11/29/03 Eastern-only 2 days left !!! SINGLE DIGITS!!

[DisneyGator01]

One thing I am really excited about is seeing the ship decorated for the Holidays. My first Disney cruise, we sailed in December and the Wonder looked amazing! Anyone know for sure when the ships are decorated?

 

[princssdisnygina]

I think they are decorated for THanksgiving and after. It should be decorated for our cruise! I am excited too! I love the holidays at Disney!

 

[Favorite Auntie]

I have heard from people that have cruised Thanksgiving week in the past, that every morning when they woke up there were more Christmas decorations.....I can't wait to see it decorated either!

 

[BearFan]

Welcome aboard DisneyGator01! You'll be soooo glad that you've done a 7 day that it might be hard to go back to a 4 day cruise.

As far as shopping goes, it's been our experience that shopping is better in St. Marten that St. Thomas, although some stores will have the same prices. We definitely liked the shopping better on the Eastern over the western itinerary hands down.

BTW, we got our docs two days ago via UPS. I can't wait!!!!!!

Bearfan

 

[izzinmac]

We were on the Wonder 4 day right after Thanksgiving and the ship was fully decorated for Christmas. I assume the Magic is the same. Big Christmas tree next to the stairway in the Atrium, Gingerbread House by Preludes, and other decorations throughout. Even a small tree that I think they got from Snoopy and Linus on top of the highest point on the ship. They had a Christmas tree lighting ceremony the first night between early seating and late (8pm) where one family along with M & M got to throw real pixie dust on the tree and it magically lit (lighted?). Even included "snow" which was a real treat for us Floridians. It was true Florida snow - never melted!

 

[Favorite Auntie]

I woke up to true New England Snow this morning... UGH!!! How many more days?????

 

[princssdisnygina]

There is on the theme park home page a place where you can see where holiday decorating starts for all disney parks and ships. The Magic, is scheduled for decorating from Dec 1-6, while we are on it! But who knows, they might treat us and have it done when we get there!

We cancelled our Trunk Bay excursion and are going to do it ourselves, we want more time on the beach! But we are still doing the Eagle Catamaran!

I feel sorry for your New England snow, I am in Indiana and I am complaining, but I guess I should feel lucky it is only about 55-60 degrees here.

It is soon, hang tight! We will be sailing on beautiful blue waters before you know it! I was only a while a go when we are counting down from 100+ days.

Gina

 

[DisneyGator01]

So 5 weeks and one day until our cruise!!!

Anyone planning on doing excursion? If so which ones?

How about dinner seating?

We are planning on doing the Island and Butterfly farm tour in St. Maarten, and we have late seating...

 

[Favorite Auntie]

We have Main seating and we are planning on going to Coral World and Coki Beach on St Thomas. I have been to St John a couple of times, so this time I want to spend some time on St Thomas. On St Martin I am going to shop and spend time at Great Bay Beach, maybe rent a wave runner.

 

[jkovick]

DH and I are also going to Coral World on St. Thomas. Still undecided about St Martin though, we will probably just wing it there. We requested late seating for dinner, so I am assuming that is what we will get. Haven't got my docs yet, but maybe today will be the day.

 

[izzinmac]

One of my sons and family are taking the Butterfly Farm tour also.
Most of the rest of the group plans on doing beach trips on their own, or just stay on the ship and take advantage of the uncrowds.

Our group of 22 has early seating. Since all the grandkids are 6 or under we anticipate we will get APLAPLA rotation. However, I sent an email to DU stating even though we have no control over our rotation, we would prefer PLAPLAP with two 8 top and one 6 top tables with the same servers. Got a nice reply from Tammy at DU stating it doesn't hurt to let Disney know our preferences and she passed them on to her DCL contact. Be interesting to see if we get our request!

 

[gassmandy]

No excursions here--dh MIGHT do Mahogany Run Golf Course w/ my sister's boyfriend (if her bf can get the "pro" rate since he's a head golf professional at his parent's course in NY--otherwise it's $135pp). We have a 7 1/2 month old so I'll be enjoying the ship or walking around the port w/ her. Better not to make plans!!! Did a bunch of excursions last year on the Western and am looking forward to more time on the ship this time.
We have early dinner since there are 6 kids under 6 in our group.
No docs. here, either. Hopefully soon!!!!!!

 

[princssdisnygina]

we have the late dinner seating (less kids and more time on land). And, we are doing the Eagle Catamaran on St. Maarten. We are going to go to trunk bay but we are going to do it on our own. 5 weeks and counting!

Gina

 

[NJ Cruisers]

We got our docs today .... no upgrade and still late seating. But who cares ... we're going and I'm soooooooooooooo excited. I'll start filling out the forms tonight - you won't see me holding up the line trying to fill out the forms. No sir - mine will be ready to go 5 weeks ahead of time.

We booked late so we couldn't get early seating. We'll try to get it changed when we board.

We aren't doing any excursions. We've been to St Thomas lots of times and St Maarten on 4 other cruises so we don't need Island tours and our son is too young for any other excursions. We usually do snorkel tours, but not this time with a 4 year old.

In St Thomas we're going to Magen's Bay in the morning and then I'm going downtown for shopping later in the afternoon while the boys (DH and DS) play in the pool on the ship. We'll be doing the same thing in St Maarten, but I'm not sure what beach yet. I'm looking for someplace with a nice beach, chairs to rent, drinks for sale, bathroom. We used to go to Mullet Bay but I'm not sure it has the amenities after the hurricane a few years ago. Maybe Dawn Beach or the one right in town. Does anyone know any others?

Diane

 

[TChrist05]

Five weeks and 1 day and the brown truck just dropped of the documents....now I really can feel the cruise is right around the corner....anyone else get them?
Tom

 

[Crazy Momma]

Did anyone who has received their Doc. book through Dreams??

I'm doing the Disney Happy Dance

 

[TChrist05]

We booked directly with DCL.....got docs today but cabin number is wrong....just gotta write in the correct one.....
Tom

 

[PenskeSth1]

We booked through DVC member services, No docs here yet.
We got our Excursion papers yesterday. We are only doing excursions on CC though. Decided to rent a car at St. Maarten and check out the island on our own.
Where oh where is that BIG BROWN TRUCK with our Docs? LOL

 

[gassmandy]

We booked thru DU and haven't received ours.

 

[princssdisnygina]

WE GOT OUR DOCS TODAY! Yeah! I am SO SUPER DUPER excited! 5 weeks and counting!

Gina