10/17/2010 Wonder Cruise

[lds0191]

Welcome GratefulParrot! This will be our 4th DCL cruise. From my experience any questions you have will be answered on the boards. Greatest place on earth for info for anything Disney and then some.

We are from Louisville and DH and I are cruising with DD9. This will be our 1st FE so newbies in that area.

 

[GratefulParrot]

Hey lds0191, Yeah I've done alot of reading, but it's kind of overwhelming. If we do nothing, it will still be a great trip, but we would like to enhance it with traditions that others follow. Of course at this point, we're still creating the door stuff. It would be cool if we could do the fish stuff, but I'm not sure if I understand it all yet. It would be nice to kinda have a guide to help us out. We still haven't finalize itinerary yet. We were looking for suggestions, when I came across this site. Now our heads are spinning, and we're behind the curve with knowlege on what to do and not to do. I do some work remotely in Louisville. Also, I'm not really up with the acronyms yet. I think I'm catching up, but does DH and DD9 stand for? I think it means Disney Husband and Disney Daughter who's 9, is that right?

 

[lornak]

Welcome aboard, Grateful Parrot! We're happy to have you join us! I know you are going to love the Disney Cruise! In my opinion it is the best family vacation ever!

I did post a summary of how the Fish Extender exchange works a few pages back. But I would be happy to answer any questions you may have and help you get started! If you want to officially "join" just let me know and I will add you to the list of participants!

 

[lds0191]

Grateful Parrot, it is so cool you are in Louisville sometimes. Check out Disboard Basics at the top of the Disney Cruise Line page for a list of abbreviations (and other stuff) DH is Disney Husband, DD9 Disney Daughter age 9. Some more would be DS for Disney Son, DSIL Disney Sister-in-law, etc.

If you have any specific questions post them and we will answer what we can. I guess a couple of things that would be at the top of my list to have a great cruise would be (1) to learn the deck plans to familiarize yourself with where things are (pools, dining, shops, theatres, etc.) so you will not spend a whole day trying to find your way around. And (2) realize you can't do everything in one cruise or you will make yourself nuts and not be able to relax and enjoy. I just booked Palo Brunch for the 1st time (finally) in 4 cruises. DH and I hope to enjoy Serenity Bay (adult beach on Castaway Cay) for a couple of hours this cruise for the first time. DD too nosey in the past to let us out of her sight plus we have cruised with extended family so never had the chance before.

 

[WhitneyDanielle]

We would like to participate in the FE....There are two adults in our cabin, me and my fiance. This is our first cruise and we will be celebrating our honeymoon....we are from Ashland, Ky and after the cruise we will be spending 3 nights at the all star movies resort.

 

[aan1701]

We would like to participate in the FE....There are two adults in our cabin, me and my fiance. This is our first cruise and we will be celebrating our honeymoon....we are from Ashland, Ky and after the cruise we will be spending 3 nights at the all star movies resort.

Congarulations on your Upcoming marriage. My wife and I got married at WDW in 2000. We are celebrating our 10th anniversary on this cruise with a brunch at Palo.

 

[wispy204]

Hello All!!

We have just switched our cruise from Oct. 30 to this one!

A big thing that is going on is that our son will be turning 6 on Oct 17!!!!!!!!!!! We're so excited to be having his b-day on the ship.

There are 2 adults + our son in our party.
We are staying in a Cat 4.

I've done the FE on a prior cruise. What I brought were Moon Pies for the adults and chocolates for the kids. Moon Pies are pretty popular here in NC and figured I could give everyone a "taste from home."


We're really excited about going on this cruise!!!

 

[aan1701]

I just check because I was hoping I can change to a later brunch than 10:30. Well no luck there but there were still brunch slots open if anyone is interested.

 

[GratefulParrot]

Welcome aboard, Grateful Parrot! We're happy to have you join us! I know you are going to love the Disney Cruise! In my opinion it is the best family vacation ever!

I did post a summary of how the Fish Extender exchange works a few pages back. But I would be happy to answer any questions you may have and help you get started! If you want to officially "join" just let me know and I will add you to the list of participants!

I guess we would like to officially join. Even though we have NO idea what we're getting ourselves into.

Sadly we were not able to book the Palo brunch. We must be the only people that couldn't book brunch early.

 

[lornak]

I guess we would like to officially join. Even though we have NO idea what we're getting ourselves into.

Sadly we were not able to book the Palo brunch. We must be the only people that couldn't book brunch early.

Don't be too discouraged over Palo. They leave a lot of reservations out for booking on board. Just try to board early and then go directly to the Palo reservations area (check your welcome aboard flyer to see where it will be). Chances are good that you could get a reservation!

I will add you to our FE list! If you could PM me whatever details you would like listed that would be great (first names, age of DD, where you are from, pre/post cruise plans, etc). I am happy to help you if you have any questions on how this works. Basically it is a "secret santa" type exchange. You leave little gifts for other cruisers and they leave gifts for you. There are not many rules so I don't think you can mess up!!! We're glad you are joining us!!!

 

[Tiggerish]

GratefulParrot, you are not the only one. I too was unable to get a Palo brunch spot for our group but I am going to try again as soon as we board.

 

[aan1701]

I am sorry. In my post yesterday I should have said they had openings for parties of 3-4. My fault.

 

[ScottishMummyof2]

Brilliant clarification on the FE - and ok, I dont feel daft, I would never have guessed that one!! Logging into the DIS for the first time in weeks (had an op at the beginning of July so been recouperating since!) and great to see so many have joined, especially lots of girls similar ages to my two. We would love to join in the FE. Besides my husband Ross and I (Caryn) there will be Bethany aged 11 and Holly aged 7.

We are spending 2 days with an uncle in east Orlando from 7th October then 8 nights at Saratogo Springs with my American cousin, her husband and daughter. Hoping to get a good deal on a Disney resort hotel for our last two nights following the cruise then returning to Scotland 23 October.

 

[lornak]

ScottishMummyof2, I am glad you will be joining us for the FE! I think it will be a lot of fun! And yes, I too am excited about all the girls around the same age. My daughters are getting started with being an e-mail pen pal with one other cruiser. I know they would love to chat with your girls prior to the cruise if they were ever interested! An international pen pal would be really neat! Just PM me if they would be interested in exchanging e-mails!

 

[BealsRwe]

but my BFF and her family and friends will be joining you on your upcoming cruise. We just got off the Wonder from our 5 night cruise this morning. Oh how I would love to be joining you all. Have fun for me! I may have to live vicariously through your thread to get me through to when we book our next one. I'm hoping my BFF, Missy, gets on disboards soon to join you all in the excitement, and FE exchange!

 

[BealsRwe]

We can make a decision to do it a certain way as a group if we would like to. Most of the other groups I have looked at leave it up to each individual. Some people do stateroom gifts (just one gift for everyone in the stateroom), some do gifts for each individual and others do one gift for kids and another for adults. I really don't think there is any "right" way to do it! It is just supposed to be fun and people should feel free to do what they would like!

I think I am going to do a gift for adults and another for the kids. I have a few ideas but will finalize once we know exactly how many people are going to participate.

If you have more questions/ideas on the FE we can certainly discuss them here! I want everyone to have fun with it!!!

We just got off this morning. It was my 11th DCL and 1st FE. We received everything from candy to glow sticks, tote bag, small bottles of rum, stuff from Oriental Trading, and some music compilation cd's. In my signature you can see what we did...a gift for each person (adult, boy, girl). It was so much fun for our family, and we look forward to our next FE once we book the Dream for next year. Since we went to Key West, we put small shots of Margaritaville tequilla in each adult pkg.

My suggestion, put everone's gift in a small ziploc, then place all staterooom in a gallon sized ziploc. It made delivery so much easier!

 

[lornak]

We just got off this morning. It was my 11th DCL and 1st FE. We received everything from candy to glow sticks, tote bag, small bottles of rum, stuff from Oriental Trading, and some music compilation cd's. In my signature you can see what we did...a gift for each person (adult, boy, girl). It was so much fun for our family, and we look forward to our next FE once we book the Dream for next year. Since we went to Key West, we put small shots of Margaritaville tequilla in each adult pkg.

My suggestion, put everone's gift in a small ziploc, then place all staterooom in a gallon sized ziploc. It made delivery so much easier!

Thanks for the great ideas and insight on the FE!!! And WOW! Your gifts are just adorable! I think I better start working on mine! Did you create an iron on for those white bags? They were really cute!

And you are welcome to join us on this thread even if you aren't sailing with us!!

 

[GratefulParrot]

Hey Lornak.

That would be great. And it sounds like my DD won't be alone, which is cool. She's very open and friendly. A little too talkative for me, but I'm a DH and it's understood. She's Christina and a DD12(who's thinks she's DD16). I'm the older than dirt DH who's name is Greg, and my DW is Selena. I'm trying to get her more involved with this site, but she's been busy with the passporter and making reservations. We are in Nashville, so as far as FE is concerned and what I've read, you should be getting something Tennessee'ish. I don't check boards that often, email would be a better trick. I will PM you my address so you can spread it through the group. Of course, since this is the first cruise, we want to make sure the DW and DD don't get sea sick. They have never been on a ship before. We have a lower deck. I was in the Navy many years ago, and I've been on alot of government sponsored cruise.

 

[BealsRwe]

Thanks for the great ideas and insight on the FE!!! And WOW! Your gifts are just adorable! I think I better start working on mine! Did you create an iron on for those white bags? They were really cute!

And you are welcome to join us on this thread even if you aren't sailing with us!!

I actually had the tote bags & can coozies printed with the image. They were done the same way my DD pillowcase was done which is direct to garment printing. I utilized a design from the magnet thread. I had so much fun putting them all together!

 

[GratefulParrot]

Ok stupid question. I emailed Lornak with my info, as well as what's listed here in the thread. I'm assuming I will recieve a list of others who are participating. Do we give to everyone person on the list? Or just exchange with certain families?

BealsRwe - Those gifts are fantastic. But I really don't have the time, patience and skill to do those types of things. I would have to start a year out for me to accomplish that.