August 17, 2013 - A Fantasy Cruise to Paradise

[shmoogrrrl]

I guess Feb. 23 is the day we'll fly home, but we are only leaving in the evening.

And we have four more cruises before this one!

We're doing a back to back this summer (a double dip and a 4 nighter on the DREAM), then the 4 night cruise in February and the Aug 17 cruise will be the second leg of our summer back to backs next year.
For someone, who, in 2009 was sure to do only ONE cruise in her lifetime, we were seriously bitten by the cruise bug.

Oh bummer! We'll have to figure out when we will get there on the 23rd closer to the end of the year.

Sounds like you all have a busy schedule! When we went on our first cruise on our honeymoon in 2000, I was so not sure about cruising. I had always wanted to go to Disney World on my Honeymoon, and when my husband proposed, I made him agree to the honeymoon before I said yes (although admittedly he was WELL aware of my wish before we got to that point. ). Anyway, when we heard about the cruise line, he was gungho to do the land and sea, so I agreed. Of course, we got married on the day that the Titanic sank, so that didn't help. I was SOOOOO nervous about it that I couldn't eat anything the morning we were going to the ship. I nibbled only a little at the embarkation lunch, but by dinner, I was merrily planning our next cruise. We've been back four times since. Disney just knows how to do it right!

I hope you have a great time on all your trips! Can't wait to read your reports and live vicariously through you!

 

[dizneeat]

Oh bummer! We'll have to figure out when we will get there on the 23rd closer to the end of the year.

Sounds like you all have a busy schedule! When we went on our first cruise on our honeymoon in 2000, I was so not sure about cruising. I had always wanted to go to Disney World on my Honeymoon, and when my husband proposed, I made him agree to the honeymoon before I said yes (although admittedly he was WELL aware of my wish before we got to that point. ). Anyway, when we heard about the cruise line, he was gungho to do the land and sea, so I agreed. Of course, we got married on the day that the Titanic sank, so that didn't help. I was SOOOOO nervous about it that I couldn't eat anything the morning we were going to the ship. I nibbled only a little at the embarkation lunch, but by dinner, I was merrily planning our next cruise. We've been back four times since. Disney just knows how to do it right!

I hope you have a great time on all your trips! Can't wait to read your reports and live vicariously through you!

I guess we will have "some" time to figure out if our paths will cross or not in February.
I just love the fact that you made your DH agree on the honeymoon destination before he proposed!
You sound a lot like me on your first cruise. I only wanted to ONE cruise in my lifetime and it took a lot of persuation to get Tom to agree and for my milestone birthday we went on a 4 night cruise on the Wonder with friends. We came packed with books and things to do as I was sure I would be bored to death being "locked in". Well, after our first dinner we were discussing when we would be back and we could not wait to come back.
The following year we went on a back to back on the Wonder and while at CC during those cruises we decided on a back to back to back on the DREAM for 2011 - it was wonderful spending 11 nights on the ship.
We went back this February and you know our schedule for the future. Disney does it best ...... you cannot help but come back.

 

[UltimateDisneyFan]

Hi Andrea!
Thanks for the positive response!
We just added this cruise as the second leg of our back to back and I am so happy there will be a FE exchange too!
We have done one on each of our cruises and handing out the gifts is so much fun!
I am already working on our FE gifts as we are handing out small personalized gifts on every day of our cruise, so there will be a lot to do!

Would you mind sending me a PM with your first names and ages of kids? So I can put you on my list?

FE participants for August 17, 2013
mominva
dizneeat​

Hiya, sorry i haven't been active for a while.

I'm thinking of doing the FE too! My dad says it's ok as long as I take charge and make everything, but from all of the positive feedback I think it's worth it! I can't wait!!

You've done loads of cruises, which ships have you been on? We've been on the Magic, Wonder and Dream (and it turns out Andrea and I were on the same cruise for the Dream!) so we only have one left! Shame it's still a year away though. I guess I'll have to wait!!

Sarah

 

[UltimateDisneyFan]

I think I liked Enchanted Garden best. We were lucky enough to get one of the circular booths that line the main entrance. I liked how it transformed from day to night during the meal - it's just a really pretty restaurant. Our head waiter was from Trinidad - so that was a nice homey touch for us. They often seemed really rushed though, so I don't think we actually chatted with them very much.

We have spring break coming up in 2 weeks and I can't wait. We're going to Virginia Beach for a few nights just to relax. It'll probably be too cold to go in the ocean, but it'll be nice to sit on the sand and watch the ocean!

Sorry I haven't replied, iv'e been really busy

How was the beach?? Or are you still there??

We were unlucky I suppose with the seating in Enchanted Gardens, all of the other families who had the same servers as us all had the circular seating at the entrance while we had a normal table!

Have you seen any good videos about the Fantasy lately? I can't seem to find any! I would have thought that people would have been uploading videos because they've been on one of the first Fantasy cruises. Then again they're on holiday so...

Sarah

 

[dizneeat]

Hiya, sorry i haven't been active for a while.

I'm thinking of doing the FE too! My dad says it's ok as long as I take charge and make everything, but from all of the positive feedback I think it's worth it! I can't wait!!

You've done loads of cruises, which ships have you been on? We've been on the Magic, Wonder and Dream (and it turns out Andrea and I were on the same cruise for the Dream!) so we only have one left! Shame it's still a year away though. I guess I'll have to wait!!

Sarah

Hi Sarah!
I am VERY happy to see someone else join our little exchange. I promise you this is going to be a lot of fun.

Since you asked about the ships we have been on ..... we have only been on the Disney ships.
We did three cruises on the WONDERful Disney WONDER (can't help but repeat their catch-phrase. ) and four more on the Disney DREAM. We will do three more on the Disney DREAM and one on the Disney FANTASY (the week before this one). So, that will make three out of four.

I added you to the FE list. Would you mind sending me a PM with the first names of everyone taking part and the ages of any kids. If you know it already your stateroom number would be helpful as well.

Hopefully I will be able to set up the list tomorrow and post the link to the participants list with details.

FE participants for August 17, 2013
UltimateDisneyFan
mominva
dizneeat​

 

[Tigerfan2k2]

Hey hey hey people

We are on this cruise having booked an earlier one (aug 3rd) and switched it to this one and saved about $1000. We have cruised on the Magic in the med last august and loved it.

We are from Yorkshire in England and are a family of 5 Disney nutters. There's me Martin, Bex - my wife, Ben (9), Abbie (7) and joe (4). We are in for any FE stuff and have some great ideas for gifts.

Looking forward to meeting you (electronically and for real)

Martin

 

[dizneeat]

Hey hey hey people

We are on this cruise having booked an earlier one (aug 3rd) and switched it to this one and saved about $1000. We have cruised on the Magic in the med last august and loved it.

We are from Yorkshire in England and are a family of 5 Disney nutters. There's me Martin, Bex - my wife, Ben (9), Abbie (7) and joe (4). We are in for any FE stuff and have some great ideas for gifts.

Looking forward to meeting you (electronically and for real)

Martin

Welcome to our cruise!
How wonderful to have more Europeans on the cruise.

I am sure you are going to love the new ships ..... they are HUGE, but they are beautiful!

How fun that you are in for the FE too!! It is a really fun thing to do. I added you to the "short list" as I haven't uploaded my detailled one yet - but I will soon, I promise.

FE participants for August 17, 2013
Tigerfan2k2
UltimateDisneyFan
mominva
dizneeat​

 

[shmoogrrrl]

Hey hey hey people

We are on this cruise having booked an earlier one (aug 3rd) and switched it to this one and saved about $1000. We have cruised on the Magic in the med last august and loved it.

We are from Yorkshire in England and are a family of 5 Disney nutters. There's me Martin, Bex - my wife, Ben (9), Abbie (7) and joe (4). We are in for any FE stuff and have some great ideas for gifts.

Looking forward to meeting you (electronically and for real)

Martin

Hi there!

Glad to have you aboard! I'll add your names to the first post, and I am working on a master list that we can have to see who is coming. Looks like "dizneeat' has taken on the Fish Extender list, which is awesome. It really is a lot of fun.

My husband and I have a daughter who will be 11 when we sail, and a son that will also be four like your little guy.

Have a great day!

Kathy

 

[shmoogrrrl]

How fun that you are in for the FE too!! It is a really fun thing to do. I added you to the "short list" as I haven't uploaded my detailled one yet - but I will soon, I promise.

FE participants for August 17, 2013
Tigerfan2k2
UltimateDisneyFan
mominva
dizneeat​

So are you officially taking on the FE list? It will probably be pretty big to keep in your signature (I hope!) but we are in as well.

 

[dizneeat]

So are you officially taking on the FE list? It will probably be pretty big to keep in your signature (I hope!) but we are in as well.

If you don't mind I'd love to do it. To be honest, I have done it for all our cruises and we already have the stateroom plans at home to get plans for everyone with the staterooms marked.
I am in the process of getting the detailed list for this cruise ready and will upload it and post it as soon as possible.

As for this list ..... I am a copy from the previous post kind of girl.

FE participants for August 17, 2013
shmoogrrrl
Tigerfan2k2
UltimateDisneyFan
mominva
dizneeat​

And now that you are in .... would you mind to send me a PM with the first names of all your cruisers and ages of your kids, as well as your stateroom number if you know it already.

 

[Tigerfan2k2]

Hey hey hey people

We are on this cruise having booked an earlier one (aug 3rd) and switched it to this one and saved about $1000. We have cruised on the Magic in the med last august and loved it.

We are from Yorkshire in England and are a family of 5 Disney nutters. There's me Martin, Bex - my wife, Ben (9), Abbie (7) and joe (4). We are in for any FE stuff and have some great ideas for gifts.

Looking forward to meeting you (electronically and for real)

Martin

For all of the kids ages, you can add on one year. This all seems so far off, but like many of you, we have a big trip planned to 'the world' for 3+ weeks in July/aug this year. If we could afford it, we'd book a trip on DCL and include it in this trip too as we loved it so much in the med.

 

[gosshaus]

For various reasons, I created a new Disboard ID today. I will be posting under "gosshaus" from now on and the "M & R Goss" id will no longer be used. Sorry for any confusion.
(Just figured out that with a new ID I can't PM until I've made 10 posts so forgive me if I make a few minor posts in order to get my post count up!)

 

[gosshaus]

Dizneeat -
I'm not able to PM just yet (I created a new Disboard ID - so I can't PM until I've made 10 posts). Please add "gosshaus" to the FE list. This is our second Dis cruise and I don't think FEs were being done in 2005 when we last sailed so this is new to us. There are 4 in our party, myself, DH, DS (14 at sail) and DD (11 at sail). When I can PM I'll send you names. Thanks!

 

[dizneeat]

For all of the kids ages, you can add on one year. This all seems so far off, but like many of you, we have a big trip planned to 'the world' for 3+ weeks in July/aug this year. If we could afford it, we'd book a trip on DCL and include it in this trip too as we loved it so much in the med.

I got your PM and will put your details on my list, which should be ready pretty soon and then I will post the link to it here.
When will you be at WDW? We will spend 4 weeks at WDW - Disney DREAM in August and early September as well.

 

[dizneeat]

Dizneeat -
I'm not able to PM just yet (I created a new Disboard ID - so I can't PM until I've made 10 posts). Please add "gosshaus" to the FE list. This is our second Dis cruise and I don't think FEs were being done in 2005 when we last sailed so this is new to us. There are 4 in our party, myself, DH, DS (14 at sail) and DD (11 at sail). When I can PM I'll send you names. Thanks!

Welcome to the FE exchange!
I added you to the list and I think we will have "enough" time for you to get your 10 posts so you can send PMs.
So far I will just put your screen-name on my detailed list - no biggie!

FE are SO much fun - we were lucky enough to be able to do it on all of our cruises and it is always a highlight - makes for fun conversation starters as well!

FE participants for August 17, 2013
gosshaus
shmoogrrrl
Tigerfan2k2
UltimateDisneyFan
mominva
dizneeat​

 

[Tigerfan2k2]

I got your PM and will put your details on my list, which should be ready pretty soon and then I will post the link to it here.
When will you be at WDW? We will spend 4 weeks at WDW - Disney DREAM in August and early September as well.

We are in Orlando from July 22 through august 17. Can't wait. Love it!

 

[dizneeat]

We are in Orlando from July 22 through august 17. Can't wait. Love it!

Ah............. we are going to miss you! We'll arrive on August 11, but are going straight to the Florida Keys for a week.
On August 17 we will return to WDW and stay at the Contemporary. Any chance you are spending time at the MK before your return home?

 

[shmoogrrrl]

I just checked our sailing, and Although there are no inside cabins or port holes left, there seems to be a pretty good selection of balcony rooms left. Even the one next to us! (although I think that is a handicap room) You can even switch your reservation and snag a Royal Suite for $26,000!

The price hasn't gone up from when we booked. Now, if only it would go down.

 

[dizneeat]

I just checked our sailing, and Although there are no inside cabins or port holes left, there seems to be a pretty good selection of balcony rooms left. Even the one next to us! (although I think that is a handicap room) You can even switch your reservation and snag a Royal Suite for $26,000!

The price hasn't gone up from when we booked. Now, if only it would go down.

How much for the Royal Suite? $26,000 ........ oh, what a bargain!

I am so with you, I wish they would just for once lower the price a bit. But unfortunately I have only seen their prices go up!

 

[shmoogrrrl]

How much for the Royal Suite? $26,000 ........ oh, what a bargain!

I am so with you, I wish they would just for once lower the price a bit. But unfortunately I have only seen their prices go up!

Bah! $26,000? I'll take two!