03/30/08 4 night Wonder, 30th March 2008

[Deweysgirl]

Wayne, no problem, if they come up that would be great otherwise they'll just have to work at it themselves, lol!

Sue, glad your daughter had fun and was able to experience it. Too funny about the hands over ears. Out of the mouths of babes!

Well gang, getting closer now everyday! Can't wait to vacation!!

 

[LostGirls]

Sue, my daughters were very impressed and they want to meet your daughter.
Have we talked about a meet for everyone yet?
Wayne, we have had one of the coldest winters in many years and STILL have snow in the forecast, so I sympathize. The scary thing is they have so much snow in the mountains, they have had to close 2 different passes because of avalanche danger (and 2 actual slides). The governor also has declared a state of emergency in 15 counties because of all the snow. That is not where we are, so we are lucky, it could be worse! It all just makes me appreciate our trip all the more!

 

[Deweysgirl]

Only 8 more weeks!! Yahoo!!

We should probably talk about a quick Dismeet, I don't think it's been mentioned yet but a quick meet and greet is always fun. Anyone have any ideas of where or when?

Liz

 

[wayneg]

Wayne, we have had one of the coldest winters in many years and STILL have snow in the forecast, so I sympathize. The scary thing is they have so much snow in the mountains, they have had to close 2 different passes because of avalanche danger (and 2 actual slides). The governor also has declared a state of emergency in 15 counties because of all the snow. That is not where we are, so we are lucky, it could be worse! It all just makes me appreciate our trip all the more!

Brrrrrrrrr, when I was younger we used to get snow 3-4 feet high and stay for weeks, in recent years we just get a covering and it goes in no time. They forcast us to get upto 4 inch on Fri, see pics below what we got on Saturday, it lasted about 6 hours and it had totally gone.
Our forcasters are useless.

Only 8 more weeks!! Yahoo!!

We should probably talk about a quick Dismeet, I don't think it's been mentioned yet but a quick meet and greet is always fun. Anyone have any ideas of where or when?

Liz

Anywhere for me, just let me know where and when. Last one I went to was all adults so it was up near adult pool but with us all having kids probably better somewhere else.

Heres our 6 hours of winter with Thomas our cat.

2 pics out front of our house.

and 2 out the back.

 

[Disney Fanatics R Us]

We just booked this cruise. It's me Lisa (DW), Jeff (DH) and Lara (DD). Our DS is now in college and will not be able to go with us. DD is 15 almost 16 by the time of the cruise. This is her spring break. Our son has spring break at another time. This will be our third Disney Cruise and the first on the Wonder. We have done the 7 days on previous trips. We are concerned that 4 days will just not seem like enough.

We have never booked this late and have made no plans so far. We were just sick of winter and had vacation club points we needed to use before May so.... here we come. It will seem funny without our son- we've never been on vacation without both kids. Snow and cold... it has been a bad winter.

We have a Cat. 9 on Deck 2. Have never had a veranda so don't know what we are missing. We spend little time in the room so never felt it was worth it. We would however not turn down an upgrade.

Gotta go. Looking forward to a meet.

 

[wayneg]

Welcome Lisa and family

Better late than never
Only time we had a verandah was a free upgrade, used it for about 10 mins all 4 days. Won't object if they give us another but no way would I pay for one.
4 days won't be enough but better than nothing, will be nice to get back on a Disney ship again.
Hope your winter will soon be over, we all need some sun I think.
Wayne

 

[Deweysgirl]

Welcome Lisa and Family! We are also Cat 9 Deck 2

Wayne, thanks for posting the pics! I know the cold weather must be miserable but the pictures sure are beautiful! I've only seen snow once in my life and really enjoyed the couple of days I was in it. Today it was 80 degrees here in Florida. Can't complain I guess.

 

[Disney Fanatics R Us]

Thanks for the warm welcome

Don't complain about the Florida weather. It is again snowing in Iowa- we are right in the center of the storm and they are predicting another 6-12 inches of the rotten stuff. This has been a long winter!!! The only good thing I can say is I had to fly to Madison today for work and at least I was able to get there and back before we had too much snow. I was worried I might get stuck there overnight- I had packed a bag just in case!!!

DD was also home sick today and I'm betting she will not have school tomorrow either. Why don't they ever cancel work????

Anyone aware of any teens going that would be our daughter's age? We thought we might have another family with us but they decided against the trip. Hoping DD can find someone to hang with- she has always had her brother or someone else with her.

 

[wayneg]

Thanks for the warm welcome

Anyone aware of any teens going that would be our daughter's age? We thought we might have another family with us but they decided against the trip. Hoping DD can find someone to hang with- she has always had her brother or someone else with her.

Our DS, Mathew and taking his friend Dan both 14, Matt is very mature and almost 6' so everyone thinks he is older. But at that age who knows if they will get on well. I am sure she will find someone or group to hang out with but not an easy age group

 

[Deweysgirl]

Anyone aware of any teens going that would be our daughter's age? We thought we might have another family with us but they decided against the trip. Hoping DD can find someone to hang with- she has always had her brother or someone else with her.

We have a 13 yr old girl and 15 year old boy in our group, cousins. If we introduce our girls and really all of the kids they can possibly hang out in the stack/aloft together or at least they will recognize some familiar faces while they are there. I know it's hard when kids are use to being with each other, my youngest will be in the lab now by herself as her sister is now a teenager.

 

[Disney Fanatics R Us]

We have a 13 yr old girl and 15 year old boy in our group, cousins. If we introduce our girls and really all of the kids they can possibly hang out in the stack/aloft together or at least they will recognize some familiar faces while they are there. I know it's hard when kids are use to being with each other, my youngest will be in the lab now by herself as her sister is now a teenager.

Thanks. Lara is pretty quick to meet people. She was excited on the last trip to spend time at the Loft/Stack- found a friend to spend time with. Her brother was 18 (still in high school) so also was at the stack but he had a friend who went with us on the trip.

Wow- I am really surprised at how few people are responding to the forum for this trip. I suspect it will not be a full trip but who knows.

We ended up with 12 inches of the white stuff today. I went into the office but came home before it got dark as it was really blowing.

 

[Deweysgirl]

I know, I'm really surprised this cruise thread isn't as busy as I thought it would be. This is Spring Break week for many counties here in Florida. I've never sailed on a ship that wasn't full before, that would be real nice!

Another sunny warm day today here in Florida. Just think of what you all have to look forward to!! You will love it after the cold winter you've been having.

Anyone going over to Disney before or after the cruise? We're going over for a couple of days after the cruise. Going to the Character Breakfast at Grand Floridian and also to the Flower and Garden Festival at Epcot. I'm so excited for this vacation, can't get here soon enough!

 

[wayneg]

We fly in on the 22nd March. Staying in a Condo at Windsor Hills near Maingate. Always stayed in hotels before so thats something new for us.
This is possible Itinery, might change but doubt it.
Sunday 23rd MGM
Mon 24th SeaWorld
Tues 25th Islands Of Adventure
Weds 26th Epcot
Thurs 27th Animal Kingdom
Fri 28th Universal
Sat 29th Magic Kingdom
Sunday 30th-Thurs 3rd Cruise
Fri 4th Magic Kingdom
Sat 5th Fly home

 

[Deweysgirl]

Wayne, I'm jealous, sounds like a fabulous trip you have planned! We went to Islands of Adventure for the 1st time last May and we really liked it. We are Floridians and you would think living here we would have been there by now but we have always been such big Disney fans we didn't think it would appeal to us, but it really did.

We are staying at POR Riverside two days after the cruise. We tried for the French Quarter but it was already booked solid back in December when I tried to reserve it. As I say, this is Spring Break time for us so I think the parks will be busy. The good news is most colleges and several schools are actually on Spring Break the week before and week after Easter so we are kind of on the tail end of it which means the crowds may be a bit more manageable for us, I sure hope so!

Well, hope everyone has a nice weekend, just think coming up on 7 weeks! WooHoo!

 

[wayneg]

We went to Islands of Adventure for the 1st time last May and we really liked it. We are Floridians and you would think living here we would have been there by now but we have always been such big Disney fans we didn't think it would appeal to us, but it really did.

We are staying at POR Riverside two days after the cruise. We tried for the French Quarter but it was already booked solid back in December when I tried to reserve it. As I say, this is Spring Break time for us so I think the parks will be busy. The good news is most colleges and several schools are actually on Spring Break the week before and week after Easter so we are kind of on the tail end of it which means the crowds may be a bit more manageable for us, I sure hope so!

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We have had AP's for Uni/IOA fro about 5 years now, Mathew and I can spend 4-5 hours in Curious George water area, time flies in there for us.
I like both parks just as much as Disney, also AP's for Busch and Seaworld all great parks.
We have booked 3 nights at POR for August, want to try a moderate as we didn't like value. I still think we will prefer offsite but won't know if we don't try.
The UK spring break is staggered this year, usually all the country would have same 2 week as us (22nd March-6th Apr) but this time many are have 5th April for 2 weeks, so hopefully not as many Brits (can you tell I am pleased ) either this year

 

[Disney Fanatics R Us]

We will be flying to Florida late on Friday March 28- not leaving until DD gets out of school that day. We plan to spend one day at one of the Disney Parks on Saturday- we have not been to Florida to a park for almost 4 years, DD gets to pick which one and she wants to spend the day MGM- needs her dose of Tower of Terror and Rock n Roll Roller Coaster. I'm hoping we might be able to hit EPCOT for dinner and maybe the fireworks/laser show. I was hoping she might want to go to Animal Kingdom- lots of new things there since we were last there. Like I said it will be her choice. We actually have some free park hoppers from our last stay at WDW. Had some problems at check in to our vacation home and with use of our park card. I wrote to them afterwards about the issue and they sent us two free park hopper tickets for everyone in our party- there were nine of us.

Has anyone ever done the Dolphin encounter at Nassau? We planned to do this on our last cruise but due to the Hurricanes we were rerouted away from Nassau and sent to Costa Maya. It was actually a decent stop- very new and some fun excursions but we have never been to Nassau. We also did not find this out until we arrived to check into the ship- so had last minutes cancellations of the excursions as we did not book it through Disney. Worked fine and we were impressed with the outside group so considering that again.

A cold day here again- windchill is 33 below. Yesterday had no snow but the wind made for blizzard like conditions as we have so much snow.

 

[LostGirls]

It's 50 degrees here today - almost balmy!!
We fly in Saturday and will stay overnight at Hyatt at MCO. Loved it last time.
We are on deck 2 also - last time we had an upgrade to a verandah, which we loved, but wouldn't pay for.
What time is the life boat drill? Maybe a quick meet before that?
I need to have my girls try on their shorts, etc. so I know they will have stuff to wear for the cruise. Cause you know we won't need those kinds of clothes around here until July! Ha!

 

[wayneg]

What time is the life boat drill? Maybe a quick meet before that?

Boat Drill is at 4pm. For us it is probably no problem as we will be at port early, its just if anyone is planning on arriving in the afternoon it will be a rush.

 

[Disney Fanatics R Us]

We did our meet at 3 PM before the drill for our last cruise. It worked out fine. We will be there early. DH likes to be one of the first in the terminal- just to sit and watch the people and characters.

We also were talking about clothes and what still fits. The way this winter goes we won't need those clothes either. Good news for that is... we can start to pack very early.

Looked today for our over the door shoe bag. Best tip we ever got from this forum. Bought one for our first cruise and have used it ever since. It was great for keeping everything in one place.

 

[wayneg]

We did our meet at 3 PM before the drill for our last cruise. It worked out fine. We will be there early. DH likes to be one of the first in the terminal- just to sit and watch the people and characters.

I think we met about half our Dis group in the terminal last time. We have breakfast and then get to the port around opening time.