March 10, 2012 - Eastern on the Magic

[3Goofy's]

Add us to the FE please. It's myself, DH and DS age 10 (almost) at sail time. My parents are booked for the cruise as well, but will see if I can convince them on the good time to be had. Thank you papertraveller for organizing it!

DundasDad and son3disfan - we live a couple of hours north of you. I went to school at MAC. I think it's a heavily Canadian cruise that week!

 

[papertraveller]

Yay! Three makes critical mass as far as I'm concerned!

 

[son3disfan]

Yay! Three makes critical mass as far as I'm concerned!

Yes, us Canadians are taking over the ship.....all three of us!
Be warned!

Yes, I would expect to see a lot of Canadians on this cruise!seeing as our dollar is doing so well right now and this cruise is during our March break .

 

[wdwluvin]

Add us (DH, me and DS12) to the "mass" of Canadians taking over the ship that week! Gotta love our at-par dollar!
We're not far from Dundas or Waterdown - we're in Cambridge.
We booked while onboard the Dream during March Break. Three days is just not enough.
I don't know much about the Fish Extenders but it looks interesting.

 

[TCDrummer94]

While on our March Break Disney Dream vacation we booked this, and I am so stoked!
Can't wait to be chilling in Vibe on the Magic... Even though it's probably not as great as the one on the Dream

 

[papertraveller]

Add us (DH, me and DS12) to the "mass" of Canadians taking over the ship that week! Gotta love our at-par dollar!
We're not far from Dundas or Waterdown - we're in Cambridge.
We booked while onboard the Dream during March Break. Three days is just not enough.
I don't know much about the Fish Extenders but it looks interesting.

Welcome to the group! DH grew up in Cambridge, and we have lots of relatives there!

You are absolutely right - three days isn't enough. You'll absolutely love the 7-day, and with this itinerary, there are those extra sea days so there's plenty of time to enjoy the ship.

I have updated Post #18 with a roll call, just a list of all our cruisers. Take a look and make sure I have your details right. I'll try to keep up to date with it and FE list.

Also, I know it's early, but how about a meet at 3 p.m. on embarkation day? Promenade Lounge? It will be so great to meet you all!

 

[son3disfan]

Welcome to the group! DH grew up in Cambridge, and we have lots of relatives there!

You are absolutely right - three days isn't enough. You'll absolutely love the 7-day, and with this itinerary, there are those extra sea days so there's plenty of time to enjoy the ship.

I have updated Post #18 with a roll call, just a list of all our cruisers. Take a look and make sure I have your details right. I'll try to keep up to date with it and FE list.

Also, I know it's early, but how about a meet at 3 p.m. on embarkation day? Promenade Lounge? It will be so great to meet you all!

Yes a meet sounds great!
Wow, so many from this area!

Ok, so to you past March Break travelers..........
How bad was the airfare in March? And who did you book with?Out of Buffalo?
AND when did you book, if you don't mind sharing ....
I always managed to travel off season and got some great deals . I was a supply for the Halton School Board, but just recently became permanent. So only March break and Christmas for cruising now....... This cruise is the most we have ever paid. I am so worried about airfare.
I just received an email from Direct Air out of the Niagara airport and they had awesome deals .....$79 each way DURING NEXT MARCH BREAK!!!
But they only had morning flights.
So I am hoping it won't be too bad..... maybe on Southwest or Jet blue?

Would love to know so I can prepare myself

 

[3Goofy's]

Yuck! Airfare. I'm not looking forward to booking that part. We've flown March Break for a few years (DH is a teacher too), and we've flown from Toronto, and Detroit. Toronto is just CRAZY expensive! Detroit we managed to get a decent flight at a good time, but the drive was long - felt like we should be halfway there. We will consider Buffalo this year, but Buffalo tends to have a lot of connecting flights and that makes for a long day. So, we'll see. I'll be keeping an eye on new release dates, hoping for the best deal. We'd like to leave Fri late and return on Sunday, if possible. Thanks for sharing your awesome deal. I'll let you know if I come across something good too. Oh, last year, our flight from Detroit was somewhere over $400 including tax, each - we booked sometime before Christmas. Hope to do better this year.

 

[son3disfan]

Yuck! Airfare. I'm not looking forward to booking that part. We've flown March Break for a few years (DH is a teacher too), and we've flown from Toronto, and Detroit. Toronto is just CRAZY expensive! Detroit we managed to get a decent flight at a good time, but the drive was long - felt like we should be halfway there. We will consider Buffalo this year, but Buffalo tends to have a lot of connecting flights and that makes for a long day. So, we'll see. I'll be keeping an eye on new release dates, hoping for the best deal. We'd like to leave Fri late and return on Sunday, if possible. Thanks for sharing your awesome deal. I'll let you know if I come across something good too. Oh, last year, our flight from Detroit was somewhere over $400 including tax, each - we booked sometime before Christmas. Hope to do better this year.

Yikes! $400!
Oh my....
Delta just released dates for March 9th. But you are right....they have a stop over leaving from Buffalo. Detroit has some non-stop to Orlando, but it is soooo early to book.
Wow...That is alot. We paid $300 round trip to California!!!!

Maybe we could all keep each other up to date on deals for flights. I think some good deals can be found when flights first get realased right?
I will be watching!

 

[papertraveller]

Well, we booked our plane tickets. I had wanted to use AirMiles for this vacation, and happened to call them ONLY because we were making some Christmas plans. Luck was on our side, as I learned how they release dates for booking.

They appear 324 days out -- who knows how they figure that out. Plus, if you book one-way, they charge you 60 per cent of the return fare, so it made no sense to book departure without being able to do return.

So this morning was the first day I could book return, for Sunday, March 18. And the best they could offer me for direct options was a flight that got in at midnight! The mid-day departures available for AirMiles booking had already been taken! I was astounded.

Ended up okay, though, as we were planning on coming in a few days before the cruise to spend at the parks. But we still ended up on that late-night flight heading home on Saturday night. We'll be exhausted, but we'll be happy!

 

[reyna]

So excited ! Just booked our first cruise on the Magic ... kids have no clue (lol). Can't wait to see their faces when we arrive at the port.

 

[papertraveller]

Welcome to the DIS and the cruise thread, reyna! You'll find loads of great information here -- not to mention a lot of happy cruisers. How old are your kids?

We surprised DD with a trip to WDW for her birthday last year, and it was so much fun preparing everything. We pulled her out of school telling her she was going for a flu shot, and then when she got home we gave her some early birthday presents: a pair of Mickey earrings, and a Hallowe'en lanyard. I had also prepared a book with the full itinerary, on which the final page said: "What are you doing sitting there? Get in the car! We're going to DisneyWorld!"

The look on her face was priceless. In fact, she so loved the surprise that she suggested we never tell her again that she's going, so she can always be surprised!

 

[carmie3377]

Hey everyone! We're on board for this cruise - well for now anyways! I just changed from the Western leaving on 3/3. DD will have exams at school that week so we'll just wait for Spring Break! But the good news - both her and DS will celebrate birthdays on the cruise. DS will turn 6 on March 12 and DD will turn 13 on March 13. Not to mention that my birthday is March 3 and we're in for one big birthday celebration!

This will be our 3rd cruise. Our first was also an Eastern in Dec 2009 but we visited Tortola instead of St. Marteen so we'll get a new port. We were also on the Panama Canal cruise this past Jan. aboard the Wonder. It was a fabulous cruise and now I'm hoping a 7 night doesn't seem too short, lol!

We are definitely interested in the FE exchange. On the PC cruise, we had 90+ participants, it was CRAZY but so much fun!

We also plan to keep it a surprise. I've tried before and have never been able to so lets see how far I get. And let's hope I don't have to cancel. We're going to be moving in the summer 2012 so I have to make sure we have down payment/moving expenses set aside first. As long as that can happen, we'll be on the cruise. If not, it'll have to wait . But for now, I'm along for the fun!!!

 

[Chernabog381]

Thanks for the review. I have a co-worker who is sailing the Fantasy in Oct 2012. She is hoping that the time they have had with the Dream, then six months with the Fantasy will give them time to work out the bugs. Did the ship feel more crowded?

Which other cruises have you taken? Have you previously done an Eastern?

We did the Wonder March 2010, Dream March 2011 and other lines prior to these. This will be our first Eastern!!! The family pool during the day at sea was really the only time it REALLY felt crowded.

 

[papertraveller]

Welcome carmie3377! Here's hoping that all of the moving arrangements fall nicely into place and you're able to make the cruise!

 

[DundasDad]

Don't want anyone to panic ... but it's only 293 days to our cruise!!!



Quick! Pack your toothbrush and extra skivvies! Don't wait to the last minute!!

 

[Long Gone]

It can't come soon enough! Here's to hoping airline fares drop a little.

 

[papertraveller]

Too funny! We were in Detroit last weekend, and I even popped into Target to get us an over-the-door shoe hanger. Who says cruising isn't on our minds?!!!

 

[AubieGal]

Hello all!

First post on the boards. I will be taking this cruise (my first Disney cruise) with you all! I will be traveling with my DH and DS (2yrs old). My grandmother and mom may be coming as well (they are still trying to make up their minds). I'm really looking forward to it. I have learned tons in just a few days on the board.

Oh, I'd like to participate in the Fish Extender please.

Well, my grandmother is not going to come (at least that is what she says now). So it will be me, DH, DS and my mom.

 

[DundasDad]

Hello all!

First post on the boards. I will be taking this cruise (my first Disney cruise) with you all! I will be traveling with my DH and DS (2yrs old). My grandmother and mom may be coming as well (they are still trying to make up their minds). I'm really looking forward to it. I have learned tons in just a few days on the board.

Oh, I'd like to participate in the Fish Extender please.

Well, my grandmother is not going to come (at least that is what she says now). So it will be me, DH, DS and my mom.

Welcome to the group and DISBoards in general! We're here to help if you have any questions at all. I went on my first ever cruise last March on the Magic and was very well prepared due to the friendly DIS veterans