A WONDERful way to celebrate Independence Day! - Disney Wonder July 1, 2013

[clarefb]

Wow - been a long while since I popped in here, and it's all gone quiet in the interim ! Anyway, thought I'd pop in, as DH got a bonus last month, so I paid a good chunk of our holiday off - only have a little bit of the cruise to pay off now. So, it's fast becoming a reality !!! Now I've begun dreaming of the holiday after our Alaska trip.... how sad !

How are you all travelling ? I hope Sandy didn't wreak too much havoc with you all - looked positively horrendous !

Back to planning - I'm trying to decide when to tell the kids. Probably not until about a month before we leave this time (usually tell them 3-6 months out), as our eldest goes into Year 11 in January, and will have a very large workload until school breaks up on the 21st June. I don't want her distracted with thinking about Disney.

Also trying to work out the logistics of making it to a Dodgers game in the week before we get on the cruise. Would it be relatively easy to get to from the Grand Californian ?

I've been trying to read a few trip reports of Alaskan cruisers (not just DCL cruises, too), to get a feel of what we should see and do in the ports. Does anyone else know what they're planning on doing ? We don't want to do as many shore excursions as we did on the PC cruise, as a couple of them were rather disappointing (and VERY expensive !)

Anyway, hope this "bump" spurs some more posts... less than 8 months until we hear that wonderful horn

Cheers,
Sally

Well, as a Cali girl & a HUGE Dodger family, there is zero public transport, so renting a car would be your best bet. We are a little far from Anaheim, or I'd pick you up & take you, but it's an hour or so down there, then an hour back from me to the Dodger Stadium. You are much closer to the Angels, but

Let me know if you need help with logistics

 

[emum]

Hi Everyone It's gone quiet again....

I've been sooooo busy that it's mind blowing ! End-of-school-year busy, along with the usual run of Christmas parties. The best one is next Friday - off to see Simple Minds live ! I know, that ages me....

Popped in with exciting news (for us)... managed to snare a 2 bed villa at GCV for the 5 nights we're in LA !! YAY !!! I thought for sure at that time of year I wouldn't have a hope in Hades at the 7 month window. However, I stayed up past midnight our time, and snatched one We *were* going to do the hotel with concierge, but couldn't justify the points. Now we'll have enough points left for a cruise AND a WDW stay in January 2015. Got to be happy with that !

Dh and I have been trying to think up ways to tell the kids again. Since we have to do a domestic flight first (FF points...), we're thinking of telling them that Melbourne will be our final destination, then surprising them when we transfer to the international lounge.... Will keep the thinking caps on, though.

Clare - thanks so much for the info. about the Dodgers. I really only picked them over the Angels, as they're the more well-known team here in Aus. I'll be spending part of my Christmas break working out the logistics and whatnot.

Dsnydaddy - the excursions are a killer for some things. I need to really nut out which ones are worth it for us. Thankfully my parents just arrived home from a Pacific Rim cruise, which included the Inside Passage, so I'll pick their brains a bit.

Mackie Mouse - I'm also thinking of the White Pass railway. Not sure about the others yet. Having 6 of us means we're limited by cost somewhat for some excursions. So glad you had the best scenario for Sandy

I guess that's it for now. Given how full the ship will be, I thought there'd be more posts now. Not that it worries me at this point - I don't have enough hours in the day to even look at the boards most days !

Hope you're all doing well.

Cheers,
Sally

 

[Mackie Mouse]

Hi Everyone It's gone quiet again....

I've been sooooo busy that it's mind blowing ! End-of-school-year busy, along with the usual run of Christmas parties.

For a minute there I couldn't figure out where in the world school was ending...and then I remembered where you live Our year is about 1/3 of the way finished - had our first round of parent-teacher conferences last week and this week, book-ending Thanksgiving break. We also nearly had our first snow day today, which has me grumpy. We lost enough school days from Sandy!

Mackie Mouse - I'm also thinking of the White Pass railway. Not sure about the others yet. Having 6 of us means we're limited by cost somewhat for some excursions. So glad you had the best scenario for Sandy

Would be fun to wind up an an excursion together! As of last week, Colin (DH) was a little "meh" about whale watching, so we may instead stick to the glacier, perhaps a cable car ride, and some self-guided exploration of the Alaskan Brewing Company in Juneau. (We are self-admitted beer geeks!)

It's tough to pick, though...I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts as it gets closer. I actually had a student who went on a DCL Alaskan cruise last summer (great kid, super parents) and got the nitty-gritty from them...of course, they did the helicopter/dog sledding excursion and all other manner of super family splurges...not quite in our budget, either!

Either way, since we're almost within the 6-month range, I'm getting pretty excited.

 

[dsnydaddy]

Hi Everyone It's gone quiet again....

I've been sooooo busy that it's mind blowing ! End-of-school-year busy, along with the usual run of Christmas parties. The best one is next Friday - off to see Simple Minds live ! I know, that ages me....

Popped in with exciting news (for us)... managed to snare a 2 bed villa at GCV for the 5 nights we're in LA !! YAY !!! I thought for sure at that time of year I wouldn't have a hope in Hades at the 7 month window. However, I stayed up past midnight our time, and snatched one We *were* going to do the hotel with concierge, but couldn't justify the points. Now we'll have enough points left for a cruise AND a WDW stay in January 2015. Got to be happy with that ! Nice!

Dh and I have been trying to think up ways to tell the kids again. Since we have to do a domestic flight first (FF points...), we're thinking of telling them that Melbourne will be our final destination, then surprising them when we transfer to the international lounge.... Will keep the thinking caps on, though.

I'm thinking about how to surprise mine for our trip to WDW next Christmas. I want to really WOW them.


Dsnydaddy - the excursions are a killer for some things. I need to really nut out which ones are worth it for us. Thankfully my parents just arrived home from a Pacific Rim cruise, which included the Inside Passage, so I'll pick their brains a bit.

I picked some excursions out that I liked but I keep changing my mind. It's a lot of money to lay down and I want to get it right. (I once went on a submarine tour instead of a Pirate cruise and still regret it to this day, The sub was a bust and those who went on the Pirate cruise had a BLAST!)


I guess that's it for now. Given how full the ship will be, I thought there'd be more posts now. Not that it worries me at this point - I don't have enough hours in the day to even look at the boards most days !

I agree. I've been on some cruise boards that were so hopping that you couldn't miss more than a few days. It'll definitely pick up as we near the cruise though.

Hope you're all doing well.

Cheers,
Sally

I've still been plugging away at paying this thing off. I'm at about $1000 now.

 

[racingfandj]

Popping in to say hello! We are seriously considering changing our June/July Fantasy cruise to an Alaska cruise since I don't see an Alasaka itinerary in 2014. I have a July 2014 cruise on hold that I will put a down payment on tomorrow or Tuesday and then plan to switch our 2013 Caribbean cruise to this Alaska itinerary when we are on board in a few weeks (in addition to converting the 2014 to OBB). Will be back to check in when we are official!

 

[dsnydaddy]

I, too, changed a Fantasy cruise to be on this one. (My original cruise is sailing in just two short months-- I'm really feeling that loss!)

I was afraid that Disney was going to start paring back the Alaska cruises as well. Especially when they stopped the California coast and Mexican Riviera cruises.

That said, I'm not sure that Disney is ready to write the post-mortem on the Alaska cruises just yet. Neither the Magic or Wonder have been scheduled for the summer of 2014 yet. My best guess is that the Magic will be off her extended drydock in late 2013 and be moved to the West Coast mid 2014 for Alaska while the Wonder does Europe and then follows up with it's extended drydock.

We haven't seen the extensive discounting on the Alaska cruises like we've seen on the other west coast cruises or even some of the alternative Caribbean cruises. And until we do, I don't think that Disney will let go of this market.

However, I'm always hoping for more people to join our group and you are definitely welcome. Looking forward to you getting back to us with your final plans.

 

[Mackie Mouse]

Popping in to say hello! We are seriously considering changing our June/July Fantasy cruise to an Alaska cruise since I don't see an Alasaka itinerary in 2014. I have a July 2014 cruise on hold that I will put a down payment on tomorrow or Tuesday and then plan to switch our 2013 Caribbean cruise to this Alaska itinerary when we are on board in a few weeks (in addition to converting the 2014 to OBB). Will be back to check in when we are official!

Hello and welcome! Feel free to shake things up a bit here...we have been conversational fuddy-duddies lately.

If it makes you feel better, dsnydaddy, we originally booked this cruise for July of 2012 and delayed it a year! Talk about an extended wait.

As for 2014, I have no idea what, if any, plans we will make. I know we'll at least book a dummy cruise while on board this summer, but we are seriously considering finally getting our family started in 2014 (we went on the "five year plan" after our wedding ...so who knows what that decision will bring!

 

[dsnydaddy]

If it makes you feel better, dsnydaddy, we originally booked this cruise for July of 2012 and delayed it a year! Talk about an extended wait.

Ouch! I've been getting too used to yearly cruises. Putting one off for a year would hurt!


We've been kicking around a lot of 2014 plans but what is sticking is Hawaii. I've been wanting to go for some time now and if I don't plan it, I'll keep planning DCL.

 

[Mackie Mouse]

It helped that all along we had a hunch we would delay it. We weren't nuts about the itineraries leaving from Seattle, and having two years to save for this "bucket list/last-hurrah-before-kids" trip made more sense than one. the kicker wound up being that an annual trip we plan with friends every summer wound up being planned as a week away in San Fran and wine country during the 4th of July week last year...and for many reasons we couldn't say no to that! Spending my birthday at the Walt Disney Family Museum took the sting out of not being in Alaska quite nicely.

 

[dsnydaddy]

Initially, I thought that the Seattle port would be a good idea. Then once I really thought about it, I didn't like it. It is easier and cheaper for Americans to fly into a domestic airport but The abbreviated time in Vancouver was probably not worth it. Since I'm driving it really didn't even help me save money. Our plans are to drive up with our 5th wheel and spend a week touring Canada, then we'll have a leisurely cruise.

 

[clarefb]

I'm in line to eat at be our guest right now, Luke my 9 year old just got chosen to be the beast in 'Belles enchanted tales' he really took one for the team

So glad things are getting moving on the cruise board, when I get back to Cali I plan on finishing off my FE's

 

[dsnydaddy]

Oh, I so want to be in WDW now! The new fantasyland sounds pretty cool. Unfortunately it'll have to wait. Have fun!

 

[Mackie Mouse]

I'm in line to eat at be our guest right now, Luke my 9 year old just got chosen to be the beast in 'Belles enchanted tales' he really took one for the team

So glad things are getting moving on the cruise board, when I get back to Cali I plan on finishing off my FE's

Oh, how I am seething with jealousy! Luke gets a high-five from me for that one, for sure! Hope you got video; that'll be one to show his future fiancee...

One of my students was in WDW last week (that's right, the oft-maligned, oft-discussed "let's pull the kid out of school for the week" vacation here on the DIS!) and it drove me bonkers. How dare she ride the new Test Track and see New Fantasyland without me! (For the record - upon finding out about the trip, I had her complete her spelling work fr the week and make up the test when she got back, had her math teacher circle the pages in her current homework packet to complete, and had her keep a journal of her trip. All missed classwork had to be completed this week at home after she got back. I teach third grade...when I taught middle school, I would generally assign similar work - here's the homework you're missing, complete the classwork when you get back - but there was a lot more of it...)

 

[dsnydaddy]

Oh you were so nice. Whenever we put the kids on independent study, we generally get more homework than what would usually be assigned. Last time we returned we found that my son was two weeks ahead of his class. So he took a week off school then had two weeks with no homework because it was all done.

 

[Mackie Mouse]

Oh you were so nice. Whenever we put the kids on independent study, we generally get more homework than what would usually be assigned. Last time we returned we found that my son was two weeks ahead of his class. So he took a week off school then had two weeks with no homework because it was all done.

School policy is actually that classwork cannot be completed during an "educational travel" absence from school and must instead be completed upon return. I've always tried to be generous in terms of what I would consider homework rather than classwork (e.g. in middle school you can't really complete the science review worksheets without reading the material and filling in the notes template...so I'd just assign all of it), but generally our kids wind up swamped with work for the week they get back.

 

[clarefb]

Oh it's awesome & yes I have video & pics!! Hehe! He's 4th grade & whilst his teacher was nice, we were given a TON of work. My kinders teacher actually refused us independent study. It's pretty funny cause my 5 year old reads at a 2nd grade level & has met 1st grade standards already, so it's not like she was missing anything, but whatever! I made her write 2 letter sides of journal & read 30 mins every day. She has learned a lot this trip. I know some people don't agree with pulling kids out of school & I will not do it in middle school, in fact this is our first & no doubt last time. It was totally worth it! Even if it is 8pm on our final day & Luke & I still have 4 pages of math & 2 science journals to plough through ...... Be our guest was amazing btw! Highly recommended! Even for lunch!

Btw we were hanging out at MK w one of Lola's class mates today, who is also taking time out, she's cruising too, on saturday, I bet that made our kinder teachers day when she found that out

 

[Mackie Mouse]

Oh it's awesome & yes I have video & pics!! Hehe! He's 4th grade & whilst his teacher was nice, we were given a TON of work. My kinders teacher actually refused us independent study. It's pretty funny cause my 5 year old reads at a 2nd grade level & has met 1st grade standards already, so it's not like she was missing anything, but whatever! I made her write 2 letter sides of journal & read 30 mins every day. She has learned a lot this trip. I know some people don't agree with pulling kids out of school & I will not do it in middle school, in fact this is our first & no doubt last time. It was totally worth it! Even if it is 8pm on our final day & Luke & I still have 4 pages of math & 2 science journals to plough through ...... Be our guest was amazing btw! Highly recommended! Even for lunch!

Btw we were hanging out at MK w one of Lola's class mates today, who is also taking time out, she's cruising too, on saturday, I bet that made our kinder teachers day when she found that out

For the record, I do believe that taking a family vacation during the school year is a family decision. Trust me, if my schedule allowed for it, I'd be doing it, too! I firmly feel that for some kids it's fine, even beneficial (when I taught sixth grade one of my best and brightest took two weeks away in the Galapagos - one week over Christmas, and the week following...he had a TON of information to share, was caught up with work in a couple of days, and learned more on that vacation about world geography and science than I could have ever taught him in school!). For others, it's a huge detriment and they will literally spend a month - maybe longer - feeling the effects of a missed week of material. If anything, before taking a trip I wish parents would just consult me, i.e. "Based on Little Jizanthapus' progress this year, do you think he can afford to miss a week of instruction?" I had two parents do this during November conferences this year, and I cannot tell you what it meant to know that they valued my input while making that important decision.

At any rate...Disney at holidaytime is probably worth it at least once in a lifetime for most kids. I didn't get to experience it until I was in college, but WOW! I keep telling DH that our next WDW trip - whenever it is - should be at the holidays, because he's never been.

Clare - where did you wind up sitting at Be Our Guest? And, of course...was the Grey Stuff really delicious??

 

[clarefb]

It was fabulous!!! We were literally the 3rd family inside & had our pick, so we chose the smallest room with the 'rose' in. Once all the petals fell (every 20 or so mins) the pics all changed from the prince to the beast! It was a really small, intimate room. The main dining area was nothing that special. Then there's another smaller room w a belle & beast status spinning around. I think we chose wisely! My kids were impressed with my French they learn something new every day! We leave tomorrow after a character breakfast at cape may. It's been an amazing trip, the holiday stuff has made it all the more special. It really is a magical place to be. But now I must head home for a rest! My hub has surgery the day after we get home & will finally be able to walk again (I've been pushing a wheelchair all trip which has been quite challenging!) then I can check out for the holidays & get my cruise planning on! I need to decide on my excursions.....

 

[Mackie Mouse]

Just about 6 months left to go! WHOOHOO!!

I hope everyone's Christmas/Kawnzaa/Festivus was lovely. I got plenty of useful Alaska goodies...a North Face fleece from my parents, a Longchamp fold-up travel handbag from my brother and sister-in-law, and a new MacBook Pro from DH (and myself ) for processing picture post-cruise. I hope Santa was just as good to everyone else!

Can I suggest a slightly crazy idea that I just saw today here on the DIS and thought sounded cute? How would everyone feel about organizing a PJ breakfast/brunch in the MDR one morning of our trip? Hopefully we could schedule it on Tracy Arm day or a sea day and work around people's Palo schedules. It would give us one other chance for a meetup in case people weren't able to make our meetup on the first day or didn't feel comfortable saying hello until they had a chance to see everyone else throughout the cruise. If the PJs thing is too goofy/not appropriate, or people think it will be tough to fit in, not a problem...just a cruise activity I hadn't heard of until just today!

 

[dsnydaddy]

I'm betting my wife and daughter would like the pajama party idea.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. May this new year bring prosperity to us all.

I think the day count is somewhere near the low 180's now. Won't be long and I'll be able to schedule our excursions.