First Time Cruising! February 2014 PTR

[momabaarjo]

YAY YAY YAY on the savings...that frees up money for some fun!

 

[veggiemama]

Oh my goodness, I can't believe it has been a month since I have been on here and updated my PTR!

So where was I?....

Right - we have all the first stuff booked - hotels, flights and cruise and all is now paid in full!
Now is the time I figure to start my day to day plans, so here we go.

I am 10 days away from being able to book dining, excursions so I need to figure out what we are all doing!

Day 1 - Travel Day

After some debate we decided to fly in not one but 2 days early :good vibes My DS and I do not always fly well and we were not able to get a direct flight AND on top of that the flights times were crappy so it either meant leaving at 5:30 am - which means up at 1:00am to get to the airport on time since it is an hour drive for us, or we arrive at 11:30pm. And we figured arriving at 11:30 pm on Sunday with the cruise leaving Monday would mean basically no sleep for us and we didn't want to start our cruise out that way.

SO - The Plan -
We will leave at 4pm on Saturday Feb 1, fly to Toronto and have about 1 ½ layover. Not long but hopefully long enough to have a bite to eat and taking more anti nauseous meds for my ds. (last time we flew he was vomiting and miserable by the time we landed and that was a direct flight!)
Then we will fly from Toronto to Orlando. :good vibes
We will land at 11:30pm, gather our bags and shuttle to our hotel. We also decided that instead of making our way down to Cocoa Beach and drive in the dark late at night we would stay at a hotel at the airport. So glad we are going to do this! I have a feeling it will be quite late by the time we get to our hotel - I'm hoping not too long after midnight but that might be wishful thinking.
We also booked a larger room than we normally do so it has 2 beds and a pull out couch, this way there will be no odd bed sharing arrangements. Again, another one of those 'never again' things from our last trip where we shared beds with the kids and ended up having none of sleep well!

So once we are settled at the hotel it will be time to crash! :asst:

No alarm set for the morning - WE are on Holidays!

 

[Gummer2001]

Hi there!
I saw that you and your family will be on the same cruise as us. We're first time cruisers too and I joined a Facebook book group specifically for our group. The people on there are super amazing!!! There are only about 23 of us on there. There might be about half a dozen newbies and then there are others that have been on more than a dozen Disney cruises. They answer any and all the questions we have.

Also if you know what an FE (Fish Extender) group is they have one already organized. If you don't know what a Fish Extender is just type it in Google images. It's a gift exchange between a small group of people on your cruise. Also try searching FE gift ideas for things people put in these fish extenders. It's all new to me! I was like...what is a fish extender??? Anyway it looks like fun.

I only set up a username this DIS board to tell you about the FB group and I have no idea how this board works. If you reply to my message does it e-mail me or something? Anyway come join us, they're a great group.

The name of our group is "February 3rd 2014 Disney Magic Bahamian Cruise"
https://www.facebook.com/groups/161513267356138/

 

[06loriann63]

We are going on our first cruise in January on the Magic. My husband and I and our 2 daughters are so excited and are looking forward to the cruise.

 

[kdlahue]

We are going on our first cruise in January on the Magic. My husband and I and our 2 daughters are so excited and are looking forward to the cruise.

Are you going to Castaway Cay out of Orlando?

 

[veggiemama]

So once again, life is crazy and I have not been on here at all!!! Sorry everyone.
Unfortunately we have been dealing with major illness in our house. I got sick in the middle of November. Fevers for days, which turned into sinus infection, bronchitis and a double ear infections which led to cysts in both ears and a broken ear drum in my right ear when it finally broke. I have been miserable for the past 5 weeks! Thankfully I started to feel better a week ago, just in time for Christmas. BUT 2 weeks after I go sick my hubby got ill as well. He is not better yet - he's on week 5 now. Though fevers and head cold are gone, his ears are still plugged so he can't hear a thing and it is really getting to him. All I can say about the past 6 weeks is that I am glad they happened now and not just before we left on our holiday. I have informed the kids that they are not allowed to get sick next month!

So back to our cruise:
We are almost under a month till we go! I can hardly believe it!I left off with day 1 plans so here is day 2....

DAY 2 - Cocoa beach
Aaaaahhhh day 2 - we will start off our day by checking out of the airport hotel and getting ourselves to the hotel in Cocoa Beach (this by the way is up for discussion yet - the "how are we getting around???" ) Once we are checked in the plan is to do nothing! We have nothing booked and no plans to book anything, just want to relax on the beach, maybe wander some stores, pretty much do whatever we feel like that day. We will need to find somewhere to eat dinner, not sure if it will be the hotel or a restaurant somewhere else. Really depends on what happens with the transportation thing.
So that's day 2 - easy and relaxing day and me trying to contain my excitement about embarkation day the next day!

In the next week I need to figure out our transportation. When we fly in we should be able to get a shuttle to our hotel, but I"m not positive so I need to call the hotel and talk with them, and also tell them that we will be a late arrival. Then I need to figure out how to get to cocoa beach the next day and to the ship the day after AND then need to figure out from ship to airport on our last day. Yikes! Good thing I have another week off before starting work again.

 

[veggiemama]

Hi there!
I saw that you and your family will be on the same cruise as us. We're first time cruisers too and I joined a Facebook book group specifically for our group. The people on there are super amazing!!! There are only about 23 of us on there. There might be about half a dozen newbies and then there are others that have been on more than a dozen Disney cruises. They answer any and all the questions we have.

Also if you know what an FE (Fish Extender) group is they have one already organized. If you don't know what a Fish Extender is just type it in Google images. It's a gift exchange between a small group of people on your cruise. Also try searching FE gift ideas for things people put in these fish extenders. It's all new to me! I was like...what is a fish extender??? Anyway it looks like fun.

I only set up a username this DIS board to tell you about the FB group and I have no idea how this board works. If you reply to my message does it e-mail me or something? Anyway come join us, they're a great group.

The name of our group is "February 3rd 2014 Disney Magic Bahamian Cruise"
https://www.facebook.com/groups/161513267356138/

Hi Gummer - thanks for the invite. I'm not on Facebook very much since I use it only for work purposes. Thank for the invite though.

We are going on our first cruise in January on the Magic. My husband and I and our 2 daughters are so excited and are looking forward to the cruise.

Hi! So exited for you! You'll have to let me know any extra tips since I will be going on our cruise after you!

Are you going to Castaway Cay out of Orlando?

Hi! Yes we are going to Castaway Cay as well as Nassau. We will leave from Port Canaveral. We are doing a 4 day cruise so we will have one day at sea as well. We are looking forward to Castaway Cay - sure hope it's as fabulous as everyone says!

 

[momabaarjo]

I so like the idea of relaxing...sounds like a great way to spend the day!

 

[veggiemama]

I so like the idea of relaxing...sounds like a great way to spend the day!

Me too! I think that is the thing about this trip that is so different than a WDW trip. There is a lot more downtime - or at least there should be the way we are planning. I really wanted to give us a more relaxed feel for a holiday. Kind of a foreign concept so far in our holiday's But I think it is important to try a 'relax' type trip instead of the go-go-go type!

 

[veggiemama]

Transportation

Ok, here we go. Time to figure out the transportation side of our holiday. Hubby and I have been discussing and debating all morning and I am about to make some phone calls. Here's where we are at and the questions we need answered:
1 - Is there shuttle service to our hotel from the airport on our first night
2 - how do we get to our hotel in Cocoa beach for night 2
3 - how do we get to port on Monday morning
4 - how do we get back to the airport on Friday

So our debate:
rent a car and pay for parking at the port or maybe the hotel in cocoa beach - which would leave us trying to find transportation to and from the hotel to port
or hire a shuttle/taxi and if so what company to work with???

off to see if I can get some answers to all these questions that will not leave us gasping at the costs!

 

[Carol G]

What a busy weekend! Kids go back to school Thursday of this week and I start my teaching year next Monday so the rush is on to get it all done before the crazy school year begins. So glad I have a cruise to look forward to half way through the year.

This weekend we decided to go to North Dakota for some family time. Why ND? well it's only an hour to the border for us and the weekend deals are awesome! We got a nice hotel, swam in the pool, celebrated John I's 14th birthday at red lobster (first time the kids ate lobster) and did a whole bunch of shopping.
Red lobster was a lot of fun. I even managed to get a decent salad out of the deal. Vegan at a seafood place - I was a little concerned! LOL
My Handsome Boys!


Me and Bea


Birthday boy!

Not a surprise that my Bea found lots of great clothes for a great price but the shock was my son! All of a sudden he decided he liked clothes and picked out some awesome new pants, dress shirts and a great fedora. Apparently it was time for a new look. This is the boy who would always tell me - that's fine, it fits - even when the clothes were falling off him! I tried to not constantly tell him how good he looked, didn't want to embarrass him but boy he sure looks snazzy! I think all total we spend about $400 on clothes and fun kitchen stuff for me but it would have been way over $1000 any other time!

So, where are things at with Cruise life?...
Got the hotels booked!
We decided to fly in Sat for our Monday cruise and then my DH came up with a great plan, why drive in the middle of the night to Port Canaveral - let's stay at the airport for a night! Yes! Love it!
So we are going to sleep one night in the hotel at the airport and then they will shuttle us to the hotel in Cocoa beach on Sunday. We will get the daylight to see as we drive and time to spend on the beach. I have to say I LOVE this plan and am really looking forward to the extra day of relax before we set sail. AND to top it off, I was looking at the things offered by the hotel and my son can take surfing lessons! That was one of those things on his bucket list of 'holiday' things to do. Going to leave that as a surprise for him.

So that means - flight are booked, hotel is booked, cruise is booked!
Now I just need to finish paying for the cruise and then I can start booking the excursions and fun stuff like that!

These next couple months are going to go by so fast! So much going on it is going to be hard to keep track of it all.

Oh and I just came up with an AWESOME idea! My mom, who is just as big of a Disney lover as me turns 70 next October. I'm going to take her to WDW! My dad is not not interested in going so it will just be my mom and me! (and Bethany if she can convince me that she should get to go too! ) So I think I will just have to start planning a WDW trip soon too!

You and Bea can pass for sisters. Your son looks like your husband.

 

[veggiemama]

You and Bea can pass for sisters. Your son looks like your husband.

I know! It's a little crazy just how much our kids look like us. Not sure I can pass for her sister But the funny thing was just a few years ago I would still get carded at restaurants

 

[veggiemama]

We are very close to our trip and it can't come soon enough for my liking! We just finished yet another blizzard. We have been in deep freeze -45 temps for weeks and then had a blizzard hit this week so we got buried in another 15cm of snow and on top of that school has been cancelled. So I'm really ready for some warm weather and sunshine

So onto some fun:

Day 3

Embarkation day!

ah - the day I have been waiting for and am so excited I can hardly stand it, even now!

I managed to get us an 11:30am slot.

So we will get up that morning, have breakfast and take the shuttle to the port. I now understand how the shuttle will work but don't need to book it for another week yet.

Once we are at the port I'm not exactly sure what to expect. I know we will do our check in and get a number and then I guess it is wait until it is our turn to board.

Once we are welcomed on and oohed and ah'ed over the atrium we will head up to pool level. I'm sure we will be overwhelmed and trying desperately to take it all in but I am hoping that we will get a chance to check out the pools and do some swimming and ride the aqua dunk I know the kids will ride for sure. I want to say I will as I don't have any fears of enclosed spaces but we will see. Don't think DH will ride as he does not like this kind of thing but then again he often surprises me (and the kids) and ends up riding just to say he did it.

Lunch - at some point we will have to locate where we eat. It's been awhile since I looked at this stuff so I can't remember where the best place is to eat that day but I am confident we will find food at some point! DD is looking forward to unlimited pop and ice cream

After that it will be time hopefully to head to our room and check it out.
Do the mandatory lifeboat drill

And I think Dh and I will stay on our verandah while we leave port. He does not do well in really large crowds so I don't think being up on deck for the entire sail away party will work. I hope I will be able to check out at least some of it and I'm sure Bea will be up there dancing like crazy. DS - who knows? He may be on the deck but I can guarantee that he won't be dancing or partying! lol

No major plans for the evening. Again, because this is our first cruise I don't know exactly what to expect and I'm sure we will do a lot of exploring.

Can't wait - it's only a couple weeks away now!!

 

[veggiemama]

Real life update....

Due to a gas line explosion just south of our town we are without heat in our town and will be for the next number of days. Thankfully we have power so we can use space heaters and our water tank is electric so we have hot water but no heat. It is suppose to get pretty darn cold again, down to -30 celcius so keeping the house warm and the pipes from freezing and bursting is going to take a lot of work and supervision. Our town and surrounding areas have declared a community state of emergency. So thankful for our small town and how we all pull together to share heaters, share homes and look after pets. Many are without water as they have gas water tanks. I'm sure we will have families here to take showers get some hot food and company.

I'll be dealing with all this for the next number of days, praying we get this all sorted out before we leave next Saturday!