Aug. 5th, 2006 - Eastern Magic!!!

[ImMarcik]

Paid off our trip the other day. We are very excited!!! We are planning a short time at WDW before our cruise. It will be my husband's & girls first time to the world. Though my sp used to work at Disneyland in college.
Does anyone have any recommendations on disney resorts? I wanted to stay at one of the resorts with motorail service. Would like to avoid renting a car. How many more days till the trip??

I believe we are at 79 days since my counter starts when I'm at WDW. If I was going to stay in a monorail hotel I would pick either Poly or Contemporary. How are you getting to the port? The Poly has the bus transportation. We are staying at the Caribbean Beach Resort this trip. We wanted to save a little money. Next time though I want to stay in either The Poly, Contemporary or Wilderness Lodge. Oh the decisions!!! We are flying in to WDW really late Wed night then Thursday we are going to DTD and Friday we are going to AK to ride the new roller coaster.

 

[azrealtor]

What does DTD or AK mean?? We are flying in Wednesday also & wanted to at WDW resort. We have not booked as of yet. Only the flights & the cruise is booked & paid for. The Wildresss is the least expensive or the four on the M system. Not sure what one to do. Heard positive reviews of the Poly and they have a club for the kids.
We are planning to take a Limo to the boat. Had heard taking taking the Limo was better than taking the disney transportation.
Our cruise reservation is GTY but I wanted to get my room assignment. Do you see any benefit & keeping GTY & getting assigned at the ship??

 

[ImMarcik]

DTD = Downtown Disney and AK = Animal Kingdom. The Wilderness Lodge is not acutally on the monorail. It's just close by. We are taking a Limo from our house to the airport and back. It's about a 2 hour ride. I'm not sure about the gty I haven't done it. I've picked out my room numbers. I can't wait to be on that ship. You get to make your reservations for excursions and Palo & stuff soon online.

 

[azrealtor]

how many days left???

 

[ImMarcik]

2 1/2 months!!!!

 

[gloriam22]

Family of 5 from Howell, NJ are going! me, 42, DH 39, DD 7, DD 3, DS 10. See you all there! I booked my exursions today....not many left.

 

[ImMarcik]

Family of 5 from Howell, NJ are going! me, 42, DH 39, DD 7, DD 3, DS 10. See you all there! I booked my exursions today....not many left.

Welcome to the thread. I added you to the list on the first page.

 

[SANDEL]

I paid off our cruise this weekend. Now I just have to wait until next weekend and I can make our online reservations.

I have gone online to book our excursions and I am wondering if I am trying to do too much. At Castaway Cay we want to swim with the stingrays which is only and hour and then can you just swim in the lagoon with out having to reserve anything? I guess we need to reserve snorkel gear or can you just get that the day of. Also at the other ports is it best to do an excursion or just go on your own? Need help with excursion planning?

 

[ImMarcik]

I have gone online to book our excursions and I am wondering if I am trying to do too much. At Castaway Cay we want to swim with the stingrays which is only and hour and then can you just swim in the lagoon with out having to reserve anything? I guess we need to reserve snorkel gear or can you just get that the day of. Also at the other ports is it best to do an excursion or just go on your own? Need help with excursion planning?

Last time we did the stingrays at CC. We did it at 10 and it took about an hour then we killed a little time, ate lunch, got a Konk cooler and then swam. From what I understand you can get your snorkel gear that day and you would have had plenty of time to snorkel. I've never been to St. Martin or St. Thomas/St. John, but we booked excursions. We are doing the Capt. Nautica's snorkeling in ST. John, so we can see both Islands. It's over at noon so then we plan to take the skyride on our own to Paradise Point and have lunch and a Bushwacker in St. Thomas. The Paradise Point was a recommendation from a friend who's been. In St. Martin we booked a private tour of the island in the morning so we can see some sights. Then we booked the 12 metre regatta through DCL for the afternoon. In CC we booked the Fishing in the morning and will plan on swimming like last time in the afternoon. I scheduled it all where we have a few hours at each port to explore on our own and still have an excursion through DCL.

 

[SANDEL]

Has anyone doen the submarine ride?

 

[Lyons Family]

My husband and I did the submarine ride on our honeymoon in Hawaii. We had a nice time. Two people share a window. We plan on taking our daughter on the submarine ride. Suppossedly there are a couple places around the world where you can do this ride, I can't remember where the other ones are besides the carribean and Hawaii. We need new shirts saying Atlantis Submarines.
Later Sue

 

[rhhornstra]

Our tiny party is first time cruisers- Robin, single mom (45) and ds Colton, age 7. So excited to find this thread! Have had great fun planning: booked some spa services, stingray adventure at Castaway Key, brunch at Palo. Ordered formal dress, shoes and semi-formal accessories- so much fun to get dressed up! Have read my passported cover to cover-

We plan to get to central FLA on the 4th, rent a car and spend the night in Cocoa Beach- wanna get in some early beach time and get to the ship early on cruise day. Still deciding on flights, whether Orlando or Melbourne: Official Disney recommendations say don't plan on departing much before noon on the 12th--- if we depart the ship early early, might we make an 11:30 flight?



How many days until we sail?

 

[ImMarcik]

Our tiny party is first time cruisers- Robin, single mom (45) and ds Colton, age 7. So excited to find this thread! Have had great fun planning: booked some spa services, stingray adventure at Castaway Key, brunch at Palo. Ordered formal dress, shoes and semi-formal accessories- so much fun to get dressed up! Have read my passported cover to cover-

We plan to get to central FLA on the 4th, rent a car and spend the night in Cocoa Beach- wanna get in some early beach time and get to the ship early on cruise day. Still deciding on flights, whether Orlando or Melbourne: Official Disney recommendations say don't plan on departing much before noon on the 12th--- if we depart the ship early early, might we make an 11:30 flight?



How many days until we sail?

Welcome Robin! I added you to the list on the first post.

I am very excited too about Formal & Semi-Formal night! I even bought 4 inch heels for formal night, that should be interesting. You may make an 11:30 flight but most people don't recomend trying. Our flight out is at 1:15.

67 days until we get on the Mickey Ship!!!

 

[Tarabra]

Hi Everyone,

I think today is the day I'm going to book for this trip! I'll be glad I did, but it's just scary to finally make the move. Not sure why...we've been on 5 DCL's, but had a rough winter financially, (I'm a Realtor in NE Ohio...blah). It's really picked up, so I can officially go and feel at ease. Or...should I pay off all the credit cards that we had to use over the winter!!?? Nah.....

Anyhow, it'll be DH - Rob - 43
Me - Tara 40 (shhhh!!!)
DD - Ava - 21 months

Aug. 12 is also our 11 year anniversary so it's a REALLY good excuse when people say, "You're going on ANOTHER Disney Cruise???" I'm just nervous it's going to be too hot! I love the hot weather, but DH goes crazy in it.

 

[Tarabra]

Whoops...posted twice! Keep getting 'server is busy'

 

[Lyons Family]

Tarabra and family, welcome to the thread, we have met some very nice people on this thread, and hopefully will be able to meet on the ship. We are distant neighbors, we live in Vienna, Ohio, and will be flying out of Cleveland sometime on August 5th. We don't know our flight yet. Marci is a great resource person on this page. Take the time to read all the postings. Catch you later
Lyons Family

 

[Lyons Family]

Happy upcoming anniversary, our 15th anniversary will be on August 10, party time celebrating with our daughter.
later Sue

 

[ImMarcik]

Welcome Tara, I added you to the list on the first post. Have you been on an Eastern before? Yes, an anniversary is a great excuse for another cruise. It won't be long now I will be making lists of stuff to get. Wait, I already have a small one. I can't believe this Friday will be 2 months until I fly out. Tara, have you been to Dis meets before?

 

[Tarabra]

Welp, it's a done deal! We're on! It's going to be weird cruising in the summer. We always go in the spring when we have serious cabin fever. But we are excited! This will be our 3rd Eastern. I love the Eastern. Although I enjoy spending the day in Key West on the Western. I really enjoy the days at sea, and I think it will be better for my DD21mos, than running around the ports. There is absolutely NOTHING in the world better than waking up in the morning at St. Thomas and St. Maarten. Breathtaking. I was preg. on our last cruise in May '04, so I'm ready to have some fun! Although we are trying for child number 2, so I could possibly be preg. again.

Looking forward to hanging out on the thread and getting to know everyone. Lyons family, Vienna is about an hour East of here. I'm originally from New Castle, PA, so we were always at the Eastwood Mall. I live about 5 minutes from Akron now.

We are flying in on Thurs. (08/03/06) and I have rooms booked at Saratoga Springs since we are DVC members. It'll be the first time using the points. So, the rooms are 'sort of...not really' free! We can't wait to take DD to the Park although it is going to be HOT! We figure we might as well go now before we have another little one, and while she can still get on the cruise for free and ride the plane for free. (that should be interesting!) I'm sure we're going to be hearing about it from our families. "Oh...you don't need to take her!!! Blah, blah, blah!" Can't wait!

 

[ImMarcik]

Tara, Congrats on booking!!! We are flying in late on Wed 8/03 and staying at the Caribbean Beach Resort. We just plan on taking it easy Thursday and going to DTD. Friday we are going to AK. Tomorrow is 2 months!!!