May 19 - 24, 2014 San Diego to Vancouver

[RweTHEREyet]

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.

I agree with you on large group sizes, it becomes too expensive and takes too much time to deliver and too much room in the suitcase. I don't think any decisions have been made in our FE yet, but I know I will vote for smaller groups and those that wish to join all groups can do so.

 

[RweTHEREyet]

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! One cabin gift that the whole family will enjoy and maybe some candy, etc. for the kids is what I do anyway. My gifts are usually handcrafted (and no, I do not mean moonshine )

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! We have never brought liquor on board, but we do bring a couple of bottles of wine to enjoy in our cabin, but I plan to pick those up in San Diego, so there won't be a luggage issue.

-steve

I don't think anyone is stressing, but sharing their thoughts, and I think the early joiners should pretty much share their expectations and then once the guidelines are determined, others will know what the deal is when they sign up.

 

[RweTHEREyet]

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

I had read a couple of posts that said no more High Tea, but I haven't cruised since this supposedly happened, so I cannot confirm for sure. If anyone knows differently, please chime in.

We are doing a B2B with Alaska being the second sailing, so I guess that means we will have a pirate night on the San Diego sailing and a Pixar night on the Alaska one.

Do you guys think we will have a formal night on our 5-night sailing? I really don't want to have to pack much in the way of dress clothes. Guess I can skip the MDR, maybe that would be a room service or Topsiders night. I was not aware until recently that Topsiders is a sit-down service meal in the evening.

 

[kew423]

Has anyone started formulating plans for their San Francisco day yet? Doing a cruise excursion or just doing your own thing. It has been years since I have been there, and I just love this city. My list so far includes to ride the cable car, have some crab on the warf, some sourdough bread, maybe the fortune cookie factory, lunch somewhere in Southbeach. I would love to go to the Disney family museum, but that won't be on the top of my SIL's list, so I will save that for another trip. I have done Alcatraz, but my SIL might want to do that, and I wouldn't mind doing it again.

Any other must-do ideas?

I've never been to San Fran and I want to see Alcatraz, Fisherman's Warf and China town. Can it all be done in one day? I'm completely fine with seeing the Golden Gate Bridge from afar!

 

[kew423]

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.

I had it in my mind already that if it got over 15 cabins we would split it because over that is just too much.

 

[kew423]

Perhaps I should have explained what I envisioned happening with the FEs since I'm putting it together. I'm not going to stress out about it because it is fun.

1. There will be a cut off date in April 2014.

2. If more than 15 cabins participate I will split the list.

3. I brought up the alcohol question because it was brought up on my last cruise. It's not my place to tell people what they can or can't put in the FEs. I wanted to put the info out there.

 

[RweTHEREyet]

I've never been to San Fran and I want to see Alcatraz, Fisherman's Warf and China town. Can it all be done in one day? I'm completely fine with seeing the Golden Gate Bridge from afar!

Well, we will sail under the Golden Gate when we arrive and leave San Fran, so you will have opportunities there-and that is going to be so cool. I definitely hope to be on deck to get some pictures when we arrive that morning.

I think you can do all the other stuff in one day. Definitely buy your Alcatraz tickets on line ahead of time, they do sell out. Fishermans warf is very near to where we will dock. I don't remember how long Alcatraz takes, but I do remember that when you have seen enough, you can catch any boat back, not a specific time. I am fuzzy on the Chinatown distance, but I am betting you could include that with no time problems at all. We will have 13 1/2 hours in port, iirc, enough to get a lot done.

Don't forget a ride on the cable cars as well. That is so fun.

 

[RweTHEREyet]

I had it in my mind already that if it got over 15 cabins we would split it because over that is just too much.

Perhaps I should have explained what I envisioned happening with the FEs since I'm putting it together. I'm not going to stress out about it because it is fun.

1. There will be a cut off date in April 2014.

2. If more than 15 cabins participate I will split the list.

3. I brought up the alcohol question because it was brought up on my last cruise. It's not my place to tell people what they can or can't put in the FEs. I wanted to put the info out there.

This all sounds good to me.

 

[ludari]

I've never been to San Fran and I want to see Alcatraz, Fisherman's Warf and China town. Can it all be done in one day? I'm completely fine with seeing the Golden Gate Bridge from afar!

I believe you can definitely do Alcatraz and Fisherman's Warf in one day but it all depends on how long you want to spend at Alcatraz since it's a walking self guided tour. I am not sure if you will be able to squeeze in visiting China town as well.

 

[Kidlette]

Hey all - I'm not going to quote everyone, just going to type some responses

High Tea:

First - I also read that high tea was being cancelled. With that said, it kind of doesn't matter because it was only on 7 night or longer sailings anyway. Here's a blurb from the article I read though . . .

"High Tea aboard the Disney Cruise Line’s four ships is about to high-tail it out of town.

DCL has decided to ditch its High Tea offering in its high-end Palo restaurants, beginning this summer.

High Tea has been offered on seven-night or longer cruises from 3-4 p.m. while the ship is at sea; traditional, herbal and flavored teas were featured, along with finger foods and desserts at an extra cost of $10 per person.

The last High Teas in Palo will be served July 22 on the Disney Dream, August 10 on the Disney Magic and August 13 on both the Disney Wonder and Disney Fantasy.

The elimination of High Tea will allow the line to beef up its already extremely popular brunch offerings in Palo.

According to Jason Lasecki, DCL’s public relations director, "Palo brunch is one of the most popular dining events across the fleet.""

FE's:

Steve - I'm not stressing, promise Just thinking out loud/expressing my opinion and deciding what I want to do. In the many, many Disney cruises I've done I've never heard of that, so it took me by surprise and it's just taken me a couple of days to process the thought. I suppose when all is said and done, I shouldn't care about other people's kids. If they are "naughty" enough to steal from FE's - and they DO - I know because we've had stuff taken out of ours before, then that's on the kids parents. Heaven forbid a teenager is diabetic and they drink the alcohol, but again, I suppose that's not my problem.

With that said, kew - we will participate. I will email you our info shortly. Thank you for being patient while I thought things through.

Shore Excursions:

I went to SFO once as a kid and don't remember it. We visited family anyway - no activities. lol, Steve - we're relying on you and Amy to help us with this one! I've noticed no one has mentioned the Walt Disney Museum. Is no one going to that? I know I'd like to ride a cable car/see a cable car museum, and I've heard a walk around Fisherman's wharf is a must. Alcatraz sounds neat, but I'd rather do some whale watching or something. Steve - do you think you and Amy will want to tour the city, or do something on a boat? Are you guys still wanting to whale watch in Vancouver or Seattle after the cruise is over? We are DEFINITELY staying a day, probably 2 days in YVR/SEA to do some whale watching and sightseeing.

Pirate Night, formal Night, and Schedule:

I'll go back and find it and re-post it when I do, but I posted something a couple of months ago about the schedule for this. There WILL be a formal night and a pirate night on our cruise. Right now all 5 nights are basically the same so we can kind of figure it will be that same schedule - the Disney cruise line agent just said that it "could change" - so we're really just waiting for the official release of the info. She said it should be released between May and the end of June.

Let me look for the current pattern/schedule and I'll re-pots it

 

[Kidlette]

Ok - here it is, the CURRENT schedule of nights on a 5 night sailing is:

casual, formal, pirate, casual, casual

Like I said, the cast member said this "could change" - but somehow I doubt it

 

[kew423]

We have only been on the three night so what is the "FORMAL" night? I mean, realistically .. it's not ties for the guys is it?

 

[RweTHEREyet]

As far as the Disney Family Museum is concerned, I would love to do it, but my SIL is with me on this sailing and I don't think it would be at the top of her to-do list as she hasn't seen much of San Francisco as a tourist. From reading the excursion information, it sounded as if the museum would take a large portion of the day, and I think we would prefer doing several other things rather than one thing that would eat up most of the day. We haven't discussed it in detail though, so things could change for us.

I would love to go to Sausilito myself, but that is another time-consuming excursion.

I am hoping to buy a guide book that has a map of the city and maybe the cable car routes to plot out a city tour that would cover a lot of the highlights, but I haven't started looking for one yet. If anyone has any suggestions, I am all ears.

 

[kew423]

My mother-in-law suggested renting a car for the day and seeing San Fran that way. Wonder if the cable cars would get us around just as well.

 

[Kidlette]

We have only been on the three night so what is the "FORMAL" night? I mean, realistically .. it's not ties for the guys is it?

It's really to each his own, but there are rules. For instance, no shorts, no bathing suits, etc. Some people will wear full formal attire (tux or suit and gowns or cocktail dresses) while others dress more business-like. Personally, I've always just worn slacks and a nice top and Ryan wears slacks and a button up shirt with a vest (no tie or jacket though). He actually bought a disney cast member vest and wears that

 

[RweTHEREyet]

We have only been on the three night so what is the "FORMAL" night? I mean, realistically .. it's not ties for the guys is it?

Well, you see some of everything on formal night--floor length gowns for ladies, cocktail dress, tea length, some of everything. I think it is supposed to be coat and tie for the guys, but I have to say we are very casual people and go as simple as can be. Some people use that night to get some nice family portraits done. My DH usually gets by with a L/S shirt and a sweater vest, no tie.

If you ask on the main board cruise board about the dress code and if you say you have ever worn shorts or capris to the dining room the dress code nazis will be after you. I haven't worn shorts in the MDR, but my DH wears nice khaki shorts , and it doesn't bother me that he does.

I am comfortable wearing a pair of dressy type capris and a sparkly top of some kind. By dressy, I mean a nicer fabric, not khaki, but crepe/silky like fabric. This is what I wear to Palo as well and have never felt out of place. Then again, I am short and capri on me is almost ankle length, so maybe they don't look like capris.

For all the talk it stirs up, at the end of the day, unless you see something outrageous, you don't remember what everyone had on anyway.

 

[Calfan]

Hi, everyone. A friend and I just booked this cruise when our families were aboard the Fantasy last week. It will be the second girls' cruise for CaliforniaGirl09 and myself. We did the 5-day from New York to Canada last September and had a blast. This one appeals to us because it is on the West Coast (where we live), and we are excited to sail under the Golden Gate Bridge. We are both from the San Fransisco Bay Area, and I would be happy to try to answer any questions about things to do in the area. Looking forward to getting to know our fellow cruise travelers over the next year plus. I'd love to make some magnets for this cruise, so if anyone has come up with some magnet images they would be willing to share, that would be great.

 

[RweTHEREyet]

Hi, everyone. A friend and I just booked this cruise when our families were aboard the Fantasy last week. It will be the second girls' cruise for CaliforniaGirl09 and myself. We did the 5-day from New York to Canada last September and had a blast. This one appeals to us because it is on the West Coast (where we live), and we are excited to sail under the Golden Gate Bridge. We are both from the San Fransisco Bay Area, and I would be happy to try to answer any questions about things to do in the area. Looking forward to getting to know our fellow cruise travelers over the next year plus. I'd love to make some magnets for this cruise, so if anyone has come up with some magnet images they would be willing to share, that would be great.

Welcome aboard. Didn't you just love the Fantasy? I particularly loved the Satellite Falls area, It is great to have more brains to pick regarding San Francisco. What in the world are you two going to do with your day in port? I will get you added to the roster.

 

[Calfan]

Welcome aboard. Didn't you just love the Fantasy? I particularly loved the Satellite Falls area, It is great to have more brains to pick regarding San Francisco. What in the world are you two going to do with your day in port? I will get you added to the roster.

Yes, the Fantasy is a beatiful ship. So new and pristine. My kids loved the new things to do like the Aquaduck and the Midship Detective Agency. And the adults loved Remy. It was our first time on the Fantasy and also our first time in concierge, which was fabulous. It helped make the ship seem a little less crowded. That would really be our only complaint about the Fantasy. Even though it is bigger, it felt a lot more crowded than the Magic or the Wonder. But we had an amazing time.

Good question on what CaliforniaGirl09 and I are going to do in San Francisco for the day! We might book a port adventure if one grabs us just to play tourist. Or maybe just go shopping in Union Square or walk around the Fisherman's Wharf area. We haven't really talked about it yet. I suppose we could also have our families come meet us for dinner or something, LOL.

 

[RweTHEREyet]

My mother-in-law suggested renting a car for the day and seeing San Fran that way. Wonder if the cable cars would get us around just as well.

Parking is very hard to find in San Fran, but if you were planning on riding around and not getting out anywhere to explore on foot, that might be an idea. But we did find that the cable cars got you to most of the touristy things, and they are an experience in themselves. You can buy a day pass, $13.00, but it isn't outrageous and that gives you unlimited times you can jump on and off. It is fun to watch the school kids with their backpacks using it for their transportation.

Now that we have more people from that area on this sailing, I am sure they will have some great suggestions and recommendations.