09/16/06 Double Scoop Group- see ya real soon!!

[akasleepingbeauty]

Amanda,

We are hoping our CA trip turns out fun. We are DVC members and have about borrowed ourselves out of points so we decided an alternative trip was necessary this year. So with DL's big 50th anniversary we felt it was a great time to go out there and visit. I hope we find a lot of magic out there although we are aware that the entire resort area is smaller and therefore the experience will be different. The idea of staying offsite is also a bit hard to accept - we just don't do that, you know???

Anyway, we are looking forward to it and I think we will all enjoy seeing where the magic started. Visiting San Diego will also be nice as it is such a truly beautiful area. Meeting up with Karen/TADsMommy will just make it even more special!!

Are y'all planning to decorate your doors for the cruise? I just love some of the pictures I have seen and I am already trying to decide just what I want for our doors.

I went to see "The Producers" today with my sister at the Dallas Music Hall (we have season tickets and saw "Peter Pan" two weeks ago). It was fantastic - sure wish I could have seen Nathan Lane & Matthew Broderick doing in NY though.

Time to get kiddos to bed and to clean up around here a bit.

Talk to you all later tonight or tomorrow,

 

[dinnysuw]

First off-KUDOS to those of you who homeschool! I wish I had the patience. Although we are blessed with a great elementary school(St. Joseph) my kids are third generation there. I have such a hard time trying to help with homework. I tell my kids God gave me the gifts to help people medically. I was not meant to teach!
I have another idea for the tshirt design-stop me if it sounds stupid! how about a picture of the magic with two scoops of ice cream on top-ya know-like and ice cream boat? keeping with the double scoop of CC. i can see it in my head-just don't know how it would look on paper!
talk to you all later! have a great day!
darcy

 

[akasleepingbeauty]

Hey Darcy,

I was kind of thinking of something like that too - sort of a banana split/sundae type thing but with the boat as the "dish" and then the ice cream on top. I just couldn't figure out how to still incorporate the funnels etc. I do think it would be cute though and as with you I can see it in my mind but not sure how to "translate" it into an actual graphic.

So I just mentioned this to my dh and he said that maybe what we could do instead is go the other direction - make an ice cream creation that we then form to look like the ship - using cherries to make the funnels etc. I hadn't thought of that - of course that is why I say he is the creative one and I am NOT.

Any feedback on these ideas????? I think we can come up with something good with the ice cream etc. as long as everyone is "onboard" with that general idea.

Disney Dreams to you all and to all a good night!

 

[dinnysuw]

Rhonda-I have come to think that you and I are the only two left on this thread LOL! I think your hubbies idea of the cherries as the mickey funnels are great! I guess we have lots of time, unfortunately, to come up with something!
Darcy

 

[dzneprincess]

I am still here! Just many threads going on at once, and since this cruise is the furthest away, infortunately you get the least amount of attention! LOL Sorry! I am sooo mad at my DH right now! Our yard is in the pits becasue we have been working so much lately. Especially him, he had 54 hours of OT the past 2 weeks. So for Father's Day I decided to get a lwan maintenance person to come once a week for $27 ( I dont think that is bad at all!) and keep the yard clean. You'd think he would be happy about it, but noooooooo.....I just got in and he cut the lawn!??!!??!! ARGH I am so upset with him. THat was our Father's Day gift to him and he just ruined it for us. :-(

 

[TADsMommy]

Hello to all and especially to Amanda, Darcy and Rhonda!!

We have been so busy these past several days with my daughter's brithday Wednesday, a major TaeKwonDo event Thursday, a good friend's wedding at Laguna Beach Friday, scouting events (both Boy and Girl) yesterday and of course Father's Day today then my hubby's birthday tomorrow ... Wheew!!

We love DL so much more than WDW (except for Epcot, we LOVE Epcot!!). Maybe it's just that I have had annual passes for the past 30 years but I love that there is not quite so much "open space" and you can go from attraction to attraction in just a few minutes instead of long walks to each. We try not to hit the major crowd days (but we did go on Memorial Day ... ugh!!). If you time your FastPasses and watch the "wait" boards to see where the crowds are gathering, you can save hours each day. Few people know that you can actually carry more than one FastPass depending on the rides. You can hold a Grizzly Rapids (in CA) along with other rides and you can hold Star Tours (in DL) along with other rides. Once your FastPass is within the hour (at 5:01 if your FastPass says 5:55 or any other 5:?? time) you can carry another FastPass. I would grab FastPasses as soon as you enter the park and then hit the castle and the kiddie rides (Dumbo, PeterPan etal). They typically get super busy within 90minutes of park opening and stay busy until after the fireworks. The little kids area/rides in CA are typically much less crowded so you can safely save them for mid-day (right after lunch or nap is usually perfect timing for most families with young children).

If you want a good meal where you can gather many autographs, you will definitely want to book a meal (early) at Goofy's kitchen (character breakfast/lunch/dinner). This might be the only meal you will need all day (if you love the churros, popcorn, Mickey bars as much as we do).

We have never done the Fantasmic Dessert Buffet, but have heard nice things (it is really hard to book ... good luck!).

I have heard many good things about HoJo. Our favorite is GC, but we have only stayed there once as we live 25min away. Just think how much more $$ you will save by staying at the HoJo.

There are a few really nice "suite" type hotels in San Diego area. Do you have a preference which amusement park you want to be closer to? We have stayed many times at what used to be the Radisson on Hotel Circle. Nice rooms, great concierge floor (for just a few $$ more per night) which offers continental breakfast, all day snacks, afternoon cookies and evening "happy hour" snacks (could make a light meal). I have heard this hotel recently changed ownership and will look into that for you if you like.

Well, it is almost 4pm my time and we are off to DL for the evening. We plan to spend six hours there tonight and to watch the fireworks.

Take care all ... I am already planning (in my mind) for next September's cruise.

Karen

 

[TADsMommy]

I like all the ice cream ideas so far. I was imagining a cone, but the sundae idea sounds really fun!!

 

[akasleepingbeauty]

Hello to My Fellow 9/16/06 Cruisers!

I see it has been an especially busy few days for our group - Happy Father's Day to all of the dads in our group and Happy Birthday to Karen's Dh!!

We drove out to see my parents for Father's Day today - they live about 100 miles away so it is not a bad drive but a visit does take up the entire day. It was nice to see them as well as my siblings and other family members. I hope you all enjoyed a nice family day together as well.

I have been looking at door decorating ideas as well as t-shirts ideas from other threads here on the DIS. I have also been going through the clipart on my various Disney software programs. I am trying to compile a group of pictures and ideas for anything we (as in my family) or anyone else (as in you all!) may want for the cruise. I definitely want to do a personal sign for each of our doors as well as a "group" sign (one that everyone can use if they want so that we each have one) for each door. I am saving images from ones I like on my computer so I can reference them whenever I get ready to actually create mine. If anyone else wants to share good clipart or sites with clipart or wants to come up with their own "group" designs for door decorations then let me know and maybe we can work together. DH is hoping to get working on ideas for the shirts soon - he wanted to some good clear side shots of the ship so he could get an idea of what he is trying to work toward. If he is not able to make the ship/sundae idea work then I think we can still use the ice cream cone idea.

Okay - so who has early dinner seating and who has late dinner seating? We currently have early and I am wanting to make sure this is the right choice. I know that I won't change it until closer to sail time as I know it is usually pretty easy to change to late and not so easy to do it the other way around should I change my mind yet again Our kids will be 6 (dd) and 3 (ds) at the time and we usually eat between 6:30 and 7:00 CST. My kids generally go to bed between 7:15 and 8:00 but I must admit that when at WDW they do often stay up later. On our last cruise we had early seating but dd was only 13 months and didn't go to the shows (went to Flounder's instead). I know that dd especially will want to see the shows this time. I also see that many of the kids club activities in the early evening look like something my kids would enjoy. So, is it better to have late dining and take the kids to the early shows and then let them go to the clubs (I assume they would have dinner before the show either with the clubs or from room service etc.)? I really don't like the idea of them missing the dining room experience completely but how do you work this out???? Any advice would be most welcome!

Karen - we are going to be in Anaheim from Tuesday afternoon through Sunday morning (we are driving in from San Diego on Tuesday and flying back home Sunday). In October, should we expect that Fantasmic will only be showing on the weekends? If so, does that mean Friday and Saturday or just Saturday? I am trying to get an idea of what our chances are of getting a Fantasmic Dessert ressie and want to be prepared if we only have 1 or 2 nights to choose from. Also, do you know in general what hours the parks should be open in October? You mentioned eating at Goofy's Kitchen which I know we want to do. Do you prefer brunch or dinner? I am thinking of doing at least one other character meal - would you recommend Ariel's Grotto or Storyteller's or the Lilo & Stitch one (I hear such bad reviews of the Princess one that I think we will have to skip it this trip)? We are just so excited to be going to DL and to be there for the 50th is especially great. We received our brochure for the commemorative bricks in the mail yesterday and I am going to send it in tomorrow - maybe just maybe it will be installed before we arrive!

Well, time to get the kiddos in bed and to clean up the house after a busy weekend. Hopefully things will not be so busy for everyone this week and we can chat a bit here!

 

[dzneprincess]

I am more of a go where the flow takes you kinda gal...I am not a planner by any means....for instance we are leaving in 3 months for a 4 day Wonder and I havent even paid the darn thing off. Guess I had better do that tomorrow.....that means I will need to make Palo ressies........Now when we get on board early, we can enjoy lunch and hang out at the adult only pool!! AHHHH I am ready now.......Rhonda sounds like you are going to have fun at DL and it seems like you have some very knowledgable experts here in our very own thread!
I forgot to add earlier, that the idea of the ice cream sundae for our t shirts sounds really neat!! NOt to take an idea from my 05/27 group, but someone got a mascot (an ice cream cone) and he is going from DISer to DISer right up until our cruise! I hope we canget to be a little more talkative as the months go by. THat is one thing that has made my past cruises sooo much better. Was "knowing" other people once we got on board. I am sooo looking forward to sailing with fellow DISer ericamanda01 again, but I want to get to know everyone!
A littel game we play on the 5/27 thread is celebrating TOP and milestones posts.....TOP stands for Top Of Page........and it can get really silly and fun when someone comes in and takes the TOP from you! AND I see we are almost at post 300!! Who will get that milestone? You must say something profound! LOL

 

[dinnysuw]

Now this is more like it! I know that those of you who are doing an earlier cruise are jumping from thread to thread, thanks for jumping back here! We are doing UO, IOA and DC in August and it just doesn't have the same hoopla as the DCL! Don't get me wrong, we are excited but the cruise is a much higher level of excitment! June is definitely a busy month for all! In our family we have fathers day, then my birthday, my fathers, my uncles (his brother) and my sisters triplets all on 6/21! Oh how i wish this cruise was this coming september! hope you all have a great week! tomorrow I turn 38 EEWWW!!!
Darcy

 

[akasleepingbeauty]

Good Afternoon to my cruise buddies!

Happy (early) Birthday to Darcy - 38 is still young - celebrate the occasion!! Hope you have a great birthday

June is generally a quiet month for us (unlike for several of you) so I will send some calming pixie dust your way. Hopefully everyone's busy schedules will seem full of fun rather than chaos!

Darcy - it is harder to get as excited about US/IOA vacations for me too. There just isn't that much information/traffic on the boards for those destinations and I never found another source that I liked either. We have our trip to DL this fall along with a trip to WDW in March and yet the cruise is the one I am most excited about planning. I think it is because the DL trip is proving a bit trying due to working with another family who isn't that gung-ho with the planning and the WDW trip is always fun but after so many trips it requires much less planning. So that leaves the cruise - yay. I sure wish it was this fall also but then ds would not be potty-trained and that would a whole different trip - yikes. So we'll have to settle for planning very far in advance and hope it makes the passage of time not so difficult.

I am so hoping that DCL makes an announcement about something exciting for 2007. That is probably the only way I can convince dh to book again for 2007 - otherwise we will probably wait until 2008. Anyone else hoping for a new itinerary or something in 2007?

Amanda - I read a few pages of the 5/27 thread and saw the fun TOP posts etc. We can always incorporate a few fun things here as well although it will take us considerably longer to hit numbers/TOPs than the other thread!

Anyone have any advice on the dining question I posted earlier? I just can't decide and I know I am going to drive myself crazy thinking it through.

Gotta fix lunch and get some laundry done - I'll check back in later today!


******Our first TOP OF THE PAGE celebration********

 

[dzneprincess]

Darcy dont forget I have been to IOA/US a few times most recently in January...feel free to ask any questions I know what you mean about the excitement level not being the same. I had a great time when we were there in Jan but I jsut didnt get that magic happy "everything is okay with the world" feeling that I get while I am at WDW.....I know I am a bit nuts! LOL

 

[dzneprincess]

Good Afternoon to my cruise buddies!

Happy (early) Birthday to Darcy - 38 is still young - celebrate the occasion!! Hope you have a great birthday

June is generally a quiet month for us (unlike for several of you) so I will send some calming pixie dust your way. Hopefully everyone's busy schedules will seem full of fun rather than chaos!

Darcy - it is harder to get as excited about US/IOA vacations for me too. There just isn't that much information/traffic on the boards for those destinations and I never found another source that I liked either. We have our trip to DL this fall along with a trip to WDW in March and yet the cruise is the one I am most excited about planning. I think it is because the DL trip is proving a bit trying due to working with another family who isn't that gung-ho with the planning and the WDW trip is always fun but after so many trips it requires much less planning. So that leaves the cruise - yay. I sure wish it was this fall also but then ds would not be potty-trained and that would a whole different trip - yikes. So we'll have to settle for planning very far in advance and hope it makes the passage of time not so difficult.

I am so hoping that DCL makes an announcement about something exciting for 2007. That is probably the only way I can convince dh to book again for 2007 - otherwise we will probably wait until 2008. Anyone else hoping for a new itinerary or something in 2007?

Amanda - I read a few pages of the 5/27 thread and saw the fun TOP posts etc. We can always incorporate a few fun things here as well although it will take us considerably longer to hit numbers/TOPs than the other thread!

Anyone have any advice on the dining question I posted earlier? I just can't decide and I know I am going to drive myself crazy thinking it through.

Gotta fix lunch and get some laundry done - I'll check back in later today!


******Our first TOP OF THE PAGE celebration********

Woohoo nice TOP there Rhonda!
As far as dinner goes, we actually prefer late dining and we are in the EST zone! We had always opted for early dining because we were told that was what everyone wanted. Well, our cruise of 10/03 we just felt sooo rushed getting back from excursions and onto to dinner on time. So we tested the waters with our Wonder cruise last year, where it was just Steve and I, no kids...Oh my we LOVED LOVED LOVED alte seating it was such a more relaxed feeling........we normally got the hungries around 3ish. but we would just munch on something from Pinocchio's...the only down side is since seating was not until 800 I think? It was late when we got done eating. I liked it alot because we could were relaxing normal clothes to the shows, and there was still time in between show and dinner to change to nice clothes if needed...then afterwords it was normallly PJ time. Where as the other way around you are changing from lounging clothes to dress clothes and usually back to lounging clothes to catch the show in, and then PJ's....anyways just something to get you thinking about. IT worked really well for us in 11/04 and the ages of my kids at the time were 9,8,5 and 1 1/2......I hope this gives you some quality information! LOL

 

[dzneprincess]

Oh yeah since most people were rushing off to get ready for early dinner seating and all the hoopla that goes with that we got more quiet time in the pools ( Some shows we skipped like Hercules and the Variety show and Who wants to be a mouseketeer)

 

[dzneprincess]

OK Rhonda I officially elect you to be the.... uhm.... door room sign and magnet person.....
see here http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=8932958&postcount=92

 

[akasleepingbeauty]

Thanks Amanda for the input on dinner. I actually think I could be convinced to do the later seating; I think dh will be the hardest one to convince as he is just sure that the kids will never make it to late dinner. I know that he is right when considering our "regular" schedule but I also remember better how things tend to shift during vacation. Well at least I have quite a while to convince him and two Disney vacations in between during which I can remind of him of aforementioned "shifts."

I would be happy to work on door decorations/magnets. I found soooo many cute pictures while looking last night and today as well as ideas on my various Disney software programs. The hardest part may be narrowing it down to the best ones! I had thought we could have a door magnet to match our shirts but now that I have seen the various things out there I think that just won't be enough - at least not for me! Of course no one has to have a door decoration if they don't want one but if they do I promise to have at least a couple of choices. If anyone has any great pictures or clipart they'd like to contribute, let me know and I'll add it to my folder.

Well I am off to watch a bit of tv with dh before heading to bed. Hope everyone has a nice evening!

 

[dzneprincess]

Rhonda....I would love it if you would do the door magnet thing! I, of course, would pay you back for any supplies as well as for the tee shirts...we will need 6 of them BTW. About dinner, remember, if your kids are like most, they will not even want to leave the club to have dinner with you all! Unless you are going to make family dining an issue, then the late dining time may not be a problem as it would just be you and your DH. Most nights, this past Nov it was just me, DH and DS (1)... the other 3 were off and about in the clubs...or in the case of my eldest son (9) playing YuGiOh with penpals he met via the DISboards....

 

[dzneprincess]

Going back and looking at your kids ages, and the fact that you all norm eat 7pm CST I think late would be a better option......

NOw that we are posting where the heck has Darcy gotten herself off too?


I wonder where everyone else is from this cruise?
Can we get a check in folks?? Holler if you are still joining us

 

[dzneprincess]

oops almost forgot


Happy Birthday Darcy!

 

[dinnysuw]

HERE I AM!! Had to work last nite-but I am catching up on all the new posts-yeah!!
Rhonda here is my input on the early or late dinner seating. We had late for our 04 cruise and LOVED it. It was much more relaxed, no rushing to get ready. there is always food available as well as room service that me made sure we ate a late lunch and if that didn't work, we would order the all ahnds on deck platter from room service before dinner to munch on.
that brings me to my next thing..since I am the unofficial list keeper of this cruise-how about we start listing cabin numbers and seating times so I can start adding that info to our list. of course if you'd rather not, that's fine too!

we are in 6060 late seating-same cabin as our 04 cruise!

Amanda-thanks for the HAPPY BIRTHDAY wishes! :