09/12/10 - DVCers Take Over the Wonder (S.S. Member Cruise 2010) - Thread #1

[dvc deernut]

OK no one is playing with me and I am too tired to keep myself going!!! is calling me!!! I can't imagine how many pages I will miss tonight!!!

IM HERE!!!!!

 

[dvc deernut]

i assume since you are philly fans i think, you must be in the direction of philadelphia and not pittsburgh

 

[cp_princess]

I'm a Phillies fan but now we live about 2 hours north.

 

[dvc deernut]

i'm a phillies fan but now we live about 2 hours north.

we have driven quite a few times thru pennsylvannia on our way to virginia beach or annapolis always thru williamsport and harrisburg

 

[cp_princess]

Ahhh I see. I've been to Harrisburg but not since I was little. We live in NJ now but up near the Lehigh Valley. Erik grew up on the PA side outside of Philly and me on the NJ side.

 

[cp_princess]

There's a crazy Phillies game going on now. I'm watching while keeping up here. Which isn't hard tonight since it's so slow.

 

[dvc deernut]

one of the couples that has sat with us on last 3 member cruises and this one, actually mother daughter they live in nj. Cant remember which city offhand but i think they fly out of newark

 

[dvc deernut]

your team has my favourite pitcher now. Seen him play his whole career up here. Hated losing doc!!!!

 

[cp_princess]

Ah you will have to introduce us on the cruise - that is if you ever admit to knowing the group you are teasing but treating like strangers! hehe We're about an hour from Newark. But Erik's pretty familiar with the Northern half of our state.

I can see why you would miss Doc... he has done us pretty good so far. And we have needed it for sure this year. We pulled off a 6 run comeback in the 9th inning and then won in extra innings tonight. I never really watched baseball on TV much until I met Erik. I only know so much about the game and prefer it in person. But tonights game was pretty crazy to watch.

 

[BigDogHU75]

All this talk about NJ/Philly is making miss home. I guess I am going to have to go visit family/friends. I also want to visit some of the amusement parks that I used to go to as a child. I want to make plans to visit Hershey Park. I love the smell of chocolate and I have not been there since I was a child. I also want to go to Dorney Park which is an amusment park in PA. I also want to take DS to Sesame Place. So many plans, so little time.

 

[cp_princess]

Marsha, we're only about 45 minutes from Dorney Park and yet we haven't made it there once in the 3 years we've lived here. How sad is that! But I haven't been to Hershey since I was really little. I too would love to do that some day soon. A lot of people are complaining that Sesame Place isn't what it used to be. Largely because a one day ticket is almost as much as some of the bigger parks think Great Adventure, Dorney or even WDW but ride wise there isn't much there. At least that's what some of our friends and family with young children have said. But we used to go there every year when I was little so if we ever have kids I want to try it at least once with them. But it's true, while we aren't in Disney this neck of the woods definitely has a lot of park alternatives to choose from.

 

[BigDogHU75]

Marsha, we're only about 45 minutes from Dorney Park and yet we haven't made it there once in the 3 years we've lived here. How sad is that! But I haven't been to Hershey since I was really little. I too would love to do that some day soon. A lot of people are complaining that Sesame Place isn't what it used to be. Largely because a one day ticket is almost as much as some of the bigger parks think Great Adventure, Dorney or even WDW but ride wise there isn't much there. At least that's what some of our friends and family with young children have said. But we used to go there every year when I was little so if we ever have kids I want to try it at least once with them. But it's true, while we aren't in Disney this neck of the woods definitely has a lot of park alternatives to choose from.

It is sad to hear about Sesame Place. I really enjoyed it when I was a kid. Like you said, I still want to take DS there just to try it.

You mentioned another favorite chidlhood park of mine, Great Adventures. I used to go there and Clementon Park (also in NJ) every summer. Memories. Can you tell I want to get away? It is already July and I have not been on vacation or a weekend trip.

It is so true we do have a lot of park alternatives. I am less than 2 hours from Kings Dominion in VA and Six Flags America, 3 1/2 hours from Hershey Park, & 4 hours from Dorney Park. I guess it is time for me to start planning a weekend getaway. Now, to convince DH.

 

[dopeygirl76]

Good Morning!!

We have wanted to do Hershey Park also, we go to Lancaster yearly and have friends who live in Harrisburg so we go to the area often. DH works for Giant Foods who partners with Hershey so we can get discounts to go but haven't made it yet.

We were going to go to Sesame Place the summer after DD3 was born thinking it wouldbe better to stay closer (we had done our 1st WDW trip the Dec before she was born). When I called to get info the pricing was !!!! For a 2 day ticket for DH, Myself and DD6 (then 3) with 2 nights lodging it was $700 not counting gas and food. So we decided to go back to WDW (and that was pre-DVC!!!!) That has been our philosphy since if we can't do it within reasonable comparison to WDW we are just goiong to WDW!!!

Hershey is MUCH more reasonable- even without the discount. We also have Idlewild Park and Soak Zone which is only about 45 minutes from us. So we have a few other options. I just have to quit comparing everything to DVC!!!

 

[dvc4life]

Morning All.

All this talk of amusment parks makes me want to go to one. We haven't been to one since May when we were at EPCOT. Since I'm from the midwest I haven't heard of all the parks you guys are speaking of but I have heard of Hershey Park and would love to go there someday. It sounds very cool.

Well, off to do some shopping this morning then back home for an afternoon in the pool.

 

[scooter7487]

Well back about 11:30pm thursday and supposed to be playing baseball today but rain causing issues. Trying to catch up but will probably take the weekend to do it. Had a nice trip a lot of rain and not the afternoon dump and then sun but rain rain rain. Ruined our pool time but still had a nice trip especially since we were down with good friends. Fireworks were impressive on the 4th and the new fireworks at Mk were awesome. Was not impressed with new parade but found out they did not run full parade during the rain. Went back another night and the parade was good. A lot of empty floats the first night. Did not get to see my favorite show (fantasmic) since they are only showing it certain nights and the rain and our schedule blew that. Went to see La Nouba and it was great. The chinese girls were unbelievable!

Stayed at Beach Club first 5 nights and we love that place. Did get one pool day and night and love the sand covered bottom of the pool. Stayed the other nights at BLT. Our room was nice 14th floor center looking over the pool. Not trying to sound negative but did not feel the magic. No one to greet you, friends tried to get another pillow and were told NO? Tryng to get to the lounge upstairs is a pain in the butt. I don't understand why the room key does not work. We had to go to the center of blt talk to the guy at the desk. Then it felt like it was an inconvenience for him to get up and send us up to the 16th floor. If the pool bar is closed and it was closed every night by the time we got back from the parks you have to go to contemporary to get drink cups filled. Without a doubt though the worse part is the bugs. They were bad at the pool and at the doors. The hot tub was full of dead misquitos. I just felt like BLT was a hotel with no employees just left for people to sleep. They need to make some changes or we will not be back. Maybe it is worth it if you get a MK view. Wishing we would of spent our money on Animal kingdom instead! Ok gotta run there is good stuff from our trip and I will talk about that later.

Scott

 

[Luckymomoftwo]

Scott, so sorry to hear about all the rain and the bad experiences at BLT. You should express your concerns to the manager of BLT...maybe he/she doesn't even know that these issues are happening. There are a bunch of us staying there after the cruise...if they are still having problems "spreading the magic" around we'll take care of them!

Also, do you know WHY there is sand on the bottom of the pool at Beach Club? We learned all about it several years ago. This is what they told us: When they originally built it, they wanted to give guests the feeling of actually being at the beach so there were fish swimming in the pool along with you. But they could never get the filtration system to work right and the fish kept dying. So, they did away with the fish but left the sand.

Well, I'm off to try and figure out what I'm going to get my family to do together today since we have nothing else going on (this is a first this summer!).

 

[beeadude]

I've been reading that many of you are renting a car at the airport to go one way to the port. Besides being on your own are there any other advantages? I assume you need to pu your luggage and take it with you to the car rental. What about once you get to port? My 84 year old mother is coming with us-which means we schlep her luggage too. Is anyone taking the Disney bus? We are arriving around 10:00.

Question-On the cruise line Disboards many people said that their door magnets and FE were stolen or the FE gifts were taken out of their FEs. What is a good time to go around and give out our gifts?
Thanks again -the heat wave finally broke a little here-we hit record highs-now we are hoping for rain everything turned brown and my flowers look so sad. We've had brush fires due to thrown out cigarette butts!!
Vicki

 

[BigDogHU75]

Good Morning!!
We were going to go to Sesame Place the summer after DD3 was born thinking it wouldbe better to stay closer (we had done our 1st WDW trip the Dec before she was born). When I called to get info the pricing was !!!! For a 2 day ticket for DH, Myself and DD6 (then 3) with 2 nights lodging it was $700 not counting gas and food. So we decided to go back to WDW (and that was pre-DVC!!!!) That has been our philosphy since if we can't do it within reasonable comparison to WDW we are just goiong to WDW!!!

That price is outrageous! I would have decided to go back to WDW too.

 

[BigDogHU75]

Morning All.

All this talk of amusment parks makes me want to go to one. We haven't been to one since May when we were at EPCOT. Since I'm from the midwest I haven't heard of all the parks you guys are speaking of but I have heard of Hershey Park and would love to go there someday. It sounds very cool.

Well, off to do some shopping this morning then back home for an afternoon in the pool.

Enjoy your pool. It is raining here today & boy do we need it. Our county was imposing water restrictions in certain areas.

 

[BigDogHU75]

Well back about 11:30pm thursday and supposed to be playing baseball today but rain causing issues. Trying to catch up but will probably take the weekend to do it. Had a nice trip a lot of rain and not the afternoon dump and then sun but rain rain rain. Ruined our pool time but still had a nice trip especially since we were down with good friends. Fireworks were impressive on the 4th and the new fireworks at Mk were awesome. Was not impressed with new parade but found out they did not run full parade during the rain. Went back another night and the parade was good. A lot of empty floats the first night. Did not get to see my favorite show (fantasmic) since they are only showing it certain nights and the rain and our schedule blew that. Went to see La Nouba and it was great. The chinese girls were unbelievable!

Stayed at Beach Club first 5 nights and we love that place. Did get one pool day and night and love the sand covered bottom of the pool. Stayed the other nights at BLT. Our room was nice 14th floor center looking over the pool. Not trying to sound negative but did not feel the magic. No one to greet you, friends tried to get another pillow and were told NO? Tryng to get to the lounge upstairs is a pain in the butt. I don't understand why the room key does not work. We had to go to the center of blt talk to the guy at the desk. Then it felt like it was an inconvenience for him to get up and send us up to the 16th floor. If the pool bar is closed and it was closed every night by the time we got back from the parks you have to go to contemporary to get drink cups filled. Without a doubt though the worse part is the bugs. They were bad at the pool and at the doors. The hot tub was full of dead misquitos. I just felt like BLT was a hotel with no employees just left for people to sleep. They need to make some changes or we will not be back. Maybe it is worth it if you get a MK view. Wishing we would of spent our money on Animal kingdom instead! Ok gotta run there is good stuff from our trip and I will talk about that later.

Scott

Welcome back! Sorry about your experience at BLT and all the rain. Glad you were ablt to enjoy the pool some. Can't wait to read about the rest of your trip.