.

So - Deck 5 is well represented... Any other decks getting in the cruising spirit? Come-on jump in! I can password protect this album. - All it takes is emailing me a picture.

Here's the album link - it is unlocked for now.

http://public.fotki.com/Draperdog/family/vacations/virtual_disney_crui/

Thanks Erik for participating. Where is that picture taken?

Jeff

[Monstro]

Thanks! I can not wait to go. Any tips from the veteran cruisers?

Welcome Aboard fkwok! I'm not sure of your travel plans, but I'd recommend riding the shuttle from the airport. They play a little video that gets everyone excited and then you see the Magic from the bridge - It's great! You can really feel the excitement in the bus.

[fkwok]

Welcome Aboard fkwok! I'm not sure of your travel plans, but I'd recommend riding the shuttle from the airport. They play a little video that gets everyone excited and then you see the Magic from the bridge - It's great! You can really feel the excitement in the bus.

Thanks for the warm welcome. We already started checking out beaches.

[Monstro]

Our DD will be 19 on by this trip, which will be the first one she no longer can be a "teen". But man is she excited about going to Palo :bounce:


allears... That is our dd as well. She is so excited about finally being able to go to Palo.

Opps - already posted this. Sorry. :blush:

[ugarxdawg]

My family can not wait till we sail. There are 6 of us. DW, DD14, DD10, DD8, DS1 and me. My parents will also be going with us. This will be our 8th Disney Cruise. We are the Georgia friends of Monstro and his family. We have been going with them each year since we met on the Magic in 2002.

I waited a little too long to join in here. It took me over an hour to read through all the posts. But now I think I am up to speed.

[ugarxdawg]

I can not believe we did not try Palo sooner. We went 6 cruises without going. I am so glad we tried it on the last cruise. We might have to go twice on this one.

[joshua121301]

The time must be drawing near because we received our cruise planner kit today. What to do, when to do it? What is the best dinner rotation for the Eastern? I have heard PLA, but never have heard to reasoning behind it. I did see a thread regarding the Western, but none for the Eastern. What is the best night or nights to reserve Palo? We are travelling with DS4, DS3, & DD1, so many of the excursions will not be for them, however we are bringing their Grandparents on the cruise so, if any particular excursion stands out as worthy, we could break off for a few hours. We were thinking that we would all just find the best beach on each stop. Seeing the Planning Kit has certainly excited the family and starting to make reservations soon will even add to that. Looking forward to cruising with all of you. And I think that that Midnight Pizza may be more crowded than in the past.