November 21, 2010 Wonder 3 day - FE Info Post #70

[sabrecmc]

We did Dolphin Encounter last time in Nassau, and will also probably hang out on the ship that day. Parasailing on CC sounds interesting - the kids would probably love that. We didn't do that last time.

We loved the dolphin encounter last time, but I'm also considering just hanging out on the ship. The other option I was looking at was the Blackbeard's Cay Stingray excursion. Looked like it might be neat and give some beach time, but then again, since we'll be at CC the next day, I'm not sure I want to pay to go to a beach. Of course, my daughter may insist she really wants to see the dolphins again, so whatever.

 

[jayally]

Bumping up to see how many more months until our trip!

Finally got all 3 of our planes tickets booked using frequent flyer miles but had to use 37,500 miles for my son since United no longer had the same flight available using a saver award!

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

We have not booked flights yet. We need to do that by mid-May, since we will be using 4 FF tickets! It's always a pain.

I did however book Vero Beach for the 2 days post-cruise!! Happy Thanksgiving to me! We're excited to try out Vero. Preedymtwest, we will see you there! Woohoo!

Has anyone ever done the pillowcases or photo mat signed at Guest Services by the characters on a 3 night? I am wondering if you only get a couple signatures or all of them. When we did a 4 night on the Wonder we got ALLLL the characters on the pillowcases, but that was a couple years ago. Now DH wants pillowcases for US, not just the kids! (Who's the big kid here who wants Mickey and Donald to have signed his pillowcase...? Hmmmm???) If it's only a few though I might go with the photo mat instead. Since I always seem to buy plenty of pictures.

 

[jayally]

We have not booked flights yet. We need to do that by mid-May, since we will be using 4 FF tickets! It's always a pain.

What airline will you be flying?

Has anyone ever done the pillowcases or photo mat signed at Guest Services by the characters on a 3 night? I am wondering if you only get a couple signatures or all of them. When we did a 4 night on the Wonder we got ALLLL the characters on the pillowcases, but that was a couple years ago. Now DH wants pillowcases for US, not just the kids! (Who's the big kid here who wants Mickey and Donald to have signed his pillowcase...? Hmmmm???) If it's only a few though I might go with the photo mat instead. Since I always seem to buy plenty of pictures.

We had a poster signed and I think everyone signed it although some of the signatures looked the same. I think it depends on who is working and how many people left items to be signed.

 

[Partridge4ever]

We're back. Had a great time on the 3 night and still can't believe I get to do it again in November! And the best part is I took advantage of the online booking deal and booked a cabin for my mom. She's actually considering it. I never thought I'd get her on a ship.

We did the Atlantis excursion. This time we're going to stay on the ship. I have lots of food that I want to eat and so little time!

Our fish extender group was awesome. Really looking forward to doing it again.

Pillow cases: we did it on the 5 night and didn't get a lot of signatures. In fact, just the Fab 5 and maybe Daisy. I was a bit disappointed because I'd read about people getting lots more, but my DDs didn't expect it at all, so they were still thrilled.

 

[JanDave]

We're back. Had a great time on the 3 night and still can't believe I get to do it again in November! And the best part is I took advantage of the online booking deal and booked a cabin for my mom. She's actually considering it. I never thought I'd get her on a ship.

We did the Atlantis excursion. This time we're going to stay on the ship. I have lots of food that I want to eat and so little time!

Our fish extender group was awesome. Really looking forward to doing it again.

Pillow cases: we did it on the 5 night and didn't get a lot of signatures. In fact, just the Fab 5 and maybe Daisy. I was a bit disappointed because I'd read about people getting lots more, but my DDs didn't expect it at all, so they were still thrilled.

Glad to hear you had a great cruise. Are you in DCL withdrawal???!!! I will be on the 10/23/10 Magic, then 2 b2b Wonder cruises in November. Can't wait for fall to arrive!

Jan

 

[Partridge4ever]

Glad to hear you had a great cruise. Are you in DCL withdrawal???!!! I will be on the 10/23/10 Magic, then 2 b2b Wonder cruises in November. Can't wait for fall to arrive!

Jan

Having the November cruise to look forward to certainly helped me avoid withdrawals. This will be our 4th Disney cruise. I've yet to do a 7 night. Magic was in dry dock the first time, so we had to settle for 4 nights. Since then we've done 5, then 3, now 3 again. Three was much too short, but certainly better than nothing and almost FREE, so I'm not complaining. I guess I'll have to wait for the Fantasy to do the 7 night.

 

[jayally]

Bumping us up and asking if anyone wants to set up and organize the Fish extender group. I have never done it before so not sure how to begin. My daughter and I are already getting excited and forming ideas about what to do. Traveling will be Michelle (me), Jay (17 yr old Son) and Allyson (13 yr old Daughter)

 

[vbreslin]

Hi everyone!! My family (me, dh, dd, mil, fil) are going to be joining you on the Wonder in November (21-24th) this year. We are very excited. This will be our third DCL cruise. Our first was the 3 day and second was the 7 day (western Carrib). We are also DVC members so used points to book this cruise - 2 cat 9 rooms. We met a great group of people on this board in 2006 for the 7 day and are looking forward to doing that again. Would love to do a meet/greet on the boat.

I have seen the term Fish extenders mentioned in the posts and have never heard it before. What is it?

Chat with you later!
Vicki

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

Bumping us up and asking if anyone wants to set up and organize the Fish extender group. I have never done it before so not sure how to begin. My daughter and I are already getting excited and forming ideas about what to do. Traveling will be Michelle (me), Jay (17 yr old Son) and Allyson (13 yr old Daughter)

Michelle, I'll do it. I've done the FE exchange 3 times now, so I think I can get it rolling. Everyone who is interested, please PM me and I'll start a list. After I get a bunch of responses, I'll make a list and send it to everyone who wants to participate. Then I'll periodically update it as we get closer with room numbers, etc. Those who are interested, go ahead and PM me your names, email address (I'll send the list to your email to keep it private) ages if kids, and boy/girls, and room number if you have it. Thanks!!

Hi everyone!! My family (me, dh, dd, mil, fil) are going to be joining you on the Wonder in November (21-24th) this year. We are very excited. This will be our third DCL cruise. Our first was the 3 day and second was the 7 day (western Carrib). We are also DVC members so used points to book this cruise - 2 cat 9 rooms. We met a great group of people on this board in 2006 for the 7 day and are looking forward to doing that again. Would love to do a meet/greet on the boat.

I have seen the term Fish extenders mentioned in the posts and have never heard it before. What is it?

Chat with you later!
Vicki

Welcome!!

A Fish Extender is a "extension" that goes below the metal fish that DCL uses for your mail outside your stateroom door. People make their own custom fish extenders, some people use a tote bag, or buy one on ebay (I had a Dis-er make one for me on ebay and I love it!). Everyone in the group who decides to participate brings "gifts" that they deliver to the other FE participating staterooms. I will coordinate and give a list, by deck, to each participating family. It depends on how busy the meets thread is as to how big the FE exchange gets. On my 4 night, we had 12 families. On my first 7 night, we had 30 cabins (and 47 kids!), and on the second 7 night, just 18 cabins. So you never know. I made a LOT of stuff for that 30 family FE exchange- so much so I had to ship a box separately! It's really fun to get creative and make things, or shop your local Disney outlet, or dollar store to find things.

As for gifts, it can be simple things such as pirate themed goodies, items from your home state such as: postcards, candies, local sports teams items such as pencils, stickers, etc. You can hand make items too. Some people make cruise themed music cds, door magnets, scrapbook items, small picture frames or keychains. I'll put some of my pictures of my stuff from the last cruise onto photobucket tonight so I can post them here. We had so much fun delivering the gifts! Each family delivers their "goodies" whenever they want- remembering that everyone will be pulling in their FEs on the last night after dinner so you can pack!

Christine

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

Here is a picture of my door on my last cruise. You can see how the FE hangs off to the side below the fish.

Here's a close up of my FE. If you do a search on the boards you'll see a lot of different FEs.

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

Some of the gifts we got on the last cruise:

Hope that helps!

Christine

 

[jayally]

Thanks Christine!

I hope to take some inspiration from your door magents and themed T-shirts this trip. The kids hate to dress all cutesy but if they want to vacation at WDW I only have 2 requests, allow me to take all the pictures of them I want for the ENTIRE trip and act like they enjoy it and wear whatever I say they are going to wear that day. Of course if I pack the suitcases....

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

Thanks Christine!

I hope to take some inspiration from your door magents and themed T-shirts this trip. The kids hate to dress all cutesy but if they want to vacation at WDW I only have 2 requests, allow me to take all the pictures of them I want for the ENTIRE trip and act like they enjoy it and wear whatever I say they are going to wear that day. Of course if I pack the suitcases....

I went just a little insane last year with the t-shirts. I made 34 shirts!!!! NEVER again!! This year I plan a shirt for WDW- a shirt for the cruise- and a shirt for Universal. No idea if Universal families are into the matchy-shirt thing, but it could be fun, no? Mine all actually wore the shirts quite happily. So that's only 12 shirts this time. Much easier when it's not a group of 8! I bet your kids will wear a cruise shirt if they know mine are going to also.

And I am a magnet FREAK! Love 'em!! I have a ton of blanks that you can use to customize. I love having my decorated door.

 

[vbreslin]

Thank you Christine for the warm welcome and info on the fish extenders. I would love to participate. Please add me on the list. (The pictures were a huge help)

Does anyone know the dinner rotation for this 3 day cruise? Is there a formal night - if so, what day? I need to start shopping!! Any pirate or themed nights?

We got wait list for first dining seating - must be a lot of people on this cruise! Has anyone seen copies of the menus? My husband is a vegetarian and would like to see the choices ahead of time if possible.

Thanks for your help.

Goodnite!
Vicki

 

[Partridge4ever]

Does anyone know the dinner rotation for this 3 day cruise? Is there a formal night - if so, what day? I need to start shopping!! Any pirate or themed nights?

We got wait list for first dining seating - must be a lot of people on this cruise! Has anyone seen copies of the menus? My husband is a vegetarian and would like to see the choices ahead of time if possible.

We did this same cruise in April. The second night was pirate night. They had the regular dinner in the dining rooms though, not the special pirate one. Formal night was the 3rd night. Not really formal, more like "dressier than the other nights," in fact I think they actually called it dress-up night. This cruise was definitely more casual than the 4 and 5 night ones I was on before. I lugged dresses for each night for me and my girls and probably will again because it was fun, but you definitely don't have to. I saw lots and lots of cute coordinated pantsets on the girls, khaki slacks and even khaki shorts on the boys. Coats and ties were rare.

 

[sabrecmc]

Made the final payment today! I know, its early, but I had the money and wanted to get it done before the money disappeared, lol. Really looking forward to this. We just returned from the May 5 10-night Med cruise and had an absolute blast. Can't wait to get back on a DCL ship!

 

[jayally]

Made the final payment today! I know, its early, but I had the money and wanted to get it done before the money disappeared, lol. Really looking forward to this. We just returned from the May 5 10-night Med cruise and had an absolute blast. Can't wait to get back on a DCL ship!

Doesn't it feel good to be paid in full? I paid mine off with my tax refund!

 

[sabrecmc]

Doesn't it feel good to be paid in full? I paid mine off with my tax refund!

Just feels more real now, you know? We're going to Disney for the Friday and Saturday beforehand and I bought tickets to the MVMCP on the 19th. Should be a great little mini-break. We can do the parks for a couple days and then relax on the ship. I'm honestly not sure if I'll even get off the ship in Nassau. We did the dolphin encounter last time and loved it, but Nassau itself doesn't really interest me and we'll be at CC with the free, beautiful beach so...meh. Between the kids' club and Mickey pool, my daughter will be thrilled to stay onboard, I'm sure.

 

[JanDave]

Thanks to Silly Little Pixie for taking care of the FE list.

6 months from today!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Most of us will have had our first dinner in one of the 3 dining rooms!!! Can't wait to meet all of you. Anyone interested in a group meet on the day we board? I have attended them and best place to meet, in my opinion, is the Promenade Lounge around 3pm, which gives us about 45 minutes before we get ready for the drill at 4pm.

I keep telling my DH that we have to do more cruising "outside the box". We fall into our routines on the ship, whether it's the Magic or Wonder -- he is in the adult pool most of the day. I'm wandering around, reading/sleeping on deck 4, shopping, going to an event, playing bingo, etc. Then as our cruise ends, we realize we never made it to such and such, or never stopped by such and such.

Anyway, fellow cruisers, 6 months from today can't come fast enough.

Jan