May 23, 2009 (5/23/09) E. Caribbean w/Tortola

[kcashner]

I can't get out of here soon enough. The temperature is 5 degrees and the wind chill is =15, I hate it! Oh well, makes me do my "Disney Dreaming"

 

[jeanneg]

Forgive me for not posting much lately. The holidays have made me busy, busy. The last of my 4 children arrives this evening so I'm not sure how often I will get to the computer until after Christmas. I'm glad to hear the excursions are up, but probably won't get to look at those either.
Just in case I don't get back, a very merry Christmas....or whatever it is you celebrate this time of year.......to everyone on this thread. Be back soon.

Jeanne

 

[Hygiene99]

Forgive me for not posting much lately. The holidays have made me busy, busy. The last of my 4 children arrives this evening so I'm not sure how often I will get to the computer until after Christmas. I'm glad to hear the excursions are up, but probably won't get to look at those either.
Just in case I don't get back, a very merry Christmas....or whatever it is you celebrate this time of year.......to everyone on this thread. Be back soon.

Jeanne

Thank you Jeanneg ....

Tortola sounds really nice right bout now....

 

[goofygal1975]

I just wanted to pop in and say MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY HOLIDAYS to everyone!

5 months until we are on the MAGIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My grandmother is up from FL for the holidays. I'm still SICK! But feeling better than I was! Dr gave me more meds today! I think once the holidays are past...we'll all be on here alot more! I know I will!

We have lots to do! We all still need to get passports and clothes...but I'll worry about it after the new year!

 

[justmestace]

I won't be around for a while either. I've been busting tail to get our "spare" apartment ready for guests, not to mention cleaning, baking, etc...I'll be soooo happy when they're here!!! Fellow DISers!!

Anyway, they arrive Christmas night and on the 30th we're going to stay at a resort near Tucson and tour down there....Tombstone, Bisbee, etc.
And just R & R. Whew!!


I'm double excited because Sharon just told me she booked our Alaska cruise too!! Along with a couple of other DIS families. We're gonna ROCK that ship!! DISers take over the Norwegian Pearl!!!!!

 

[justmestace]

What line are you doing in Alaska? We loved our trip there - great excursions and very very pricey.

Norwegian Pearl. Yep, lots of the excursions are pretty expensive. But I think we'll be happy with the ones in the $100 or less range.
It sails out of Seattle...so we save on airfare...the price was outstanding....$4200 for 3 people in an aft mini-suite (bigger balcony!) and an oboard credit of $400!

 

[itdjbw]

Norwegian Pearl. Yep, lots of the excursions are pretty expensive. But I think we'll be happy with the ones in the $100 or less range.
It sails out of Seattle...so we save on airfare...the price was outstanding....$4200 for 3 people in an aft mini-suite (bigger balcony!) and an oboard credit of $400!

You will love Alaska - Is this your first trip there? If so we did some amazing excursions if you want some info I might still have - we did book our own excursions and also travelled with a group of friends which made it extra fun, we did a B2B out of Vancouver with Princess and it was amazing. I'm hoping to get back there in a couple of years.

 

[itdjbw]

Wishing everyone a very merry Christmas and New Year.
Enjoy having your friends and family over:

 

[justmestace]

 

[justmestace]

 

[goofygal1975]

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! I'm glad to have made it through the day. DH pulled out all the stops to make sure our family, mom and grandma included, had a great day filled with fun and laughter! My dad would be happy knowing we were able to enjoy the day!

My "box of DCL stuff" for DH and DS were big hits! They each got shirts and DCL pins. DH got a goofy plush i got off ebay, and they both got DCL bottle holders and dh got a CC Lanyard (Thanks Tracy!!!!).

DS and I both had gifts under the tree from "homeland secruity"...LOL DH had bought us passport holders! Now we need to get our passports!

Now that the our Disney trip is over, and the holidays are over, we are all looking forward to our cruise!!! (well, we still have NYE but we stay home that day).

I still need to update the cruise list one of these days and look at the tortola excursions, but I'm having fun playing around with my new iPod touch!

 

[justmestace]

You will love Alaska - Is this your first trip there? If so we did some amazing excursions if you want some info I might still have - we did book our own excursions and also travelled with a group of friends which made it extra fun, we did a B2B out of Vancouver with Princess and it was amazing. I'm hoping to get back there in a couple of years.

Yes, our first time. We had been waiting and waiting for Disney to decide to go there, thinking it would be 2010....but no go. So now we don't want to wait any longer, since our last kid at home will be almost 17 by then.
I've been looking at excursions already (nothing like an obsessed planner) but we might need to check with our group to see what everyone else wants to do.

So far, we have 7 cabins booked. If we get one more family to book, we'll be an official group. Not sure what perks there are for that.....

 

[justmestace]

Christmas was quiet. Just four out of the five of us here. But it was a really nice day.
Our company arrived late Christmas night, from Delaware, thinking they were coming to sunny Arizona. HA! It was pouring rain, our creek flooded yesterday so they had to do their first day of touring without us, then it SNOWED yesterday afternoon.... ....and it's COLD COLD COLD!!!

But today is sunny and we're heading out to find something to do. Not sure what, I guess I'm not a very good tour guide.

 

[goofygal1975]

How/where do you view the excursions for Tortola...and other ports of call?

Never mind...I found it! We're thinking of doing the Dolphin Encounter!! Is there any other stops on our way that you can do this? I'm wondering if we should try to take a tour or something here...and try the dolphin encounter somewhere else.

When can we book the excursions? On our previous cruise DS and I didn't do any so I have NO idea how to go about booking one.

 

[kcashner]

Since you have cruised before, you can book excursions 90 days before embarkation at 12:01 am on line. If it were your first cruise, it would be 75 days.

You do realize that a "Dolphin Encounter" is not swimming with the dolphins? It is basically getting into waist deep water and having them swim around you and play with you. It is great for kids. Most of the islands have something like this available.

Our favorite "dolphin thing" was at Discovery Cove in Orlando. It is a sister park to Sea World, but vastly different. In my opinion, it is the only thing we've ever done where the customer service aspect was basically equal to Disney. Well worth a day in Orlando if you ever have time....and save your island time for other things. Discovery Cove requires advance reservations and they only take a certain number of people each day.

 

[goofygal1975]

Since you have cruised before, you can book excursions 90 days before embarkation at 12:01 am on line. If it were your first cruise, it would be 75 days.

You do realize that a "Dolphin Encounter" is not swimming with the dolphins? It is basically getting into waist deep water and having them swim around you and play with you. It is great for kids. Most of the islands have something like this available.

Our favorite "dolphin thing" was at Discovery Cove in Orlando. It is a sister park to Sea World, but vastly different. In my opinion, it is the only thing we've ever done where the customer service aspect was basically equal to Disney. Well worth a day in Orlando if you ever have time....and save your island time for other things. Discovery Cove requires advance reservations and they only take a certain number of people each day.

Thanks! I can't wait to be able to book the excursions!!

Yeah, I know that the encounter is not swimming. I'm not sure my ds would handle the swimming with the dolphins well (he has panic attacks at times). So we are going to just do the encounter.

I LOVE Discovery cove! My friend took me there for my birthday the first year they were open(it was a bday present from my parents). It was AWESOME!! I'd love to try it again sometime, but it won't happen during our time in Orlando for the cruise. So we are going to try the Encounter since DS seems excited about it!

I'm still looking for things to do on St. Thomas. I know we have time still, I just decided to start looking and see what looks like fun!

 

[itdjbw]

Well Christmas weekend has come and gone - we had a really quiet one as usual

I haven't started looking at excursions yet - hopefully will think about it while I am playing online this weekend.

I have wanted to go to discovery cove for a while - I think the kids would love it but between all the cruising we never seem to get there - maybe I need to quit booking so many cruises but I am so addicted

Have a good last week on 2008

 

[justmestace]

Getting ready to leave town, not sure if we'll have internet service at our resort or not....soooo....everyone stay safe, and have a Happy New Year!

 

[itdjbw]

Getting ready to leave town, not sure if we'll have internet service at our resort or not....soooo....everyone stay safe, and have a Happy New Year!


[/IMG]

Have a good safe trip and a happy New Year too

 

[JMTStone]

We're booked on this cruise as well. (Me 39, DH 49, DD16 and DD7) Our 8th trip to the World but our first Disney Cruise. DH and I are renewing our vows on deck We have already made arrangements through Disney Weddings....

I see some experience. I'm a DVC member. What nights are formal? With my dinner at Palo on Thursday (renewal is Thursday), will I miss the Pirate party? I'm I being a total newbie dweeb?

Thanks in advance.