01/02/10- Mickey's New Decade Brigade!

[KC-Disney]

It seems like a lot of people don’t check this board everyday (I still have a few people that haven’t replied to the FE spreadsheet that was sent yet).

-Nicole[/QUOTE]

I think I responded I got it, but I totally apologize if I didn't. Our names and delivery date is perfect. I can't wait. I already have some of it done.

Karen

 

[KC-Disney]

Phew, it's been a while, kids.

1) Food- At first I thought this was a great idea. Each of us could bring some sort of food native to our area, and trade with one other person/family with the group. But, for one, I am not sure how food would travel, as you would have to put it in checked luggage, I believe. Also, with the cruise ship regulations, I am not sure how that works. I think it would have to be something that could be consumed while on the ship, OR sealed tightly enough that they would let it off the ship. Someone correct me if I am wrong. It might be a bit of a hassle, but if anyone is up for it, let me know.



2) Token gifts- same premise as above. We'd assign each person/family another person/family to trade with. And, we could bring things native to our hometown. Magnets, postcards, ink pens, etc.

3) This is MY personal favorite, but if it is not up your alley, no biggie. I was thinking maybe a recipe exchange, bringing a recipe indiginous to your area of the country, or even a family recipe. The great thing about this one is you could easily make copies for everyone in the group, it is relatively inexpensive (unless you are planning on hiring a calligrapher), and recipe cards, or just plain paper, travels easy peasy.

Here are some other ideas I had for get togethers: euchre tournament; board games (I know they have some on the ship, not sure what kind. e like ours in the same vein as Cranium, Pictionary, etc); late night movie in our PJ's (gentlemen, please do not come in only boxers.....haha); drinks (alcoholic or non) on Deck 7.

Now, onto the issue of times for the meet. I have not recently gone over the Navigators to get an idea of times, etc. I know as a first time cruiser, that first day, I will probably be exploring a bit. I was thinking perhaps around 2:30ish or even late evening, round 10 or so. I am totally open to Sunday as well, but I am pretty sure I will have a lot of things I'd want to do on sea days, and I'm sure you all will too. Thoughts?

Welp, I appreciate any feedback. And, if you have stuck with me this far into the post.....God bless you.

Re: idea 1. We will not be able to do a food thing. Coming in on the plane, it would be to difficult. Plus we are doing the FE thing.
Idea 2: We could do a magnet from our area to exchange.
Idea 3: I will go with the flow.

Thanks for coming up with these ideas. I like the meets later at night. Our last cruise we met at 3:00 before the life drill. We rushed to get there, and really didn't have time to visit. That was the only organized meet. I like the thought of a board games or dance nights, I know I would go. I am open for anything. I just appreciate you doing this. It will be here before we know. Karen

 

[toverly]

Just checking in, I haven't been here in a while. I just thought of a FE gift so today I went and got the supplies. I'm a semi-crafter and can't wait! I love the idea of a magnet or recipe exchange. It's our first cruise so I have no idea about when and where to meet. But, I love the idea that someone had on the Disboards about including a small photo of your family in your FE. That way when we pass each other on the ship, it will be a, "Hey, you look familiar" moment. What do y'all think?

 

[mmackeymouse]

Hey all! Hope everyone is having a lovely Sunday morning. I have been in planning mode pretty much all weekend. Thought I would pass on the list of movies showing during our week:

Race to Witch Mountain Hannah Montana: the Movie
Earth Up (in 3D)
The Proposal G-Force
Surrogates Toy Story 1 & 2 (in 3D)
A Christmas Carol (in 3D) Old Dogs
The Princess and the Frog

I have been working on magnets. I have a pretty cool Decade Brigade magnet. If I can figure out how to post it, I will do so.

Anyone doing the Godfrey tours in St. Thomas? We are thinking about it.

 

[GeneralMax]

I really like the idea of a late night meet. 10PM on the first night. A lot of us have older (18+) children with us and if we had this it would be a great way for them to meet since there is no programing for them.

 

[geber826]

I can't believe it is less than 1 month away. I have a countdown app that I downloaded from the vacation club and I love seeing those days go down.

So much to do and so little time. I am having trouble getting into the FE calendar. Can you email it to me directly? I am not sure what is going on, but when I log in with my google account, I assume that it has something to do with me using a different name on this board. Either way, what is our current count of rooms and people? I went FE shopping today and can't wait to start putting together goody bags.

Also, I have heard that it is customary to provide snacks as gifts for the people working in the children's areas. How many do you typically provide gifts for?

Thanks,

Jenni

 

[WDW Princess 71]

Hi Jenni-

The spreadsheet needs to give you permission to view it, so to do that I'll just need your email address that you use to log into google. I then add that email address to the permission granted list, and then next time you log in, you will be able to see the spreadsheet. You can PM me your email address and I'll add you to the permission list right away.

Sorry I can't answer your question about gifts for the kid's club counselors, but I'm sure one of the parents on here would definitely be able to help out with that one, or if not, it would be a good question for the main DCL board.

So excited we are so close to the cruise!!!

-Nicole

 

[mmackeymouse]

Good morning, everyone!

Another week started, another week closer to the trip. Aaaach!

I went back and re-read through the thread. Has anyone heard from ehagarty? I noticed it has been quite a while since she posted, and just wanted to make sure she is still "on board." I crack myself up!

It looks like we have a lot of interest in the later time slot....based on the interest, I will come up with an activity/time for our meet. I have not gotten a whole lot of feedback on other activities. Trust me, I understand that we will all be very busy with our own things. I also know that we have a pretty small group, so we may not have a whole lot of huge get togethers.

Anyway, I think I will set the deadline for input for Dec. 20th. Between now and then, I will check out the most recent Navigators I can find, and based on any feedback we receive, I'll just make the best decision I can for the group.

 

[KC-Disney]

Anyway, I think I will set the deadline for input for Dec. 20th. Between now and then, I will check out the most recent Navigators I can find, and based on any feedback we receive, I'll just make the best decision I can for the group.

Whatever you decide will be fine. I just appreciate you doing this. I hope to be able to maybe get the kids introduced as well.

I am so in need today of this trip. It was -27degrees celcius today. Brrr.. It is cold!!!!!!!!!! Had to plug my car in for the first time this winter.

Karen

 

[WDW Princess 71]

Good morning, everyone!

Another week started, another week closer to the trip. Aaaach!

I went back and re-read through the thread. Has anyone heard from ehagarty? I noticed it has been quite a while since she posted, and just wanted to make sure she is still "on board." I crack myself up!

It looks like we have a lot of interest in the later time slot....based on the interest, I will come up with an activity/time for our meet. I have not gotten a whole lot of feedback on other activities. Trust me, I understand that we will all be very busy with our own things. I also know that we have a pretty small group, so we may not have a whole lot of huge get togethers.

Anyway, I think I will set the deadline for input for Dec. 20th. Between now and then, I will check out the most recent Navigators I can find, and based on any feedback we receive, I'll just make the best decision I can for the group.

Hey Melissa,

That sounds like a great idea to look at recent Navigators to help you plan- I think I will try to do that myself too just for my own personal planning. I love to have an idea of what to expect on board. I was wondering though, if you set the deadline for 12/20 for ideas, then you have to still take the ideas and decide on the official schedule of activities, I think that might be cutting it a little too close to the trip- I know I am leaving on 12/30, but I also know some people are leaving even earlier, like even before Christmas (I think I read someone post they will be traveling pretty much from 12/24 on), since people might be doing holiday traveling before traveling to the cruise. So I'm just throwing out a suggestion, maybe we make the deadline like 12/13, which is this Sunday? That gives people another week to chime in, but also gives you more time to put it together after that, and maybe then you could send out the outline on 12/20? that is when i was planning to send out the FE final spreadsheet link to everyone so we all have the most updated copy (I've changed several things so far and I'm not sure if people keep logging in to pull up the most recent copy or if they've just logged in once and saved their own copy or printed it, which is why its important that everyone check the most recent copy later this month).

Let me know what you think about this idea. Also ehagerty, last i heard he/she said they weren't interested in the FE, i forget why, and i haven't heard from them since. there are a few other people that seem like they havent been on in awhile, but hopefully they'll check back in soon : )

-Nicole

 

[Sorcerer Mom]

I can't believe it is less than 1 month away. I have a countdown app that I downloaded from the vacation club and I love seeing those days go down.

So much to do and so little time. I am having trouble getting into the FE calendar. Can you email it to me directly? I am not sure what is going on, but when I log in with my google account, I assume that it has something to do with me using a different name on this board. Either way, what is our current count of rooms and people? I went FE shopping today and can't wait to start putting together goody bags.

Also, I have heard that it is customary to provide snacks as gifts for the people working in the children's areas. How many do you typically provide gifts for?

Thanks,

Jenni

I KNOW!! Soooo excited....it's snowing in the mountains in Vegas today (yes, I said snowing). My DD who's in college in Reno got dumped on last night...they actually halted classed till 10am today and might call the whole day because of so much snow! I'm gunna go home and smell some sunscreen to get me in the "tropical" mood!

Last cruise we went on my son was a just shy of being able to go to the teen club so he was in the oldest group of kids club and we did bring some treats. We didn't do individual gifts 'cause there was no way of knowing how many staff to do that for, and I had ready they like big bags of stuff to share with other staff. I think we brought a huge bag of skittles, twizzlers and maybe some hersheys kisses, and we gave it to them when we made our first visit. We also brought some goodies for our stateroom host and left it for them when we went to dinner so they received it when he came in to do turn-down. All appreciated the gesture and it was a nice ice-breaker letting them know we appreciate all they do to make the trip special.

 

[Sorcerer Mom]

Hey all! Hope everyone is having a lovely Sunday morning. I have been in planning mode pretty much all weekend. Thought I would pass on the list of movies showing during our week:

Race to Witch Mountain Hannah Montana: the Movie
Earth Up (in 3D)
The Proposal G-Force
Surrogates Toy Story 1 & 2 (in 3D)
A Christmas Carol (in 3D) Old Dogs
The Princess and the Frog

I have been working on magnets. I have a pretty cool Decade Brigade magnet. If I can figure out how to post it, I will do so.

Anyone doing the Godfrey tours in St. Thomas? We are thinking about it.

THANKS so much for the movie info...I was wondering what was going to play when we sailed. Now I will definitly wait to see Old Dogs till I get on the ship I know going to the movies seems like a weird thing to look forward to on a cruise but I didn't get to do this on our last cruise and thought it's just such a nice relaxing escape maybe on a sea day afternoon.

 

[ehagerty]

Good morning, everyone!
I went back and re-read through the thread. Has anyone heard from ehagarty? I noticed it has been quite a while since she posted, and just wanted to make sure she is still "on board." I crack myself up!

Just checking in. Been terribly busy with work. Couple of quick trips to WDW in Sep, Oct - been posting pictures and still never catch up. We are still going - got trip documents and luggage tags today. Will try to read up more, now that it is only a few weeks away

 

[mmackeymouse]

Ehagarty, GREAT to hear from you. Yes, life has a strange way of getting in the way of fun. Good to hear you will be on our sailing. I hope you and the gang will get the chance to come to one of our group meetings.

I was also THRILLED to get our paperwork yesterday. I was afraid that with the holidays that things could get lost or mixed up. I am so happy that I can spend the rest of the time planning, stress free.

Nicole, I had the same idea you did, but I know that with the holidays, some people are unable to log on very frequently. I want everyone to get their chance at input. How about we split the difference? We will aim for 12/15. That will give any weekend posters the chance to give any feedback they have and then I will plan to have an itinerary ready for everyone by the end of next week.

Hey, if anyone is interested in linking with our party for dining, just let us know! We are a family of four adults, so another all adult or maybe older teens group would be great! We are late seating by the way. Welp, later gators!

 

[WDW Princess 71]

Ehagarty, GREAT to hear from you. Yes, life has a strange way of getting in the way of fun. Good to hear you will be on our sailing. I hope you and the gang will get the chance to come to one of our group meetings.

I was also THRILLED to get our paperwork yesterday. I was afraid that with the holidays that things could get lost or mixed up. I am so happy that I can spend the rest of the time planning, stress free.

Nicole, I had the same idea you did, but I know that with the holidays, some people are unable to log on very frequently. I want everyone to get their chance at input. How about we split the difference? We will aim for 12/15. That will give any weekend posters the chance to give any feedback they have and then I will plan to have an itinerary ready for everyone by the end of next week.

Hey, if anyone is interested in linking with our party for dining, just let us know! We are a family of four adults, so another all adult or maybe older teens group would be great! We are late seating by the way. Welp, later gators!

Melissa- 12/15 sounds like a good deadline, so that gives you several more days to have an outline of activities out to everyone by the following weekend.

Everyone- just wanted to remind everyone to check back frequently at the Fish Extender spreadsheet on Google Docs, especially before you actually put your gifts together and count them out, label them, etc. We have had several changes (name spellings, day changes, some people have opted out, staterooms, etc). So please remember to check it often for changes, and of course check it once more right before you leave in case of any last minute updates.

 

[secretkeeper]

Melissa- 12/15 sounds like a good deadline, so that gives you several more days to have an outline of activities out to everyone by the following weekend.

Everyone- just wanted to remind everyone to check back frequently at the Fish Extender spreadsheet on Google Docs, especially before you actually put your gifts together and count them out, label them, etc. We have had several changes (name spellings, day changes, some people have opted out, staterooms, etc). So please remember to check it often for changes, and of course check it once more right before you leave in case of any last minute updates.

Sorry I haven't been on the boards, I've been swamped! I like the late night meet as well. As far as gifts for kids clubs, we have brought phone cards and candy. Everything the counselors receive is turned over to the directors and is shared or raffled off at their team meetings.

Dana

 

[toverly]

Just checking in. Tomorrow is the last day of work before Christmas and the Cruise. Are we still at 15 for the FE exchange? I just printed off the list and it says temporary. I'd hate to miss anyone, just let me know if I need to print off another list somewhere else.

 

[WDW Princess 71]

No, we now only have 14 staterooms signed up for the FE exchange. When did you last log in? I make the changes as I get them so the list should always reflect the most updated version, please let me know if yours is not showing up with the current info.

 

[toverly]

Mine is still showing up at 15 participants. I relogged in and it shows Dec 13 but it's the same one. Drop me another link and I'll try again. Thanks

 

[MightyMike]

Time to call the school and tell them our son won't be in class the first week back from the holiday break!

Mike, Jefferson & Mike