May 19 - 24, 2014 San Diego to Vancouver

[RweTHEREyet]

How do I upload a picture to a post?

I hope you are going to post a pic of the FE gift you gave on your last sailing. I know you told what you gave, but wondered how you packaged it

OK, I am not the best at instructions, but I will try.

I use Photobucket to house images I want to post.
Upload your pic to Photobucket.
Once it is in your library, select the picture
pick the last code that in the image code list over on the right (think it says IMG code)
You should then copy that code into your message or signature and the pic should show up.

Hope I got that right, like I said, I am not the most tech savvy person. Someone, please correct whatever I may have wrong here.

 

[kew423]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/95208264@N02/8678043801/in/photostream/

 

[kew423]

I hope you are going to post a pic of the FE gift you gave on your last sailing. I know you told what you gave, but wondered how you packaged it

OK, I am not the best at instructions, but I will try.

I use Photobucket to house images I want to post.
Upload your pic to Photobucket.
Once it is in your library, select the picture
pick the last code that in the image code list over on the right (think it says IMG code)
You should then copy that code into your message or signature and the pic should show up.

Hope I got that right, like I said, I am not the most tech savvy person. Someone, please correct whatever I may have wrong here.

I was trying flickr but that didn't work so I might try photobucket. I put the link to a picture of our fish extenders.

We just put the little kid gifts into a gift bag. The small bottles of tequila and salsa were just put into the FEs. For the older teenagers we did speciality popcorn and put those in a brown lunch bag that we wrote their names on.

 

[kew423]

Yes, we have done brunch a few times and it is only offered on sea days, so we should have three days where brunch is offered. We love both brunch and dinner at Palo, the food options are totally different. For brunch, the chicken parmigiana is just to die for, and this is not one of my favorite dishes. The chilled strawberry soup was amazing and the pizza (which we shared at our table of 4 was delicious. I think I devoured a whole plate of white chocolate dipped strawberries myself.

For dinner, the filet with gorgonzola was superb, although I think I will have them put the gorgonzola on the side for me next time. The lobster ravioli was the best I have ever had, maybe the best thing I have ever eaten in my life (this was on the Dream, but I bet it would be the same on the Wonder). The souffle was everything that everybody says it is and then some.

Service is top notch and your server will do anything to make sure you have a memorable meal. We had the same server for brunch and dinner (different days), her name was Jessika, and she remembered all of our requests from brunch.


I may be wrong but I think that High Tea has been discontinued on all sailings, no matter the length.

Hungry now?

Haha ... we went to Palo for dinner on the 2009 cruise. It's rather fancy for us, but I want to try to brunch .

 

[Kidlette]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/95208264@N02/8678043801/in/photostream/

I like those Very good job on them!

I hope you are going to post a pic of the FE gift you gave on your last sailing. I know you told what you gave, but wondered how you packaged it

OK, I am not the best at instructions, but I will try.

I use Photobucket to house images I want to post.
Upload your pic to Photobucket.
Once it is in your library, select the picture
pick the last code that in the image code list over on the right (think it says IMG code)
You should then copy that code into your message or signature and the pic should show up.

Hope I got that right, like I said, I am not the most tech savvy person. Someone, please correct whatever I may have wrong here.

Good instructions The only thing I can think of that might be confusing is if the auto/easy share thing is turned off in their account. It used to always show the link options that you can just copy right on the picture, but with one of their upgrades they eliminated that and now you have to actually find it and turn it on. If that feature is turned off for them they would just need to look under "image links" on the right-hand side of the page. They should find the image link there The "update link options" in that same section is where they would turn on the feature.12


Here's a picture of our old one. This picture is before we finished making it. We had the lady custom make it with the top portion larger than normal so we could put patches of Disney Characters all around it. It said "Cruisin' with Character" and had a dozen or so character patches around those words. I can't find a finished picture though

 

[Kidlette]

Hi
I received three emails regarding being on the FE list. I'm checking my spam folder very carefully so please make sure the subject on your email says "FE list" or "Disney Cruise" or something similar.
I emailed the existing list this morning so if you don't get it please email me your info again.

For those of you who haven't done it before, we did it for the first time this past March and we had a blast. Luckily our teenager knows how to sew so we were able to make nice FEs. I did take it to a local shop to get the names embroidered (it was $5 a name, not too bad). We did go overboard with the gifts, but we had a fabulous time! We wanted to bring something from home to share with everyone so we gave a indv. size of local salsa, small thing of tequila and fun toys for the kids.

We saw all kinds of different types of FEs. Buckets, pencil pouches etc.

I haven't emailed you yet, sorry. We're deciding if we want to participate or back out. You can remove us for now and I'll email you when we make the decision.

 

[RweTHEREyet]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/95208264@N02/8678043801/in/photostream/

Very nice, much nicer than my very simple one. I am due for a new one I guess but I need to find someone that does embroidery to do it for me.

 

[RweTHEREyet]

I like those Good instructions The only thing I can think of that might be confusing is if the auto/easy share thing is turned off in their account. It used to always show the link options that you can just copy right on the picture, but with one of their upgrades they eliminated that and now you have to actually find it and turn it on. If that feature is turned off for them they would just need to look under "image links" on the right-hand side of the page. They should find the image link there The "update link options" in that same section is where they would turn on the feature.12

Glad I got it pretty much right. The image codes have always shown up for me so I wasn't aware they didn't show up that way for everyone. Not sure I would know where to find the auto/easy share option myself.

Kidlette, I hope you decide to participate in the FE, the more the merrier. The one cruise we didn't participate, while it was nice not to worry about getting everything to the ship and so forth, but I was a bit sad every time we passed a door with their FE hanging on the hook with goodies hanging out.

 

[kew423]

I haven't emailed you yet, sorry. We're deciding if we want to participate or back out. You can remove us for now and I'll email you when we make the decision.

We have plenty of time.

 

[kew423]

Very nice, much nicer than my very simple one. I am due for a new one I guess but I need to find someone that does embroidery to do it for me.

We went to a local trophy shop.

 

[kew423]

I like it

 

[Kidlette]

Very nice, much nicer than my very simple one. I am due for a new one I guess but I need to find someone that does embroidery to do it for me.

Are you wanting just the embroidery done by someone, or do you want the whole thing made and embroidered? We use a lady on ebay, her seller name is bonnysews and I created a whole page around her on the last cruise website we did. I'll give you the link to that old page, but it is old info. If you go to the page and click the link to find her it should still take you to her items - BUT - I think her prices and stuff have changed. I think her FE's are now $24 (?) and I believe embroidery is $5 (?). You can send her a message though and ask, she's really nice

Here's the link to the old FE info I had posted on our last cruise group page:
https://sites.google.com/site/wonderjan23/home/bonnysews_fish_extenders

 

[Kidlette]

Kidlette, I hope you decide to participate in the FE, the more the merrier. The one cruise we didn't participate, while it was nice not to worry about getting everything to the ship and so forth, but I was a bit sad every time we passed a door with their FE hanging on the hook with goodies hanging out.

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. We've done it both ways, I think it just depends on how "all out" we go. The first or second time we did it we went all out - we had an entire extra large suit case dedicated to just FE stuff and it took us 1/2 a day to deliver our first day of stuff - so we spent the rest of the day delivering everything else so we wouldn't have to lose 1/2 a day every day. The next time we skipped it and we were happy we did, we didn't feel obligated to take time out if we were having a blast. We had no kids then though and our daughter will be 2 on the sailing, so we think she might like it. I'm kind of 50/50 on it right now. We'll have to talk about it some more and make a decision. Maybe we'll do it if we just scale back and do 1 gift per cabin (not per person) and only deliver once. If I'm completely honest, I'm also a little put off by the whole alcohol thing. I know I don't have to say yes to it, but it's more of a moral issue for me. I know that other people don't care, but my mind goes straight to thinking about the random 14 or 15 year old wandering the ship who could take (steal) them out of the FE's. I know that's bad on the kid for stealing, but leaving alcohol bottles for kids to find like that is not OK with me. I've done 5 or 6 Disney cruises and never heard of anyone doing this until now. I just don't know if I want to participate in an activity where I know this is going on. It's nothing against anyone else, it's just a moral obligation I feel to not participate. I think that we as adults should realize we're on a family oriented vacation, participating in a family oriented activity, and leaving alcohol where any kid/teen can walk up and take it is not something I think I want to be a part of. Maybe Ryan and Lorelai will participate and I'll just keep myself out of it. Ryan doesn't feel the way I do about it, so he would probably be ok with that. Anyway, I don't know, I have a lot of thinking to do on several levels. It will be a while before we decide, but we'll make a decision fairly soon. {sigh...what to do...what to do...}.

 

[Disneyland Dreamer]

Welcome aboard , I have added you to the roster on the first page.

Brunch at Palo, dinner at Palo, so much to look forward to, and another FE participant, yay.

Thank you for the warm welcome! I'm happy to be here! We LOVED our brunch at Palo, especially since we were one of the last tables for the brunch sitting and the server gave us a plate FULL of chocolate covered strawberries to take with us! YUMMY!

Hi
I received three emails regarding being on the FE list. I'm checking my spam folder very carefully so please make sure the subject on your email says "FE list" or "Disney Cruise" or something similar.
I emailed the existing list this morning so if you don't get it please email me your info again.

I thought I put FE Disney Cruise in my subject, but I just checked my e-mail and didn't get a list, so I guess I will have to try again.


Does anyone know whether or not the 5 night cruise has a character breakfast and/or the Pirate Party? The cruise we were on last year was a 6 night cruise and we were told that those events were only for cruises longer than 5 nights. *fingers crossed*

 

[Kidlette]

Does anyone know whether or not the 5 night cruise has a character breakfast and/or the Pirate Party? The cruise we were on last year was a 6 night cruise and we were told that those events were only for cruises longer than 5 nights. *fingers crossed*

They are done on the 5 night cruise. Somewhere in the pages of this post is a sample of the schedule and talk about which night Pirate night will be. Character breakfast is on anything above a 4 night (I think) and is based on your dining rotation. The schedule of Pirate night is the only thing we're waiting to find out

 

[taaren]

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. We've done it both ways, I think it just depends on how "all out" we go. The first or second time we did it we went all out - we had an entire extra large suit case dedicated to just FE stuff and it took us 1/2 a day to deliver our first day of stuff - so we spent the rest of the day delivering everything else so we wouldn't have to lose 1/2 a day every day. The next time we skipped it and we were happy we did, we didn't feel obligated to take time out if we were having a blast. We had no kids then though and our daughter will be 2 on the sailing, so we think she might like it. I'm kind of 50/50 on it right now. We'll have to talk about it some more and make a decision. Maybe we'll do it if we just scale back and do 1 gift per cabin (not per person) and only deliver once. If I'm completely honest, I'm also a little put off by the whole alcohol thing. I know I don't have to say yes to it, but it's more of a moral issue for me. I know that other people don't care, but my mind goes straight to thinking about the random 14 or 15 year old wandering the ship who could take (steal) them out of the FE's. I know that's bad on the kid for stealing, but leaving alcohol bottles for kids to find like that is not OK with me. I've done 5 or 6 Disney cruises and never heard of anyone doing this until now. I just don't know if I want to participate in an activity where I know this is going on. It's nothing against anyone else, it's just a moral obligation I feel to not participate. I think that we as adults should realize we're on a family oriented vacation, participating in a family oriented activity, and leaving alcohol where any kid/teen can walk up and take it is not something I think I want to be a part of. Maybe Ryan and Lorelai will participate and I'll just keep myself out of it. Ryan doesn't feel the way I do about it, so he would probably be ok with that. Anyway, I don't know, I have a lot of thinking to do on several levels. It will be a while before we decide, but we'll make a decision fairly soon. {sigh...what to do...what to do...}.

I feel the same way. I want to join ... but ...

We've been on 3 cruises. Participated in the FE all three times. The first and third cruise were great, the second I really wish we hadn't (although there was a secret Mickey exchange for that one that was great fun).

Here was the main difference, and what I'm going to wait and see before I sign up. The second cruise, we had joined the meet late since it was a last minute booking, and the group had previously decided not to split no matter how many cabins joined. There ended up being well over 40 cabins. That was just too many. It took us three days to deliver gifts. Generally we did one set of adult gifts, one set of kids gifts, and one cabin gift per cabin (for all three cruises).

If there's more than 20 or so cabins, it just becomes a burden IMHO. In that case, I would suggest splitting into 2 groups, a group "A" FE and a group "B" FE, perhaps even one with mainly adults vs mainly families, or something like that.

The two other cruises I went on, the first had about 20 cabins, the third there was a dozen of us DISsers (it was a 3-night cruise, which DISsers don't seem to favor a lot). That was a nice size, everything could be delivered in one day, and it wasn't horrendously expensive. Any more than that and you need a suitcase just for your FEs, then you have a full suitcase going home ... while that sounds fun, with luggage costs these days ...

I think the ideal sized group would be 15 or so cabins.

 

[Kidlette]

I feel the same way. I want to join ... but ...

We've been on 3 cruises. Participated in the FE all three times. The first and third cruise were great, the second I really wish we hadn't (although there was a secret Mickey exchange for that one that was great fun).

Here was the main difference, and what I'm going to wait and see before I sign up. The second cruise, we had joined the meet late since it was a last minute booking, and the group had previously decided not to split no matter how many cabins joined. There ended up being well over 40 cabins. That was just too many. It took us three days to deliver gifts. Generally we did one set of adult gifts, one set of kids gifts, and one cabin gift per cabin (for all three cruises).

If there's more than 20 or so cabins, it just becomes a burden IMHO. In that case, I would suggest splitting into 2 groups, a group "A" FE and a group "B" FE, perhaps even one with mainly adults vs mainly families, or something like that.

The two other cruises I went on, the first had about 20 cabins, the third there was a dozen of us DISsers (it was a 3-night cruise, which DISsers don't seem to favor a lot). That was a nice size, everything could be delivered in one day, and it wasn't horrendously expensive. Any more than that and you need a suitcase just for your FEs, then you have a full suitcase going home ... while that sounds fun, with luggage costs these days ...

I think the ideal sized group would be 15 or so cabins.

My other points aside, I have to agree with you on this as well. The group where it took us 1/2 a day to deliver was about 25 cabins. It was NUTS! That group just got insane though - there were 3 families with guide dogs and they so much said that they expected guide dogs included so we included guide dogs in gifts! NEVER AGAIN! Sorry if we end up with anyone who has a guide dog, but gifts for the dogs was just ridiculous. It took an inexpensive gift idea and turned it on it's head because you had to buy a dog item for a dog. In my opinion, 25 was too many by about 1/2! I would say no more than 10 or 12 cabins per group. But then again, I don't even know if I'm participating yet. I agree though, the size of the group and whether or not the FE organizer decides to split the group will be a deciding factor for us as well.

 

[airtime247]

We've got more than a year to go to our cruise and we are already stressing out about FE's! What I have seen done that I think seems to work the best is just to set either a cutoff date or maximum number of participating cabins. If a date is set and the quantity gets too high for some people, they can easily remove themselves from the list.

When the amount of participants gets too high for us, we just switch to giving one gift per cabin rather than something for the adults in the cabin to share and one gift per each child. Either way, it should be kept fun and stress-free!

I think the best solution to the dilemma of wandering teens seeing alcohol in the FE's and stealing it is just to make sure that if any is given that it is wrapped or concealed in something like a gift bag. I'm glad it was asked in the FE questions so people can opt out of it if they don't want to receive it.

We always enjoy the FE and it's my daughter's favorite part of cruising believe it or not. I can't see us bringing any alcohol on this trip as we always struggle with weight and size limits with our luggage. It might be different if we were driving in. With every cruise we have trouble coming up with something fun and creative that we can cram in a suitcase and still make it light enough to keep the airlines happy!

-steve

 

[airtime247]

Back to the Palo question - we have done both before. I had not heard anything about them not doing High Tea anymore. Major bummer if that's true. I do prefer brunch though. It's really fun and the food is excellent and the price is great.

Dinner is great too and we will be sure to book one of every trip to Palo that is available to us. The hard part of a rare itinerary like this is trying to figure out rotations and show nights. I would like to avoid booking Palo on Pirate Night or the night Animator's Palate does their show. Hopefully Disney posts more information about our itinerary before the Palo booking windows open to CC members.

I also want to recommend to anyone else with little girls is the tea party (apple juice and a cookie). We have done it twice and it had different themes each time so I don't know what it is currently called. One time it was a tea party with Alice and the Mad Hatter and the other time it was with Peter Pan, Cinderella, Snow White, and Ariel. It's very interactive and there are great photo opportunities with the characters. You can get tickets for this as soon as you get on the ship.

-steve

 

[RweTHEREyet]

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. We've done it both ways, I think it just depends on how "all out" we go. The first or second time we did it we went all out - we had an entire extra large suit case dedicated to just FE stuff and it took us 1/2 a day to deliver our first day of stuff - so we spent the rest of the day delivering everything else so we wouldn't have to lose 1/2 a day every day. The next time we skipped it and we were happy we did, we didn't feel obligated to take time out if we were having a blast. We had no kids then though and our daughter will be 2 on the sailing, so we think she might like it. I'm kind of 50/50 on it right now. We'll have to talk about it some more and make a decision. Maybe we'll do it if we just scale back and do 1 gift per cabin (not per person) and only deliver once. If I'm completely honest, I'm also a little put off by the whole alcohol thing. I know I don't have to say yes to it, but it's more of a moral issue for me. I know that other people don't care, but my mind goes straight to thinking about the random 14 or 15 year old wandering the ship who could take (steal) them out of the FE's. I know that's bad on the kid for stealing, but leaving alcohol bottles for kids to find like that is not OK with me. I've done 5 or 6 Disney cruises and never heard of anyone doing this until now. I just don't know if I want to participate in an activity where I know this is going on. It's nothing against anyone else, it's just a moral obligation I feel to not participate. I think that we as adults should realize we're on a family oriented vacation, participating in a family oriented activity, and leaving alcohol where any kid/teen can walk up and take it is not something I think I want to be a part of. Maybe Ryan and Lorelai will participate and I'll just keep myself out of it. Ryan doesn't feel the way I do about it, so he would probably be ok with that. Anyway, I don't know, I have a lot of thinking to do on several levels. It will be a while before we decide, but we'll make a decision fairly soon. {sigh...what to do...what to do...}.

I respect your thoughts on this, but I guess I don't expect that there will be that many teenagers on the sailing as most schools will still be in session. And I guess I don't expect that there would be many kids that would stand there and rifle thru FE gifts looking for mini-bottles of liquor, especially since they wouldn't have a clue that any bottles had been given in the first place. We always deliver our gifts during the day, so I wouldn't expect them to be sitting there all night and available for anyone to take. Not trying to sway you one way or the other, just my own thoughts.