March 25, 2006- Anyone else?

[myboysmom]

I posted this before on the old boards. One other family responded. Are there others out there who are booked or planning to book this cruise?

 

[geffric]

Maybe we will have the whole ship to ourselves.. woo!! hoo!!

 

[geffric]

I guess it really is only us.. wonder what types of special things DCL will do for just two families on the whole boat??

 

[myboysmom]

It really will be fun with only 2 families on the boat!

Actually, I am really excited that I talked my hubby into booking so early. Our cruise if we booked today would be $1,200 more. Guess those early booking savings are real.

 

[geffric]

It really will be fun with only 2 families on the boat!

Maybe they will move us to a suite?

Just think Palo's just us...and all of those wonderful waiters...

Yep early booking really helps plus we had booked on board on our last spring break cruise, so we are saving BIG $$$$....

 

[E&BMom]

My DH, DD, DS, and I are on the March 26th 2005 cruise but am hoping to book the Mar25, 2006 cruise while on board. Hope to be joining you!!!

 

[geffric]

bump... anyone else signed up yet???

 

[westjones]

I booked us for the March 25, 2006 Wonder 4 night....BUT our school hasn't officially announced their spring break yet. All the other schools around us have their schedules and this is their week for spring break, so I think we will be too. It just isn't official yet.

BUT I am booked! I booked early because I knew the prices would go up. We are hoping to go to WDW the Thursday and Friday after the cruise.

Looking at the counters it sounds SO far away! We have a WDW trip coming up this summer, so my counter won't be reset for the cruise until that trip.

Oh! In our family will be DH (45), Me (same as DH), twin DDs (12 or will be at the time of the cruise).

Can't wait! We love the Disney Cruise! This will be our 7th one!
DJ

 

[geffric]

Hi westjones.. glad you have joined us.... But I think that I am on the 7 day Western Magic leaving saturday March 25, 2006.. does the 4 day wonder leave at the same time??

 

[westjones]

Hi westjones.. glad you have joined us.... But I think that I am on the 7 day Western Magic leaving saturday March 25, 2006.. does the 4 day wonder leave at the same time??

OOPS! I wish I was on the 7 night! Sorry! Wrong date. We are FLYING in on the 25th, but our cruise is on the 26th.

Hope you guys have a great cruise!
DJ

 

[myboysmom]

Have fun on the 4 day! Hopefully your school gets its dates out soon. Our district lists them on their website two years out, but we had our TA (who also lives in our small town) double check by calling the district.

Wish you were with us!

 

[geffric]

we are getting really close to the 1 year countdown... anyone joining us???

 

[myboysmom]

geffric, it looks like it is really just going to be two families!

This is going to be hard keeping the secret from our boys for 9 more months!

 

[geffric]

I just checked at Orbitz to see if we were, in fact, the only ones that are on the Magic.. but it looks like there are some cabins left but not many...So I am surprised that we are the only ones on the DIS so far. ( well we got the good rate..according to Orbitz, it cost $2K more than I paid )

.. However, it is getting closer... 1 year from now, we will have our documents, excursions selected , weight lost, clothes bought.. but now we have all of that to look forward to...

I am not great at keeping a secret, so I would have a difficult time not telling the kids.. especially when you start buying them summer clothes at the end of the season with hopes that they will fit for the cruise... Last year, there was a family on our cruise that did not tell the kids until the night before.. Oh I could not have done that. but the kids were thrilled!!!!

 

[myboysmom]

We are going to tell them at Christmas.

It will be fun to have them involved in planning what they want to do as far as excursions and so forth. I know that our cabin is now 2K more as well! So there must be some people on board, guess not here on the DIS.

 

[geffric]

myboysmom what a great Christmas present.. how are you planning on telling them?? That will be fun to plan...

We are a cat 10 SPH.. what about you?

 

[myboysmom]

We are in an 8. I can't believe it myself. I had worked on DH for two years about doing this for our 20th wedding anniversary. I would have been happy to be in an 11. When we had our friend and TA over to talk about this, the prices were so good and with us planning on driving (saving the $1000 in airfare from Madison) DH said lets go with an 8!

As far as telling our boys. I got a great big Mickey from Toy's R Us this past Christmas- one of those spend x dollars, get him for $5 type of thing. I think I will wrap him up with things about the cruise. Maybe the DVD, the booklet and such.

Christmas of 2002 we told them about going to WDW for Spring Break 2003. It gave them something to look forward to and they were able to help plan.

We have main seating, which seems to be the most desired here on the boards but I am having second thoughts. One reason is I don't want to feel rushed or over committed on port days and having to be back at 4:00 to get ready for dinner. I also have been to the Keys and didn't get to see the sunset at Key West (although the sunsets everywhere in the Keys are great) and I really want to do that. I don't want to be eating dinner and not get to see that.

8:30 dinner would really only be 7:30 at home. I am not sure if my boys really want to eat in the dinning rooms (except AP, they won't want to miss the show). I know they could eat anywhere on the ship, or in the clubs. Good thing I have a year to decide.

As I write this, it is snowing! I don't want to wish the year away- but the Travel Channel's Beach Week is making it hard not to!

 

[geffric]

hi... we are late seating. The first 2 cruises we were early seating but the kids were little and I was worried about the staying up late..Last year (Spring Break 2004) we were late seating and really enjoyed it. Weren't rushed, didn't have to end things to get ready. The kids are older and it wasn't an issue with the kids being hungry as they can have 'burger, hot dogs, pizza and ice cream all day long by the pool. Plus they stayed at the lab/stack until closing..so they tended to sleep later. So their schedule was late for everything...


As far as eating in the dining room.. it is fun for the kids, when the kids were little , the servers do magic tricks and really cater to the kids. However, last year, my teen, was having so much fun with the other teens.. that he was not intersted in doing the dinner with the parents.. but we told him that was required. so he did a flyby.. came in, ate and then left for the Stack..and of course #2 had to do what #1 was doing, so he eat and went to the lab or the sports deck.


In the past 3 cruises we have had a table of 4 for just our family, but this cruise, I am going to ask to be seated with others since I know the kids will eat and run..

BTW since you are driving right past our house, wanna pick us up??? We are DIS driving veterans.. We do the CHI/ WDW drive trip once a year.. Thanks for offering but actually , we don't have time to drive, as the kids have to be in school that Friday, so we will fly out Friday night, stay by the airport and then get to the ship in the morning..

 

[myboysmom]

Yes, time is important.

Lucky for us, our kids are still in elementary school and I don't feel too bad for them to miss the Friday before Spring Break. It won't be too long and even one day will be expensive educationally. My boys will be 7 and 12 at the time we sail and I am really thinking that late seating will be the way to go for all of the reasons you state.

 

[geffric]

When I booked late seating last cruise, DH was very noncommital.. but the first night, people have to leave to get ready for dinner during end of the sail away party.. the deck became desserted.. we watched the ship cast off and sail past the coast.. relaxed, enjoyed a drink. Dh said ... i think that late seating is gonna work real well.. and it did..we were just less stressed, didn't have to ruch back to the ship... so many thing emptied out when the early seating folks were getting ready for dinner.. we really enjoyed the peaceful time.. ( of course,i realize that those with verandahs have this all the time which is why they choose a verandah.. but it was wonderful for us.)


LOL... my #2 son will be 12 too for the cruise but he will be 7th grade and #1 will be freshman in high school.. so i can't take them out of school. Mainly the real reason is that I am in sales and I am not supposed to EVER take vacation the last month of a quarter. As it is, if I haven't made my #, management will frown BIG time on my leaving especially since I will be traveling without access to email or voice mail...