October 7, 2012 - California Dreamin' Coastal Cruise

[Mistletoe Ranch Kids]

Disname: Mistletoe Ranch Kids
Traveling: Caroline, and Kambria
Cabin 6571
Dining: Late
FE - Yes
Secret Mickey- Yes

Just joining here. Excited to go cruising with Mickey again.

 

[tropictammy]

disname: tropictammy
traveling: Clint, Tammy, Caleb (6) and Lily Belle (3)
Cabin: unknown
Dining: Late
FE: OFCOURSE YES!!
Secret Mickey: Yes

I also make personalized cruise keepsakes, like FE, Autograph and regular Pillowcases, Towels, ect You can find me on facebook at: Magical Dreams Boutique

 

[RaglanRoad]

Now that I have done online check-in and reserved our Palo Brunch I need to start thinking of FE gifts. I have a few ideas but nothing concrete so I will need to give it some more thought.
As far as the ports are concerned I think we will mostly go on our own since my grandma will be with us. Its nice that in San Fran and San Diego there are things close to the port and its easy to get around.
I am considering doing an excursion possibly in Ensenada rather than stay on the ship. I will have to check out those excursions to make a decision.

I hope everyone has a great 4th of July!

 

[katds10]

We have 1 child still in a booster seat and one child in a car seat. Would we need to use car seats in a taxi? When I talked to the CS rep at PrimeTime she said car seats were not required in the shuttle. Anyone know for certain?

Our dd will be almost 2 when we sail and I looked into this too. In CA, you will need a car seat for a taxi. Shuttles and buses are exempt but taxis, rental cars & car services will require a car seat. A taxi driver in CA isn't supposed to pick up someone w/ a very young child w/o a car seat & they can be ticketed if they do. I'm sure some still might but officially, the car seat is required in taxis here. This is different then some other states so it can be confusing when traveling. We decided to just do the SD trolley tour. I can't believe how much Sea World is marked up through Disney!

 

[katds10]

Hi everyone, I'm on the Sept 16th sailing and someone from your sailing may have already shared this info but in case they hadn't -

I emailed DCL and asked which nights were planned for pirate, semi-formal and formal night on our cruise before I booked Palo & nursery time and got this reply. Thought I'd share with anyone else interested!

"7-Night Pacific Coast Cruise
*Nights 1, 3, 4, 7: cruise casual
*Night 2: "semi-formal night" - semi-formal wear for men: suit/jacket;
for women: dress or pantsuit.
*Night 5: "formal night" - formal wear for men: tuxedo or suit; for
women: gown or dress
*Night 6: pirate night with deck party - cruise casual or bring your
best pirate outfit!
"

 

[debdreamsofdis]

Hi everyone, I'm on the Sept 16th sailing and someone from your sailing may have already shared this info but in case they hadn't -

I emailed DCL and asked which nights were planned for pirate, semi-formal and formal night on our cruise before I booked Palo & nursery time and got this reply. Thought I'd share with anyone else interested!

"7-Night Pacific Coast Cruise
*Nights 1, 3, 4, 7: cruise casual
*Night 2: "semi-formal night" - semi-formal wear for men: suit/jacket;
for women: dress or pantsuit.
*Night 5: "formal night" - formal wear for men: tuxedo or suit; for
women: gown or dress
*Night 6: pirate night with deck party - cruise casual or bring your
best pirate outfit!
"

Thanks katds10! I hadn't seen anything yet, so this should be very helpful. Did you happen to confirm if they will have fireworks on pirate night by any chance?

 

[katds10]

Thanks katds10! I hadn't seen anything yet, so this should be very helpful. Did you happen to confirm if they will have fireworks on pirate night by any chance?

Yes, fireworks are planned but the disclaimer was that it depends if the weather permits it. I'm sure it will be fine!

 

[debdreamsofdis]

Yes, fireworks are planned but the disclaimer was that it depends if the weather permits it. I'm sure it will be fine!

Great! Thanks for the info!

 

[A Litle Pixie Dust]

Hi everyone! Happy Friday!

So that others can start planning - if you can check page 1 for your info and then PM me that it is correct - also if you are participating in the SM and/or FE. I know the deadline isn't until mid-August but this way we can start getting an idea of the numbers.

For some of you - you gave me names and stateroom only - if you wish to partiipate in the FE/Sm - please provide me the rest of the info.

I will put an * by your name once I have heard from you so you know I got your PM.

Thanks! Getting excited!

 

[LJ and the Little As]

Very excited to be going on this cruise, but feeling overwhelmed as a newbie. What do I need to know to enjoy our trip?

 

[col1]

Hi

Just adding our names to the list, we booked this last year when on the transatlantic

Me - col1
Dw
Dd -18
Ds-14
FE - Sec mickey No thank you.

Have requested to join Fb page get to book our excursions and Palo in 8 hours woo hoo

 

[A Little Pixie Dust]

Hi

Just adding our names to the list, we booked this last year when on the transatlantic

Me - col1
Dw
Dd -18
Ds-14
FE - Sec mickey No thank you.

Have requested to join Fb page get to book our excursions and Palo in 8 hours woo hoo

I have added you on FB - welcome!

 

[A Litle Pixie Dust]

Very excited to be going on this cruise, but feeling overwhelmed as a newbie. What do I need to know to enjoy our trip?

It can be overwhelming - especially your first cruise.

I think the most important thing to know is to accept - you can't do it all. Decide what is most important to you and do that - there are activities all day long but make sure you do what you want to do.

Each evening a schedule of the next day's activities will be in your cabin. Bring a couple of highlighters in different colors for each of the family. Take the time to highlight what you want to do the next day and carry that scedule with you. Time always passes so quickly that if you haven't highlighted what's important to you - it's happened before you know it!

That being said - if you want a relaxing and don't really care vacation - just refer to it when you want to do something and enjoy!

If you have kids with you and they want to see the characters - plan ahead and be prepared to wait in line. The characters are only in their locations for a limited amount of time and they will cut off the line when they deem it is full. Most of the characters will repeat at various times - since this is a new themed cruise - I do not know how they are doing the Pixar characters so I can not say they will be repeated. The regular ones do repeat throughout the cruise. They do have special outfits for formal night etc.

Go to the character breakfast - you will be given a special time/date for your character breakfast - about 4-5 of the regular characters (again - it may change due to the theme) come around to your table for pictures.

My own personal tip for your cabin - bring an over the door shoe holder for your bathroom door. You can get them at the dollar stores or Walmart etc. They are not expensive. There is such limited space in the bathrooms that this little handy item helps you have a place for all of your toiletries and items that you don't really have a space for.

If you have questions - ask away! If you haven't already - join us on Facebook too.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/coastalcruise/permalink/454990421187393/#!/groups/coastalcruise/

 

[LJ and the Little As]

Thank you for the great idea about highlighters. I have joined you on Facebook and look forward to meeting everyone.

 

[Mistletoe Ranch Kids]

A big Thank you to "katds10"
Sharing This schedule sure helps with planning. Looking forward to having a great time.

 

[nemofanatic]

we are finally going on our first Disney Cruise, unless you count the red boat cruise we took in 1992. We have been wanting to go on a Disney Cruise for a few years now. We are all so excited.

*Disname: nemofanatic
Travelling: mike, christine, adam (12)
Cabin 1030
Dining: early
FE - need more info (have no idea what this is)
Secret Mickey - maybe
Celebrating: My husband finally getting his social security approved after a 4 year struggle.

 

[anthonysmama]

we are finally going on our first Disney Cruise, unless you count the red boat cruise we took in 1992. We have been wanting to go on a Disney Cruise for a few years now. We are all so excited.

*Disname: nemofanatic
Travelling: mike, christine, adam (12)
Cabin 1030
Dining: early
FE - need more info (have no idea what this is)
Secret Mickey - maybe
Celebrating: My husband finally getting his social security approved after a 4 year struggle.

Welcome & Congrats!! You are gonna LOVE it!! We did our first one last year and loved it so very much!! We are all so excited for this cruise! Our son is 11 and dying to find some kids his age to hang out with on this cruise. He had fun on the last one, but of course everything is more fun when you share it with someone else! Hopefully our son and yours will hit it off as friends early on so they can hang out together and "watch movies and stuff" as our son put it. There is so much to do and see that it will wear you out FAST if you try to do it all! Try to remember to squeeze some relaxing time into all the fun! "Seasoned cruisers" are the best way to get the inside scoop on what to expect (and there are MANY here!!) so feel free to ask any questions you may have and definitely explore the DCL website for all the ship info and lists of fun stuff to do onboard!!

 

[nemofanatic]

It would be great if our kids hung out together. My DS has moderate mr, so he is about 2 years behind in mental age. He loves video games and movies. I am sure they will get along.

so what exactly is fish extenders?

 

[anthonysmama]

It would be great if our kids hung out together. My DS has moderate mr, so he is about 2 years behind in mental age. He loves video games and movies. I am sure they will get along.

so what exactly is fish extenders?

Ours is a video gamer to the core! Also loves to see movies at the theatre...he watched a ton of them at the theatre onboard last year, just because he could lol! He was jazzed that he could actually go to the movies without parental supervision. I'm sure they will get along just fine!

A Fish Extender is a gift exchange onboard Disney cruises for those who choose to participate. There is a metal fish plaque outside the door of each stateroom and that is where you will hang your bag, or custom made FE, if you choose to participate. Basically, a list of all the staterooms participating is compiled and listed here on the message boards. Basic info from each cabin is collected...room #, how many kids, their ages, sometimes the family name if people choose to give that info (for some who like to personalize their gifts) and you can buy small "gifts" (usually small toys, candies, cruise related momentos, hand made items, etc...pretty much anything you want to give). You deliver them by simply placing the items in the bag or pockets of the custom FE's (I'll see if I can figure out how to post a pic of ours from last year for you to see...) that hang outside the stateroom doors. Sometimes you run into the people you are delivering to and sometimes not. You choose when you want to deliver yours and not everyone does them at the same time or on the same night, so you will find yourself coming back to gifts alot! On our cruise last year, we delivered all of our gifts on the first night only because of the way I had them packaged, and also we had no clue really what we were doing since it was our first time lol! It can be annonymous or you can put your name on the items to let people know where they came from. My hubby and I found it to be a really fun thing and our kids loved coming back to our room after being out having fun all day to little surprises! Alot of them were packaged up real cute so they kinda got to unwrap a gift.

Here's a close up of our FE from last year...
http://s1051.photobucket.com/albums...24/mama0f2angels/?action=view&current=013.jpg

Here's a pic of our decorated door and FE from last year...
http://s1051.photobucket.com/albums...ama0f2angels/?action=view&current=Oct1658.jpg

 

[jontybfc]

Hi, can you please add my details...

Disname: jontybfc
Travelling: Jon, Becky
Cabin 7630
Dining: Late
FE - yes
Secret Mickey - no

I think I may need some help with the fish extender! Does it have to be handmade???!!