~ºoº November 27, 2010- Western Magic! ºoº~

[ukintheus]

Ok I just post one more thing for tonight and sorry to sound like a newby , but what is a FE ? What is a passporter ?

Thanks,

Shelley

Shelley - welcome to officially being sucked into the DIS boards A FE is a Fish Extender. My (new to the boards also) description of it is something that is hung by your cabin door, and people sign up (Darcy is our official coordinator) to participate in a sorta secret santa. If you go to the search function and type in FE, you will find more info than you probably even wanted to know. If you go back a couple of pages on this thread, you'll see the latest numbers etc. for our particular group posted by Darcy. There's several participating - I think we are up to about 20 cabins.

A passporter is a book - they are published annually for the cruises (and also various versions for WDW). The 2010 edition was just released and so those that were on a pre-order waitlist are patiently (or not ) waiting for theirs to arrive in the mail.

The dolphin excursions have been a big topic around here...I don't know if anyone has decided which one they are going to go with yet. It's the one excursion that I'm still undecided on.

 

[DLW8]

I ordered my Passporter in mid- January and got it the other day. Hopefully yours will be here soon! Even though not a lot has changed from my 2009 version, I am still excited to read it and make notes. This is our first 7 night cruise, so more planning is needed then for the 3 night we did last year.

As for excursions - we are planning to do Key West on our own (trolley tour to get on/off, go to southern most point, Blond Giraffe for key lime pie, etc).

Grand Cayman is where we are planning to do a dolphin excursion as you can also go to Boatswain's Turtle Farm (they are next door).

Cozumel - not sure yet. Some of the excursions that sound fun won't work for us as my kids will be almost 9 and some have an age minimum of 10.

As for the FE, yes, we are up to:
# of Cabins 19

# of Girls 11
# of Boys 14
# of Adults 35
Total # of People 60

I do believe I am going to order an actual FE this time (in hopes we will cruise again and it will have more than 1 use). And, I have a few ideas I am mulling over for gifts.

 

[seba1]

Hi everyone! I can't remember if I posted this or not, but we have another family travelling with us who is interested in participating in the FE, but they aren't on our board. Can I PM their information so that they can participate?

Just changed my hotel reservation for Friday from the Country Inn and Suites to the Radisson. Heard that their pool is awesome. Also found a great discount code for it so the room is $50 less. Now I just need to rent a car for Friday. It is so frustrating that I can find car rentals for $30, but that I need to pay $13 more for a car seat. Usually I would bring my own, but as we all know space in the cabin is at a premium...

I can't believe that we are approaching the 100 day mark!!!! So exciting.

Is the Passporter worth getting?

Stephanie

 

[DLW8]

Hi Stephanie - yes you can add your friends to the FE list, just send me their information and I'll use your DISboard name for them as well. :O)

I love the passporter....it has a lot of great information in it, especially if you aren't real familiar with the ships.

 

[Va-NanaTink]

I'm still waiting for my Passporter too. I ordered it in December or January. My last name starts with W. Maybe they went alphabetical?

Nope, that doesn't work...my last name starts with E....

I guess it will get here when it gets here. No sense stressing...I will have to go online and look at the excursions, I guess.

 

[favoriteslave]

Dolphinaris would be my choice. We did the dolphin swim. But booked outside of Disney and include lunch, if you have a group of more than 3 or 4. We booked a group of 12 and were treated like royalty. www.dolphinaris.com

When we arrived we were taken to a table where we had drinks and snacks. They gave us towels and lockers. We were ushered past the throngs of people in a que and were given our life jackets and then taken to our area to swim with the dolphins. We did belly rides (watch your swimsuit, they go fast) and kisses. We got to float in the pool with the dolphins going all around us to we could touch them. The swim for all of us lasted over an hour. The kids loved it, the adults loved it. The trainers spend time telling about the dolphins. After swimming we were given the opportunity to snorkel in their lagoon.

After snorkeling and swimming with the dolphins we were taken back to the table and proceed to eat until we couldn't eat any more from their full menu (you name it they had it). We were also given Margaritas, Beer, soda, etc. The end of lunch came around and we were asked only to tip our wait staff. Our bill was HUGE, but was included in the price of the swim. Needless to say the wait staff were tipped ALOT. Each person in our party got one picture of their swim and this was also included in the package. When we were done ordering pictures they offered to call us a cab, but we chose to walk back to the port.

Overall, it was a wonderful experience and would do it again in a heartbeat.

 

[smordini]

Hi Stephanie - yes you can add your friends to the FE list, just send me their information and I'll use your DISboard name for them as well. :O)

I love the passporter....it has a lot of great information in it, especially if you aren't real familiar with the ships.

Hi Darcy ,

I would like to add my family to the FE ( see I am using Disney slang ) In my cabin are : Me - Shelley , my son Steven 12 - turning 13 in December and my Mom - Fran.

Thanks,
Shelley

 

[DLW8]

Hi Darcy ,

I would like to add my family to the FE ( see I am using Disney slang ) In my cabin are : Me - Shelley , my son Steven 12 - turning 13 in December and my Mom - Fran.

Thanks,
Shelley

Hi Shelley - welcome to the FE list, once you hit 10 posts you can send me a PM (Private message) and I will need the following information to complete the list. )

Room #
Last Name
Email Address
Celebrating anything?

So our running total for FE participants....

# of Cabins 20

# of Girls 11
# of Boys 15
# of Adults 36
Total # of People 62

 

[iloverags2]

Our group is growing!!!

 

[smordini]

Hi Shelley - welcome to the FE list, once you hit 10 posts you can send me a PM (Private message) and I will need the following information to complete the list. )

Room #
Last Name
Email Address
Celebrating anything?

So our running total for FE participants....

# of Cabins 20

# of Girls 11
# of Boys 15
# of Adults 36
Total # of People 62

Thanks I'll keep posting and hope to hit ten soon.

 

[smordini]

AGREED! I am just fearful of a storm that will affect flying even more....there is a 9 AM on Saturday (we are flying out on Friday afternoon) that gets in at 12 that we could take (if there is room) if our flight is cancelled on Friday. Yeah, like I need the stress of thinking about THAT possibility!!!

We were worried about the flight also. Then my friends convinced us to fly out on Thanksgiving Day. We are looking for to the extra days in Florida and getting out of the Wisconsin winter.

Shelley

 

[smordini]

Ohh - all this Passporter talk is making me want to order one!

Me too!!

 

[smordini]

That logo rocks, nice job! We bought some FE trinkets months ago, but the way things are going we may need to get more. Looks like there will be a nice turnout. Can't wait for that darn passporter to come out too.

Are you getting a passporter too???


Just needed to post one more item to make 10. Thanks Jeff.

Shelley

 

[lisamarch]

Then my friends convinced us to fly out on Thanksgiving Day. We are looking for to the extra days in Florida and getting out of the Wisconsin winter.

We are the same way - fine for a storm to keep us from getting BACK to Illinois in December, but I'm not missing that cruise! We are flying out Tuesday to avoid some T-giving traffic and also to get three days at WDW. I couldn't fathom being so close to WDW without going there!

 

[DLW8]

We are the same way - fine for a storm to keep us from getting BACK to Illinois in December, but I'm not missing that cruise! We are flying out Tuesday to avoid some T-giving traffic and also to get three days at WDW. I couldn't fathom being so close to WDW without going there!

I didn't think I could either, but my budget is already busting with the 7 night cruise and Turkey Day weekend is one of the busiest in WDW and I HATE crowds.

Taking our chances with a Friday afternoon flight. I may be the one running up the gangplank on Saturday before they take off from the dock if there is bad weather!

 

[ukintheus]

I started on my FE gifts today. Being able to do things a little at a time just extends the trip for me. Half the fun is the planning! Of course DH thinks I'm nuts And, if the group grows a huge amount more, I'll have to make some changes. Having never done this before, I hope I'm not going to mess it all up!

I do have to say that as I schlepped groceries in 100 degree heat yesterday, and then cooked/cleaned/did dishes/did laundry this weekend...the thought of someone waiting on me 24/7 on the cruise seemed heavenly!

Closer to the time we will all be praying for good weather for those with travel that could be affected by it. I know the travel is stressful but it will be so worth it!

How's the new Passporter???? Anything majorly different/new for excursions that someone can point me to (when mine arrives of course!)

 

[J&K'sPrincessMommy]

WOW the group has grown!
We are definately swimming with dolphins- were looking at
http://www.dolphindiscovery.com/cozumel/cozumel-location-overview.asp
and going through Disney. We are a group of 6, just us- and reading the post about Dolphinaris got me thinking again...

I think we'll try Key West on our own- I just really want a family picture by Mile 0 And Grand Cayman- if it is nice we'd have a beach day, if not

I have started looking at FE gifts too- I cannot believe we are at 60 already!

 

[J&K'sPrincessMommy]

I forgot to add, we do have our flight arriving around 4:30 on the 26th then heading over to the Radisson at the Port for the night. We were at the Hyatt, then DH let it slip he'd prefer to have all of the traveling done in 1 day. So, he won b/c it was really all he asked for. Now I just need to figure out how we are getting there- I'd prefer a car company and not renting a car. We used ****** last fall, we have used Tiffany before as well- loved them both.

 

[DLW8]

I started on my FE gifts today. Being able to do things a little at a time just extends the trip for me. Half the fun is the planning! Of course DH thinks I'm nuts And, if the group grows a huge amount more, I'll have to make some changes. Having never done this before, I hope I'm not going to mess it all up!

I do have to say that as I schlepped groceries in 100 degree heat yesterday, and then cooked/cleaned/did dishes/did laundry this weekend...the thought of someone waiting on me 24/7 on the cruise seemed heavenly!

Closer to the time we will all be praying for good weather for those with travel that could be affected by it. I know the travel is stressful but it will be so worth it!

How's the new Passporter???? Anything majorly different/new for excursions that someone can point me to (when mine arrives of course!)

There is a lot of new info for the dream (you know how they highlight new info) and I noticed a new dolphin swim at Grand Cayman (same company as on Cozumel) that I think we will be doing. While I kind of knew there wouldn't be a lot of changes in the book for this cruise (mostly for Dream), I still HAD to have the 2010 version.

 

[seba1]

I forgot to add, we do have our flight arriving around 4:30 on the 26th then heading over to the Radisson at the Port for the night.

Dawn - We just changed our reservation from the Country Inn and Suites to the Radisson! We got a great price and heard that the pool is awesome. I know that this sounds crazy, but I also like that there is a McDonald's across the street that looks like it has a playplace. I bet my kids will be up at 6 am so I will need them to burn off some energy before we head over to the port.

Stephanie