Fantasy 02/02/13

[Disneytracy]

Only 6 months left My count down is half done!

 

[DiaLady]

Hi Theresa!! As we get closer, I'll give you some ideas for the FE - its alot of fun.

I noticed you from SE Virginia - We live in the suburbs of Richmond! (Are you in Hampton Roads? If so - I actually graduated from Hampton High (ugh) )

Hi There,

Yes, we're in Hampton Roads, but love visiting Richmond (usually flying by to DC or Pgh).

Can't wait for the trip

Theresa

 

[DiaLady]

Just wondering about dining in the ship, as far as early and late seating. We booked a few weeks ago for this cruise and the early seating was already completely booked. We will be traveling with a 6 month old, 2 year old, and 5 year old. Will the late time be a nightmare? Is there any possibility to have it change and how would we do that? Thanks!!

We are late night folks with teenagers so the late seating works well for us. Our first cruise (10 years ago) we had young children with us on late dining. It was tough, but not impossible. Consider you can also have dinner in your room and topsiders (not sure what it is on Fantasy) which is open for dinner the entire evening. Just gives you some extra options.

Also, if you can find someone else who has early seating, you could connect your seating together with them. You may get to sit with them, too, but that way you'd also be in the same seating. On the a few of the longer cruises (Panama Canal and Trans-atlantic), many of us on DIS boards connected our dinner reservations so we could have the dining room for just DIS folks. It was really cool for Pirates' night.

Hope that helps

Theresa

 

[reimero]

"Topsiders" is "Cabanas" on the Fantasy.

 

[aqmom]

Wow! So much has happened since I last checked in to this feed! How exciting! So looking forward to meeting all of you and sharing a magical time! - Julie Q.

 

[Brancaneve]

Just wondering about dining in the ship, as far as early and late seating. We booked a few weeks ago for this cruise and the early seating was already completely booked. We will be traveling with a 6 month old, 2 year old, and 5 year old. Will the late time be a nightmare? Is there any possibility to have it change and how would we do that? Thanks!!

Several years ago we went on our first Disney cruise and had late seating with a three and five year old. It was very difficult for us and we swore to never do it again. I regretted not speaking to guest services upon boarding to change our time. If you have to, do it! I met a family on the ship that brought a doctor's note just in case they wouldn't budge. What the note consisted of, I am not sure. However, it is something you can try for one night. Some like to have more time to get ready for dinner after being at the port all day. We like to eat early and enjoy the ship rather than going to bed on a full.stomach. We are on a waiting list for early dining. Wish us luck!!

 

[Brancaneve]

How cool!! We are celebrating my 40th on this cruise and my birthday is actually ON February 3rd (I was determined to be on a boat on my birthday!!)

We are doing this without the kids (did a 7 day on the Magic back in October 2009). Would love to do the FE thing (of course, my FE has my kids' names on it too - maybe I can put tape on it!)

Look forward to "meeting" you all over the next 261 days

Angie

I celebrated my birthday last year in June on the Dream and it was incredible!! I booked a spa treatment and had a great dinner and a delicious cocktail at my favorite bar om the ship. It will be very memorable!!

 

[reimero]

I've been working to get the roll call on page 5 updated as much as possible. Please let me know if/when things change.
Also, it's a little ways off yet, but we should probably settle on a cut-off date for the FE exchange so we have adequate time to prepare.

 

[DiaLady]

I've been working to get the roll call on page 5 updated as much as possible. Please let me know if/when things change.
Also, it's a little ways off yet, but we should probably settle on a cut-off date for the FE exchange so we have adequate time to prepare.

Can y'all give some examples of things you gave / received in past FE's??

 

[mimmi]

Can y'all give some examples of things you gave / received in past FE's??

We received picture frames, a hidden mickey game for the Dream, Princess stuff (sticker, tattoos, chains,...), a photo album, door magnets,...

I had found Mickey coffee spoons in Japan long before our cruise and made coffee cups where I put some Austrian chocolate and an Austrian herbal handcream. For the kids I bought sticker books, styrofoam planes and other toys.

This time I'll make something that takes less space in suitcase than huge coffee cups but again something that comes from my home country.

 

[dorito6778]

can you remove me from the FE? looking my work schedule for the coming fall, there's just no way i can promise i'll be able to get my share done to participate.

 

[reimero]

I've made the requested updates to the Roll Call.

 

[magic18]

Hi, my name is Veronica and i am going to be 14 when my family goes on the Fantasy. If anybody else my age is going please let me know! Because it would be easier to know somebody else that is my age! My dad has put me in charge of the fish exchange. This is our first year doing the fish exchange and i was wondering if anybody could fill me in on it.
Thanks,
Veronica

 

[reimero]

Hi, my name is Veronica and i am going to be 14 when my family goes on the Fantasy. If anybody else my age is going please let me know! Because it would be easier to know somebody else that is my age! My dad has put me in charge of the fish exchange. This is our first year doing the fish exchange and i was wondering if anybody could fill me in on it.
Thanks,
Veronica

The short version of the FE exchange is that once on board, at some point during the cruise, everyone puts a small gift in everyone else's FE. Gifts are generally small and can be silly, useful, sentimental or whatever else. Some are a memento from the giver's home, others are mementos of the cruise. There's lots of FE info on the boards here.

Generally, I think the expectation is that each participating stateroom provides each other participating stateroom with a gift. Some people will do a gift per person or a gift per day or something similar, but the general rule is 1 per stateroom per cruise.

Also, has one of your parents already registered in this thread? If not, let me know and I'll add you to the roll call. Initially, we'll need to know how many are traveling, and at some point we'll need to know your stateroom number (so we know where to send the goodies!!)

-Joe

 

[magic18]

The short version of the FE exchange is that once on board, at some point during the cruise, everyone puts a small gift in everyone else's FE. Gifts are generally small and can be silly, useful, sentimental or whatever else. Some are a memento from the giver's home, others are mementos of the cruise. There's lots of FE info on the boards here.

Generally, I think the expectation is that each participating stateroom provides each other participating stateroom with a gift. Some people will do a gift per person or a gift per day or something similar, but the general rule is 1 per stateroom per cruise.

Also, has one of your parents already registered in this thread? If not, let me know and I'll add you to the roll call. Initially, we'll need to know how many are traveling, and at some point we'll need to know your stateroom number (so we know where to send the goodies!!)

-Joe

Thank you very much! And yes my dad is registered his user name is only8daycruise.
~Veronica

 

[reimero]

Thanks magic18! I've got you added as a "yes" to FE!!

 

[chr157y]

This will be our first Disney cruise! I'm so glad I found this board. There are 4 of us, myself, my husband, and your 2 sons (4.5 and almost 2 at cruise time). We also have the late seating and I'm VERY nervous about it as our 1 year old goes to sleep at 7 pm. We're already wait listed for the 1st seating. I was thinking that we could take the kids to a buffet at their normal dinner time and then go to the show. The baby can sleep on my lap during dinner if need be.

We would love to be added to the FE. How do the door magnet/envelopes work?

How does the nursery work? We'd love to drop the baby off at nap time, but it has to be scheduled??

I'm also trying to figue out to do on our stops. The turtles on Grand Caymen sound like a great idea. I'm interested in hearing about the day passes at certain hotels. I never knew you could do this.

Thanks,
Christy

 

[Brancaneve]

This will be our first Disney cruise! I'm so glad I found this board. There are 4 of us, myself, my husband, and your 2 sons (4.5 and almost 2 at cruise time). We also have the late seating and I'm VERY nervous about it as our 1 year old goes to sleep at 7 pm. We're already wait listed for the 1st seating. I was thinking that we could take the kids to a buffet at their normal dinner time and then go to the show. The baby can sleep on my lap during dinner if need be.

We would love to be added to the FE. How do the door magnet/envelopes work?

How does the nursery work? We'd love to drop the baby off at nap time, but it has to be scheduled??

I'm also trying to figue out to do on our stops. The turtles on Grand Caymen sound like a great idea. I'm interested in hearing about the day passes at certain hotels. I never knew you could do this.

Thanks,
Christy

Welcome Christy! I am sure you will have a wonderful time. On our first cruise we had late seating and it wasn't fun. My son, almost three, had a hard time sitting through dinner. They usually add a small note in the daily Navigator about seeing guest services upon boarding if you would like to change your dining time. Don't hesitate!

I haven't used the nursery in some time, but remember it being a pleasant experience for all. Even if you stay with your baby, the nursery provides a nice place for him to run and play. I did schedule times before hand and then rescheduled once on board because none of the times seemed to work. I do recommend attending the Open House the day you board so that your son gets to know the area and cast members.

I am not participating in the fish extenders but I have seen fabulous ideas on how to put it all together. Just do a search on the boards and you will find a lot of inspiration.

 

[mimmi]

This will be our first Disney cruise! I'm so glad I found this board. There are 4 of us, myself, my husband, and your 2 sons (4.5 and almost 2 at cruise time). We also have the late seating and I'm VERY nervous about it as our 1 year old goes to sleep at 7 pm. We're already wait listed for the 1st seating. I was thinking that we could take the kids to a buffet at their normal dinner time and then go to the show. The baby can sleep on my lap during dinner if need be.

We would love to be added to the FE. How do the door magnet/envelopes work?

How does the nursery work? We'd love to drop the baby off at nap time, but it has to be scheduled??

I'm also trying to figue out to do on our stops. The turtles on Grand Caymen sound like a great idea. I'm interested in hearing about the day passes at certain hotels. I never knew you could do this.

Thanks,
Christy

Welcome!

There are tons of threads with awesome ideas for FE gifts.

And lots of designs for magnets to decorate your door. You can print the designs on magnetic paper, that's it. Have fun!

 

[reimero]

This will be our first Disney cruise! I'm so glad I found this board. There are 4 of us, myself, my husband, and your 2 sons (4.5 and almost 2 at cruise time). We also have the late seating and I'm VERY nervous about it as our 1 year old goes to sleep at 7 pm. We're already wait listed for the 1st seating. I was thinking that we could take the kids to a buffet at their normal dinner time and then go to the show. The baby can sleep on my lap during dinner if need be.

We would love to be added to the FE. How do the door magnet/envelopes work?

How does the nursery work? We'd love to drop the baby off at nap time, but it has to be scheduled??

I'm also trying to figue out to do on our stops. The turtles on Grand Caymen sound like a great idea. I'm interested in hearing about the day passes at certain hotels. I never knew you could do this.

Thanks,
Christy

Welcome to the group! We're glad to have you! I'll get your information added to the roll call.

There is lots of information on the boards regarding FEs, but the short-short version is this: outside each stateroom is a fish (port) or seahorse (starboard) used by DCL to leave you notes, tickets, information, etc. A fish extender is something that is hung over the fish/seahorse and has pockets for putting stuff in. Typically, they're 8-9 inches wide and 2 to 4 feet long.

Magnets are used for door decorations at DCL's request: stickers have caused too many problems in the past. One magnet we had on our door on our last cruise was actually a little message center given to us by our TA. That was very handy (and fun!)