11/22/08 Thanksgiving 2008 cruise thread. Double Dipping Travelling Turkeys!

[dutch_girl_scout]

OMG!!! We have 2 8th graders in our family (and several in my GS troop) and while I don't even know this girl or her family, but I feel it's tooooooooooooooooooo much of an age difference. In most places, they aren't even in the same school group. I know how hard it is to be a single parent, but even if the boy is a "good guy" it just isn't right at that age. It opens up a can of worms. As for how to deal with it (say something or not), I can't answer that for you. It depends on the relationship you have with the mom/girl and especially the timing.

That's just it, the guy isn't a good guy. He graduated at the semester, she is at the Jr. High. I hardly know them at all, just had her in our troop one year when there wasn't a leader for that troop. She's not in GS anymore. We live in a small enough town that I'm almost sure the mom has to know but if it was my daughter and the whole town knew except me I would probably wish someone would've said something. I don't know what to do. Thanks for listening though.

I too think that Girl Scouts is a great program, anytime girls can get together in a controlled environment it's a good thing. Our troop has such a range of girls, and none of them are good friends at school but when they are together as a troop they have a great time and can listen and communicate with each other, and respect each other even if they disagree. Teenage girls can be nasty, that's one of the main reasons I'm homeschooling DD. She can focus on academics and not worry about what other people say, and she doesn't have to put up with all the drama.

Is it cookie time for you guys too? Our sale started on Saturday, I haven't got the form from our cookie mom yet, we still have cookies in the freezer from last year.

OK, I've taken up enough time and space on my thoughts for today. Anyone have positive things to talk about?

 

[cjckclan]

Oh BLAST!! Frustration and disappointment have hit hard.
We were hoping to fly rather than spend 16 hrs driving each way. Well, today DH's miles from Sat's flight were finally posted giving us enough for three tickets using frequent flyer miles. GREAT! (you would think). Oh no.... there aren't any seats on any flight the day before we sail and none to get us home until 2 Dec.

Okay. I'm trying to keep things in perspective. At least we are still cruising.

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

Joan--Sorry to hear that flying isn't working out. I keep watching Allegiant air's website. I'm planning on buying the tickets as soon as the prices come out so that we have seats. They are the only direct flight in/out of Des Moines to Orlando. What part of IL are you guys in? Allegiant flies out of Rockford/Chicago, Peoria, and St. Louis/Mid-America They fly into Sanford Airport instead of MCO but it is a really nice little airport, no crowds, and is only 1 1/2 hours from Port Canveral. They are cheap too, their rates are usually $99 each way. The fares usually don't come out until about 6 months before or so. Good luck!

 

[cjckclan]

Stacie -
Thanks for the info. I'm going to look into that. We are close to St Louis and closer still to the MidAmerica airport. I don't really care who I fly with if it gets me out of 32 hrs of road time.

 

[GotDisney?]

Oh BLAST!! Frustration and disappointment have hit hard.
We were hoping to fly rather than spend 16 hrs driving each way. Well, today DH's miles from Sat's flight were finally posted giving us enough for three tickets using frequent flyer miles. GREAT! (you would think). Oh no.... there aren't any seats on any flight the day before we sail and none to get us home until 2 Dec.

Okay. I'm trying to keep things in perspective. At least we are still cruising.

Joan--Sorry to hear that flying isn't working out. I keep watching Allegiant air's website. I'm planning on buying the tickets as soon as the prices come out so that we have seats. They are the only direct flight in/out of Des Moines to Orlando. What part of IL are you guys in? Allegiant flies out of Rockford/Chicago, Peoria, and St. Louis/Mid-America They fly into Sanford Airport instead of MCO but it is a really nice little airport, no crowds, and is only 1 1/2 hours from Port Canveral. They are cheap too, their rates are usually $99 each way. The fares usually don't come out until about 6 months before or so. Good luck!

Stacie -
Thanks for the info. I'm going to look into that. We are close to St Louis and closer still to the MidAmerica airport. I don't really care who I fly with if it gets me out of 32 hrs of road time.

Joan,
Marc suggested checking out flights into Tampa also. It is approximately 1 1/2 hours from Tampa to Orlando. Beats driving 16 hours each way. Let us know how it goes.

Kimi

 

[GotDisney?]

Is it cookie time for you guys too? Our sale started on Saturday, I haven't got the form from our cookie mom yet, we still have cookies in the freezer from last year.

We started pre-orders on Fri 04 Jan. Marc and I got rigged into being the service unit cookie managers this year. I finally trained our last troop cookie manager for the service unit just yesterday. What bakers do y'all have? We have Little Brownie.

 

[cjckclan]

Okay - So I have more research to do concerning flights. Allegiant flies out of an airport less than 10 miles from my house, but flies only on Weds and Sats and Sat flight schedule leaves in the evening. It would work getting us home but we'd obviously miss the ship. I'd walk before I missed the ship. Leaving on Wed is too early since part of the objective is to minimize the # of days the kids miss school. So I've scratched Allegiant off the list, but I'm not giving up just yet.

Does anyone know when Disney will have info regarding excursions at Costa Maya posted on their website? I think we'll do a Mayan Ruins Tour through the Native Choice, but I was just curious to see what Disney would set up.

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

Susan (DisneyPoor) has arranged a private DIS tour with Native Choice. I know the 12/9/06 group had a huge DIS group go out with them and they were great. She has contacted them and let them know we had a group coming when we get closer we'll need a head count and to arrange the details. There are posts about it early in this thread (maybe in the first 10 pages or so).

I saw that the Allegiant schedule isn't great for you guys. I was thinking you could maybe fly out on that Wed night, then the kids would only miss Thurs and Fri but that's still two days.

 

[cjckclan]

Susan (DisneyPoor) has arranged a private DIS tour with Native Choice. I know the 12/9/06 group had a huge DIS group go out with them and they were great. She has contacted them and let them know we had a group coming when we get closer we'll need a head count and to arrange the details. There are posts about it early in this thread (maybe in the first 10 pages or so).

I saw that the Allegiant schedule isn't great for you guys. I was thinking you could maybe fly out on that Wed night, then the kids would only miss Thurs and Fri but that's still two days.

I had read about Native Choice earlier in this thread...but didn't realize it was a DIS group going together. That would be so great. I'll keep my eyes out for the head count.

The problem flying out on Wed is that the kids would miss 4 days of school. They will already miss the Mon & Tues of the cruise because Thanksgiving break here is just Wed-Fri. I'm sure the kids would love it. Getting to Orlando with 2 days extra would require at least one day at WDW. Can't say that the budget would like that very much though. Leaving Fri evening would be ideal - I just haven't found a cost-effective way of doing it yet. Thanks for the input though.

 

[GotDisney?]

Woohooo!!!!

We are only:

44 weeks
(or) 308 days
(or) 7392 hours
(or) 443520 minutes
(or) 26611200 seconds

away from our Double Dipping Traveling Trukeys cruise!!!!!

(It's a dreary day outside and I needed something to cheer me up.)

 

[GotDisney?]

Just curious, is anyone from our "little" group blessed to be hosting a DCL House Party on Saturday?

 

[Mean Queen]

Just curious, is anyone from our "little" group blessed to be hosting a DCL House Party on Saturday?

I had got something about one of these in my email a few months back but decided it wasn't for me. My friends either already do Disney cruises or they can't afford to and I wouldn't want to hold a party to rub it in their face. What do you get from holding the house party?

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

Just curious, is anyone from our "little" group blessed to be hosting a DCL House Party on Saturday?

Disneypoor (Susan) is having one.

 

[tjeagle]

Just curious, is anyone from our "little" group blessed to be hosting a DCL House Party on Saturday?

Not hosting, but we were invited to one! One of my daughter's friends families are DCL people....the mom and I hit it off from the start!!
I'll let you all know how it goes!

 

[disneypoor]

I am hosting a house party this weekend. I'm a little stressed about it! My daughter has an all day volleyball tournament on Saturday, and my party is Sunday. I haven't received my kit in the mail yet, and my house is not ready! I'm still trying to figure out for sure what I'm doing, but I know it will be a lot of fun! I tend to work better under pressure anyway!

 

[griswalds]

10 month mark, YEAH!

 

[GotDisney?]

10 month mark, YEAH!

Wooohoooo!!!!

 

[GotDisney?]

Anyone else planning on stashing the new tax rebate away until cruise time?

 

[disneypoor]

We leave for Hawaii 7 weeks from today, so I'll be using whatever tax rebate we get, if any, to help pay off our excursions while there. I got our trip paid for completely and didn't realize how expensive the excursions would be. I hope it all goes through. You hear something different every day. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

 

[tjeagle]

Anyone else planning on stashing the new tax rebate away until cruise time?

Don't know if I could hold on to it that long!! But I may use it to pay off the cruise! That is just about what I still owe!!