05/09/2009 May 9, 2009 7-Night Eastern St Maarten... Watch Out!

[scottie]

this is great information! there are 7 of us, but my sister is staying in the park before hand so I am just worrying about myself, mom and my fiance to and from the port and I am definately going to call disney to see about the transfers, my agent is good but there are just some things she can't answer for me...so I think I will check out those transportation suggestions.. regarding the Hyatt at the airport.. you mentioned that you got a rate of $135, how did you get that? I checked out the rates online and they are like over $200....

I was thinking about private car vs. DCL bus again for anyone that might be considering both options and remembered one part we love about having someone taking us to port, the fact we can swing by the grocery store near port for a quick stop right before heading to the ship. We grab a case of water (instead of paying around $40 onboard, but just remember to follow the current rules for bringing it onboard) and a box of juice boxes and anything we might have forgotten to bring with us. A lot of companies don’t charge extra for this quick stop from what I have seen.

 

[ufcabear]

Hi all - My husband, Cal, and I (Debi) are listed on the cruise list. However, I have not been on for a long while. But now with the date drawing nearer I am trying to check regularly.

Have we set up a meet time on the cruise?

 

[MickeyCruiser]

I was thinking about private car vs. DCL bus again for anyone that might be considering both options and remembered one part we love about having someone taking us to port, the fact we can swing by the grocery store near port for a quick stop right before heading to the ship. We grab a case of water (instead of paying around $40 onboard, but just remember to follow the current rules for bringing it onboard) and a box of juice boxes and anything we might have forgotten to bring with us. A lot of companies don’t charge extra for this quick stop from what I have seen.

Where is the grocery store near port, we are going to have a rental car and want to stop somewhere to get a few things including beer.

 

[lulu0506]

Just a clarification on the "rules" to bring water, beer, etc.. on the ship -- must it be in a soft sided cooler? How do you get an entire case of water and beer in a cooler?

 

[scottie]

Where is the grocery store near port, we are going to have a rental car and want to stop somewhere to get a few things including beer.

I believe it was a Publix or Win Dixie that our driver took us to last Feb on our way to the ship from the Airport. It was on the right hand side as you are driving south away from port on A1A (I think thats the main road). It may have been 10 mins max away from the Port if I recall the ride back to the ship correctly.

 

[scottie]

Just a clarification on the "rules" to bring water, beer, etc.. on the ship -- must it be in a soft sided cooler? How do you get an entire case of water and beer in a cooler?

PorterBob (a DISer who is a porter for DCL) said in a recent meeting DCL said stuff like cases of water etc. had to be inside of a suitcase/duffel bag for a porter to take it with the luggage. I plan to bring an empty duffel bag and put our beverages if we get any in there then use the bag on the way home for anything we buy on the cruise or at WDW after.
It is possible this rule could change again so I hope to remember to check with him again before sailing. A couple of years back we just handed the case of water to the porter and that was fine back then, but I guess they have changed rules some.

 

[enchantednana]

Hi All

Can't wait to meet some of you people that are sailing on May 9th. You all sound so friendly.
Are there any other grandmothers sailing on that date.
Also I wound like to be included with the people who are doing the Fish Extenders. Who are you? lol I think they are a wonderful idea.

Eva

 

[ufcabear]

I wrote earlier and didn't hear back about the Fish Extenders and if a meet had been planned. Looking forward to hearing back.
Debi and Cal

 

[wingawh]

Hi fellow sailors:

Are there many 1 year olds in this group? I noticed that there was at least 1 other than ours. We have a very busy little girl that will turn 1 on 4/27/09.

If there are any that may want to get together with very little ones please let me know.

This will be our 5th DCL and our DD's first. We hope to meet some of you during the week.

Have a great weekend!

 

[scottie]

Hi fellow sailors:

Are there many 1 year olds in this group? I noticed that there was at least 1 other than ours. We have a very busy little girl that will turn 1 on 4/27/09.

If there are any that may want to get together with very little ones please let me know.

This will be our 5th DCL and our DD's first. We hope to meet some of you during the week.

Have a great weekend!

Welcome Aboard!

 

[scottie]

I wrote earlier and didn't hear back about the Fish Extenders and if a meet had been planned. Looking forward to hearing back.
Debi and Cal

Got my fingers crossed our requests for some detailed FE info on the ins/outs, how's/to's and so forth will be met by one of our fellow cruisers soon

 

[airtime247]

Hi Everyone, just checking back in. We haven't done much planning in the last couple of weeks but we are really excited.

Welcome to all the new folks who just joined our thread. Take off your shoes, grab a foofy drink, and enjoy! There are some really nice and knowledgeble people on here.

To respond about the FE and cruise meet, we really haven't discussed where to meet but I think we really need to set this up. I've been on two Disney cruises and we had meets on both. For our big original westbound Panama Canal cruise in '05, we met on Deck 10 at sailaway. We were really easy to spot because there were ~300 DISers and someone made lanyards for all of us. We crazy DISers were later to be known by the non-Disboards folks (aka civilians) as "The Lanyard People".

We had several other meets throughout the cruise like a scrapbook meet where someone brought the supplies for everyone to make a page for the cruise. Another meet was a wine meet in Sessions where everyone brought a bottle of wine local to where they live and someone brought a ton of plastic wine glasses so we could all sample many types.

One of the most fun meets was one day several of us had a Jammie Breakfast one morning. We all showed up at Lumiere's for breakfast at the same time in our Disney pajamas. We got some strange looks but the cast members loved it.

On another Disney cruise, we met in the Promenade Lounge on a day at sea at specified time and just chatted. This was a much smaller group.

I would really like those of us with kids to be able to meet up the first day sometime. This would hopefully make going to the Oceaneer Club/Lab a lot easier if they knew some of their new friends would be there.

There is always the possibility for those in the parks before the cruise to meet for a ride, lunch, or a show. We're up for anything!

We did the Fish Extender exchange on our Panama Canal cruise. As a gift to all of us, a nice DISer named Debbie bought these three-pocket Mickey door hangers to hang on the mail "fish" outside our doors. We signed up for gift exchange and basically gathered a list of cabins for everyone participating.

Throughout the cruise, we came back to find surprises in our FE's. It was a great treat and hugely popular. Gifts included a wide variety of things such as bubbles, pens with our cruise name and date, pirate toys, pins/buttons, candy, etc.

I hope this helps!

-steve

 

[scottie]

I would really like those of us with kids to be able to meet up the first day sometime. This would hopefully make going to the Oceaneer Club/Lab a lot easier if they knew some of their new friends would be there.

I think there is a good chance many of us will ba able to run into each other in the cruise terminal on Saturday between character meets, getting the kids pagers, standing out on the terminal balcony to see the ship up close the first day, espically those that end up arriving before boarding begins.
I was thinking we could consider posting a pic of our kiddies so we could keep an eye out for each other?

I think we plan to be there around opening time, 10:30ish. We have the driver scheduled to get us at MCO about 9am and then make a quick grocery stop for water in Port Canaveral before heading to the terminal.

I know I wont have an issue meeting up with Don at some point, as his group has the two rooms across from us!

 

[scottie]

Gang,

I was just thinking it may be nice to track what time everyone plans to arrive at Port Canaveral (just something to help the days go by).
If anyone would like to partake in this, please post a message with plans on expected arrival time at the Terminal and I will update this post.
This may allow us to better guess who we may be walking in the door to the terminal with


Scott and Family
Approx 10:00-10:30am (after stop at local grocery) Shooting for arrival closer to 10am

Eeyore77
11:00-11:30am

SCDizneyDawn
10:30-11am

Steve and gang
10:00-10:30am

 

[Eeyore77]

I will know better when I will be at the port based on if I have to go and get my grandmother at the airport or not. If she takes the shuttle than we usually try to get there between 11:00 and 11:30!

 

[SCDizneyDawn]

I am hoping for an arrival of around 10:30 to 11 am!

I love to get to the port early!

 

[Eeyore77]

One week from today all of us Castaway Club Members will have been able to make their ressies. I am soooo excited. We are going to make our final payment this week and then Palo and shore excursions here we come.....

 

[Eeyore77]

I am hoping for an arrival of around 10:30 to 11 am!

I love to get to the port early!

Me too I love having more time to enjoy everything. By the Way SCDizneyDawn that is a really pretty Cat in your picture.

 

[scottie]

One week from today all of us Castaway Club Members will have been able to make their ressies. I am soooo excited. We are going to make our final payment this week and then Palo and shore excursions here we come.....

Yep... cant wait! Got plans to book Palo for second night for us adults around 730-8:00pm and the 12 meter regatta for St Maarten day for myself!

Just gotta remember to stay up till the midnight opening that day to make sure I can grab our preferred time for Palo.

 

[MickeyCruiser]

I'm very excited to make reservations next weekend. When I received my info booklet and letter from DCL I noticed my reservation date was the 75 days out, at first I assumed they just use this date as the standard for all letters. To be safe I contacted Dreams Un. to check. Glad I did - they came back and said althougth our Castaway member numbers were on the reservation DCL did not have our reservation flagged as repeat cruisers. Had I not checked we would have been locked out all weekend. Moral of the story- you might want to check what date your letter had on it