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

[scottie]

ok gang, the last of the bracelets are being mailed out this week! Just to confirm, is there anyone who ordered and still hasn’t received their package?? I want to make sure I didn’t miss sending anyone’s out- though my trusty spreadsheet doesn’t lead me to believe so.

 

[chubbyjen]

We're also staying at POFQ prior to the cruise! Haven't stayed there before but have heard lots of good things about the resort. Hopefully it'll be nice.

I'd also like to know approximately when the bus will be picking up.

 

[scottie]

We're also staying at POFQ prior to the cruise! Haven't stayed there before but have heard lots of good things about the resort. Hopefully it'll be nice.

I'd also like to know approximately when the bus will be picking up.

I scanned a few old threads and found info from someone who had stayed at POFQ. Their post from 9/11/08 is below. Not sure is DCL still is the same schedule or not:

We took the DCL bus from POFQ and left a little after noon. Our bus driver drove slowly because of high winds. We had to sit on the bus at port for a CM to talk to us. We boarded the ship at exactly 2:00 PM. We got into our stateroom, ate lunch and made a 3:00 PM DISmeet before the 4:00 drill.

 

[lulu0506]

For those of you ordering gift baskets from Shirley... when do you plan to place your order? I don't want to call too soon (I think it would be too early to call now right?)

Thanks

 

[chubbyjen]

I scanned a few old threads and found info from someone who had stayed at POFQ. Their post from 9/11/08 is below. Not sure is DCL still is the same schedule or not:

We took the DCL bus from POFQ and left a little after noon. Our bus driver drove slowly because of high winds. We had to sit on the bus at port for a CM to talk to us. We boarded the ship at exactly 2:00 PM. We got into our stateroom, ate lunch and made a 3:00 PM DISmeet before the 4:00 drill.

Thanks for the info!

Wow..that's pretty late getting onto the ship....oh well...

 

[1sttimecruisers]

Hows everyone doing ? First time on here, heards lots about it from my sister and mother. Good to meet you all and cant wait for May 9, since we got a foot of snow lastnight.

 

[Dilmaluvs2cruise]

Hi Fellow Cruiser's,

We plan on leaving Friday night and pulling an all nighter to get to the ship early. Then when we come back on sat. heading to Universal Studios since this year we got annual passes. My little soon to be 4yr old is a little dare devil loves the coasters(woody woodpecker) and the spiderman ride......so we're going to spend 2 night there and then drive home monday i don't have to be back at work til Tue. Whoo Hooo.....

 

[enchantednana]

Welcome aboard my son. Anything you want to know someone on here is sure to know the answer , if not will direct you in the right direction. Everyone seems to be on the same page, very friendly & socialble. & we all can't wait until May 9th.

Mom Eva

 

[scottie]

Hows everyone doing ? First time on here, heards lots about it from my sister and mother. Good to meet you all and cant wait for May 9, since we got a foot of snow lastnight.

Welcome Aboard!! Snow... please keep it up north!

 

[scottie]

Hi Fellow Cruiser's,

We plan on leaving Friday night and pulling an all nighter to get to the ship early. Then when we come back on sat. heading to Universal Studios since this year we got annual passes. My little soon to be 4yr old is a little dare devil loves the coasters(woody woodpecker) and the spiderman ride......so we're going to spend 2 night there and then drive home monday i don't have to be back at work til Tue. Whoo Hooo.....

Please give youself LOTS of extra travel time to the ship! I was reading a thread where people were talking about the rules of not being allowed to board after a certain time and some people missing cruises due to various issues that caused them to arrive a couple of minutes late!

 

[MouseNDaHouse]

Welcome aboard my son. Anything you want to know someone on here is sure to know the answer , if not will direct you in the right direction. Everyone seems to be on the same page, very friendly & socialble. & we all can't wait until May 9th.

Mom Eva

Friendly??? Sociable??? Note to self: evil plan for world domination working just fine - nanas are now convinced that I am both friendly and sociable...now if only I could overcome that nasty habit of typing my inner monologue on chat threads...
D'OH!!!

 

[enchantednana]

Jeremy

You're too funny. Well maybe you don't fit in that catagory after all.
ha ha ha. See ya on the cruise. I'm the short grey haired LADY .

til May 9th
Eva

 

[lyn9856]

Hi from Uk at the end of a lovely sunny spring day. Been working indoors all day so missed most of it..but warm enough driving home around 630pm to have the roof down and a little sing along to Bon Jovi . How undignified for a lady my age. Not that I care

Anyways..hope everyone is ok.
Now...a speculation question for those of yous more experienced. We are a grown up couple (not quite mature but working on it)..no children (well...yes we have children but they are also mature and doing their own thing). We are on second dining....because we prefer to spend more time in sun......and eat later...........and its fairer for the families to have main dining. We like to linger anyway.
What do you reckon our dinining rotation might be? I know it is never sure, often subject to change etc etc...and I really don't mind. But to help me consider clothes wearing choices and given that we have booked PALO for the Monday night, and given that we realise now we may miss the Animator Palette show.........oh well we have already seen it..and captured my sniffles on camcorder (it was my contacts honest) .......what are the guesses for the rotations? Disney does seem to in general match people like for like we notice.............

Lyn

 

[lulu0506]

Hi Lyn! I have absolutely no idea of what the dining rotation may be, so I will leave that to other, more experienced, cruises to answer. However, you bring up a point that I have somehow buried deep into my brain... I think it is called denial ... we are currently scheduled for late seating as well. When we booked this in September '08 that was the only option available. We have 2 kids with us (ages 3 and 7). Not sure how they will do with this schedule... my kids can be fairly flexible, however I cannot count on anything (especially with a 3 year old, high energy boy )
Anyone else out there with late seating and small kids? I am getting the impression that the late seating is for those couples (like Lyn) who want to enjoy their meals without the threat of kids screaming and crying
I suppose we can get put on a wait list for main seating right??

 

[WILDCATMICKEY]

Rotation dining is you rotate to differant resturant each night. Animators Pallet, Parrot Cay, Lumieres. You start at one and each night you will rotate to another.

Went and got the luggage out of the barn, so we can start getting things together.

 

[lyn9856]

Hi Lyn! I have absolutely no idea of what the dining rotation may be, so I will leave that to other, more experienced, cruises to answer. However, you bring up a point that I have somehow buried deep into my brain... I think it is called denial ... we are currently scheduled for late seating as well. When we booked this in September '08 that was the only option available. We have 2 kids with us (ages 3 and 7). Not sure how they will do with this schedule... my kids can be fairly flexible, however I cannot count on anything (especially with a 3 year old, high energy boy )
Anyone else out there with late seating and small kids? I am getting the impression that the late seating is for those couples (like Lyn) who want to enjoy their meals without the threat of kids screaming and crying
I suppose we can get put on a wait list for main seating right??

Don't worry! Didnt mean to give that impression!
Yes you can go on wait list.......
But not to worry re late seating. It all depends on individual families I believe, and what time you normally eat etc... there were some lovely children on late with us last year, they were fantastic and we enjoyed watching their enjoyment aww..And there are so few couples on their own like us....that it truly won't matter.
I would have def stuck with late seat for our children..supposing they had been along..at littley ages...but then in Europe I think we are used to late meals as families on hoildays. And our children always had excellent piblic behaviour skills.
Main dining always seems more popular with families, but I think as long as the day is organised to suit..not a problem.
I think I am more paranoid about the thoughts of having to cut short the days activities to go get showered and changed ( Sorry, but I do like to spend girl time and dress up and the heated rollers do take some time to warm yup..). On our normal holidays..not an option normally to leave the beach before 7pm!

It is all an individual family preference, based on how you know the children will cope. There is so much going on around that most are entertained anyway..The waiters are brill at entertaining the children with tricks etc...DH was enthralled last year with the balancing spoons on the wine cork.

Last year we had the 815pm seating dining and it was fine for us...and the children with us were lovely. We did seem to avoid crying babies though...which was a consideration for us...
Some aduts can be worse though lol lol

Disney does however try to match the families and sittings...so they may put childless couples in a group, match fams with teenagers on same table.if you get my meaning. And being with large groups with lots of toddlers and babies...may well have been difficult for me to concentrate on the menu!!
Best wishes
Lyn

 

[scottie]

Anyone else out there with late seating and small kids? I am getting the impression that the late seating is for those couples (like Lyn) who want to enjoy their meals without the threat of kids screaming and crying
I suppose we can get put on a wait list for main seating right??

We have always done late seating and always have children. This time they will be 3, 8 and 12 and as you may have guessed were younger during our prior cruises . I totally respect both sides to the discussion on early vs late dining for familys... we just find late dinner to work for us better.

We also enjoy the extra time in the sun, like Lyn, as a family. We dont feel as rushed to be getting back to the room to get ready for dinner/show.
A big plus to being on a ship- there is always food to eat so if the kids or us adults feel hungry later in the afternoon we just grab something from deck 9 or get something from room service.

Our kids like to eat with the kids club for dinner some of the nights so they get fed with all the other kids at the buffet around 5-6pm if they do that. They LOVE getting to eat with a bunch of kids their age and the counslers- and NO parents! They will have no choice for Sunday night because us adults are escaping

If you think you want to do early dinning... all I have read suggests getting to the ship early and going to the location listed in the navigator for dining changes as soon as you board and request the early dining. No promise they will flip you, but very possible. You also want to get in touch with DCL and request they waitlist you, in case something opens before the 9th.

 

[lulu0506]

Thank you Scottie and Lyn!
I do like the idea of later seating for all the reasons you both pointed out... I think we will just stick with what we have and hope for the best. I guess getting to the shows earlier is also a plus
I am going to call however and request that we be seated alone ... just me I guess, but it will make me less stressed. We have had bad experiences in the past (when DH and I cruised alone). Hope for a family of 4 that won't be too much of a problem

Scottie: I was wondering if your 3 year old still naps during the day? Do you think he will nap during the cruise? Just thought I would "pick the brain" of another parent traveling with a little one. Best case for me is that DS will take a little nap each day to gear up for a late night ... then perhaps sleep in later the next morning Dare to Dream

 

[scottie]

What do you reckon our dinining rotation might be?

Happy to hear your weather is warming up too.... Rock On Sister!!

Here is what I saw posted for dining rotations from a end of Feb. Eastern:
7 day Eastern Cruises
LAPLAPL 5:30 and 8:00
APLAPLA 5:45 and 8:15
PLAPLAP 6:00 and 8:30

But like you said... who knows!!??

 

[scottie]

Thank you Scottie and Lyn!
I do like the idea of later seating for all the reasons you both pointed out... I think we will just stick with what we have and hope for the best. I guess getting to the shows earlier is also a plus
I am going to call however and request that we be seated alone ... just me I guess, but it will make me less stressed. We have had bad experiences in the past (when DH and I cruised alone). Hope for a family of 4 that won't be too much of a problem

Scottie: I was wondering if your 3 year old still naps during the day? Do you think he will nap during the cruise? Just thought I would "pick the brain" of another parent traveling with a little one. Best case for me is that DS will take a little nap each day to gear up for a late night ... then perhaps sleep in later the next morning Dare to Dream

We also requested a table alone the other day via our Travel Agent. I guess DCL may read our thread and just seat our two active three year old carrying gangs at the same table!
I have a funny story about the first time Dylan sailed with us and dinner- but I think I will leave that for a later day discussion!

Feel free to sneak your DS into the club Sunday before youth dinner and he can go with my DS and they can eat all the chicken fingers Mickey can supply with the club!


Dylan does take a nap majority of the week days. Weekends not so much. However, when on vacation we pretty much go with the assumption that is out the door!
But the sun on the ship can do a pretty good job of wearing young ones out at the Mickey Pool (at least it did with our two girls) so we may be able to get him to lay down for a short nap mid day maybe once or twice, if we are lucky!
Even when he doesnt take a nap he still runs strong at home till at least 9pm!