11/28/09 - 12/5/2009 The Nana's Ride the Seas Again #5

[Eeyore'sthebest]

Will be cruising with you guys as well, myself 51 and daughter, 8yo. This is our first cruise!! Still a surprise for her until September, when she will receive her postcard from a fellow dis-er at Castaway Cay!!!

Will be cruising with you guys as well, myself 51 and daughter, 8yo. This is our first cruise!! Still a surprise for her until September, when she will receive her postcard from a fellow dis-er at Castaway Cay!!! [/QUOT

We have not told our kids yet either - thinking now that I may just wait until a day or two before and really surprise them! We have a 5 hour flight from LAX to Orlando which is the bummer party but worth it once we board the ship. I would love to secretly pack the whole family (4 kids plus me and DH) and wake them on the 27th when we fly out with the surprise but not sure I can pull that off. I figure the first cruise will be the most magical memory - and since my younger 2 kids may not remember we will just have to do it again in 2011!! And hoping nobody has motion sickness - just don't know at this point. BTW - my older girls are ages 7 & 8 and can meet your DD in the club.

My 9 year old DD is psyched that there will be kids her age. Maybe we should set up a meet early in the cruise for them! We'll be at the terminal at 10 a.m. Let me know if you guys are going to be there early as well and maybe they can all chat then. It will definitely help pass the time!!!

 

[Morgan's Mommy]

My 9 year old DD is psyched that there will be kids her age. Maybe we should set up a meet early in the cruise for them! We'll be at the terminal at 10 a.m. Let me know if you guys are going to be there early as well and maybe they can all chat then. It will definitely help pass the time!!!

We will be flying in on 11/27 and staying at the Hyatt. Hope to be on early bus to the terminal. DD will be the one with huge smile on her face and I will be the one trying to hold her down Look forward to meeting you all! The kindness and goodwill on these boards is awesome.

 

[jd99]

Jeff, thanks for the list. I had you posted but wasnt sure of Emily's age, I had Elizabeth at 10 but will change her to 11 later this week when I add more names to the list.

I was worried you would be getting lots of bad weather. We have had weather reports about storms rolling through there. Hope you dont get dumped on.




Debbie, thanks for Jacks name. Will add him later this week when I update the list.

I am waiting for a few more people to contact me with their info.

Kathy

Hi Kathy -
We have had good luck with the weather. The storm that was heading this way (Felicia) really fizzled out - I think it caused some rain on the Big Island and Maui but we didn't get impacted at all while on Oahu. Here in Kauai it is looking a little stormy today but nothing yet. They are saying the island will get some rain but we are on the dryest part-south shore - so we probably won't be much impacted. We are taking a snorkel trip tomorrow on the Napali Coast and just hope that nothing happens to cancel that one as it looks like an amazing trip. Today is our hang out day. Probably the pool, maybe a massage, and the beach. We are here until Monday at which point we fly to Maui for five nights.

We are starting to get used to the time which is both good and bad. It was fun to get up at 5 a.m (which we never do at home) but a drag to be tired and sleepy at 9 p.m. since we are late night people. Maybe we just needed a good night's sleep as we all slept in until 7:30 today.

Well off to breakfast (it is only 8:11 here and my computer says 2:11 p.m.)

Happy day all!

 

[Eeyore'sthebest]

Glad you're having a great trip Jeff. Enjoy the massage!!! I don't know whether to be happy for you or jealous. Hmm, I think I can be both!!

Enjoy!

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Jeff, I am glad to hear the storms didnt really impact your vacation. Thats great.



Ok everyone I added as much as i could for names to the first page.Because some didnt contact me yet they may be omited or your profile may be incomplete.
Please look and see if your there and whats missing or if there is an error, then PM me and I will add things to the page.

If your new just click on my posting name and then from the box that appears click on send a private message and it will come right to me, easy to do.

be sure and add your cruise date on your message. I am doing a cruise list for the 11/7 cruise too and so I did make a boo boo earlier but got it corrected. I want to keep both cruises straight.

Thankyou,

Kathy

 

[momof2minnies]

I have a question for those of you who have sailed the Magic before.

As I previously posted before we do not like to dress up, plus we only do carry on so we are not going to pack tons of things to wear.I am a minimalist when it comes to packing.

We are confused about formal night/captain's gala dinner/ golden Mickey dinner- when are these and are they all formal or is it different names for the same dinner- formal night, first night at sea?

15 weeks away- woohoo!
Getting closer!

Linda

 

[*Nessa*]

I have a question for those of you who have sailed the Magic before.

As I previously posted before we do not like to dress up, plus we only do carry on so we are not going to pack tons of things to wear.I am a minimalist when it comes to packing.

We are confused about formal night/captain's gala dinner/ golden Mickey dinner- when are these and are they all formal or is it different names for the same dinner- formal night, first night at sea?

15 weeks away- woohoo!
Getting closer!

Linda

Linda, good question we have been wondering the same, i'll be interested to see what our veteran cruises think


I also have a question for those who have sailed before; we have a confirmed cat 6 room & room number (6086). A friend said we should drop the confirmed room number as we might get an upgrade, but what would be an upgrade above cat 6? I didn’t think they had them? And how likely would it be? Is it better to just stay with the room we have?

 

[Disneyholic]

Linda, good question we have been wondering the same, i'll be interested to see what our veteran cruises think


I also have a question for those who have sailed before; we have a confirmed cat 6 room & room number (6086). A friend said we should drop the confirmed room number as we might get an upgrade, but what would be an upgrade above cat 6? I didn’t think they had them? And how likely would it be? Is it better to just stay with the room we have?

For a few seconds I thought we were going to neighbors, but we are in 6584. Well, anyway, we're on the same deck and the same ship. We may run into eachother at the elevators.

Anyone planning on a meet sometime, somewhere onboard?

We (DH & I) are still hoping everything works out so we can be on this cruise. We are waiting till the 75 day point to see if we can get the final payment together, even though as Castaway members we could book excursions at 90 days if we were paid in full by then. I'm not really too worried about excursions, I just want to get on the ship. If we can't do any excursions, we will just enjoy the ship. We really didn't do any last cruise (only DS did on CC), so we just walked around the area around the port in Nassau.

The weather here had been very warm with a little rain now and then. Getting out on my motorcycle more now that the rain has let up a little. I don't take it to work if it's raining in the morning, but if it's nice, but calling for rain, I take it. Half the time the weatherman is wrong and on the few times it does rain, I only have a 1.5 mile ride home and I can change when I get there. Hope the weather holds up as well as it did last year. We cruised the end of October & I road the bike to work right thru the day before we left to drive to Port.

 

[jd99]

Linda, good question we have been wondering the same, i'll be interested to see what our veteran cruises think


I also have a question for those who have sailed before; we have a confirmed cat 6 room & room number (6086). A friend said we should drop the confirmed room number as we might get an upgrade, but what would be an upgrade above cat 6? I didn’t think they had them? And how likely would it be? Is it better to just stay with the room we have?

While there is a slight chance of you moving up to a 5 or a 4, the five is exactly the same just on deck 7 vs. deck 6. The four is a slightly bigger room but if you like your location of your cat 6, I'd keep it.

I have a question for those of you who have sailed the Magic before.

As I previously posted before we do not like to dress up, plus we only do carry on so we are not going to pack tons of things to wear.I am a minimalist when it comes to packing.

We are confused about formal night/captain's gala dinner/ golden Mickey dinner- when are these and are they all formal or is it different names for the same dinner- formal night, first night at sea?

15 weeks away- woohoo!
Getting closer!

Linda

Linda- I think formal night and golden mickey's are the same thing. Gala dinner may be another name for it as well (or else it's semi-formal night where mostly everything goes).

 

[jd99]

Hi everyone. Still having a fantastic vacation in Hawaii. Tomorrow is our last full day in Kauai and we head to Maui on MOnday for another five nights. This is the first time we have done multiple islands with the kids and it has been great as it is like 3 vacations in one - and the time is NOT flying by like it does sometimes. Just the right amount of time on each island - though we'd have liked more time on Oahu as we liked Waikiki area MUCH more than we ever expected.

Lots of great photos once we get back.

Aloha!

jeff

 

[momof2minnies]

Thanks for the info Jeff and can't wait to see your pix!

Linda

 

[Eeyore'sthebest]

Hey everybody! I'm bumping us up from page 2!!!

I'm home from a long weekend at the beach. I love the beach and so does my DD. DH doesn't love it so we leave him at home every year. It makes DD happy that I don't pluck her off the beach until the absolute last minute! She spent the whole weekend on her boogie board. We tried the skim board. That was interesting. We'll stick to the boogie board from now on.

We even stopped at Mystic Aquarium on the way home. I haven't been since I was a kid. I really remember it being a lot bigger than it was. Guess that means I'm old.

Have a good week everyone. And it's less than 2 weeks until the Castway Cay members can book excursions. We're getting closer.

 

[Eeyore'sthebest]

Good morning! Bumping again.

It's going to be another hot day in NYC. Blech!! Stay cool everyone.

 

[Eeyore'sthebest]

Hello...is anyone out there.

10 more days before we can book excursions!!!

 

[jd99]

I'm here. I'm here. Well not really. I'm still in Maui but getting ready to head home on Saturday It's been such a great trip we hate to see it end but if it doesn't end soon my business will be kaput.

Have a great day all!

 

[keenercam]

Hi, everyone! I am still here (though barely some days. LOL!) Work is crazy busy for me. I just paid off the balance on the cruise so that it doesn't slip through the cracks with all of the end-of-summer craziness. The fall months fly for us with marching band, a 2-week trial for me and a bunch of endurance races (for Howard -- right now, I'm just trying to walk), so I think the time leading up to the cruise is going to fly.

I haven't even had time to look at the excursion list yet but I think we'll be doing a lot of beach days and outings on our own this time, so as to maximize relaxation and ship time.

Has anyone else decided on excursions yet?

 

[Eeyore'sthebest]

Hey Jeff - I can't believe you've been in Maui this whole time. Wow! It seems really long. Good for you. Glad you and the family are having a great time.

Keenercam - I sat the family down and forced them to go through the excursion list and the dining plan for WDW pre-trip. It was like pulling teeth. Good thing I'm the planner!!
We're renting an electric car in Key West, privately and not through DCL. I really want to go to the Southernmost point and take a picture. I know it's dopey but I want one. DD wants to go to the butterfly place and the Truman White House. Odd combination but we will hopefully be able to get everything in.

In Grand Cayman we plan on booking an island tour through DCL. We're going to do the 2 hour one. This gets us to Hell (I just like saying that) and the turtle farm with hopefully a smidge of background on the island. After that, we will take a cab to the beach and DH will go back to the boat. He's disabled so he tires more quickly and actually doesn't like the beach for too long. I have to threaten DD with missing the boat just to get her off the beach.

In Cozumel we've booked the Royal Swim with the dolphin package at Chakanab. We're doing this privately so hopefully there will be no screw ups with that. Hopefully that will go well.

Not planning on booking anything on CC. We'll rent a float or two and that will be it. DH doesn't want to fish. We did the stingrays last years. We may bring snorkel equipment for DD and I. As we're not big snorkelers I'm waiting for stuff to go on sale at Wal-Mart. I'm cheap. If it doesn't go on sale then maybe we won't snorkel. Oh well. No biggie. CC is just fun lying on the beach.

No Palo for us and I'm skipping the spa this year. It was about $75 more on the boat than I can get locally. And I won't be tempted to buy that wonderful spa product.

 

[momof2minnies]

Jeff- wow I am jealous, still in Hawaii!

Cam- we decided not to do excursions.We are going to grab taxis and go to the beaches on our own.

Allison_ we are hoping to walk around Key West on our own or jump on the trolley, electric car sounds cool though.

We are having passport issues now.Hope it does not take long to fix.I am in a panic.

Linda

 

[jd99]

Hey Jeff - I can't believe you've been in Maui this whole time. Wow! It seems really long. Good for you. Glad you and the family are having a great time.

Well technically we have not been in Maui this whole time. 4 nights Oahu, 6 in Kauai and now 5 in maui. It has been a great long vacation and thankfully it hasn't flown by completely but has progressed at a nice pace but now that we are at the end, we don't want it to end.

Excursions? In Key West we may stay on the ship to enjoy the quiet. In GC, we will head straight for 7 mile beach and enjoy a day on our own. In Cozumel, we will go to Paradise Beach, the only place to enjoy the day in Coz.

Gotta think out the dining ressies for pre-cruise VERY soon.

Tomorrow is our last full day here. We snorkeled Molokini and Turtle Town today - great great day. Everyone is tired. Tomorrow, we have a pool cabana and are just hanging for the day...

 

[momof2minnies]

Jeff
We are going to do the same thing on this trip, hang out at the beaches.Never been to Key West so we will check it out.

Linda