01/02/10- Mickey's New Decade Brigade!

[iluvdisney]

I'll be on this cruise and I'm just hoping for nice weather and a relaxing cruise - it will be nice to be on the Magic again!

 

[WDW Princess 71]

I'll be on this cruise and I'm just hoping for nice weather and a relaxing cruise - it will be nice to be on the Magic again!

Hello and welcome! I see that you are excited to "be on the Magic again"- how many DCL cruises have you done? We have a good group of mixed newbies and repeat cruisers here!

Are you interested in joining the FE exchange? If so, please review post #91 and PM me your info. The deadline to sign up is this Sunday 11/22 so we all have time to get our gifts together. Any questions, just let me know!

 

[tiffanye77]

Hello again. Sorry for my extended absence. We were busy getting through our daughters first months of College and Halloween when tragedy struck and my mother passed away unexpectedly. It has been a devastating blow to my family. She was a wonderful person and will be missed more than imaginable.

I am now back to counting the days until our cruise. I really need the time to regroup and am looking forward to time with my children so I can love them up - which may not go over well with an 18 year old and a 15 year old - but they are just going to have to put up with it.

Ruth

Ruth

I am so sorry to hear about your mother. I just lost my father two weeks ago tomorrow and I know the pain, joy of life, and grieve that you are going thru. It has been a long few months for us as well. I am too now looking forward to the cruise. It can't come soon enough.

Just know that I am thinking about you and your family. You are added to my nightly prayers.

 

[secretkeeper]

Hello again. Sorry for my extended absence. We were busy getting through our daughters first months of College and Halloween when tragedy struck and my mother passed away unexpectedly. It has been a devastating blow to my family. She was a wonderful person and will be missed more than imaginable.

I am now back to counting the days until our cruise. I really need the time to regroup and am looking forward to time with my children so I can love them up - which may not go over well with an 18 year old and a 15 year old - but they are just going to have to put up with it.

Ruth

Ruth I'm so sorry for your loss. You and your family will be in my prayers! You deserve a Disney Cruise!

Dana

 

[WDW Princess 71]

Hello everyone! Yesterday was our deadline to sign up for the Fish Extender Exchange, and I am happy to announce that we have 15 staterooms signed up! I bet we are all eager to start making/buying/creating our FE gifts to give out (I know I am)! Well, the time is finally here- by setting the deadline as yesterday it gives us a good amount of time to plan and get everything together.

At some point tonight I am going to send out PM's to everyone who signed up. I will send them in groups since you can only send PM's to 5 people at a time. When you get the message, please open it right away and do the following:

1. Make sure you can open the link to the Google spreadsheet that I uploaded the information to.
2. Check your personal information on the sheet to make sure that your information is correct and up to date.
3. Check to see if you are okay with the day I have assigned your family to distribute your FE gifts. As I said awhile ago, the reason for having assigned days to distribute gifts is to ensure that gifts are evenly distributed throughout the cruise, so we can all look forward to getting something each day. Without assignments, you risk getting a lot of gifts at once maybe at the beginning of the cruise and then not getting anything at all by the end, which isnt fun to look forward to. I didnt assign anyone to the first day of the cruise (Saturday) because that is such a hectic day with boarding, the lifeboat drill, and waiting for luggage so I thought it would be best to avoid that day.

Please be sure to reply with a PM to me immediately if you can't open the spreadsheet, or your information is incorrect, or you want to be switched to a different assignment day. It is totally flexible, this is just the first draft of the spreadsheet, so if people want to switch days, its totally fine just as long as you tell me. Some people are GTY staterooms or may switch staterooms between now and the cruise too, so that is another reason why I call this the "Temp" FE list, and I'll resend the most up to date, final version around Christmas so everyone has the most accurate copy.

Lastly, most people said they would just do their own gifts, but two of you said you would be open to possibly joining up and making gifts with another DISer, and that is noted on the spreadsheet so that if you guys want to join up, you have that option, or you can just do your own gifts.

If anyone has any questions, please let me know. I'll be sending the PM's out by the end of tonight. So excited!!!!

 

[tiffanye77]

If anyone has any questions, please let me know. I'll be sending the PM's out by the end of tonight. So excited!!!!

I am so excited as well! Thank you so much for organizing all of this and putting it together for us.

 

[WDW Princess 71]

Update on the FE list: I didn’t realize that I needed to grant permission for you guys to view the document, I thought once you clicked on the link it would open for you. However, I now know that you need to have permission—apparently when you log in to your google account, it will ask you to send a notification to me requesting access. Once I get that email, I can add your email address to the ‘permission’ list and then you will be able to go back in and view the document. Sorry for the confusion—i wish there was a way to just unlock the document and have it viewable to anyone with the link, but I haven’t found a way to do that. If anyone has any problems, please let me know—Tiffanye and Marybeth, I just added you guys so you should be able to view it now.

 

[Sorcerer Mom]

Hello again. Sorry for my extended absence. We were busy getting through our daughters first months of College and Halloween when tragedy struck and my mother passed away unexpectedly. It has been a devastating blow to my family. She was a wonderful person and will be missed more than imaginable.

I am now back to counting the days until our cruise. I really need the time to regroup and am looking forward to time with my children so I can love them up - which may not go over well with an 18 year old and a 15 year old - but they are just going to have to put up with it.

Ruth

Ruth - I'm so sorry for your loss and our prayers will be with you and your family. I Have a feeling you're kiddos won't mind that extra lovin at all....

 

[Sorcerer Mom]

Ruth

I am so sorry to hear about your mother. I just lost my father two weeks ago tomorrow and I know the pain, joy of life, and grieve that you are going thru. It has been a long few months for us as well. I am too now looking forward to the cruise. It can't come soon enough.

Just know that I am thinking about you and your family. You are added to my nightly prayers.

So sorry to hear about the loss of your Dad....you and Ruth most certainly deserve a Disney Cruise. The pain eases in time but never really goes away. I lost my Dad 7 years ago this past October...I still miss him terribly but I find comfort in knowing he's my guardian angel looking over me and my family. I know that in time you will both find your own way finding comfort in knowing someone special is watching over you. Thinking of you and sending you both a

 

[Sorcerer Mom]

My DD is coming home from college tomorrow for Thanksgiving so I don't expect to be on the boards too much after that till after the holiday...wanted to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!!!

For anyone traveling, be safe....same goes for any crazy enough to go shopping on black Friday

 

[IrishCowboy]

Subscribing

 

[KC-Disney]

Ruth, I am so sorry for your loss. Prayers are with you. It seems it has been a rough few months for quite a few of us. We will all be ready for the cruise soon.

Welcome to the new people who have joined.

Huge thank you to Nicole for organizing the FE list. I am so excited to read it. I can not believe how many of the kids are so similar in ages. I hope they can connect.

Were we doing a magnet exchange, I can't remember the verdict on that. As well, sorry refresh my memory, what were we doing for the meets?

Karen.

Lots of to you all.

 

[tiffanye77]

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you and your family! Have a blessed one.

 

[Sorcerer Mom]

Hope everyone had a GREAT Turkey Day....our house was a little hectic but it was nice to have everyone home!!

Hey, thought I'd share some info. for anyone planning, or thinking about, a stay at the Hyatt MCO before the cruise...I just checked the website and they have a limited time offer rate of $135.20 for the night of 1/1 (the AAA rate is also the same). I had a AAA resv. for $151 and just got it changed with no hassle. A nice savings of about $20...which is, after all, a couple of sail-away cocktails Every little bit helps, right?!

Have a great day everyone...we're almost at 1 month

 

[tiffanye77]

One month to go I hope everyone is as excited as I.

Have a happy and safe holiday season. Can't wait until were on the darn ship

 

[mmackeymouse]

Phew, it's been a while, kids.

I had a dream last night, that all of the sudden the cruise was upon us. And, I had NOTHING organized. And it was fly by the seat of our pants. And while that may work for some people, for an obsessive planner, like myself....it would definitely be a worst case scenario.

I think it may have been the Lord's way of trying to get my butt back into gear. I have kind of fallen off the planning wagon the last couple of months. But, with a month to go, I am back in the game!

I have come up with a few ideas for our get togethers. I would love any feedback, or if anyone wants to expand on the ideas, that would be great too!

TADsmommy, our original planner, had the great idea of maybe doing some sort of gift exchange. I have tossed around a few ideas that are along those same lines, maybe trying to narrow it down.

1) Food- At first I thought this was a great idea. Each of us could bring some sort of food native to our area, and trade with one other person/family with the group. But, for one, I am not sure how food would travel, as you would have to put it in checked luggage, I believe. Also, with the cruise ship regulations, I am not sure how that works. I think it would have to be something that could be consumed while on the ship, OR sealed tightly enough that they would let it off the ship. Someone correct me if I am wrong. It might be a bit of a hassle, but if anyone is up for it, let me know.

2) Token gifts- same premise as above. We'd assign each person/family another person/family to trade with. And, we could bring things native to our hometown. Magnets, postcards, ink pens, etc.

3) This is MY personal favorite, but if it is not up your alley, no biggie. I was thinking maybe a recipe exchange, bringing a recipe indiginous to your area of the country, or even a family recipe. The great thing about this one is you could easily make copies for everyone in the group, it is relatively inexpensive (unless you are planning on hiring a calligrapher), and recipe cards, or just plain paper, travels easy peasy.

Here are some other ideas I had for get togethers: euchre tournament; board games (I know they have some on the ship, not sure what kind. e like ours in the same vein as Cranium, Pictionary, etc); late night movie in our PJ's (gentlemen, please do not come in only boxers.....haha); drinks (alcoholic or non) on Deck 7.

Now, onto the issue of times for the meet. I have not recently gone over the Navigators to get an idea of times, etc. I know as a first time cruiser, that first day, I will probably be exploring a bit. I was thinking perhaps around 2:30ish or even late evening, round 10 or so. I am totally open to Sunday as well, but I am pretty sure I will have a lot of things I'd want to do on sea days, and I'm sure you all will too. Thoughts?

Welp, I appreciate any feedback. And, if you have stuck with me this far into the post.....God bless you.

 

[WDW Princess 71]

Melissa,

Thanks again for putting this together. As far as the gift exchange, I think it’s a great idea but I just wonder if we have enough time at this point to get enough people interested and coordinated with it. It seems like a lot of people don’t check this board everyday (I still have a few people that haven’t replied to the FE spreadsheet that was sent yet). It sounds like an awesome thing to do, but I guess we’ll have to see how many people reply to you in the next few days to see if its feasible. As far the ideas, I agree with you that the food thing wouldn’t likely work because of the air travel and regulations of bringing that stuff on board. I personally like #2 the best, since it requires each family to just pair up with one other family, not the entire group, and also it allows for the most flexibility of what the gift can be. I think the recipe thing would be enjoyed by those who enjoy cooking, but for those who don’t really cook it doesn’t really appeal—option 2 is more of a surprise gift thing, you don’t really know what you’ll get from the other person, and it doesn’t cater to any specific interest so everyone will be able to enjoy it.

I love the idea of getting together for drinks on Deck 7—we could schedule a couple of those so that those who cant make one time can make another (or attend all of them if interested!). Deck 7 secret verandah has also been on my list of “to-do’s” for this cruise anyway : ) Maybe for the adults we could also plan a night to meet in the dance club—I wish we had the navigators ahead of time so we could plan a specific night because they have theme nights like disco, 80s, and also fun nights where they do comedy, newlywed and married games, etc, that are so fun. But I guess we can just pick one night and time, like say Tuesday at 10:00 PM meet there, and just go with it- if we got a good size group it would be fun no matter what the theme was!

For the first meeting time, I like your suggestion of late evening, around 10:00 PM or so. That was what our group did on my January 2009 Wonder cruise, we met at 10:00 in the Promenade Lounge—it worked out well since earlier in the day was so hectic, and we didn’t have to rush to go to lifeboat drill, sailaway party, or early dinner/show—we had the rest of the night to hang out. Of course, this was a short cruise so that is why we picked late the first night vs waiting til the next day—but since this is a longer cruise, and the next day is a sea day, that is more feasible for us, although I agree with you that we all will have a lot of things we want to do on sea days, like if there is some scheduled thing on the Navigator that appeals to me, I wouldn’t want to miss it…so the more I think about it, personally the first night at 10:00 PM really sounds the best to me since it wont overlap any other activities. And then, we can schedule a few other meets throughout the cruise, so people can pick and choose which they want to go to based on their schedules, does that make sense?

I am still wondering if we are doing the Tshirt thing still? I haven’t heard from Sara in awhile about that, if we are still doing it or not and if so, how we are ordering them…

-Nicole

 

[MonicaW]

Hi Everyone!

I really like the FE idea and wish I could participate more, but since we will be traveling from the 24th onwards, and only arriving in port on the 1st, I don't want to be making too many plans for our first cruise. I will already be lugging enough through customs and onl wish I was organized enough to add a few more tasks on my "to do" list.

Monica

 

[MonicaW]

I would like this!
Perhaps on the first night, we could meet casually somewhere?

 

[WDW Princess 71]

Hi Everyone!

I really like the FE idea and wish I could participate more, but since we will be traveling from the 24th onwards, and only arriving in port on the 1st, I don't want to be making too many plans for our first cruise. I will already be lugging enough through customs and onl wish I was organized enough to add a few more tasks on my "to do" list.

Monica

I would like this!
Perhaps on the first night, we could meet casually somewhere?

Monica, I totally understand about not wanting to get bogged down with too much on your first cruise. But I think you will enjoy the FE as gifts do not have to be large or plentiful, no matter how small or inexpensive, they are all equally loved because it is the fun of getting something that counts. And I think you will enjoy the cruise meets because it is a chance to catch up with everyone in person that you've talked to online all this time!

-Nicole