MAGICal Christmas 2008 - December 20, 2008

[PalatkaCruisers]

Hi all,

We have just booked and paid for our Christmas cruise!! We are looking forward to joining you all on this cruise. My name is Laura (45), DH Rick (49) and DD (9). I too will be celebrating my birthday on this cruise a little early as I share my bday (12/29) with Madison and Deanna. I see I have a lot of pages to read and get caught up on everyone.

Laura

 

[Lizdisdog]

Soooo, not to sound like a grump, but it seems like the thing that is special about this "special" itinerary is...what? We only get half a day when all the other itineraries get a whole day at Grand Cayman? I imagine they did the best they could with the change, but it does seem a little unfortunate.

Thanks to everyone who has posted information. It's really coming up quickly now!

"Special" about this cruise is the fact that we visit Castaway Cay TWICE - the most MAGICAL place on earth.

 

[nzdisneymom]

Hi all,

We have just booked and paid for our Christmas cruise!! We are looking forward to joining you all on this cruise. My name is Laura (45), DH Rick (49) and DD (9). I too will be celebrating my birthday on this cruise a little early as I share my bday (12/29) with Madison and Deanna. I see I have a lot of pages to read and get caught up on everyone.

Laura

Laura and family - welcome to the group! Have you sailed with DCL before?

 

[Lizdisdog]

Thanks for the responses. How does the baggage work if you take the DCL transfer from the airport? Do we need to load it on the bus and unload it at the port? Does the DCL bus do that for us (kind of like Magical Express)? We were planning on staying at a hotel near the airport.

Much less hassle than that. When you check in at the airport for your DCL transfer, your luggage will be taken from you and loaded onto a truck. The next time you see it will be outside your stateroom door later that afternoon. So easy and civilised.

 

[gardengirlco]

"Special" about this cruise is the fact that we visit Castaway Cay TWICE - the most MAGICAL place on earth.

ITA! I am disappointed that we aren't going to Costa Maya and that we won't have that much time at Grand Cayman, but as long as we get our two stops at Castaway Cay, all is good! We could just go to CC twice and be at sea the rest of the time and I'd be happy.

 

[DisneyCamper]

Much less hassle than that. When you check in at the airport for your DCL transfer, your luggage will be taken from you and loaded onto a truck. The next time you see it will be outside your stateroom door later that afternoon. So easy and civilised.

Got to like that.....

 

[BearFan]

Jeez, it seems like I haven't visited here in weeks!

First, and most importantly, Cindy, I'm so sorry about your loss. Please know that we are sending strength and good thoughts your way.

Secondly:

new cruisers!!!!!!!

DH Paul and I will be sailing with you. I'm organizing an ornament exchange. So far I have nine cruisers who have said they want in. They are:

BearFan – Lisa Marie
Alikat99 – Amy
Minnie 1 – Angie
DisneyZell – Deanna
Sailing Shamu - ?
nzdisneymom – Cindy D.
ShannonR – Shannon
Diana Lyn – Diana Lyn
AZ Pirates - Sheila

If you're interested just yell or PM me. I'm also putting together a photo scavenger hunt for our first day at sea. The planning is going well but if anyone has an idea they'd like to share, please do by PMing me. We're participating in the fish extender exchange but I don't think we have a count going for that yet, do we? Someone brilliantly mentioned giving out cards with their names and cabin number on it at the meet and greet, which is yet officially unscheduled. What a wonderful idea. We have to have some way of tracking cabin numbers and that sounds great to me although I'll probably go with a little piece of paper with our info on it rather than an official card. Glad to be back on the boards. I'll keep better track and try to let these darn kids get in the way.

Lisa Marie
aka BearFan

Overworked and underpaid children's librarian

 

[nzdisneymom]

I gotta love how we're staying on the front page of the Meet forum now!

We're definitely doing Fish Extender exchanges. And for those who don't have a fish extender but want to participate, know that it doesn't have to ba anything fancy. Some people are using stockings, but you could use a tote-bag or something like that just as well. The big thing is to have something to hang on your fish so we can deliver your goodies!

 

[Az Pirates]

Welcome Laura and family!

Thanks for posting the excursions Paul. Makes it seem so much more real.

Number me among the CC fans!
Granted, I'm not thrilled with our Grand Cayman day being so short, especially since it's a tender port. But I can roll with that change. We'll probably just cave and book a DCL excursion instead of venturing out on our own.

 

[nzdisneymom]

Golly, I hate this lull period just waiting for it to be 90 days so I can do stuff online.

We're going to be at WDW when we hit 90-days -- Zachary is celebrating his 11th birthday at Typhoon Lagoon. We'll also use that time to pick out something for the ornament exchange and maybe some stuff for the fish extenders.

I think we're going to bow-out of the Secret Santa... as much as it sounds like fun, I don't want to end up over-loading us with what we're doing.


If no one else has already volunteered to host the Meet on embarkation day, I'll do it. If I missed reading it, oops... blame it on my lack of memory retention.


Can we add Cabin numbers to the list of members on the first page of the thread?
We're in 6116.

 

[gardengirlco]

I'm also anxiously awaiting the 90 day mark to be able to book excursions, Palo, etc. Those 9 days between finally getting under the 100 day mark and getting to the 90 day point sure are passing slowly.

Does anyone else have a 10yo and is eager to find out whether DCL switches Ocean Quest back to being for 10-14 vs. the new club for 11-13 with the Stack for 14-17 instead of 13-17? If they don't change it back, my DS is going to be so disappointed as he has been so looking forward to OQ.

 

[DisneyCamper]

If we were to take the bus - what time should we be down at the counter at the airport? Like everyone else, can't wait for the 90 day mark to get here...the meet sounds like it would be fun as well....

 

[nzdisneymom]

Does anyone else have a 10yo and is eager to find out whether DCL switches Ocean Quest back to being for 10-14 vs. the new club for 11-13 with the Stack for 14-17 instead of 13-17? If they don't change it back, my DS is going to be so disappointed as he has been so looking forward to OQ.

Both of my boys will be old enough for OQ regardless of the age range. When we last sailed on the Magic, only Nathan was old enough - and Zachary was disappointed. Our last sailing was on the Wonder and the boys missed having OQ as an option over the Lab.

How close to 11 will your DS be?

 

[Az Pirates]

I haven't been paying much attention to changes in the kid/tween/teen areas. So it sounds like they're experimenting with Ocean Quest being the only place for the 11-13 yr olds? Hmm... interesting.

DS was 11 last cruise and he split most of his free time between the sports deck and Ocean Quest. He really liked OQ, but the big draws for him were that it was a low key, just hang out atmosphere and it was generally pretty uncrowded. I think a lot of the kids, or their parents, preferred the more structured, guided activities in the lab for the 10-12's. I really don't see all 11-13 yr olds doing well with the unstructured set up of OQ. Of course maybe that's changed now.

DS is not 13 yet, but will be by cruise time, so I guess I'll have to keep an eye on the age group changes as well.

Thanks so much for keeping the first post updated with cruisers, celebrations, and anniversaries Amy.

Would it be too much to add a list of planned activities and contact people as well? Or maybe we could even drop that info down to the next post?
Looks like that's Diana.

I know that's been done on meet threads I've been involved with before and it worked out really well. Otherwise info can get buried in the thread before everyone has a chance to see it. The contact person can even provide a link to one of their posts and then just keep that updated so all Amy or Diana have to do is add the link to the front page once, they don't have to keep reposting changes or updates.

Just a thought since we're getting closer to the cruise. I know I'd like to start planning how many FE gifts I'll need, etc.

Of course I'm not sure what's just been talked about, and what we've actually decided on and have contact people for.
I guess we need to get that clarified first.

I know Lisa Marie is the ornament x-change and digital scavenger hunt contact.
Looks like Cindy has volunteered for embarkation day meet.
I thought I remembered hinsok1 (that's Kim, right?) volunteering for something, I'm just not seeing it on a quick skim through the last couple of pages, and I can't remember what it was. Sorry
If no one else is doing the fish extender I'd be glad to collect information for that, but I don't want to step on toes if someone else has already volunteered.
I know a secret Santa was mentioned, I'm not sure if anyone is heading that up though.
Shannon could add info on the business card thing she suggested.
etc. etc

 

[gardengirlco]

Both of my boys will be old enough for OQ regardless of the age range. When we last sailed on the Magic, only Nathan was old enough - and Zachary was disappointed. Our last sailing was on the Wonder and the boys missed having OQ as an option over the Lab.

How close to 11 will your DS be?

Not close enough, unfortunately, only about halfway to 11, not that I'm trying to rush toward the teen years, believe me! If they do make it a permanent change, we'll just deal with it. He'll still be able to go in during the open house if nothing else.

I haven't read through all the pages to see if anyone's done this, but has anyone posted over on the Halloween DD meets thread to ask if someone will post the Navigators when they return. I know the Sept. 27 Western is the first DD, but their itinerary is different than ours. I'm anxious to see the Navigators. If no one has, I'll go over and do it. I'll probably go ask on the Sept. 27 one as well, even though they have different GC/Cozumel days and port times.

Does anyone else wonder whether DCL will reschedule Pirate Night from the usual Wednesday as it's Christmas Eve. I can't imagine doing Pirate Night then. What about formal night? Think they might change that too for Christmas? I know it's pure speculation, but it's kind of fun to guess.

 

[tinkerbell_29]

I really hope the change those two. We were kind of planning on formal night as being on Christmas. If they do pirate night of Christmas eve we will not participate as that just seems a little weird. I don't think were going to do ther secret santa thing. I bought way to much for fish extender gifts and little gifts for the initial meet and greet so I just can't spend any more money. Need to be saving money to book 2010 cruise just did a price check of flights Charlotte to London is a little scary. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

If anybody has started a list of stateroom numbers yet we are in room 8586.

Lissa

 

[nzdisneymom]

Are any of you thinking about bringing a little holiday gift for your stateroom host and/or servers for Christmas day? I know not everyone celebrates Christmas, but I'm sure no one would be offended with a gift. I was just thinking that these folks are hard at work and away from their families without the option to go home to be with them for the holidays while we're all with our families and not having to work and enjoying the holidays with our families.

So I was thinking that I'd like to bring something for them to give to them on Thursday. But now I need ideas!

And yes, I'll host the embarkation day meet. Unless there are objections, let's set it to start at 3 p.m. in the Promenade Lounge on the side away from the computers/internet cafe area (so if you're coming from Parrot Cay (aft), you'll go the length of the lounge to find us, and if you're coming from the Atrium (midship), you'll get to us first when you enter the Promenade Lounge area). For first-time-cruisers, you can find the Promenade Lounge on Deck 3, between midship and aft. It's set up so that it's not a separate room - it's like you're walking through that area and you see there is a bar area - that's where we'll be. There are loads of chairs and tables; we'll just gather over there and plan to be there til nearly time for the safety drill. Feel free to "come and go" as you and your family need to.

 

[tinkerbell_29]

We plan on bringing little gifts for our stateroom host and servers. I'm not sure what yet though as we too are also a little at lost as what to give them. I know not everyone celebrates Christmas but most everyone celebrates something during that time of year and I'm sure it must be hard to be away from their families especially during any Holiday.

Has anyone thought of having a group picture taking. This is soemthing we could do at the initial meet. Or we could do it on pirate night. Even if we didn't have a photo person do it I've got a professional camera if we could get someone to take it for us I could download it to photobucket when we got home and everybody could get a print form there. If anyone is intrested let me know.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

Lissa

 

[Lizdisdog]

Details Below

Stingray City - 12:00 - 3:30pm

Dolphin Discovery - 7:45am - 12:55, 8:45am- 1:55 an 9:45 and 10:45 starts too.

Dolphin Swim at Dolphinaris - 10:15am - 2:15pm & 12:00pm - 4pm


Paul

Hi Paul, sunny Scotland calling, haha. Looking forward to spending Christmas in the sunshine anyway!!
Could you possibly let me know what the times are for the Jeep Exploration excursion on Cozumel, please. We are meeting friends on board from Ohio and want to try and book this together.
Many thanks
Judy

 

[nzdisneymom]

I was cleaning off my dresser today and came across a Mickey Santa necklace - so yay - I'm going to pack it for the cruise! I'm not a jewelry person usually but this was an Avon that I got a few years ago.

Can't wait to get packin'.....