October 2nd Mexican Riviera Cruise

[homeboycartel]

Has anyone gotten GTY assignments for their cabin yet? We are in 11BGTY and are anxious to see where we land.

 

[dolphingirl47]

So funny story about the dust storm, which I will only admit to you fellow Dis-boarders (because it makes me looks NUTS) but I was actually DRIVING in it on an errand for the CRUISE! I was on my way home from a Sam's Club about two hours north up in the mountains where I had driven to get Disney Gift cards leftover from Christmas that came with bonus Disney Store money to finish paying off our cruise!! I had no idea the dust storm was coming until I was driving through it.

Mindy couldn't believe I seriously got in my car to drive up to Prescott for Disney gift cards but we had a good laugh. My eight year old son did at one point say, "What is wrong with our windshield? Why is it so dark?" But I think we missed the worst of it because the dust was still manageable and we were able to make it home safely without too much delay.

I saw the video of the dust storm rolling in later on msn.com and that was a crazy sight to see!! But we're safe and sound, and now looking for a carwash.

Boy ,that sounds scary. I have seen some photos and video footage and I definitely would not want to be out and about in this. I am just glad that you are OK and that you managed to get the cards with the bonus to help pay off the cruise.

Just a comment regarding Secret Mickey. This is not a reflection on any one person but an observation from many cruises of participating in SM because it has happened more then once. And I am sure not only to me.

Please don't purchase SM gifts yet. I have participated several times and it is very disappoining to get a gift that does not match your tastes. I don't mean that everything has to be exact but it should go along with your assigned SM.

I know when you see something great - esp. Disney - that you may feel the need to purchase it because you love it, it's a great price and you are sure that your SM will too but you should wait and see what your SM likes.

Without getting into specifics because I never said a word to those SMs (I did thank them) - I just encourage you to see who you get and try to go by thier likes/dislikes.

I recieved some really great gifts too! I love doing SM - to me it is almost more fun buying then giving but I do love coming back to the cabin to a little gift.

I hope I did not offend anyone. I haven't noticed anyone on the boards saying they are purchasing already - just thought I would throw that out there.

I absolutely agree with this. Not only is it a shame if you receive something that you don’t really like, but it can be downright dangerous. People can have all sort of funny allergies. I know somebody with a severe latex allergy to the point that being even close to latex can put her in hospital. For her the cute rubber duck that somebody found in the sale might mean the end of a vacation. I don’t think there is anything as severe on this cruise, but I have a few freaky allergies of my own.

I am in the process of getting the information that people have entered on the Secret Mickey form organized so that I can send it out straight after the closing date. So you will have a full 2 months to get things to spoil your Secret Mickey with.

Things have been manic here. Normally team leaders are no longer able to do overtime and I have not done any in a long time. At the moment the department that recalculates fares is totally swamped and they asked us team leaders to help out on an overtime basis. So I stayed behind for 2.5 hours yesterday and came in 2.5 hours early today. I have also been asked to come in for 5 hours overtime on my day off on Monday with the possibility that this will extend to 7.5 hours. I don’t mind. I have Saturday and Sunday off and really do not need the Monday as well. The money I get for working the overtime will not only pay for my tickets for Mickey’s Halloween Party, but also for a day trip to Sea World San Diego that I am considering. I love the Blue Horizon’s show at Orlando and would love to see the San Diego version with the Pilot Whales. I also would love to check out One Ocean, the new Killer Whale show.

Corinna

 

[dolphingirl47]

Thanks for your concern! That was a crazy dust storm! One of the worst I've seen in the 16 years I've lived here. We live right by the San Tan mountains and watched it roll right over them and over our house. We didn't lose power so that was a blessing. I guess a lot of peope did

We are paid in full!!! No turning back now! I don't think there is anything that could keep me off of that boat!

Everything is a go here also. All paid for. I can not wait. I have even picked out my lounger by the adult pool. October 2 just can't get here soon enough.

Congratulations on being paid in full.

Has anyone gotten GTY assignments for their cabin yet? We are in 11BGTY and are anxious to see where we land.

Room assignments are usually made at around 45 days out.

Corinna

 

[krbrat]

Thais! Its a good feeling.

 

[tinkerbellmom1]

Sheri, I am glad that you managed to book what you wanted. On what day did you book the Palo Dinner? Were tea and brunch at Palo still available?

There don’t seem to be enough hours in the day at the moment. I thought I was doing really well with my preparations, but I suddenly realised how much I still have to do and work is pretty full on at the moment. So I decided to break it down into 3 tasks per day- one admin type task, one creative task and one task that involves booking, ordering or arranging something. For instance today my tasks are posting the t shirt poll, making the Pirate necklace and booking the airport hotel for the night before we fly to the USA. That way everything looks a lot less scary.

Corinna

Hi Corinna,

We booked Palo dinner for Monday night, formal night I think. I just checked the booking window and all the high tea reservations are gone, brunch is still available, but only on day 2, day 3 and day 7.

I know what you mean about not enough time lately. I had just 8 days to move out of my Kindergarten room and into my first grade room and get set up for school to start. My new students came to meet me on Friday and school begins tomorrow! I think all of us are excited to get started!

Just a comment regarding Secret Mickey. This is not a reflection on any one person but an observation from many cruises of participating in SM because it has happened more then once. And I am sure not only to me.

Please don't purchase SM gifts yet. I have participated several times and it is very disappoining to get a gift that does not match your tastes. I don't mean that everything has to be exact but it should go along with your assigned SM.

I know when you see something great - esp. Disney - that you may feel the need to purchase it because you love it, it's a great price and you are sure that your SM will too but you should wait and see what your SM likes.

Without getting into specifics because I never said a word to those SMs (I did thank them) - I just encourage you to see who you get and try to go by thier likes/dislikes.

I recieved some really great gifts too! I love doing SM - to me it is almost more fun buying then giving but I do love coming back to the cabin to a little gift.

I hope I did not offend anyone. I haven't noticed anyone on the boards saying they are purchasing already - just thought I would throw that out there.

I've never done Secret Mickey before so thank you for the advice. I haven't purchased anything yet and will just wait for our assignment and their preferences before I do!

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend! Time is flying by and our cruise is just around the corner! Woo Hoo!

 

[dolphingirl47]

Hi Corinna,

We booked Palo dinner for Monday night, formal night I think. I just checked the booking window and all the high tea reservations are gone, brunch is still available, but only on day 2, day 3 and day 7.

Brunch is only offered on the sea days which means it is still available on every day it is offered. Tea is also only offered on sea days and they also only allow a very limited number for tea. I want to say it is only 20 people.

I have now put together the Scavenger Hunt. I had done bits and pieces at various times, but just needed to put it all together.

Corinna

 

[7evans]

Can't wait for the scavenger hunt! That is such a fun idea!
Finishing up my boys' pillowcases this week, then working on dresses for my girls. It's been fun to pull my sewing machine out of hybernation. Haha!
Waiting on the final count so I can finish up FE gifts too. I finally came up with an idea for the men. They are the hardest to find something for. Although if they are anything like my husband, they are happy with anything!

Next I will start thinking about pirate costumes. My teenage boys aren't so excited about this one... Do the teenagers get dressed up?

87 days and counting.....

 

[dolphingirl47]

Can't wait for the scavenger hunt! That is such a fun idea!
Finishing up my boys' pillowcases this week, then working on dresses for my girls. It's been fun to pull my sewing machine out of hybernation. Haha!
Waiting on the final count so I can finish up FE gifts too. I finally came up with an idea for the men. They are the hardest to find something for. Although if they are anything like my husband, they are happy with anything!

Next I will start thinking about pirate costumes. My teenage boys aren't so excited about this one... Do the teenagers get dressed up?

87 days and counting.....

There is no hard and fast rule of who dresses up and to what extend. Some people do not dress up at all, some just wear the bandana that is given out at dinner, some wear eye patches or Pirate t shirts and some go for the whole Pirate costume. I did not dress up the first two cruises, but have done so ever since. Apart from formal night, Pirate Night presents the best photo opportunities in my book and a costume of some description looks great in the photos.

Corinna

 

[Cookiesmom]

We've ordered our pirate 'stuff" and I had to cheat and order my FE. I could not sew a straight line if I had to. Some people have a crafty gene, but not me. I leave that to professionals!! Final payment is 7/19 and then we get to choose shore excursions. Any advice out there on Mexican shore excursions?

 

[dolphingirl47]

We've ordered our pirate 'stuff" and I had to cheat and order my FE. I could not sew a straight line if I had to. Some people have a crafty gene, but not me. I leave that to professionals!! Final payment is 7/19 and then we get to choose shore excursions. Any advice out there on Mexican shore excursions?

I am with you on that. I ordered a Fish Extender for my first cruise and have since had a couple of special Fish Extenders made.

When we did the Panama Canal Cruise we did the Marietas Islands Snorkel & Kayak Tour in Puerto Vallarta. We had such a wonderful time that we booked it again this time round.

I just noticed that I screwed up all of our Palo bookings. My excuse is that it was extremely early in the morning when I did those and I was not properly awake. I went into my cruise plans to check the precise name of this excursion and realized that only my name showed up against our Palo reservations. I managed to add Graham to the Brunch and dinner reservation, but not to tea as this is fully booked. Hopefully this will not present any problems as the smallest tables are for two anyway and I should therefore be able to just add him to the reservation when we get on the ship.

Corinna

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Hello, everyone, (Hi Corrina!)

We just booked last night. Am currently looking over the port adventures, so we can try and reserve them tonight when DH gets home.

An introduction:

Me - Linda (3 DCL cruises)
DH - Mike (same)
DS - John (lst cruise, ever)

I'll be back later to chat more.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Hello, everyone, (Hi Corrina!)

We just booked last night. Am currently looking over the port adventures, so we can try and reserve them tonight when DH gets home.

An introduction:

Me - Linda (3 DCL cruises)
DH - Mike (same)
DS - John (lst cruise, ever)

I'll be back later to chat more.

Welcome on board. It will be great to see you again. We have a spreadsheet roll call on Google Docs. Could you please PM me the following information?

DIS Name
First name of everybody in your party (this includes any extended family travelling with you even if they are not active on here)
Ages of any children/ teenagers in your party
Where are you from?
Room number/ Guarantee
Main or late dining
Are you participating in the Fish Extender Exchange?
Are you participating in Secret Mickey?
Are you participating in the Scavenger Hunt?
Are you celebrating anything on the cruise?
Are you planning any pre or post cruise stay? If yes from when to when and where are you staying?

Once I have updated the information, I will PM you the link.

Well, I promised that I would report back about ordering the t shirts from Vistaprint. I had both the Mexican Mouseketeer design and the Wonder Animated design made into a t shirt and they shipped today so they did not take offense to the character.

Tomorrow morning I will have the final make up trial for the vow renewal and I am very excited about this.

Corinna

 

[beckinoz]

Hi everyone,

Well our cruise is paid in full, waiting for Disneyland to open with good rates then we are done!

10 weeks to go and I am really counting down....work isn't happy about it but they have to suffer cause I told them 2years ago about this trip and now you can't stop me.

I have a question about some of the onboard activities and if anyone can help that would be great. Even though we have cruised once before I don't think we took advantage of our navigators to the best extent, so here goes, we are thinking of doing the Art of Entertaining, Scrapbooking, towel folding and Theme of the ship tour, is there a cost to these or do we just turn up?

If anyone can help that would be great.
Thanks
Talk soon
Becky

 

[PrincessShmoo]

OK, I've booked everything I wanted.

We got Palo bruch, Historic Towns & Tequila making (Puerto Vallarta), Coastal Highlights & Land's End Coastal Cruise (Cabo). We're good to go.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Hi everyone,

Well our cruise is paid in full, waiting for Disneyland to open with good rates then we are done!

10 weeks to go and I am really counting down....work isn't happy about it but they have to suffer cause I told them 2years ago about this trip and now you can't stop me.

I have a question about some of the onboard activities and if anyone can help that would be great. Even though we have cruised once before I don't think we took advantage of our navigators to the best extent, so here goes, we are thinking of doing the Art of Entertaining, Scrapbooking, towel folding and Theme of the ship tour, is there a cost to these or do we just turn up?

If anyone can help that would be great.
Thanks
Talk soon
Becky

They are all free and you just turn up. There is likely to be an Art of Entertainment on each sea day and they usually take place in Studio Sea around 10 AM. They usually do one more appetizer, one for and entree and one for dessert during the cruise. They are adults only as is the Art of the Theme Ship Tour, which I would definitely recommend.

Towel folding and the scrap booking party is for families. The scrap booking party should come with a bit of a warning. You get two sheets of DCL paper and they have some foam letters and shapes, markers and various things to cut up like old Navigators, brochures, letter paper, etc and then you are just left to your own devices. It is usually a bit of a free for all.

Corinna

 

[dolphingirl47]

OK, I've booked everything I wanted.

We got Palo bruch, Historic Towns & Tequila making (Puerto Vallarta), Coastal Highlights & Land's End Coastal Cruise (Cabo). We're good to go.

I am glad that you got everything you wanted. Now we just have to keep our fingers crossed that the people who can make their reservations on Tuesday are as lucky.

By the way, I got your PM. I will reply to it and update the spreadsheet tomorrow as I am just heading out for a team night out. I am having a rather busy day today.

Corinna

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I am glad that you got everything you wanted. Now we just have to keep our fingers crossed that the people who can make their reservations on Tuesday are as lucky.

By the way, I got your PM. I will reply to it and update the spreadsheet tomorrow as I am just heading out for a team night out. I am having a rather busy day today.

Corinna

How do I access the spreadsheet? Remember, I'm only partly computer-literate.

 

[beckinoz]

Thanks Corrina,

I knew you would know!!
Thanks for the info.
We are working out little family time activities as the girls have said they want to do more in the kids club this time. I would like to have a few activities that the girls and I can do together now and then

Thanks again
Becky

 

[7evans]

Hello, everyone, (Hi Corrina!)

We just booked last night. Am currently looking over the port adventures, so we can try and reserve them tonight when DH gets home.

An introduction:

Me - Linda (3 DCL cruises)
DH - Mike (same)
DS - John (lst cruise, ever)

I'll be back later to chat more.

Welcome!

 

[7evans]

Hi everyone,

Well our cruise is paid in full, waiting for Disneyland to open with good rates then we are done!

10 weeks to go and I am really counting down....work isn't happy about it but they have to suffer cause I told them 2years ago about this trip and now you can't stop me.

I have a question about some of the onboard activities and if anyone can help that would be great. Even though we have cruised once before I don't think we took advantage of our navigators to the best extent, so here goes, we are thinking of doing the Art of Entertaining, Scrapbooking, towel folding and Theme of the ship tour, is there a cost to these or do we just turn up?

If anyone can help that would be great.
Thanks
Talk soon
Becky

Becky, We are hoping to do a lot of the onboard activities too! I am assuming that all of the activities are included in the cost of the cruise.
My girls really want to do the towel folding and scrapbooking, too! They are excited to meet your girls. Sydney is 6 also and is glad that she will have some new friends!

I can't believe it is less than 10 weeks!

Mindy