09/15/07 Early Check in September 15, 2007 Eastern

[kimgregg]

JLSE50, I see you found the thread. Now that we are all on the same page maybe we can get this thing going! I'm not sure what happened to the other ladies. They haven't been back for a while.

 

[Grandma4ever]

JLSE50, I see you found the thread. Now that we are all on the same page maybe we can get this thing going! I'm not sure what happened to the other ladies. They haven't been back for a while.

Well maybe if we keep it going they will come back. It would be really neat to set a time and place to meet at the start of the trip so we would know who we were. I have met alot of really great people on Disney. Till then Mouser

 

[lg3]

Hello everyone. We are thrilled to have booked our first Disney Cruise and will be sailing with all you lovely people. There will be just three of us - myself, DH, and DD, who will be 4 then. DH & I have been on other cruises before DD came along, but this is our first one with her and we are so excited to be on our first Disney Cruise. We are on Deck 7 aft. Love the PJ party/breakfast idea. I am a planning freak and cannot wait!!

 

[kimgregg]

lg3 glad to have you with us.

Mouser, since you've done this cruise before, what are some good excursions to take with the kids?

Kim

 

[Grandma4ever]

lg3 glad to have you with us.

Mouser, since you've done this cruise before, what are some good excursions to take with the kids?

Kim

I will be happy to share what I know:

In St Maarten, we did the St Maarten Island Tour and Butterfly Farm. Two of the three kids had a great time. One of them a 9 year old who likes to hold and play with snakes was afraid of the buttierfiles. He just wouldn't let them land on him. Coral World Ocean and Island Drive, I have not done, but understand that it is enjoyed by the kids.

In St Thomas we took the Atlantic Submarine Adventure You go 80 to 90 feet below the surface of the water. The down fall is that you are in an enclosed space with many other people. If closed in spaces are a problem I would pass. The Dolphin Encounter is another one I could recommend. We did this one in Nassau, with a 7 and 9 year old. It was enjoyed by all. You stand on a platform in the water and the dolphin comes right up to you. The down fall here is the cost.

I think going to any of the beaches would be a safe bet.

At Castaway renting Snorkel equipment or floats are options. I fell in love with the Stingray excursion. It is right on the island and very interesting. You get to feed a stingray by placing a piece of cut fish between your fingers then they swim over and suck it up. (they trim the stinger so it is very safe) Then you can swim with them and watch them swim to the bottom and bury themselves in the sand.

Hope this is informative. Finding something that will hold a child interest is the most important item in picking a shore excusion. Mouser

 

[Hixski]

I am not official yet. DH and I just decided tonight that this is the date we want. Right in the middle of the month. I will be calling next week to book. We took the Western last year so I am excited to try the Eastern.

I can't wait to change my ticker to a countdown to instead of since.

 

[Grandma4ever]

I am not official yet. DH and I just decided tonight that this is the date we want. Right in the middle of the month. I will be calling next week to book. We took the Western last year so I am excited to try the Eastern.

I can't wait to change my ticker to a countdown to instead of since.

All Right, some one else from Missouri. Welcome. Let us know when it becomes official. I may want to pick your brain because we are doing both the Eastern and the Western (back to back). We have taken 3 Eastern but have not done a Western yet. Til then, Mouser

 

[Grandma4ever]

Hello everyone. We are thrilled to have booked our first Disney Cruise and will be sailing with all you lovely people. There will be just three of us - myself, DH, and DD, who will be 4 then. DH & I have been on other cruises before DD came along, but this is our first one with her and we are so excited to be on our first Disney Cruise. We are on Deck 7 aft. Love the PJ party/breakfast idea. I am a planning freak and cannot wait!!

Maybe I'm getting the hang of this. Glad to hear that you are sailing with us. Looks like it's going to be a great group. I will be down on deck 2. Hope to see you around. Til Then, Mouser

 

[kimgregg]

Mouser,

Thanks for all the great info on excursions. My daughter really wants to go to the beach. Living near Galveston, we really don't get to see nice blue water except when we go on vacation. So we are looking forward to some nice beaches.

Kim

 

[Windy City Heather]

Hello everyone. We are thrilled to have booked our first Disney Cruise and will be sailing with all you lovely people. There will be just three of us - myself, DH, and DD, who will be 4 then. DH & I have been on other cruises before DD came along, but this is our first one with her and we are so excited to be on our first Disney Cruise. We are on Deck 7 aft. Love the PJ party/breakfast idea. I am a planning freak and cannot wait!!

My dd will have just turned 5. I am excited.

Thank you all. I think I needed this little push to actually book this trip. We are for sure going but I have not booked. I just called my travel agent and she is going to hold our room and we will book on Monday. Since we are going with my sister and her husband we have to work out the two payments.

 

[Tigger&Bubba]

Hi everyone! Lamar and I are back. Great 11 nights in Paradise "Wonder"ful!
I will post some pics if you all want to see of the group PJ or pirate night.
We will be heading out to Epcot to do the Dive Quest this afternoon. Diving in the Living seas should be pretty fun. Sort of honorary cast members.

to all the new posters

I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone over the next year.

See you soon

Dianna

 

[Grandma4ever]

Hi everyone! Lamar and I are back. Great 11 nights in Paradise "Wonder"ful!
I will post some pics if you all want to see of the group PJ or pirate night.
We will be heading out to Epcot to do the Dive Quest this afternoon. Diving in the Living seas should be pretty fun. Sort of honorary cast members.

to all the new posters

I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone over the next year.

See you soon

Dianna

Would Love to see the Pics. So sorry I wasn't on the 11 day southern Cruise. However, I just got back from an Eastern with the Grandkids. Can hardly wait for next year. Hope to get to know everyone over the next year. Mouser

 

[Grandma4ever]

Mouser,

Thanks for all the great info on excursions. My daughter really wants to go to the beach. Living near Galveston, we really don't get to see nice blue water except when we go on vacation. So we are looking forward to some nice beaches.

Kim

I'm sure you know that the beaches are beautiful in both St Thomas and St Maarten. Any one of them would be a good pick. I just keep looking at my pictures from my past vacations. I just need to win powerball then I can move and live on a beach. Mouser

 

[lg3]

Yes, thanks Grandma4ever for the excursion tips - that is the one aspect of the trip I haven't researched to death. Lovin' every minute of it!

BTW - Perhaps we will have a strong midwest contingent, as we are in Maryland Heights MO. I'm guessing I'm just 10-15 min. from where Hixski lives. Should be a lot of fun.

 

[Hixski]

Yes, thanks Grandma4ever for the excursion tips - that is the one aspect of the trip I haven't researched to death. Lovin' every minute of it!

BTW - Perhaps we will have a strong midwest contingent, as we are in Maryland Heights MO. I'm guessing I'm just 10-15 min. from where Hixski lives. Should be a lot of fun.

Nice to see some Missouri folks. We were just in WDW and VB. Nearly everyone we talked with were from New Jersey, New York or Boston. A guy sitting next to us in ESPN club asked the bartender if they were going to show the University of Missouri football game the next day. DH and I looked at him and said "Mizzou". He said yes but I didn't think anyone here would know what I was talking about.

 

[captaincrash]

Hello!

We just got off the 11 nite southern voyage and we rebooked for this sailing with the 2 families that shared our table. So we've just added another 11 folks to the DIS crowd! The Sept 17-28th sailing had 304 DIS folks on the sailing roster, 17,000+ postings and I think 250,000+ thread visits... so that is a bit unusual IMHO for it's extreme activity levels.

At any rate, I and our new DIS friends off the last sailing are excited abut the prospect of sailing on Sept 15th with everyone here! Setting up some DIS activities should be great fun planning and such!

And has anyone set up a centralized cruise info posting? The Sept 17th sailing had a designated posting to refer everyone NEW to find answers to the usual initial questions of new folks coming to the group. It might be interesting to take a look at it - http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=9464988&postcount=5

At any rate, we're a family of 4 - spouse and I are in our early 40s with DDs 2/5 now (3 and 6 next September). Our table mates will probably post in a few days time.

Cheers!

 

[captaincrash]

Would Love to see the Pics. So sorry I wasn't on the 11 day southern Cruise. However, I just got back from an Eastern with the Grandkids. Can hardly wait for next year. Hope to get to know everyone over the next year. Mouser

We just got off this sailing and I took (how many pictures?)... are you sitting down?.... I took 6,700+ imgages over the 13 days of travel. And that's lightly edited already! I'm sure I'll evenutally lop off another 5-10% as deleatable images... but just the same it's a lot (even by my usual snap happy standards!). As such I've already uploaded a few photos to share with other folks for various reasons. And below I've posted a few to share which do not undermine Tigger&Bubba's offer to post Pirate nite or PJ party images....

Here are a couple from a balloon drop party they ran ...

And here are a few images from Barbados - a beach where the crew frequents called "The Boat Dock" I think.

The Jet skis were only $25 for 15 minutes here (what a bargain!)... and entance through the bar was $15 which included a return cab ride to the ship, 1st drink/beer, and a wrist band which entitle you to access to the chairs, umbrellas, floating trampolene, toys, and a swing off the dock into the water (Tarzan style). Not bad really, and I could see why the crew came here - as it was a nice beach and excellent value! Of course, you could also enter the beach from the adjoining parking lot for free and enjoy the beach without paying anything too... and some of the folks visiting did exactly that.​

 

[captaincrash]

Maybe I'm getting the hang of this. Glad to hear that you are sailing with us. Looks like it's going to be a great group. I will be down on deck 2. Hope to see you around. Til Then, Mouser

Say, we've booked deck two as well!

This is going to be our 5th DCL sailing and 16-17th voyage depending on whether you sak me or my spouse. And we are quite happy with deck two as being low has the advantage of minimizing rolling ships motion. Now I know the ship has stabilizers to minimize the rolling... but there sometimes is some side motion even so. AND, our deck two cabin is right at the aft elevator cluster so we have also minimized our exposure to vertical ships motion which is generally more pronounced at the front of the ship. We did opt for a window though. The single large one as opposed to the smaller twin portholes. We passed on a Catagory 6 veranda even though it was only about $700 for the step up from a catagory 9. I'm just slightly concerned about the potential hazard of a veranda to our 2 young kids. With the window there's no possibility of anyone falling overboard. AND we passed on catagory 8 even though it puts us on the kids' club floor because they're all clustered forward in rollor coaster country.

Oh well... we remain perfectly happy with the catagory 9 window....

 

[captaincrash]

My sister and her husband are scuba divers. They might be up for a dive.

I think a secret Mickey sounds really, really neat.

I participated in the Secret Mickey game on our recent Sept 17-28th sailing. It was great fun and I would highly recommend it as a fun diversion for the cruise.

Count me in - and possibly a 2nd member of our cabin too.

 

[captaincrash]

Just thought I'd check in over here. been on the "fast and the furious" 2006 thread. I think we are aiming for 10,000. posts. please don't ask why,cos'
I haven't a clue.

.....

We will be playing "tag" with a big mickey head on stateroom doors next month too. This is the latest activity added to the fun. You sign it and pass it on to the next person on the list. I'll let you know how that goes.

.....

Well all see you later.

Dianna

Oh yeah...

"Tag" was fun too. It had us wandering a bit from one end of the ship to the other - however, we had a large number participating in this from among the 304+ folks in the DIS group.

And on a seperate note... this marks the 100th posting to the thread! Which is part of the reason for my multiple replies at this time. YES, I was one of the crazy ones who fanned the flames of posting activity on the 17th thread which ... as previously mentioned... now runs at 17,300+ postings.