Any Magic Halloween Cruisers 2003 out there?

[rocadonismom]

Emma - Wow! You really get to do quite a bit of traveling. That's so exciting - I love seeing new places.

I also went and tried the name site I come up as "Menegilda Ploughman from Frogmorton" (is Frogmorton a nice place to visit?) and my Orkish name is "Bagkur the Crazy" (fits pretty well).

Rae - What a small world. Scranton is about 45 minutes from here. I truthfully don't go there much - usually only into Dickson City for the AC Moore but, I think it has really grown. I'll ask my aunt, they go all the time.

Do you have a favorite treatment at the spa that you would reccomend?

 

[buzz&woody'smom]

At Grand Cayman I think I will send my parents (Mom uses a wheel chair) MIL and 2.5 year old DS on the Land & Sea Tour or the DCL Air conditioned Bus tour of the island/turtle farm/Hell.

I was hoping to do something more adventurous with my 5 year old DS but don't know if I should just take him to 7 mile beach or go on one of the sting ray excursions. After reading some of the wonderful trip reports about kids "drowning" their parents to get away from the rays I can so see my son doing that and even at 5 he is half my size

Another option would be to pack them all off with my MIL and tag along with one of you brave soles to snorkel.

What do you all think we should do?

Tiff

 

[rae519]

Carolyn 1023 -The capsule. Ohhh yeah!
You recline in a enclosed egg shaped capsule that is very warm and vibrates, with headphones on soothing music, a warm eye shield over your eyes and for me, lavender oil! I've had several treatments and the massages are very good, as is the wrap but the capsule is heaven.

So you are Bagkur the Crazy, ehhh! I had a ball with that last night! Emma is so great and comes up with such wonderful things!

Tiff - I think we are going horseback riding at Nikki's. Buckaroo's Dad did it with his son last summer and raved about it. His whole trip report was a hoot and I wish I had saved it now. I know they did the ATV's also, but I think that was at Cozumel.

Snorkeling? I keep hearing the theme to JAWS. That's because the one time I did go in the Ocean (in Hawaii), my dear friend grabbed my leg and scared the stuffing out of me! No more ocean for me!

Rae

 

[rae519]

Introducing the DIS Halloween Cruisers for 2003!

1) Rose_Greenthumb
England
Emma (15), her parents and her twin 13 yr old brothers (Oliver and James)

2) LaurenK
Virginia
Lauren, DH and her twin 10 year old sons

3) Kaitlin'sMom
Southern California
Karen, D and 5 year old

4) Buzz&Woody'sMom
Jacksonville, NC
Tiff, DH, MIL, DS 2.5 yrs, and DS 5 yrs

5) MDVasquez
Sebastian, FL
wife, DH, 2 DS (16/13), DD (12)
Parent
MIL
Two Sisters and their spouses and 1 baby each
Cousin, his wife and 2 children

6) Carolyn1023
Pocono Pines, PA
Carolyn (28), spouse
Parents (54 & 48)

7) Dzneprincess
Columbus, GA
DW (28), DH(30)
DS (8 and 4), DD (7)
And minding the fort will be DS age 5 months!

8) Disney Deb
N.Windham, CT
(47) with DD (almost 20)

9)rae519
Peru, IN - NATIVE NEW YORKER
Rae (48), my Mom Lilly (74) and my son Michael (8)
My DH (Tom) will be minding the fort (babysitting our cat and dog!)



Welcome Disney Magic Halloween Cruisers for 2003~!

May we have calm seas, clear skies and many good times with our loved ones and each other!

Rae

 

[buzz&woody'smom]

One correction my griup will consist of:

Me, 2 DS's (2.5 & 5.5), MIL and my parents.

DH has to stay home due to the war or "current conflict"

But you all sound like a lively and FUN group......can't wait!

 

[rae519]

My DH can't come either - so are we going to be two "wild single women"?!

Yeah, with parents and children along our DH's won't ever have to worry about us, will they?! But just who is going to watch them while we are gone?!!!!

As time passes, we can see if we want to have something to identify our group (T-shirt, ribbons of a certain color, etc.) during embarkation and meet at a certain point during the Sail Away.

Also, we might decide to have Brunch at Palo's together one day while at sea.

And there is also the opportunity to have Disney arrange seating for people who want to sit together during Dinner. We've done this twice already and they way it works is that one person will call DCL with the others name, address and reservation number and request for seating together. You must both have the same time (Main or Late Dining).

I think that's about all I can share with you right now - Michael is due home on the school bus and it's snowing heavy (this morning was freezing rain).

So glad it's the weekend!

Rae

 

[rocadonismom]

This definately does sound like a fun group, I am so looking forward to meeting all of you. Rea and Tiff- although this is probably WAY to much info - if Angelo goes back to his mom by then I'll be free to join the "wild single women with parents as chaperones group"! But anyway, I digress...

I started looking at the excursion choices almost a month ago. So many to pick from. Tenatively I was looking at the Stingray City Snorkel Tour and 7 Mile Sail & Snorkel on Grand Cayman - Fury Catamaran Sail, Snorkel and Beach Party and Dolphins on Cozumel - Parasailing and the Banana Boat on Castaway Cay and nothing yet for Key West. However, I LOVE horseback riding and am pretty adventurous so, I'm sure there will be many changes.

Rae - The capsule sounds wonderful. I went over to the website to check it out... "you will feel as if you had 2 1/2 hours of sleep during the 25 minute procedure". Sleep sounds good to me, I get so little of it as it is.

The brunch idea sounds fabulous. Although this is my second Disney cruise we did no excursions, Palo, spa or anything on the first one. I'm determined to try all kinds of things this time. And I'd love to meet up with others so as long as others are interested we'll have to come up with something!

Okay, that's long enough. I'll talk to you later --Carolyn

 

[rae519]

Carolyn - I love it "WSWWPACG" - HAHAHAH!

I'm not quite sure what excursions I (we) will take. Quite a difference between 74 - 48 and 8!! Finding something for all of us to do is probably impossible, but maybe - just maybe! I need to review all the information again since the only two things I know that I will DEFINITELY do is the brunch and the Vista Spa.

The capsule is very relaxing - I've done the 25 minutes twice already and am going to opt for the longer session this time. The Rainforest is very relaxing to me and Mom, we enjoy "hopping" around from sauna to shower to hot chair and back again! There are two steam saunas and one dry one - three different kinds of showers and those ceramic hot (warm) chairs are nice!!!

I am going to be asking for a specific server when we embark so if anyone wants to do that - it is possible to make the request. So much to do at embarkation though - Lunch, Palo, Oceaneer's Club, breathe, Dining Room Change, unpack.......MUSTERING STATION...Sail Away...Dinner! Oh yeah, I'm ready!

I haven't gotten my flight reservations yet but am seriously considering flying in on Friday night and staying at the Port or maybe Airport.

Any recommendations or suggestions from those who have done it before? (I don't want to rent a car though!!)

And I still hear it....dah DAH dah DAH dah DAH DAH DAH (Jaws theme).

Rae

 

[JLSE50]

I have been away from the DIS for DAYS and you have added so much. Sure wish I was going. Any space in a suitcase Rae?

BUZZ&WOODYSMOM: We had a GUY (and not a small one at that) on our last Halloween cruise who went dressed as Tinkerbell! His mother made his costume.
(We also had an adult lady Tinkerbell who was cuter--sorry Paul, if you are lurking, but she is cuter and her husband was Peter Pan.)
Paul won a special prize too--for having the hutzpa to dress like that I think. No reason your DS's Nana could not be Tinkerbell and you be Wendy--it's Halloween!!

Jan

 

[laurenk]

Rae- Thanks for putting the list together! One correction though, I have one boy and one girl. We are also traveling with neighbors who have a 5 year old son.

Buzz&Woody'smom- You can join us at Stingray City, but I warn you, I might be jumping in your arms!

I am SOOO excited for this cruise, and getting to meet all if you will be an added bonus. We went to a DIS meet once at WDW and had a wonderful experience.

 

[buzz&woody'smom]

Oh Lauren, I needed a laugh tonight my hair desser took about 3 inches off more than I planned for.....a woman thing.

Is your neighbor's 5 year old going? Does he seemed freaked out about the Sting Rays? Thanks for the offer to join you I may just do that and soon to be 5 year old DS may have developed enough by then to go too

Maybe my hair will have grown back by our meeting!

 

[laurenk]

They are seriously thinking about taking their son to Stingray City, he says he wants to do it, but...............


LMK if you really do want to join us, the more the merrier!!

He WILL be doing the Dolphin Encounter at Cozumal. he is VERY bommed that he is too young for the swim.

Sorry about your hair Some hair dressers get over zealous.

 

[JLSE50]

EMMA

We were singing Dream A Little Dream today in choir and I could just see a whole load of pigs ballet dancing to it. Mind you, I do think my RE teacher looks like an apple. It's no wonder people think Im phsyco really!

Maybe you need a job illustrating new segments for Disney's FANTASIA.

RAE & CAROLYN1023: What is

"WSWWPACG" ?

At Key West we did Fury Catamaran and loved it.
At Grand Cayman we did Shipwreck and Reef Snorkel and loved it.
At Cozumel we went to Chakannaub (?sp) Park on our own and had a wonderful time with our own snorkeling equipment.
At Castaway Cay we snorkeled with our own equipment at the snorkeling course and the adult beach.

We heard people say that they enjoyed Grand Cayman stingray city and did not hear of any children having trouble. We went to Sea World once and patted sting rays in tanks there. They feel like fine sandpaper. The only person I ever heard of who did not go in the water and enjoy the stingrays is an adult who does not swim. She went on the excursion with her daughter and grandson, stayed on the boat, took pictures and had a lovely time.

Whatever you choose, you will probably have a good time and hear enough about other excursions that you will want to go back and try something else the next time.

Do you all know that the words on RAE's posts under Kayla's picture "Our little angel- Kayla Renee" are a clickable link?

Jan

 

[laurenk]

Rae- We are staying at The Comfort Inn because it is right near the beach, you can leave your car there, and they have a shuttle(Art's Shuttle) to the ship. We were going to stay at the Radisson, but this is closer to the beach, and only @ 5 miles from the terminal. Plus, my friend found a really good rate for all of us. We are only paying $89.00 including parking there for the week and shuttle, and I "think" my neighbors(carless) are paying around $60.

 

[rae519]

LaurenK - made the correction, will post a new one next week. Still hoping for more DIS ers.
(JAN, do you hear that? I have a spot reserved for you and Tom!!!!)
We are flying in to Orlando. I am thinking of just staying at the airport (that hotel there) since I don't want to rent a car and want to use the Disney Transfers.

Jan - Carolyn1023 came up with it after I posted about us being wild single women with children and parents - it stands for:
"Wild Single Women With Parents As Chaparone Group" - yup, thats us - parents and kids but no husbands on this trip!
Thanks for telling us about your excursions - again, I keep hearing the JAWS theme.....big chicken, I know!

Rae

 

[quackattack]

Rae, Dena, Emma and Jan,
You all know that we will be going along on the Halloween cruise again this year but I just wanted to introduce the family to EVERYONE else.
On this cruise it will be myself, DH and DS (3 yo), my sister and at least one of my sister's daughters maybe both.
No reservations yet but we will probably stay at the Radisson again.
No plans for excursions yet. We like to spend as much time with our 3 yo as we can so any excursions will have to be toddler friendly. We figure as he gets older we will work our way through the age appropriate excursions and we will get to do them all.
I may not get a chance to get on the thread as much as I would like in the early stages, but it is exciting to get to know the group early. Last year I think the thread was already 30 pages long before I found it. It took me some time to read all 30 pages before posting. I wanted to be up to speed before I posted.

Have to go now. Saturday chores will not do themselves.

I am looking forward to getting to know you all.

Rochelle ( 1/3 of QuackAttack)

 

[TinkerBellPixie4GOAL]

hi! I'm not going on this cruise, but I was on it last year with Emma and Jan and Dena and a whole bunch of other people. I like hooking in to see what you all will do this year so yeah. If you have any questions or anything feel free to ask.

*The Space Shuttle Columbia just blew up. Another moment where we'll remember where we were. First Israeli was one of crew members. the images they are showing remind me so much of 9/11.*

 

[rae519]

Hi Rochelle - I'll get you on the next list. It's going to be a fun time for all of us.

TinkerBellPixie4GOAL - Thanks for stopping in - stay and just add your suggestions as you see fit - hey, we can always use some advise!!



So sorry to hear about the Columbia - I was in the car and remembered that it was also in January, many years ago, that the Challenger exploded. Can't forget that date, Lucianno Pavarotti was live in Indianapolis and a friend and I were there to hear him. He sang "Ave Maria" as a memorial to them.

One of the crew was from Plattsburgh, NY - not sure if my parents knew him or not, but regardless of race,color, creed or national origin, everyone on that flight was someone's child, or spouse or parent. May God help their families through this horrific tragedy.

Rae

 

[Rose_Greenthumb]

I got back about an hour ago. I had a really great time and we did so much!

Friday
I arrived at school at about 8:35am and found a gang of my friends all jumping up and down with excitement. The weather wasn't looking great for us but we decided even if we got stranded we'd be fine cos Helen always has enough food with her to feed the 5000! We went to sit in the drama studio and compare suitcase sizes. We left almost bang on 9am and arrived in London at about 1:45pm. The weather hadn't hindered us at all. We had a makeshift tour of London for a few hours before we checked into our hotel at 4pm.

We had an hour to get ready for dinner and the theatre but most of our time was eaten up by us ooing and ahhing over our rooms. We turned on the TV in our room and there was a welcome message for Miss Hickmore (me!) cos the room was in my name!

Dinner was served and we left for the theatre once we'd all finished. I think we got to the London Palladium at about 7pm and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang started at 7:30pm. It was fabulous! Michael Ball was in it and boy does he have a voice on him! The baron got the giggles when his pants kept slipping down and the baroness just wound him up whilst staying in character! It was wonderful.

We got back to the hotel at about 11pm and I went to bed around 1am!

Saturday
My alarm went off to my disgust at 7am! We had breakfast at 8am and left the hotel for Oxford Street at 9am. We had four hours shopping along Oxford Street but I never actually bought anything because we got a phone call on Lyndzi's mobile (cell phone) from Zak. They'd met Kathryn's idol in Topshop and she wanted to speak to Kathryn. Kathryn got so excited that she just screamed and screamed! She was really upset that she'd missed seeing her and about an hour later we got another call from Helen. Kathryn misunderstood what Helen had said and thought her idol was in McDonalds (there are about 5 McDonalds on Oxford Street!) so we ran the entire length of Oxford Street in about 10mins dashing into every McDonalds we saw! It was all a misunderstanding of huge proportions and by this time, we had about half an hour before we had to meet back to go to the theatre.

We got to Bombay Dreams about 45mins before show time and so we just sat in our seats and chatted. It was absolutly stunning visually! The sound was great but some of the songs were mimed. I suppose it was because they were doing so much dancing. I want the soundtrack though because it's really something.

Back at the hotel we had dinner and went to either the gym or the pool. Then we just lounged about in other ppl's rooms.

Again I managed to go to sleep at 1am.

Sunday
Woke up at 7am with a really bad cold! Had breakfast at 8am and left again at 9am with all our luggage in tow.

We went on the London eye which had spectacular views of most of London. Needless to say we got pretty snap happy!

I suppose that lasted about half an hour and so we headed to a little shopping centre and stayed there for about an hour. We then headed home and the most exciting thing that happened was that we stopped at a service station!

 

[Rose_Greenthumb]

Sorry that last post is so long! Im glad you all enjoyed the name generator, I had fun finding out all my friend's middle earth names not long ago.

I heard about the Columbia when I turned on the widescreen TV in my hotel room last night! I didnt watch much of it though because they didnt really know anything about what had happened because it was breaking news and plus we were having a bit of a get together in Lyndzi's room!