03/29/08, March 29, 2008 Eastern Magic - Who else?

[Angelhalo]

hello! I'm not to familiar with these message boards. its cool to get a response.

Here's a question we haven't been able to find an answer to: Do the pools close at night like at a hotel?

 

[ICEMANPAD]

The pool hours tend to vary and there are three pools. The adult pool and hot tubs are open pretty late though. On the other hand, the Mickey pool, which is for young kids is generally not open as late. As to the family pool in the middle, it depends on the activities as it is sometimes covered for events like the Pirate night festvities.

Chuck

 

[Angelhalo]

is there a place her that tells you how to put all the pretty things in your posts?

 

[ICEMANPAD]

Merry Christmas!!

Happy and Healthy Holidays to all!!

Chuck and I won't be around this weekend to book Palo and shore excursions at the 90 day mark (for castaway club members), so, Chuck thought of a great idea...we booked the REAS package!! Now, we are all set!! Our wedding anniversary is March 30th so it works out perfectly!!

Lisa

 

[ICEMANPAD]

Yep, we are going to try the 12 meter boats in St. Marten. Hopefully the weather will cooperate.

 

[BelievesinMagic]

Lisa,
AWESOME! Celebrating your anniversary on DCL - priceless!! Have a great weekend!

I hope everyone got what they wanted for Christmas. I did, we paid off our cruise and now I'll be waiting to make my ressies on Dec. 30, for CC members. Welcome to other dis'ers who have joined our thread. I got picked to throw a DCL party Jan. 26 so I'm busy getting everything planned and in place for that, I had to change venues and have it my sister's house because more people want to come, YAY!

The days are getting closer I am having so much fun telling my nephews what to expect and showing them my pictures and pics from other dis members they can't wait for Spring break! I now have a friend and her DH coming along too, let's get this party started!!

 

[TherealBrian]

Hello everyone,
My name is Brian and i'm a 28 year old nursing student. My wife is also an R.N and we have a 2 year old son ( who will be 3 in April) and we are headed out on March 29th for our first cruise and first family vacation!

We live in northwest Florida, so the plans are to drive to Orlando the night before.

My son is so excited it's hilarious. He has taken the cruise as a real incentive to start using the potty. I was browsing last night on youtube and found a video of the pirate deck party and he made me play it 40 times.. Now he dances around the living room imitating it. He absolutely loves Mickey and all the gang, so this is going to be a real treat for him. I absolutely love stuffing my face, so it should be a real treat for me too

So anyway, I just wanted to say hello and I look forward to seeing you all in paradise

 

[ICEMANPAD]

If he learns the potty, he can attend the kids' club, which will be a big bonus both for him and you/your wife.

 

[TherealBrian]

Thats what we are hoping for

He is doing better and better with the potty thing, where as before he had no interest whatsoever.

I have a question to those who may have cruised the eastern itinerary before:

What excursions would you recommend for a 2/3 year old? Also My wife wants to have an afternoon of shopping, and we were wondering if would be better to set aside st.thomas for shopping or st.maarten?

 

[BelievesinMagic]

Welcome Brian! I can't answer about excursions for 2/3 y.o. but I do my shopping mostly in St. Maarten. There is a great shopping talk they do on boared and you get all kinds of great info. on where to shop and some deals that shops offer. It is also broadcasted on the T.V. in your cabin. I'm sure there are threads in the DCL forum about shopping on both islands.
Big ^5 to your 2 y.o. and potty training!

 

[BelievesinMagic]

Logged on last night and made ressies for Palo's brunch, tea, dinner and spa! Yippee another thing I can cross off of my list! I think we are going to do a more personalized tour of St. Maarten since we want to do Maho beach and check out the planes. I'm not sure who I am going to book through, still searching for a good tour guide. I got together all of our pirate garb for pirate night and tossed them into our cruise box - very handy this. I hope all of you are having as much fun planning as I am! I think it's because I want everything to be special for my nephew's first cruise and that is what is making planning and packing extra fun.

I hope you all have a wonderful safe New Year's Eve! I have to work.

 

[ICEMANPAD]

Well we booked earlier in the week, but we took Palo brunch for Monday and Palo dinner for Wednesday and will be sailing the 12 meter boats in St Maarten...and probably shopping in St Thomas...The 5th night, for Eastern (4th for western) is our least favorite menu, but that is personal choice. We will probably try to get APL rotation again and we have second seating...we have coordinated some major links for dinner before...Turkey Day 2007 we had 63 people linked for dinner, all from the boards...

Chuck

 

[ICEMANPAD]

Logged on last night and made ressies for Palo's brunch, tea, dinner and spa! Yippee another thing I can cross off of my list! I think we are going to do a more personalized tour of St. Maarten since we want to do Maho beach and check out the planes. I'm not sure who I am going to book through, still searching for a good tour guide. I got together all of our pirate garb for pirate night and tossed them into our cruise box - very handy this. I hope all of you are having as much fun planning as I am! I think it's because I want everything to be special for my nephew's first cruise and that is what is making planning and packing extra fun.

I hope you all have a wonderful safe New Year's Eve! I have to work.

I had to work yesterday too!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!!


Lisa

 

[ICEMANPAD]

Putting us back on page 1

 

[Buckeye 218]

We got our Palo & spa ressies, but some of the excursions we wanted have already been booked solid. The Doubloon sail & snorkel has sold out and there are no reservations being taken for parasailing on CC.

We ended up reserving the Captain Nautica excursion, which we've heard a lot of good things about. Maybe we'll try to do some parasailing in St. Maarten through a local vendor.

Just for fun, I checked what rooms they're still booking on DCL, and they're still selling rooms in Cat, 4, 5, 6 & 7; so the boat is not full yet. Maybe we'll get lucky and get an upgrade like last time.

 

[Angelhalo]

Welcome Buckeye!

Is being upgraded a pretty common thing? We didn't book any excursions because we just couldn't afford it. But we DO have the romance package and we've booked both a couples massage and the exotic Rasul. That was about all the extra stuff we could afford. I can't wait to use the rainforest, from what I've read, it seems like it will be right up my alley!

 

[ICEMANPAD]

It is not common to be upgraded. In all of our DCL cruises, we have never been upgraded for free. However, for Thankgiving 2006 we booked a cat 11 and then paid for an upgrade to a cat 6 at the port.


Lisa

 

[Buckeye 218]

Angelhalo, don't worry--you don't need to do any excursions to have fun on a Disney cruise. There will be plenty to do. In fact I understand some people don't even get off the ship in some ports, preferring to have the ship to themselves so to speak--pools not so crowded, etc...

With regard to upgrades, it is really the luck of the draw. This will be our 4th Disney cruise. The only time we were upgraded was on the last one. If the ship doesn't sell out by a certain date prior to the cruise, DCL will move people in the lower categories up to a category 5, 6 or 7, because they find it easier to sell the category 9 and 10 rooms to the last minute cruisers.

I've heard that they try to offer upgrades to Castaway club members (repeat customers) but I don't know that for sure. We have always cruised in hurricane season in the past (late Sept/early Oct) because that was when our kids were out of school on fall break, plus prices are much more affordable then. This is the first time that we've cruised in peak season. Chances for an upgrade are better if you cruise during "slow periods" such as during the height of hurricane season because the ship is less likely to be sold out.

We've never done the rainforest...so can't help you there. Sounds like fun, though.

 

[Angelhalo]

Ahhh ok so if you're a cat 6 already then you're chances of being upgraded are even slimmer. Thats kind of good because I think we're going to really like where our room is.

Funny you should mention not getting off the ship, my DH has already mentioned that, or at least not getting off for very long, and he refuses to eat at any restaurants off of the ship as he says it makes no sense to spend money on food when there's a whole ship full of free food. Which with our budget, I totally understand.

 

[ICEMANPAD]

Our DS, 8, actually prefers to stay on the ship while it's in port. We have taken him on a few excursions and he has asked when he can get back to the activities on board!!

The only times we have eaten off the ship is either when we have been on an excursion or in GC...takes too long to tender back and forth to grab something to eat.

Lisa