Disney Dream - Oct. 28, 2016 - 3 night cruise

[CheriePenguin]

Here's a cruise meet thread for our 3 night cruise Oct. 28, 2016 on the Disney Dream!

This is my (and my family's) very first cruise, but I saw there was no thread for it yet, so I went ahead and made one!

I have 3 boys who will be 5, 10, and 12 at the time of the cruise. We have been to Disney World several times, but have never cruised, and are very excited about our first one being on the Disney Dream.
We are planning to make this a Land & Sea adventure and stay at Port Orleans Riverside (along with Grandma & Grandpa too) prior to the cruise, but we haven't booked that portion just yet.)

I look forward to sharing the excitement of planning with you, and perhaps meeting you at some point on the Dream boat!

 

[CheriePenguin]

When I read about the Fish Extenders idea I was beyond excited!!!
I volunteer to organize the info to create a group (or groups) of people interested in participating on our cruise. I've already started gathering ideas and making a database to help organize the info! Now we just need YOU to join!

I propose we keep each group at a maximum of 10 rooms so it's not too overwhelming a time (or cost or space) commitment. But of course you could join more than one group if desired.

If you are interested in joining a FE group for our cruise, just post here saying so. Then I can add you to a private "conversation" here on the Disboards where we can post the stateroom numbers, names or initials (and ages for kids), and other info, so you don't have to post that on this public forum if you don't want to.
(You do need to have 10 posts on the Disboards before you can participate in a "conversation", but there are lots of great posts here to reply to (fun to read other trip/cruise reports and comment on them), and you might have questions you want to post, or you can use the test board- http://www.disboards.com/forums/test-board.88/ ).

We can work out other details and ideas for the group when there are a few more of us to discuss them.
Happy planning & happy cruising!

 

[Jkpark]

Hi! So I think you directed me here from another thread.

This will be my 3rd Disney cruise. The first two were on the Fantasy so I am very excited to experience a new ship, but worried it will be over in the blink of an eye. It is myself, my husband and my two daughters who will be 9 and 11. We live in Arizona. We are also cruising with my sister, her husband and my 3 year old niece. They are currently in Portland, Oregon but may move between now and the cruise.

This will be a surprise cruise for my girls - both the cruise itself and the fact that their aunt, uncle and cousin will be there! We booked Saratoga Springs the night before the cruise.

 

[CheriePenguin]

jkpark !
I am so glad to see you have joined us! How exciting to have a surprise trip! I know how tough that can be - to plan and keep it a secret (we never did a surprise Disney trip, but did a surprise weekend to Wisconsin Dells over my son's bday weekend)!

Did you do a Disboard meet on your other cruises? This is our very first cruise. For a meet, do we just kind of agree on a place and time and then meet on the ship then to say hello?

I am also a little concerned it will be over too fast. I was going to try for a 4-night, but the dates for this one worked in really well with our school schedule so we can have minimal days off of school and still have a long enough overall trip. And I didn't want to start with too long a cruise as we've never done one before and a few of us are a little nervous about it.

From what I've read it should be awesome! (provided no one is or gets sick)

 

[Jkpark]

Yes - as it got closer the group just sort of decided on a place and a time. My first cruise it was before the sail away party - maybe 2:30 or something like that. People stopped by and said hello - allowed the kids to meet each other and meet in person people you had been chatting with for months. This last cruise it was after the sail away party, and we ended up not making it. The kids wanted to enjoy the party and explore the ship before it was time to get ready and we didn't meet up.

 

[CheriePenguin]

Jkpark - please let me know your stateroom number at some point (you can do it in a private conversation if you'd like). I know you said you didn't think you'd be able to do the Fish Extenders exchange since it's a surprise trip and too hard to keep secret, but I'd like to at least include your daughters when I give out things! My boys (who are close in age to your girls!) and I have been so excited coming up with ideas, and we're a little bummed no one has joined our group yet. So it would give us something to work on! Please let me know the first initial for the older and younger ones' names, and if they have any favorite characters, etc. Thanks!

 

[Jkpark]

I'm curious that no one else has joined yet, too. Wondering if it isn't that popular of a cruise becomes it comes back into port on Halloween itself? Or because it is the tail end of hurricane season? Or maybe people just plan less with it being a 3 night cruise?

We are in 7024. You can count us in for the FE. I'll come up with something that I can do on the sly. Can we keep each group to 10 cabins? I just don't want to spend too much time running around the ship on a shorter cruise.

Our girls are Ryan (11) and Anna (9). Ryan's favorite characters are Tigger, Cruella and Dumbo. Anna loves Star Wars and classic movie characters (Jungle Book, 101 Dalmatians, Lady Tramp, Peter Pan, etc)

Please tell me about your boys, too.

 

[CheriePenguin]

We are in 7024. You can count us in for the FE. I'll come up with something that I can do on the sly. Can we keep each group to 10 cabins? I just don't want to spend too much time running around the ship on a shorter cruise.

Awesome! I'm so glad you are going to join us! I'll invite you to a conversation (formerly Private Messages) where we can collect and share all the info for the Fish Extender exchange group participants.

We can discuss everyone’s preferences and ideas as we go along, but let’s keep it fun!

I agree we should set a maximum of 10 rooms for each group (we can add as many groups as necessary until we have to cut it off so people have time to make or buy their surprises). We probably need to cut it off by Sept. 25th or so, with anyone interested after that time added to a pixie dust list or able to make and organize their own last minute group.

[ Note: My family is doing a Land & Sea trip, with the land portion first, so I personally won’t be able to do too much on here beyond October 22nd, as we’ll be at Disney World ! But I'll get everything as organized as I can prior that.]

I saw that the people on another cruise were naming their various FE groups with cute character names (1st group Mickey, another one Donald, etc.). Should we do that too? What would be your vote for our first group's name? Any suggestions?

Thanks again! Looking forward to sharing the magic with you!

 

[Danielle729]

Hi there! My son and mother and I are doing the cruise!! I was on another one years a go and the fish extenders was soooo fun! How do I know how many ppl are participating and the ages?

 

[Danielle729]

I'm curious that no one else has joined yet, too. Wondering if it isn't that popular of a cruise becomes it comes back into port on Halloween itself? Or because it is the tail end of hurricane season? Or maybe people just plan less with it being a 3 night cruise?

We are in 7024. You can count us in for the FE. I'll come up with something that I can do on the sly. Can we keep each group to 10 cabins? I just don't want to spend too much time running around the ship on a shorter cruise.

Our girls are Ryan (11) and Anna (9). Ryan's favorite characters are Tigger, Cruella and Dumbo. Anna loves Star Wars and classic movie characters (Jungle Book, 101 Dalmatians, Lady Tramp, Peter Pan, etc)

Please tell me about your boys, too.

We are in 8066 and my son Nick is going to be 15 and loves the nightmare before christmas, my mom loves any disney and I am a Tinkerbell fan!

 

[CheriePenguin]

Danielle729
I am so excited you are joining us!!
I'll invite you to a conversation (formerly Private Messages) where we can collect and share all the info for the Fish Extender exchange group participants! You will need to have 10 posts on the Disboards in order to participate in a conversation. You can use the test board to add more posts as needed. - http://www.disboards.com/forums/test-board.88/

So far we have 3 cabins participating (including yours!) We are going to keep the groups at 10 cabins each, but we will keep adding groups until we need to close them (about a month before the cruise) and people can join as many of the groups as they would like.

 

[Bugsmom06]

Hi there! This will be our first Disney cruise. My parents and I are surprising my daughter for her 10th Birthday! She will turn 10 the day the ship sails and will not know where we are going until we get to the ship. We would love to join in on the fish extenders!

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Hi there! This will be our first Disney cruise. My parents and I are surprising my daughter for her 10th Birthday! She will turn 10 the day the ship sails and will not know where we are going until we get to the ship. We would love to join in on the fish extenders!

In order to participate in the private conversation for Fish Extenders, you must have posted at least 10 times here on DISboards. We do have a Test Board where you can go to post some test posts to up your post count:
http://www.disboards.com/forums/test-board.88/

Once you've posted 10 times, it does take the system a little time (30-60 minutes) to recognize it. Then you will have the conversation feature.

 

[Bugsmom06]

Hi there! This will be our first Disney Cruise. My parents and I are surprising my daughter for her 10th Birthday! She will turn 10 the day the ship sails and will not know where we are going until we get to the ship. We would love to join in on the fish extenders!

 

[CheriePenguin]

Hi there! This will be our first Disney Cruise. My parents and I are surprising my daughter for her 10th Birthday! She will turn 10 the day the ship sails and will not know where we are going until we get to the ship. We would love to join in on the fish extenders!

Bugsmom06 !
I am so happy you are joining us!! Another surprise cruise! How exciting! Jkpark is surprising her girls as well!

I'll invite you to a conversation where we are collecting and sharing all the info for the Fish Extender exchange group participants! (It will show up in your Inbox in the upper right portion of the screen.)

I'm so excited about the Fish extenders - we've been getting some good ideas for making ours and for things to give out!

 

[CheriePenguin]

Woo Hoo - it looks like we're up to 4 cabins participating now!

So does anyone else like the idea of naming each of our FE groups after a Disney character? Any suggestions what our first group should be named?

I like the idea of filling groups of 10 as people join so that we can get started right away with figuring out or working on FE gifts. Is that okay with the rest of you? It seems to be working well for a few other cruises that are doing it that way, and I don't want to wait till August to make or buy my gifts - I'm too excited already now!!! There is the slight chance that someone could back out of the group or the cruise in the meantime though, but if that did happen we could decide as a group how to handle it.

Bugsmom06, it did let me add you to the conversation now for the FE info, so you should be good to go! You can add your info and see the info others have submitted there as well.

Once we get to 10 cabins I'll confirm with everyone and then I'll post a file in the conversation with the summary of everyone's info and I'll try to include a deck map key as well. Then we can start filling a second group!

Danielle729, it won't let me add you to the conversation until you have at least 10 posts (it shows you just have the 2 here so far.) You can go to the test board if you'd like to add some test posts to get up to 10. http://www.disboards.com/forums/test-board.88/

My parents & I had a Disney planning day Friday to work out our park days and desired table service restaurants for the land portion of our trip - we're approaching our 180 days out ADR day in a few weeks! And today I was checking out possible Disney print fabrics to use for a FE!

 

[Jkpark]

My parents & I had a Disney planning day Friday to work out our park days and desired table service restaurants for the land portion of our trip - we're approaching our 180 days out ADR day in a few weeks! And today I was checking out possible Disney print fabrics to use for a FE!

That is always so fun! We decided to stay at Saratoga Springs the night before the cruise. We can either use the pool or head over to Disney Springs for the night.

I like your idea of capping at 10. And I like naming each group, too - should we go with the classic characters?

For people who want to wait to work on their gifts - usually the Paid In Full Date works b/c that aren't many people who cancel after that. And you are right - if anyone does cancel after the group of 10 is set, we can (1) see if people who book last minute want to join, or (2) just leave it with less cabins or (3) maybe someone in another group would want to join a second. Plenty of options we can play with if and when we have to.

On my last FE, the organizer also kept a list of cabins on her door. Some people get upgraded when checking in. Some people book guaranteed categories and get their room assignments really late. I freaked out when I got to one door from my list and there was no FE hanging there. Then I made it to the list keeper's door and it all made sense.

Less than 200 days to go!!!!!!

 

[CheriePenguin]

Classic characters sounds good for group names - I suppose it makes sense to start with Mickey! Then we can decide between Pluto, Minnie, Goofy, etc. or other ideas when we get to start a second group.

I found something cool today that I think I'll be able to work into a neat FE gift - still have to do some figuring on how to work it out!

Looks like our cruise is officially listed as a Halloween on the High Seas cruise now - not that it comes as a surprise, since we get back on Halloween Day itself! Most of the Sept - Oct. cruises are included.

The rumors are that the Free Dining promotion won't include October this year. At least there won't be extra crowds at the restaurants in that case. I hope we can still get a room only discount.

Well, just wanted to check in to see if we had anyone new joining yet or anyone I needed to add to the FE conversation. Happy planning & Happy Spring! (We finally got some nice spring weather - hope you did too!)

 

[brown5dl]

I would love to participate in the fish extender group if there is space! We are celebrating my daughter's 8th birthday. There are 2 adults and 2 children in our room. Cabin #9574

 

[CheriePenguin]

I would love to participate in the fish extender group if there is space! We are celebrating my daughter's 8th birthday. There are 2 adults and 2 children in our room. Cabin #9574

Brown5dl !
I am so excited you are joining us!! We have plenty of room!! We are going to fill groups of 10 cabins at a time, and your cabin brings us up to 5 for our first group, which we're going to call the Mickey group!

I'll invite you to a conversation where we are collecting and sharing all the info for the Fish Extender exchange group participants! (It will show up in your Inbox in the upper right portion of the screen.)