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

[jd99]

Greetings everyone
Here are the folks I have who have said they will be coming to the cruise meet on the first day based on PMs I have received.

JD99
Disneyholic
Bound for Disney
Madduck
Eeyore’sthebest
DisneyCDE
Duck Addict
Shellfish_Mickfish
YukonGirl123
Griffith6
Suzannecat
DisneyMommaSteph

If you haven't already done so, please PM me if you want to join us for a brief meet at the Promenade Lounge at 2:45 p.m. on the first day. Mostly it's a chance to let kids get to meet someone else their age before the hit the clubs but it is also a chance for the adults to say hi as well. it makes it more fun when you see other folks around the ship and you can talk about what's going on, maybe meet up for a wine tasting, etc. Don't be afraid! Come along!

Here is the information I'm compiling into a list for those attending:

DIS Name
Family Members
Kids/ages
Home State/Province/Country

 

[shellfish_mickfish]

OKay, this makes post #10, so I can sent the PMs about the FE and the meetup on Sat. afternoon. Anyone know of a good place to buy an doorhanger for the FE that isn't $30? The ones on ebay are cute, I I don't mind decoratin my own if there are plain clear plastic ones with just a few pockets out there somewhere.

--Suzanne :^)

Hey Suzanne,

Shelley here. I bought material at Walmart for under $10 including the iron-on seam tape. I don't know how to sew. The directions to make them are on one of the FE threads.

Wow, like Jeff said, take a couple of days off and look what happens! Everyone must be getting excited! My DH (Pat 40) and I (44) will be traveling with our two DD's (Abby 8 and Annemarie 5). Everything I have read on these forums (which has been since April 08 when we booked!) indicates that the kids want to go to the club all the time. I'm hoping that is true because I'm really looking for some non-stress time. As I'm sure you all know traveling with children is STRESSFUL!! When I first told DH about the cruise he didn't think it sounded like a good vacation at all. I'm hoping to prove him wrong! This will be our 1st DCL. We took the girls to WDW in the winter of 2006. Annemarie was a couple of months short of 3 and she doesn't remember a whole lot but she's older now. She LOVES LOVES LOVES Pluto! So I will definitely need to make sure she gets to the club when he does the picture thing. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[jd99]

Hey Suzanne,

Shelley here. I bought material at Walmart for under $10 including the iron-on seam tape. I don't know how to sew. The directions to make them are on one of the FE threads.

Wow, like Jeff said, take a couple of days off and look what happens! Everyone must be getting excited! My DH (Pat 40) and I (44) will be traveling with our two DD's (Abby 8 and Annemarie 5). Everything I have read on these forums (which has been since April 08 when we booked!) indicates that the kids want to go to the club all the time. I'm hoping that is true because I'm really looking for some non-stress time. As I'm sure you all know traveling with children is STRESSFUL!! When I first told DH about the cruise he didn't think it sounded like a good vacation at all. I'm hoping to prove him wrong! This will be our 1st DCL. We took the girls to WDW in the winter of 2006. Annemarie was a couple of months short of 3 and she doesn't remember a whole lot but she's older now. She LOVES LOVES LOVES Pluto! So I will definitely need to make sure she gets to the club when he does the picture thing. Thanks for the heads up!

Shelly - we will have to have your little one meet my Emily on the first day. They will be in the same group in the club.

If you can get your kids to go to the club for part of the time, you will prove your husband wrong. We LOVE hanging out and doing things with our kids but what we love about the cruise is that we don't have to do it 24/7 and neither do they. For us to steal away for an hour or so in the adult pool...have dinner together in Palo, go to the spa together, attend a wine tasting together or hit a club at night for a drink or two = more dates in one week than we can sometimes manage in six months at home. And yet we have great times with the kids too. It's truly the best of both worlds.

 

[DisneyCrunch]

Hey Jeff and Shelly--I have a 5 year old too (and Steph has a 6 year old) ours are both girls (I see your little ones are girls too Shelly--yours Jeff?)

Allison I'll pm you my 10 year old's email address too (did I already say that? I need the posts so I guess now I'll resort to saying the same thing over and over )

I plan on having my kids in the clubs a fair amount. My goal is to RELAX and be pretty generally boring--that's MY idea of a vacation...so hopefully they'll dig being in the clubs so they can have a vacation more like THEIR ideas of "vacation." I definitely look forward to hitting up some of the family stuff--I'm sure we'll have tons of fun all together doing stuff...but really I like the fact that we can all have a vacation that suits our own needs too.

As far as dress goes...ugh. I'm a VT'er--we don't do dress-up I have a formal dress and something semi formal but REALLY I have almost nothing "cruise casual" ...I know that sounds pitiful but it's true. (I wear shorts and t-shirts or tank tops when it's hot out...for pants I own jeans...) I'm going to have to shop for "CASUAL" clothing for the cruise! I hate dress codes.

 

[DisneyMommaSteph]

Is there a list with all the people going to the meet, with kids ages etc.? I did see some details on the first page, but are those just ppl going on the cruise, or the ppl meeting up?

I'm lovin' that there are so many close in age! Mine will be in the clubs (well assuming they love it) a lot...so the more "friends" they meet the better.

You forgot to ask your question Jen...

We saw on one of the Navigators that there was a "hair braiding" thinga ma bo by the pool--Do you have to pay for it? Are there activities (other than the tastings, bingo) that are for an extra cost...and if so how do you know how much? In the case of the braiding...it didn't say when it was listed on the Navigator.

 

[DisneyCrunch]

You forgot to ask your question Jen...

We saw on one of the Navigators that there was a "hair braiding" thinga ma bo by the pool--Do you have to pay for it? Are there activities (other than the tastings, bingo) that are for an extra cost...and if so how do you know how much? In the case of the braiding...it didn't say when it was listed on the Navigator.

Oops. I meant to post it as a second reply to get another post.

 

[Eeyore'sthebest]

You forgot to ask your question Jen...

We saw on one of the Navigators that there was a "hair braiding" thinga ma bo by the pool--Do you have to pay for it? Are there activities (other than the tastings, bingo) that are for an extra cost...and if so how do you know how much? In the case of the braiding...it didn't say when it was listed on the Navigator.

Don't you hate when you have a whole response typed out and the Dis freaks out?? Okay, not that any of you knew I had a whole post typed out but here goes again.

Yes, there is hairbraiding up by the pool. Sign up for it on one of your first fews days. I think we had ours done on the second sea day but we were on the Eastern and those fell in the beginning of the week. They have two types of braiding. One is just typical braids with beads at the end. The other is the tight braiding that pulls everything back from the face. Its all up to your child as to which they prefer. I've seen little kids sit there like troopers and have seen other kids cry. I let DD watch first before she decided even though I knew what she would want. Yep, we went for 6 braids (3 on each side). I'll try to attach a picture in the next post. I tried to attach it in this one and screwed it all up and ended up re-typing so I will post this and then post a picture (hopefully).

Oh yeah and straight braids were $1 each. So I paid $6 with a $4 tip to round it to an even $10. And you pay with your KTTW card.

 

[Eeyore'sthebest]

Okay, now let's try for the picture with braids. Just don't tell her I posted it as she really hates this picture and its my favorite. I even put it on my Capital One credit card.

 

[DisneyCrunch]

Thanks for the info Allison, cute picture (and my lips are sealed ) and pm sent (well, in a minute.)

 

[jd99]

Hey Jeff and Shelly--I have a 5 year old too (and Steph has a 6 year old) ours are both girls (I see your little ones are girls too Shelly--yours Jeff?)

.

Yep my little one is also a girl. What a little troop this is going to be!

Is there a list with all the people going to the meet, with kids ages etc.? I did see some details on the first page, but are those just ppl going on the cruise, or the ppl meeting up?

I'm lovin' that there are so many close in age! Mine will be in the clubs (well assuming they love it) a lot...so the more "friends" they meet the better.

.

I am pulling that list together as we speak. Want to give it another couple of weeks before I send it out to those planning to attend the meet in hopes of a few more folks joining us. Once I have it I will PM to everyone who submitted information.

 

[DisneyMommaSteph]

So cute Allison. Thanks for the info...

Sounds good Jeff!

What, is this a first? I don't have any questions yet today...teehee...

Oh, yesterday we found out that if we would have booked with the travel agent Jen's using for our whole famn damily trip (Jen's family, My family, and our parents)....we would have received a $200 OBC. Would that have been per cabin? Sucks we missed that, huh? We were under time constraints though, and we needed to book asap, so we did it on the phone (couldn't do it online with the kids sail free pin). Doesn't matter cause in the end--we're still goin on a Disney Cruise!!! YAY!

It's kinda tricky when you book this late....it seems like the cruise should be so soon, yet we still have 50 something days....Ahhhhh...I've never been the patient type...

Oh, oh, oh--Forgot to ask (hehe see a question...lol)....Just when I was warming up to the whole Palo thing...I realized that there are no ressies left. You guys weren't kidding when you said it was popular, huh? I have heard more than one person said an advantage to getting on the boat early is that you can make ressies for Palo--Do they save some for when onboard, or are these just slots that have become available? TIA!

 

[Eeyore'sthebest]

Hey Steph,
See if you can move the reservation to the travel agent and still get the OBC. Some TAs allow you to do that. It's worth a phone call.

 

[jd99]

So cute Allison. Thanks for the info...

Sounds good Jeff!

What, is this a first? I don't have any questions yet today...teehee...

Oh, yesterday we found out that if we would have booked with the travel agent Jen's using for our whole famn damily trip (Jen's family, My family, and our parents)....we would have received a $200 OBC. Would that have been per cabin? Sucks we missed that, huh? We were under time constraints though, and we needed to book asap, so we did it on the phone (couldn't do it online with the kids sail free pin). Doesn't matter cause in the end--we're still goin on a Disney Cruise!!! YAY!

It's kinda tricky when you book this late....it seems like the cruise should be so soon, yet we still have 50 something days....Ahhhhh...I've never been the patient type...

Oh, oh, oh--Forgot to ask (hehe see a question...lol)....Just when I was warming up to the whole Palo thing...I realized that there are no ressies left. You guys weren't kidding when you said it was popular, huh? I have heard more than one person said an advantage to getting on the boat early is that you can make ressies for Palo--Do they save some for when onboard, or are these just slots that have become available? TIA!

I agree with Allison - try to move the reservation to the TA. We have done that after booking on board and still get the extra onboard credit.

There will DEFINITELY be Palo reservations available when you board. On our first cruise we didn't even know what Palo was until close to our sail date so when we boarded we got put on a "waiting list" for both brunch and dinner. Got both. We've changed times, added reservations, etc. on almost every cruise. It's never been a problem.

 

[DisneyCrunch]

Hey, another question (or ten ) What time is the earliest we can board? We're getting our own transportation so we can get to port whenever we want, when's the earliest we should plan to get there?

And then for DH, what are some more dude-ly things? He's into more active stuff etc...like for my first add-on I've booked an alone time thing in the spa villas. (I tried to get him to do the couples one with me but he wasn't interested) What is something HE might really dig (and of course everyone's tastes are different but I would love to hear some ideas...)

 

[suzannecat]

Okay, so where in NE are you guys? (vaguely - I'm not really a stalker ) I spent some time in CT and have relatives in MA. And we spent every summer in ME growing up. Sometimes I feel more a NE girl than a Jersey girl. DD is definitely a Jersey girl though.

Here's the link to Shirley's helpful information about the PC area. She lives there and is absolutely fabulous!! http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1520273

We're in very Northern Westchester County, NY

 

[suzannecat]

It looks like there are a handfull of us from "up here".... Can we petition Disney to leave from a more "northern" port....hehe

*don't throw banana's at me* How can you guys (the peeps in and around NY) resit sailing on Royal Caribbean out of NY, or NJ? It's just too easy without having to fly...Not to mention cheap.... All 10 of us could have gone on a RC cruise the week of Thanksgiving for only 3800.00 per family...no flight needed...

Of course we were DYING to go on a Disney Cruise (not that RC isn't amazing...it certainly is...SANS kids. I am not convinced the kids would really enjoy it half as much as diiiiiiiiiiiisney!!!) so that was our first choice...I just can't believe an 8 day cruise the week before was that much cheaper (and that was 4 staterooms, each ajoining)....I'll understand after this cruise, won't I???

We've done an NCL cruise out of midtown manhattan- no flight , barely an hour's drive from home. Yes, much cheaper, but the motion of the ship made us sooo seasick leaving the first night. Maybe because of the weather. It was also a November sail, but I think the location really makes a difference. Plus, Disney semems to have way more for the kids. NCL looked ok (we did that cruise alone), but my kids totally love all things Disney....

 

[jd99]

Hey, another question (or ten ) What time is the earliest we can board? We're getting our own transportation so we can get to port whenever we want, when's the earliest we should plan to get there?

And then for DH, what are some more dude-ly things? He's into more active stuff etc...like for my first add-on I've booked an alone time thing in the spa villas. (I tried to get him to do the couples one with me but he wasn't interested) What is something HE might really dig (and of course everyone's tastes are different but I would love to hear some ideas...)

I think the earliest you can get into the terminal is around 10 and earliest boarding is around 11:30. We like getting there early because it's fun to check out the ship's model, get the kids signed up for clubs, visit with characters and get photos, go outside and get up close to "our" ship and anticipate them calling for family of the day knowing that it is time to board.

For your husband, here are some thoughts. First off there are a lot of great active excursions at all the ports. In Castaway, they often do a 5K run on the island, parasailing is fun, snorkeling of course.

On the ship, he can run around the ship's jogging trail, go to a beer or tequila tasting, hit the sports bar for games and the gym on the ship is amazing - i really couldn't believe how big it is the first time i saw it. Ping pong and foosball on the pool deck too.

 

[DisneyMommaSteph]

Oh...no...no...no....no...NO! I had to dig around page TWO to find this thred. This is not okay. We're nearing 40's for days left before we sail away....we're being put to shame by threds with crews not sailing for yeeeears....

Where is everyone!?! It's been great hearing from some of you, but I know there are more people on this cruise. Coooooooooooome on, let's chat...I know you're excited too.

LURKERS--Any lurkers?? Jump in! I'm a newb going on my first cruise...they haven't bitten me yet...hehe...We want to meet you!!! It'll only make your cruise more fun! Introduce yourselves....


I'm really excited for the tastings! Is the Margarita and tequila tasting the same thing two different times...(I swear I'm not a lush...hehe)

Good suggestions Jeff...I'm trying to think of things for my hubster to do also. I read there is a Cognac tasting...that seems up Matt's alley. I can see him enjoying a cigar *gag...) on the deck or the Verandah. Any other cigar smokers?

 

[*Nessa*]

Hi everyone and to all the new cruisers

Wow ! things have really heated up on our thread that’s really great to see

I too have a question today! thankfully we have been able to sort out our wedding reception difficulties but the only snag is now our dining reservation is 9pm instead of 6pm. Before we were going straight from our ceremony up to Palo for dinner but now we will have about 3hrs in-between. What should we do to fill the time our coordinator suggested our guests attend their normal dining rotation (to help fill in the time) and then meet us at 9pm. We have been told a lot of cruisers who eat in the second sitting at Palo do this, as they don’t want to miss their normal dining rotation, but I have no idea how you could eat two meals, I would be sick.

I was thinking maybe we could all do something else, like see a show anyone have any suggestions ??

 

[*Nessa*]

Shelley thank you sooooo much