A Mother-Daughter Sea/Land August Trip - UPDATE! CHANGES??? (2/24)

[RGirl]

Hello! My name is Roni, and I just completed a report of our July DCL cruise to Alaska. And, well, I can’t stand the thought of not having a report going, so yes, I am starting a PTR for an August 2013 trip today - the last day of August 2012.

My traveling companion is my daughter Willow. She is currently 5 years old (starting kindergarten next week ) and will be 6 on our next Disney adventure. Here are some pictures of us!

Earlier this year:


At WDW in October 2011:


Compared to many of you, DD and I are very recent Disney People. We had our first trip to WDW in October 2010, and we were hooked. We went back again in October 2011, and in January 2012, I surprised DD with a trip to Disneyland on her fifth birthday. This summer, as mentioned above, we mixed things up a bit by doing our first Disney cruise. And we LOVED it!

So while onboard the Wonder, I took advantage of the discounts offered and booked another cruise - the 14-day repositioning cruise through the Panama Canal. A trip like that through the Panama Canal is a bucket-list item for me, so I am super-excited to do it.

However, DD is only 5 (will be 6 then), and I am not sure that it would be as much fun for her. So, after wrestling with it for a while, I decided to delay that trip by a year or two (it would require taking her out of school, and I think I may still be able to get away with that in first or second grade) so that she can read some books about the Canal and learn about it before we go.

So the question is: what are we going to do instead????? I have booked a replacement trip for August 2013 (horrified at the thought of being a slave to the school year from now on, but that’s the way it has to be for the most part). Hopefully, a few of my buddies from my TRs will follow me over here and join in a little guessing game along with anyone else who might join in. So…..

WHERE ARE WILLOW AND RONI GOING????

Once we have that established, we can discuss whether the current plan is a good one or whether it needs some tweaking.

[Meganyvemarie]

I found your last TP about 2 weeks ago and have been following it ever since Cant wait to hear about your next adventure together

Megan

[hstrickland]

Hey there! Don't keep us in suspense!! So if you're not doing the Panama Canal....where are you going? JMO but you're probably smart in delaying that trip. Willow might not appreciate the PC at age 6. Ok...this is just a guess, but you were asking about prices at WDW, so does this mean that you will be going out of Port Canaveral??? The Dream....The Fantasy???


I'll wait.....

Heather

[LittleGirlGrey]

I'm HERE!!!

We can start the party now!!! YAY!

[LittleGirlGrey]

Also! Come to Hawaii with all of us going!!! It will be awesome!!!!

[RGirl]

Originally Posted by Meganyvemarie

I found your last TP about 2 weeks ago and have been following it ever since Cant wait to hear about your next adventure together

Megan

Welcome Megan! Thanks so much for reading my last report and for joining me here! I hope that we can all have fun and that everyone will help me plan this trip!

Originally Posted by hstrickland

Hey there! Don't keep us in suspense!! So if you're not doing the Panama Canal....where are you going? JMO but you're probably smart in delaying that trip. Willow might not appreciate the PC at age 6. Ok...this is just a guess, but you were asking about prices at WDW, so does this mean that you will be going out of Port Canaveral??? The Dream....The Fantasy???


I'll wait.....

Heather

I really, really want to do the PC cruise - I love sea days, and there are tons of them. And the Panama Canal - I mean, how cool!!! I am guessing that I will end up booking it onboard again. Surely it is educational enough to justify missing two weeks of first grade, right????

Come on - I need a valid guess here!

Originally Posted by LittleGirlGrey

I'm HERE!!!

We can start the party now!!! YAY!

Welcome!!! I'm glad you are joining in again.

Originally Posted by LittleGirlGrey

Also! Come to Hawaii with all of us going!!! It will be awesome!!!!

That cruise is going to be amazing! Some day, some day........

[HermanTriplets+1]

Yay a PTR opening on the tail of a wonderful TR!
What fun!
Are we obsessed or what!

[RGirl]

Originally Posted by HermanTriplets+1

Yay a PTR opening on the tail of a wonderful TR!
What fun!
Are we obsessed or what!

Welcome!!!! Thanks so much for joining in! It's just impossible NOT to have a trip in the works!

[amandaw]

I'm here!!

I can't wait to hear what you're contemplating for next year!

I'm going to guess it's definitely a cruise on one of the new ships. And since I know you like sea days, I'm going to guess a 7 day cruise out of Port Canaveral, on the Fantasy. Not sure though if you'd go western or eastern caribbean.

[HermanTriplets+1]

Willow would like a double dip at CC, too!

[RGirl]

Originally Posted by amandaw

I'm here!!

I can't wait to hear what you're contemplating for next year!

I'm going to guess it's definitely a cruise on one of the new ships. And since I know you like sea days, I'm going to guess a 7 day cruise out of Port Canaveral, on the Fantasy. Not sure though if you'd go western or eastern caribbean.

Oh my! Your guesses are excellent!

Originally Posted by HermanTriplets+1

Willow would like a double dip at CC, too!

Wow - that does sound really fun. I'm going to have to put that on the list of alternatives!

[RGirl]

Well, I guess I will go ahead and tell you what I have planned. For now anyway!

First, we are going to head to WDW for a week! This will be the second week in August (if I’m remembering correctly). Currently, we are booked to stay in one of the Royal Guest Rooms at POR. The only on-site place we have stayed is a one-bedroom villa at BWV, so this will be quite different for us. I think we will really like it, but I will also be watching for any discounts, because I know we would love to be in an Epcot resort given DD’s love of DHS and the ease of getting there from the Epcot resorts. On the other hand, I am pretty excited to see POR and the royal room.

Now DD’s current greatest dream in life is to sail on the Disney Fantasy. She talks about it almost every day. In fact, today when I told her we would probably go to WDW next year, she was actually disappointed because she wants to sail on the Fantasy. Therefore, the next part of our vacation is something DD knows nothing about:

A 7-night Western Caribbean cruise on the Fantasy! My hope is to use Disney transportation from the resort - I will tell her that it is the bus back to the airport to go home since our week at WDW will be over. And then we will end up at Port Canaveral to board the Fantasy instead!

What do you all think???? I am really nervous about hurricanes and heat and crowds. I am also really open to alternate ideas.

[amandaw]

I really like your current plan! Please stay in the Royal Room so that I can live vicariously through you. I liked it last year when we did the parks before our cruise. Seemed to work well for us.

That's funny about Willow being disappointed about going to Disney. When we told Reid that we were going to Disney this year, he wanted to know if we would also be going on the "Mickey boat." He was very upset when I told him no. Who would have thought little kids would love cruising so much?

I wouldn't worry about the crowds too much. I don't think the parks or boat will be empty by any means. But, I wouldn't think it would be horrible either.

As for the heat - it will be hot. We have pretty much the same weather as Florida and August is still hot & humid. July is worse but August isn't great. Take some water spritzing fans & bottled water into the parks with y'all. I'm having trouble remember from your report of last year's trip - did y'all do afternoon pool breaks? That would probably help.

And last but not least - hurricanes. I say if those are the dates & prices that work best for you - just go for it. If there is a disturbance, they will sail away from it. This may mean a change in itinerary. But, since I know you don't care as much about the ports, that probably wouldn't be a huge deal for y'all.

[rpcvpanama]

So glad you started a new pre-trip report. Loved reading along for the last one. Have you thought about a June trip? Less chance of hurricanes and the weather in Florida is just a little bit better. Not nearly as humid as August. If not, you should still be fine. In the event of a hurricane the ship will usually reroute to a different area to avoid the hurricane. Nice thing is the hurricanes tend to be slow moving and they will know way in advance where they are heading. Cruises are rarely cancelled for hurricanes you just may end up on an island that you hadn't intended to visit!

Also, love the idea of a Panama Canal trip. I spent 2 years in the Peace Corps in Panama and loved every minute of it. Just know that it takes about 6-7 hours to transit the canal so it is really an all day affair. The locks, on both ends, are neat and the area called Culebra Cut (near the Pacific side) is definitely worth spending time to see. That is where most of the actual "digging" took place and continues to this day. Most of the canal resulted from a river damn flooding low lying valleys.

Whichever you chose i will enjoy reading along.

[LittleGirlGrey]

YAY! That sounds like such a great plan!!! She is going to love it!!! I too want to travel on the Fantasy, but only because of Pepe the King Prawn!!! I love him. So I will be VERY excited to hear your TR on the Fantasy! That will be SUCH a great suprise for her, thinking she's going back to the airport and instead going to the ship. Seeing the ship from Disney Transportation is AWESOME!

My mom and I have done the Western Cruise 3 times, but before the new ships of course. I would say you should stay onboard at least one day while at port. That way you can see things on the boat with less people. I'm so excited to hear more!!!!