March 11, 2006 - 7 Day Magic

[unger5]

Unger5: The only real theme night is Pirates In The Caribbean party on Wednesday evening. Lots of the kids dress up and some adults. Our whole family will be planning to dress up. DCL suggests pirate or tropical attire. DCL gives you pirate bandanas at dinner. Then there is a party, show and fireworks (weather permitting) all on deck 9 & 10 from 9:45 - 11:00. Makes kind of a late night for little kids, but we wouldn't miss it. We just hope our character breakfast isn't the next morning. We won't find out until we get our dining rotation on the ship. I made a request, but

The other nights to think about attire are the formal night on Monday and the semi-formal night on Thursday. (Is that right, everyone?) I think I got the dates right.

If you want to extra planning (No one on this board does that, do they???), you can see the Navigators from one of the January cruises elsewhere on this board. I think under FAQ.

By the way, I have a DS5 as well. Maybe they will hook up at the club.

Are we all still meeting at the sail away party? Wearing lime green?

Hope the kids will all have a blast together!

 

[unger5]

Our kiddos are the same age, our bigger one is 7 & our smaller DS is also 5 1/2. He also started hockey this year, although he's been skating for about 3 years. My kiddos love going to the clubs. They tend to go for about 1-2 hours at a time based on the club activities they want to do & our spa/Palo ressies. They weren't thrilled with the club on CC when we sent them there so we could snorkel for a while. Gma & Gpa will be with us this time and I discovered that I don't really like snorkeling, so I guess they will avoid the CC club.

I hope my kids like the club, too. It will be a real treat to have some time to ourselves for a change on a Spring Break trip! Do you think it's important for them to visit on Sat. eve when friendships are being made?

 

[DisneyPinDiva]

Welcome Unger5!!

Beautiful family pics everyone!

Well... here we are. A little better than the snorkeling view.

Otoole... glad to hear you got your early seating.

Those of you pondering the charging privilege question for the kids... just remember that Quarter Masters can get REALLY expensive......

Who else is on late dining and wants to be there? Anyone??

 

[unger5]

We are also at the late seating. I don't know if we will be frequenting the restaurants, though. The kids will probably want to eat earlier and we'll just grab something at the pools. I am very glad to have the early shows, though. Does anyone know if you can rent underwater cameras on the ship?

 

[sk8ingmom]

Otoole - Thanks for the GA update!

We have the late seating (by request). We ate at 8:30 on the last cruise when DSs were only 3&5 with no problem. Their sleep schedules are so messed up on vacation ayway that it didn't really matter. We always had a room service snack while getting ready before the show and they were both fine.

We'll be on hour 8 of our flight exactly 2 weeks from right now!

 

[Choople]

We had asked about the Semi and Formal nights because we didnt want to book Palo's same night and here is the answer I got from out Dreams Unlimited Agent...

"On Eastern cruises semi-formal is day 2 & Western day 3. Formal is day 6 on both."

So I think western semi-formal night is Day 3...

 

[Castaway Stowaway]

Man! dont log on for less than a day and look what you miss! Welcome Unger5. My youngest son is also 5! Theres gonna be a lot of 5 year old little boys runnin around this ship!!My boys never really went to the clubs too much at all. Hoping this time they will stay so me and daddy can hang out in the rainforest room!
Kcarl21 Youre gonna have to let us know when your dad is playing with the band. Well have to come and rock out with you guys, out of support of course.

Sk8tingmom, Mcsteamy was also Mcdreamys best friend b4 he and Addison Hooked up! He told Merideth that Mcdreamy cought him and Addison "in the throws" and turned around and walked away. But he saw him talking to Merideth and decked him. I hope McSteamy sticks around awhile. I could definately get used to seeing him!

 

[DisneyPinDiva]

For all who need for planning.

Formal Night = Monday night. 3/13 It is the Captains Formal Gala. Reception in the atrium prior to dinner with free cocktails. YUM!!

Semi Formal Night will be Thursday 3/16. The formal and semi formal are almost always on the nights of the days "at sea".

Pirate Night will probably be Wednesday 3/15... Costa Maya Day since it is usually Cozumel day. Arrrrgh!

 

[amesmom]

OK. Just finished doing my online check-in. It's pretty simple with one or two minor bugs that DCL still needs to work out.

First, some people have had difficulty entering flight information if you are flying on dates that are 2 or more days before or after the cruise. They keep getting error messages. It ends up not mattering because the flight info. is optional. Just skip it and you can still get to the contract and print out your signature page to bring to the terminal.

The second bug is more problematic. There seems to be no way to remove charging privileges for minors during the online check-in. Although the form says you can uncheck any members of your party, it doesn't really work. I had to grant charging privileges for everyone in my party or the button to move on to the contract remained grayed out. Not too big of a deal. Just means I will have to stop at guest services to have it removed for DS8 and DS5. Can you imagine the Quartermasters charges if DS8 figured out he could charge on his card? Anyway, other than that minor problem the online check-in is pretty easy. I'm sure DCL will work out the bugs.

I'm not sure what this will mean at the terminal. Since very few people probably know about the online check-in at this point, there will probably be plenty of lines with people still doing the regular check-in. Maybe there will be an expedited line for those who have completed online check-in. Could we be so lucky?

BTW, looks like you still need to bring the Bahamas immigration form with you. Nothing about that on the online check-in.

 

[amesmom]

Otoole - Thanks for the GA update!


We'll be on hour 8 of our flight exactly 2 weeks from right now!

How long is your flight? For all of you with looong flights and looonger drives, here's a little pixie dust.

 

[sk8ingmom]

Thanks for the dust!
We leave Anchorage at 2 a.m. and arrive in Orlando at 5 p.m. With the 4 hour time difference it is 11 hours of travel time. This is totally how I justified staying for 2 weeks! By the time we schlep ourselves across the dang continent, we're gonna stay for a while! We are spending 6 nights at CBR post cruise.

The long trip is no problem getting there, it's the long trip home at the end that sucks!

 

[amesmom]

Here's us. Picture is actually from our last Magic cruise in April 2003, so imagine the kids two years older. The other folks are my parents, who unfortunately won't be making this trip. Sorry the photo is so big. It was all I could do to figure out how to post it, let alone resize it.

 

[DisneyPinDiva]

Hey Lori.. I've been meaning to ask you... have you lived in Ames long? Have you ever heard of a sports bar named The Element... used to be called Big Shots??

 

[Mickey&JoshNut]

Okay...since everyone is sharing pictures....here's a picture of my Mom and I.

That's me on the left and Mom on the right

 

[Mickey&JoshNut]

Okay...Leslie told me I had to post a REAL picture of us...what a party pooper....

so here we really are

This was taken on the Disney Magic after having breakfast in Lumiere's in our PJ's....along with 65 other PJ clad Dis'ers on the May REPO cruise...after we had spent the night sleeping in the hall in order to get the special REPO pins.....boy did we have a blast in Lumiere's that morning!!!!!!

 

[amesmom]

Hey Lori.. I've been meaning to ask you... have you lived in Ames long? Have you ever heard of a sports bar named The Element... used to be called Big Shots??

Never heard of it, but there is a "Big Shots Nightclub & Chasers Sportsbar" listed in the phone book on Chamberlain in Campustown. Did you go school at ISU? We've lived in Ames for 9 years. Originally from Iowa, we lived in Florida and Atlanta but moved back here when we were ready to have kids. Guess that's why we haven't heard of Big Shots. We had children right after moving here and still haven't recovered any kind of a social life. Time to get this cruise started and start the

 

[DisneyPinDiva]

Lori... No.. I've never even been to Iowa!! The guy that owns Big Shots/Chasers went to school with my daughter here in FL, then went to ISU. When I saw you were from Ames I knew that was where Scott was and asked my DD the name of the place. I'm not sure if The Element is another club he owns besides Big Shots or if he changed the name. It's supposed to be a nice place, but then again I'm taking the word of an 25 year old... whose definition of "nice place" when it comes to clubs is probably far removed from mine!! I"m sure it's a place where kids from ISU hang out.

 

[MickeyMania]

This is our first cruise - and I have heard so many great things about Shirley - thought it would be a nice surprise for the kids.

I couldn't really figure out what to send dh.. he doesn't drink so beer/wine were out. I am instead thinking of getting him that toiletry kit from DCL. Anyone ever see it? Thoughts?

Two weeks from today I will be getting a massage at the Gaylord Palms - the official start to my vacation!!

 

[Mortlives]

Two weeks from now we should be in Southern Georgia/Northern Florida, depending upon what time we hit the road. Too long to wait, much too long...

 

[kcarl021]

Wow! So many great photos! I just can't wait. I need a HUGE break from work. I definitely had some catching up to do, I hadn't checked out the board for a DAY and it took me a while to catch up. Wed I went to see my dad's band play and we didn't get home until 1am!! Needless to say I went to bed around 8:30 last night and didn't wake up until 7:30 this morning. I am sure my work just LOVES me right now!

I need to check out this on line registration thing!

15 days? Is that right? Man, it's so close and yet so far!!!! (or in better terms, that is still TWO new Grey's Anatomy episodes to go!)