Mexican Riviera Cruise 03/27/2011

[penguinaddict]

Some tips from 2007:

From sherekhan in 2007 - “Another fun thing I didn't know about...

The Golden Mickeys have a red carpet greeting before the show. I saw it on the navigator and thought it meant another character greet, but instead it means that you and your family get to walk the red carpet.

It was so sweet because my DD was dressed in her Ariel outfit. When she set foot on the carpet, cast members did a little pretend paparazzi with prop cameras. They were not at all obnoxious, but nicely said things like "Oh! Look, it's Ariel!" "Ariel, please, look over here!" and flashed the cameras. She was definitely used to cameras by that time in the trip, so she walked slowly down by herself smiling shyly and having a good time.

It was a fun surprise. If I had known about it, one of us would have gone down in front of her first and taken a picture of it happening. It's not huge, so I don't want to oversell it, but if you are a princess and 3 yrs old, it's definitely a moment! Older kids get interviewed before they go in and it is "broadcast" inside the theatre as a preshow to the main event.”

From mmouse27 in 2007 - “And, to add to this post....if your kids get to be intereviewed at the end of the red carpet by the the woman in the gold dress (I forget her character name) your kids will be simultaneously shown on the big video screens in the Walt Disney Theatre!!! So parents, one of you should run into the theater and check your kids out on the big screen as they are being interviewed outside the theatre!!!”

Again from mmouse27 in 2007 “Oh, and I thought of another DCL secret when I was responding to a different thread about the Buena Vista Theatre (movie theatre).

Adults....don't sit in the last row of seats as the leg clearance is less than all the other rows!!! We found out the hard way!!!”

 

[penguinaddict]

We just got our passports (our very first passports ever!!) and it's so exciting. I feel totally "worldly" now.

And with the excitement comes the thought that our passports will be stamped each time we stop at a port. I'm getting the impression it doesn't happen as you get on and off the ship. I found this thread (which may be completely outdated so if anyone has current info, please speak up!):

From Amlee in 2007 - “For those of you that have U.S. passports. You can leave them with Guest Services (you get a receipt that you must have to get it back), and they will have it stamped at each country you visit. On the last night, you go and pick it back up.”

We also purchase the passport "card" so we'll be carrying that when we get off the ship in PV and Cabo, so if we can leave our passports with guest services so they can get stamped, yahoo!

 

[cmwade77]

Just that everyone knows, you do not have to have a passport as this is a closed-loop cruise. You must have your original birth certificate (with the raised county seal) or a certified copy and drivers license (you will also need an official copy of your marriage license if you have a different last name on both documents).

Our travel agent tells us that when getting on and off the ship all that they do is scan your key to the world card, since they will have verified your citizenship prior to boarding.

Please note that this only applies to U.S. Citizens on closed loop cruises (which are cruises that return to the same port that they left out of).

Also, it is recommended that you get a passport, mostly in case there is an emergency where you need to be flown back to the U.S., although there are ways to accomodate this without a passport. Also, it prevents you from having to travel with birth certificates, marriage licenses and such.

For anyone that might be reading this thread and looking for documentation on this, please visit:
http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/p...library/travel-documentation-mexican-riviera/

I am just making sure that everyone has this information, because it was hard for us to find out for sure if we needed to pay for rush delivery on DW's passport.....this saves us $60.

Again, a passport is extremely useful and we are going to get her passport, but I don't want people worrying if they don't have it yet. (One less thing to stress about).

Of course the rules can vary by destination, but in this case, all is well....my original point was that I wouldn't think that the Passport would be stamped based on this information.

 

[penguinaddict]

cmwade77, very useful information!!

We received conflicting information so just to be on the safe side, decided to pony up the bucks for the passports now. Plus, hoping for a great on-board discount toward a future cruise and if I don't have the whole "I guess I'll need to get a passport" lurking in my brain somewhere, it'll be way easier to commit.

So, do you know if they will stamp our passports if we leave them at Guest Services, or is it totally at their discretion??

 

[cmwade77]

We had received conflicting information as well, so when we booked, we asked our Travel Agent (believe me, having a Travel Agent makes things much easier, as you have someone who knows all of the ins and outs that you can ask). I also figure that Disney's site is a good source, but the Mexican Riviera information wasn't up there until just a couple of days ago.

As for stamping the passports, I do not know. I just sent a couple of questions to our travel agent a few minutes ago, so we should hear back tomorrow and I will try to ask her then, as I am curious as well.....I have my passport for work and would love to have another stamp besides the Philippines!

 

[cmwade77]

I just had a thought about the FEs, if anyone that is participating in the FE has nut allergies, it would probably be a good idea to let us all know, so that we can make sure that we don't give you anything that might be a problem.

 

[CalDisfans]

Good thought, thank you for pointing that out.

FE'ers:

ANY ALLERGIES? Please let me know, I will put it on our list, thanks!

 

[penguinaddict]

Hi all! I added a tag line on the fish extender exchange page asking about allergies.

https://sites.google.com/site/disneymexicanrivieracruise/dis-board-list

 

[CalDisfans]

Thank you Penguinaddict for adding the tag to the FE list. We have one allergy:
Eden: ALLERGY TO APPLES/APPLE PRODUCTS

 

[grmmybtty]

DH and I are currently in Cabo. We've been here a week now and look forward to another wonderful week before returning home to LA. We are staying in a resort located on Punta Ballena, which is on a promontory located across the bay from the arch. We can see the ships coming in and leaving. It was exciting to see the Wonder pulling in this past Thursday morning since we will be on the 3/27 cruise with you all. The ship pulled out about 7pm that evening and we watch the lights slowly move south while we sat on our balcony. The Wonder probably went to the eastern side of the baja peninsula to spend the night before going back to Cabo early in the morning.

We went to the marina to catch our boat for a whale watching tour and passed hundreds of cruisers on their way to town or excursions. I wanted to give you guys a heads up about the walk into town. Immediately after leaving the debarkation area, you will be met with a gauntlet of vendors attempting to sell you various activities and tours. These are often guys working for commission for the various boat or taxi tour companies. Since there is so much competition, feel free to bargain to lower the price. Once you agree on a price, they will take you to their "partner" who will escort you to the taxi/boat. If you want a taxi or water taxi to town or beach, this is where you get it. Both will cost $10. Many of them have large passenger vans. If you are a family of 8, bargain for the whole van, not just individually. They may try to get you to pay $2.50 per person. To get back to the pier from Medano Beach, just walk through one of the hotels lining the beach. There are usually taxis on the street in front of the hotel. If you want to take a water taxi back to the pier, just walk out towards the water. The guys will automatically come up to you and offer their services. If you do decide to go to Medano Beach and want a rowdy party atmosphere, go to Mango Deck and Billigans. If you have little kids and don't want them exposed to wet t-shirt contests and other similar "fun", ask to be taken to Tabascos. You can use the loungers and shaded area at any bar/restaurant if you order drinks and/or food.

There will also be vendors selling you "genuine Mexican silver" jewelery for $1, brightly painted clay ocarinas which the kids would love, Mexican dolls, a small box of Cuban cigars for $5. You will be passing many restaurant bars with 2 for 1 drinks, many of them with good food and margaritas/beer. If you are shopping for souvenirs and don't want to walk far, there is a shop immediately to the left when you leave the debarkation area. The shops right along the boardwalk are expensive. If you turn left through the arch between the Wyndham Resort buildings, there are many shops and excellent restaurants to be found. Maros Shrimp House is located in that area, along with several other well reviewed restaurants.

If you are a walker you can get to the beach by continuing to walk the boardwalk. Pick up a map from any of the information booths, but be aware that they are also timeshare people. Go pass the Paraiso Mall, take a left turn on the walkway between the Luxury Street department store and the Huichol Art/clothing store. You will pass the Marina Fiesta resort on your right. Make a left turn when you hit the street at the end of the MF resort. You will see the parking entrance for the Paraiso mall to your left and a tall multistory white condo building up the hill on the corner to your right. Walk up that hill. Turn right. Go pass the white building. There will be a street (Paseo Hacienda) immediately on the other side of the white building which takes you down to Medano Beach. There will be a sign that says "beach access." The walk from the ship to the beach is about 30 minutes if you do not stop.

Please feel free to ask questions. Look forward to meeting everyone.

 

[cmwade77]

Thanks for the detailed information, this is great to know!

Also, in checking with our TA, we found out we will not get our passports stamped. (if you really want to, there might be ways to accomodate this, but I don't know).

 

[Glenna74]

Glenna - I'm from Seattle, too! Where do you live? I'm in Woodinville.

Hi Omasgirls, we're in Redmond (practically neighbors!)

We'll try to make it to the 3 pm meet, but our "official" port arrival time is 3-3:30, so I have no idea when we'll actually get onboard.

 

[cmwade77]

Just a heads up, from what I have been told the port arrival times are for planning purposes only and are not being enforced, which would make sense, after all what if you encounter more traffic or less traffic than anticipated, if you were a little late I wouldn't think that they would prevent. You from boarding. That wouldn't seem very fair, now if you were there after the all aboard call, then that would be a different story.

 

[umich90]

Greetings from Snowy Chicago!

My name is Claudia, and my DH (Raj) and our DD (Serena, 8) are excited to be joining you on the Wonder! Time has just flown by since we booked our cruise over a year ago, and I can't believe it is 41 days until we depart for LA. I am playing a bit of catch up, trying to see everything that is going on with our cruise. We would love to attend the Meet-n-Greet, as well as participate in the FE activities.

We will be traveling with another family who would also like to participate in the Meet-n-Greet only: Ajesh, Hina, Zeayen (11) and Kareena (8).

This is our first time on DCL, although we have traveled on other cruise lines and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves each time. After the storm on Feb 1 and the 21 in. of snow that came with it, we can't wait to get out of town!

One question about the FE: Even after reading the directions, I am still a little unclear about how it works (frozen brain syndrome). Are we assigned a certain number of cabins before we leave, so we know how much to bring? Is that what we will find out after the list closes on March 15 but before we depart? I'm sorry for the "newbie" question - just want to make sure we don't blow it as first time FE participants.

Thanks and we'll look forward to seeing you all 6 weeks from today

Claudia and crew

 

[cmwade77]

Welcome to the group, as you may be able to tell by the number of pays we are smaller in numbers than some of the others, but looking at what's still available, we think overall our cruise has fewer people than some of the others.....a better chance for an upgrade at the port (at least we all hope). But it seems like a fun group nonetheless.

As for the FE, we are each being assigned a particular day to fille the FEs, so that there is something each day. I have seen people do something for each person in each cabin and I have seen people do something for each cabin as a whole. I think we are planning on hitting every cabin, especially given the smaller numbers on this cruise, but i have seen it posted on other threads to do what you can afford to, I do not think there have been rules about this set for our cruise. Please note there is a thread somewhere on here that talks about the FEs (I am on my phone right now, so I can't post a link to it, but I am sure someone else can).

Also, be sure to mention any nut/food allergies, we don't want to accidentally make anyone sick with any candies/snacks we might put in there.

 

[Mommy22Cuties]

I cannot leave links, as I have not yet posted 10 times- so I'm going to have Lori post my response for me.

Welcome Claudia and Crew!!!!

 

[penguinaddict]

Hi Claudia and Crew!

I just found this group a week ago, and being a first time Disney cruiser myself I'll give you the information I found-

1) I found a great blog that explained very well...

http://blog.suchthespot.com/2011/01/disney-cruise-how-to-fish-extender/

2) Other with photos of items rec'vd

http://disneycm.blogspot.com/2010/04/fish-extender-gifts.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aznaphrodite/sets/72157617998681196/

As you can see here there are many options for giving

I'm not crafty, but I purchased my fish extender through ebay, those who can and would like to make their own...

http://cgi.ebay.com/2-Pocket-Minnie...ltDomain_0&hash=item4aa8625759#ht_4357wt_1371

As for gifts and amounts, I'm choosing to buy extra and Lori said maybe plan on an extra 2-5 families to join in this time frame.

Can't wait to meet you all!

Sparkling

 

[penguinaddict]

Hi Claudia, welcome to our great group of Wonderful Wonderers!

A quick look at the current list of FE Exchange participants can be found here: https://sites.google.com/site/disneymexicanrivieracruise/dis-board-list

I added your info for both families (please make sure I got the names and ages and DS vs DD designations correct).

We have some families we haven't heard from in a while, but I trust we'll have more confirmations of participation soon.

The "meet-n-greet" is scheduled for the first day of the cruise at 3:00pm.

Give a shout out if you have questions! Lori

PS: If you use Facebook, I have a "group" page created for our group but only a couple of participants. Just another way to get to know each other. If you're interested it's facebook.com/therealpenguinaddict

 

[Mommy22Cuties]

Thank you Lori!!!

 

[our2disneygirls]

We have some families we haven't heard from in a while, but I trust we'll have more confirmations of participation soon.

The "meet-n-greet" is scheduled for the first day of the cruise at 3:00pm.

Lori:

We haven't been on in a while due to some really busy schedules lately. We continue to be in for the FE and will pop in at the meet & greet.

On the FE, we have some concern that we have both enough stuff and the right stuff for folks that are participating. I know we can sort the participants on the web site (great job on whomever did that; I can't remember at the moment), but there doesn't seem to be a way to print it. Also, I saw someone had rolled up the FE results to look something like this:

2 6 yr old girls
5 7 yr old boys, etc.

I can't find it now and it's probably out of date anyhow. In any event, something like that would be really helpful to us so that we are sure we've got the right stuff for everyone. (Wouldn't want a 16 yr old boy to get a Tinkerbell item ...).

If there's anyway of doing that throught the Google site, we'd very much appreciate knowing how to do it.

Dana & Holly