May 18, 2013 MAGIC EBTA - Who is with us?

[kyra's mommy]

Welcome aboard BigHugsForEeyore and hmhaase!!

 

[MandyGirl]

We are joining you all on this cruise. We can't wait. I have been reading the thread and we also would like to link up with some one for dinner possibly. It is myself, DH, and DD(6). I saw someone else mention they were doing southwest from Denver, that is how we are getting to houston as well. I found a one way rental for only $60 to galveston. How much is the DCL transfers? And when I had called they said they had no transportation from Hobby? If anybody is interested in having dinner, we are right now signed up for the late dining. Thanks

Welcome aboard!!

DCL has given conflicting info over the months via phone and email. sigh. I resorted to renting a one-way car with Enterprise after landing at Hobby a few months back. We flew into Hobby in November for our DCL Magic cruise then; love the smaller airport.

Our daughter is also 6 when cruising! We're taking her out of the last 9 days of kindergarten for the year.

 

[kaseyC]

Hi

My Mum and I just booked this cruise tonight and we have second seating dining.

Looking forward to getting to know everyone

I also sent a request for the FB page.

Welcome!! It's awesome to see more and more folks joining!

 

[kaseyC]

Previously when linking, I have been told on the phone the largest is 12 but if doing 16 they will split into 8 and 8. Not sure if that is accurate though.

Here is a thread of other scenarios for the Magic: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2482648

Thanks for the link!

 

[kaseyC]

We are joining you all on this cruise. We can't wait. I have been reading the thread and we also would like to link up with some one for dinner possibly. It is myself, DH, and DD(6). I saw someone else mention they were doing southwest from Denver, that is how we are getting to houston as well. I found a one way rental for only $60 to galveston. How much is the DCL transfers? And when I had called they said they had no transportation from Hobby? If anybody is interested in having dinner, we are right now signed up for the late dining. Thanks

Welcome! The more the merrier!

 

[mboekhoff]

We are joining you all on this cruise. We can't wait. I have been reading the thread and we also would like to link up with some one for dinner possibly. It is myself, DH, and DD(6). I saw someone else mention they were doing southwest from Denver, that is how we are getting to houston as well. I found a one way rental for only $60 to galveston. How much is the DCL transfers? And when I had called they said they had no transportation from Hobby? If anybody is interested in having dinner, we are right now signed up for the late dining. Thanks

 

[ThePedersonFamily]

We are joining you all on this cruise. We can't wait. I have been reading the thread and we also would like to link up with some one for dinner possibly. It is myself, DH, and DD(6). I saw someone else mention they were doing southwest from Denver, that is how we are getting to houston as well. I found a one way rental for only $60 to galveston. How much is the DCL transfers? And when I had called they said they had no transportation from Hobby? If anybody is interested in having dinner, we are right now signed up for the late dining. Thanks

Hi there!! I just talked to my travel agent today and DCL will be offering transportation from the Hobby airport! We are driving to Hobby and found a Hampton Inn airport property that offers a park and fly rate as well as a shuttle to/from the airport!! Just and idea!! We also have a DD who is 6 and if you want to link for late supper we would be in!!

 

[MandyGirl]

Hi there!! I just talked to my travel agent today and DCL will be offering transportation from the Hobby airport! We are driving to Hobby and found a Hampton Inn airport property that offers a park and fly rate as well as a shuttle to/from the airport!! Just and idea!! We also have a DD who is 6 and if you want to link for late supper we would be in!!

Awesome!! Glad transportation will be working out using DCL

We are getting several little princesses who are 6 years old at late dinner it looks like! Binkytell (Sarah) is coordinating getting that together, and she will pop on here. She's in Scotland, so probably snoozing right now. Be sure to keep an eye out for her posts!

 

[Goofy39.3]

Between Galveston and Barcelona, I believe we will be losing an hour on seven different evenings (the first is prior to Castaway Cay). An 8:30pm dining will end up being 1:30 by disembarkation.

I just don't understand this logic. I follow the math easily enough, but each day is still a new day with its own schedule. For your statement to make sense a person would have to live on an exact schedule. Such as getting up at 0700 on the first day, eating breakfast 1 hour later, (0800), eating lunch 4 hours later, (1200), eating dinner 8.5 hours later, (2030), then go to bed 2.5 hours later, (2300), and sleep for 8 hours. The next morning, after losing an hour you would wake up at 0800, the third morning at 0900, fourth at 1000, fifth at 1100, and the sixth at 1200. I don't like losing an hour of vacation every day, but live my normal day to day with such a varied and flexible schedule that it shouldn't effect us.

We will also be at the late seating, because early is too early for us, and my DS5 loves the dine and play.

 

[LySand]

I would be in for the walking!

Count me in for walking too

 

[woody73]

. . . I just talked to my travel agent today and DCL will be offering transportation from the Hobby airport!

Thank you for the update. Too bad they weren't available earlier, as we have since made other plans.

Woody

 

[MandyGirl]

I just don't understand this logic. I follow the math easily enough, but each day is still a new day with its own schedule. For your statement to make sense a person would have to live on an exact schedule. Such as getting up at 0700 on the first day, eating breakfast 1 hour later, (0800), eating lunch 4 hours later, (1200), eating dinner 8.5 hours later, (2030), then go to bed 2.5 hours later, (2300), and sleep for 8 hours. The next morning, after losing an hour you would wake up at 0800, the third morning at 0900, fourth at 1000, fifth at 1100, and the sixth at 1200. I don't like losing an hour of vacation every day, but live my normal day to day with such a varied and flexible schedule that it shouldn't effect us.

We will also be at the late seating, because early is too early for us, and my DS5 loves the dine and play.

We go with the flow. Kinda have to with a 2 year old. But from previous EBTA trip reports I have read on various message boards, and the toll it seems to take losing an hour a day each day, many have commented that many passengers were missing breakfast and it "felt" early for dinner by later in the journey. Some previous EBTA'ers had also commented on this thread that folks were missing breakfast by later in the crossing. I've never done an EBTA, only WBTA, just took the advice I read from others and spoke with. Sorry if I passed along any misinformation. I certainly meant no harm or intention. Just passing along the research I had done.

 

[MandyGirl]

Thank you for the update. Too bad they weren't available earlier, as we have since made other plans.

Woody

Ditto!

 

[MandyGirl]

I just don't understand this logic. I follow the math easily enough, but each day is still a new day with its own schedule. For your statement to make sense a person would have to live on an exact schedule. Such as getting up at 0700 on the first day, eating breakfast 1 hour later, (0800), eating lunch 4 hours later, (1200), eating dinner 8.5 hours later, (2030), then go to bed 2.5 hours later, (2300), and sleep for 8 hours. The next morning, after losing an hour you would wake up at 0800, the third morning at 0900, fourth at 1000, fifth at 1100, and the sixth at 1200. I don't like losing an hour of vacation every day, but live my normal day to day with such a varied and flexible schedule that it shouldn't effect us.

We will also be at the late seating, because early is too early for us, and my DS5 loves the dine and play.

Ahh - just re-read - maybe if this sentence I typed would have said what I was thinking:

An 8:30pm dining will end up being 1:30 by disembarkation.

An 8:30pm dining will end up feeling like 1:30 by disembarkation.

That's what folks had shared (and a relative who did an EBTA last year). He did the same ship both ways last year, and said the EBTA was definitely a harder transition for him than WBTA. Of course each person adjusts to timezone changes differently.

 

[MandyGirl]

Count me in for walking too

Yay!

 

[Kirbo]

Thanks everyone for the ideas about early/late dining. After reading what MandyGirl had to say about late dining we changed ours! I hadn't even thought about it before. And it will be helpful for when we do the Med.

Also, thanks everyone for the air advice. So glad that we got our flight changed to the day before. The thought of missing part of our cruise (even if it's "only" two days), made me feel a bit queasy.

Anyway, so glad so many here have shared their advice.

 

[MandyGirl]

Thanks everyone for the ideas about early/late dining. After reading what MandyGirl had to say about late dining we changed ours! I hadn't even thought about it before. And it will be helpful for when we do the Med.

Also, thanks everyone for the air advice. So glad that we got our flight changed to the day before. The thought of missing part of our cruise (even if it's "only" two days), made me feel a bit queasy.

Anyway, so glad so many here have shared their advice.

What a blessing your post is Thank you.

 

[MandyGirl]

Breakfast attendance--on previous TA cruises, they offered brunch on most sea days till about 1 or 2. Both breakfast and lunch food was available in Lumiere's. Yes, the consecutive time changes do start to get real old. That's one reason I prefer the WBTA.

Thank you for the info about brunch and it being offered later on sea days. The time changes are why we also preferred WBTA and had hoped for the WBTA this year, but this one will do. Excited for the journey.

 

[kcashner]

When we were on the EBTA in 2011, Most people (including me) gave more than one gift for FE. Small stuff, like chapstick, small toys, candy, or magnets, but did so multiple times over the 2 week period. It is my understanding that Secret Mickey is one larger gift with a dollar amount of something along the lines of 20 dollars, not small gifts. To each his own though, it just seems more fun on a longer cruise to have the excitement last for the whole thing, not be over with in a couple of days. I don't think ANYONE wants to do an FE group with 60 cabins or 100 individuals. WOW, that would just be too much work I could be wrong though who knows.

We were on a cruise with 100 cabins in an FE group (we dropped out--that's too much for me). On other cruises, we split the group into 20-30 cabins when there were more that wanted to participate. In my opinion, 20 cabins is just about perfect. It takes A LOT of time to walk around the ship to all those cabins! More than 30 is just too much work and expense. But...I'm not getting into this one. Whatever you guys think is what goes! Just sharing experiences.

Transfers from Hobby--with they would get their stories straight. Thru TA, we were told they would have transfers...then later told they would not, and now the thread says they will. Guess it doesn't matter--we're in the "other arrangements" group as well. This confusion will leave DCL saying there was no demand.

 

[MandyGirl]

Transfers from Hobby--with they would get their stories straight. Thru TA, we were told they would have transfers...then later told they would not, and now the thread says they will. Guess it doesn't matter--we're in the "other arrangements" group as well. This confusion will leave DCL saying there was no demand.

Amen. Hate to say it, but I'm glad I wasn't the only one who got misinformation. Sounds like several here received various stories as well.