May 19 - 24, 2014 San Diego to Vancouver

[RweTHEREyet]

Hi everyone!

My DD and I are 80% sure we're going on this cruise. We're from Orange County, CA...and it would be a fun trip for DD and I before she officially starts kindergarten in our very strict school district (ie, can't pull her out of school anymore).

It'd be fun to meet up with other kids her age. She'll be almost 5 at the time of this cruise.

Since it looks like there's a bunch of west-coasters on this cruise, we'd all be on the same time schedule The *hardest* part for us about cruising on the East Coast is the 3 hour time difference. DD doesn't get tired until 2am when we cruise out of Orlando....

Taaren--I've seen you on the DVC boards--never knew you moved to Nor Cal? I thought you were in Hawaii (based on some of your Aulani recs). Have fun on the cruise!

So, should I go ahead and add you to the roster at the beginning of the thread? I only ask because I couldn't tell if you had booked or were 80% sure you were going to book. jlmk

 

[kew423]

We just got back (a week or so ago) from a 3 day Bahamian cruise on the Dream. We booked this cruise while on board. Looking forward to it!

Who wants to participate in the FEs?

 

[Huney]

Here's a pic from today...she's 4 months old . Her name is Lina.

And one of our family on ds's 4th birthday

 

[RweTHEREyet]

We just got back (a week or so ago) from a 3 day Bahamian cruise on the Dream. We booked this cruise while on board. Looking forward to it!

Who wants to participate in the FEs?

Welcome , welcome, Kew, do you want me to add you and your traveling party to the roster on the first page?

I do think there will be interest in doing the FE, but no one has offered to organize this yet.

 

[RweTHEREyet]

Hi everyone!

My DD and I are 80% sure we're going on this cruise. We're from Orange County, CA...and it would be a fun trip for DD and I before she officially starts kindergarten in our very strict school district (ie, can't pull her out of school anymore).

!

I forgot to mention that my son and his wife just moved back home after living in Orange County for about 3 years. They were in Rancho Santa Margarita, and they loved it there, but thank heavens they missed family even more.

 

[airtime247]

We just got back (a week or so ago) from a 3 day Bahamian cruise on the Dream. We booked this cruise while on board. Looking forward to it!

Who wants to participate in the FEs?

Hey, we sailed on the Dream a few months ago! Okay, it was just the Carnival Dream and didn't exactly compare but we still had fun. We hope to sail on one of the new Disney ships in the next few years.

We are definitely up for participating in the FE. I'll need a full year just to think of an idea!

-steve

 

[kew423]

Welcome , welcome, Kew, do you want me to add you and your traveling party to the roster on the first page?

I do think there will be interest in doing the FE, but no one has offered to organize this yet.

I'll organize it.

Yes please do add me to the roster.

Me (Kristen), DH (Robert), DD (Megan, 9), Mother in Law (Sharon)

 

[taaren]

Hi everyone!

My DD and I are 80% sure we're going on this cruise. We're from Orange County, CA...and it would be a fun trip for DD and I before she officially starts kindergarten in our very strict school district (ie, can't pull her out of school anymore).

It'd be fun to meet up with other kids her age. She'll be almost 5 at the time of this cruise.

Since it looks like there's a bunch of west-coasters on this cruise, we'd all be on the same time schedule The *hardest* part for us about cruising on the East Coast is the 3 hour time difference. DD doesn't get tired until 2am when we cruise out of Orlando....

Taaren--I've seen you on the DVC boards--never knew you moved to Nor Cal? I thought you were in Hawaii (based on some of your Aulani recs). Have fun on the cruise!

Hi lilpooh! Yep, I got a new job in January here in the East Bay area and just moved into my house last week. DH & DS will be following in another month or so (DH wanted him to finish up the school year on Maui). So glad to leave Hawaii for California. Its a great place to visit, and we'll consider retiring there, but we really missed Cali.
Yay! Another DVC-er on board!

Does anyone know if while sailing up the California coast if you can see the coastline during the day or is the ship too far out at sea? Gonna ask on FB as well.

On the two Pacific Coast cruises I've been on previously you couldn't see the coast until shortly before the ship pulled into port. Loved watching for dolphins and such though, I spent a lot of time on deck looking for them but they only ever appeared when I was on my way to or from somewhere, leaping in the ship's wake.

 

[taaren]

So in other awesome news ... I think I have talked my girlfriend into coming on this cruise!

She had been waxing nostalgic about the Disney cruise she and her DH won several years ago with her three older children and showing me pictures. When I mentioned that we were going next May, and the price we had booked for my family of 3, she got excited because she realized they could actually afford 2 inside rooms for their family of (now) 6, as well as the fact that since they live in Northern California driving to San Diego and then flying back is pretty darn affordable by comparison! By the next time we had talked she was asking what the best way to book it was and hammering out the details with her DH.

Her sister is one of my best friends, and their family has more or less adopted my DH & I, so it'll be nice having a sort of extended family at our table and another couple to hang with. Going to see if I can talk her sister and DH into coming, too!

 

[RweTHEREyet]

I'll organize it.

Yes please do add me to the roster.

Me (Kristen), DH (Robert), DD (Megan, 9), Mother in Law (Sharon)

Wonderful, thank you for volunteering to do this.

I will get the roster updated over the holiday weekend, maybe tonight.

So excited we have more folks to chat with.

taaren, we have been DVC owners since 1999 and love our membership. We live on the East Coast, but we do have ponits at VGC as well.

 

[Kidlette]

Heather - she's BEAUTIFUL! You have a beautiful family, too!

Steve - we are sooooooo not doing FE's this time, but we'll put out our FE JUST to get goodies from you Can't wait to see you guys next week! I'll email you about that tonight.

Hey - I'm subscribed to this thread but not getting the daily notice...or any notices at all. Anyone else having the same problem?

 

[RweTHEREyet]

Heather - she's BEAUTIFUL! You have a beautiful family, too!

Steve - we are sooooooo not doing FE's this time, but we'll put out our FE JUST to get goodies from you Can't wait to see you guys next week! I'll email you about that tonight.

Hey - I'm subscribed to this thread but not getting the daily notice...or any notices at all. Anyone else having the same problem?

And I find that I get notices and there is nothing new. So, it must not be working properly.

 

[lilpooh108]

Here's a pic from today...she's 4 months old . Her name is Lina.

Oh my goodness, she's precious!! And tall! My DD2 is 11 months and she looks about the same height lol

I forgot to mention that my son and his wife just moved back home after living in Orange County for about 3 years. They were in Rancho Santa Margarita, and they loved it there, but thank heavens they missed family even more.

Rwethereyet---We've booked, but we're still only 80% going since it's just DD and I. My husband can't come. (I guess, don't add me to the roster yet. ) I hope there's an organized meet or something! I don't want to do the adult stuff all alone If we do this cruise we'll definitely do the FE.

BTW, I love RSM! For a while that was our closest Walmart so I had to drive all the way down there just to do our Walmart runs.

Hi lilpooh! Yep, I got a new job in January here in the East Bay area and just moved into my house last week. DH & DS will be following in another month or so (DH wanted him to finish up the school year on Maui). So glad to leave Hawaii for California. Its a great place to visit, and we'll consider retiring there, but we really missed Cali.
Yay! Another DVC-er on board!

Taaren---I lived in SF for a few years for school. I miss the food in NorCal!

Is Maui boring to live in? I guess its much different than visiting. I've always wanted to retire on Oahu. My dream home would be one of the houses with a backyard leading to a dock at the bottom of Hawaii Kai near the Hawaii Kai Costco. I've always wanted to take a small boat to that Costco to load up on groceries. That's like, my dream retirement. Boating to Costco.

 

[taaren]

Taaren---I lived in SF for a few years for school. I miss the food in NorCal!

Is Maui boring to live in? I guess its much different than visiting. I've always wanted to retire on Oahu. My dream home would be one of the houses with a backyard leading to a dock at the bottom of Hawaii Kai near the Hawaii Kai Costco. I've always wanted to take a small boat to that Costco to load up on groceries. That's like, my dream retirement. Boating to Costco.

It is very different from visiting, though when friends come to town you occasionally do tourist stuff, and when the kids are out of school taking them to the beach is nice. I don't remember it being boring when I was growing up ... but back then I enjoyed things like hiking and having guava fights. Once I got used to the mainland where I have access to great museums, nightlife, major concerts, theatre productions, all within driving distance it was hard to go back. The nature is still there but the more refined cultural activities associated with metropolitan life are MIA, which I do take advantage of regularly here. Even on Oahu, its pretty lacking: to give you an idea, Wicked just came to Honolulu for the first time in late 2012.

We left because of a few factors. The money factor was a big one - paradise isn't cheap, with milk at $5/gallon and small fixer-upper homes in marginal neighborhoods starting at half a million, and comparable jobs pay about 1/3 less salary than here in California ... we didn't love Maui enough to make the sacrifices necessary to continue living there. The other factor was that while my family was on Maui, my husband's folks are in Arizona and his extended family is still in California, and the vast majority of our friends and adopted families that we spent our twenties with are here. All of our friends on Maui in their 20's and 30's kept leaving because of the high cost of living combined with fewer opportunities for good jobs unrelated to tourism. We realized about a year after we left that California really was home, but with the economy the way it was and my son being so young, we made a plan to return right before he started kindergarten since the schools are so much better here. Unfortunately the jobs didn't come through until he was halfway through kindergarten, but better late than never.

Anyhow, those are my reasons California is a much better place to spend your middle-life years. We did like some things about it, and I do think its a great place to retire ... I may not have a choice about that given my family's situation, but being able to boat to Costco is a nice dream.

Sorry about the novel.

I'm jealous that you live so close to my home resort! Even though I prefer NorCal for a variety of reasons, I would love love love to be closer to DLR and have weekends at the VGC be able to be a once every month or two sort of thing instead of a couple of times a year since only a long weekend will make that drive worthwhile.

 

[Huney]

Thanks for the compliments on dd. She's pretty much the twin of ODD lol.

How funny that some of you have connections to Hawaii and NorCal. We do too...dh and I grew up on the north shore of Oahu and we lived in the Bay Area for 8.5 years before we moved to San Diego about a year ago.

 

[airtime247]

I'm loving all the cute pictures! I'd try to take and post one of mine but she won't stand still long enough for me to take one! She will be 8 at the time of the cruise so it will be nice having other kids close to her age to play with.

My daughter insists on the FE so we have little choice. This was her big disappointment with not sailing with Disney. I asked her if she was interested in sailing on Disney again with our friends and she said, "Wait, is this the boat with the presents in the fish?" I said yes and she started dancing with excitement. The kids clubs, food, shows, pools and characters are a distant second to her fish presents so it's a must for us.

We're another NorCal DVC family. I lived most of my life in the Bay Area but now live about 5 hours north so what most people call northern California, we now call central! We are still down there to visit often as we have family in Martinez and Mountain View and friends scattered about the east and south bay.

It seems like we already have a good sized group for being this far out from the cruise. This should be a lot of fun!

-steve

 

[Huney]

I think we'll do the FE too, but I need to figure it all out

Steve, we used to live in Mountain View and Sunnyvale. We really miss it. We're going back in 6 weeks for a weekend visit, can't wait

 

[RweTHEREyet]

I think I am caught up on the roster. If I have missed anyone, my apologies, and please let me know so I can get you on there.

Taaren, just let me know when/if you are ready for me to add you.

Kew423, I am not sure how you want to keep track of the FE folks, but I will be glad to indicate who is participating on the roster, either by just putting FE by their name, or an asterisk or something. If I need to put a link to anything regarding the FE for folks to find it easily, let me know.

I agree, it is nice that our group is growing so early, so far in advance of the cruise.

 

[lilpooh108]

It is very different from visiting, though when friends come to town you occasionally do tourist stuff, and when the kids are out of school taking them to the beach is nice. I don't remember it being boring when I was growing up ... but back then I enjoyed things like hiking and having guava fights. Once I got used to the mainland where I have access to great museums, nightlife, major concerts, theatre productions, all within driving distance it was hard to go back. The nature is still there but the more refined cultural activities associated with metropolitan life are MIA, which I do take advantage of regularly here. Even on Oahu, its pretty lacking: to give you an idea, Wicked just came to Honolulu for the first time in late 2012.

We left because of a few factors. The money factor was a big one - paradise isn't cheap, with milk at $5/gallon and small fixer-upper homes in marginal neighborhoods starting at half a million, and comparable jobs pay about 1/3 less salary than here in California ... we didn't love Maui enough to make the sacrifices necessary to continue living there. The other factor was that while my family was on Maui, my husband's folks are in Arizona and his extended family is still in California, and the vast majority of our friends and adopted families that we spent our twenties with are here. All of our friends on Maui in their 20's and 30's kept leaving because of the high cost of living combined with fewer opportunities for good jobs unrelated to tourism. We realized about a year after we left that California really was home, but with the economy the way it was and my son being so young, we made a plan to return right before he started kindergarten since the schools are so much better here. Unfortunately the jobs didn't come through until he was halfway through kindergarten, but better late than never.

Anyhow, those are my reasons California is a much better place to spend your middle-life years. We did like some things about it, and I do think its a great place to retire ... I may not have a choice about that given my family's situation, but being able to boat to Costco is a nice dream.

Sorry about the novel.

I'm jealous that you live so close to my home resort! Even though I prefer NorCal for a variety of reasons, I would love love love to be closer to DLR and have weekends at the VGC be able to be a once every month or two sort of thing instead of a couple of times a year since only a long weekend will make that drive worthwhile.

I understand about the cost of living v. expenses thing. While in graduate school, I interviewed with companies from downtown Honolulu, LA, SF and the OC. It was surprising the work-hour requirements for the Honolulu company, since their salary scale was about 60% of what OC companies were offering (not to even mention LA or SF). I have a good friend that moved to Oahu for her boyfriend, but she moved back after a few years because she couldn't see herself living there longterm (same issues you mentioned re cultural experiences, nightlife, salary scale).

I love Orange County, but I would like to move further south in the OC (like San Clemente). It's getting way too crowded where I live, but it is so nice to be close to Disneyland. I'm taking a few years off from work to raise my babies and its been amazing to spend time with my kids at Disneyland as an AP holder. We also LOVE VGC (I just posted on the VGC lovers thread). What a great resort!

Huney, Airtime & Rwethereyet-- its so interesting that alot of DIS'ers on this cruise have so many things in common! This will be a fun group

 

[purplepaula]

I am so excited about this cruise and this group seems great.

I experienced my first Disney cruise on the Magic in Feb with my family and was in love. I have done other cruises and was so excited to go on Disney. I was a little worried it might not live up to my expectations but it was even better. I still look at my pictures and brings me instant happiness. I was very surprised I was able to convince my husband so quickly to book another (but we all realized it was our best vacation ever).

This cruise is pretty affordable for family of 6 and I love the 3 sea days. Plus I plan to visit Disneyland while I am in California (love California and very excited to visit again). I live in Alberta, Canada so Victoria is a quick flight home.

I wish I was more crafty but still so excited for the FE. I discovered the DISboards and FE, six weeks before my last cruise. It was so much fun to participate in the FE, my son and I had fun dropping off the gifts while trying not to get caught and really added to the Magic getting gifts left when we returned to the cabin.

Paula
-and taking DH (Jason), DS-18 (Quintin), DS-15 (Tristan), DS-9 (Hayden), DD-3 (Jaida) (ages during cruise-and it seems crazy that I have to type "18")