11-29-08 Nana Heads 3: Tiara Bob & The Dreamboats Reunion Cruise CONT'D THREAD #10!

[favoriteslave]

Don't be fooled Cheryl. She just wants FE gifts.

BITE ME

 

[Mjasp]

Tonya, that's a really sweet post. You got me teared up, too!! Long live the nanas!!!

I agree Tonya...GREAT POST! It is true, the meets you have on Cruise Critic are soooo different than the DIS meets.

 

[disneyfan551]

Morning nanas!

I need info. on the fish exchange... does anyone have any idea how many adult & children bags we need to do? Am I correct that everyone is giving a treat to every person participating, rather than 1 per room? I've got to get on the ball, and any help would be great!!

 

[GreatDaneMom]

Don't be fooled Cheryl. She just wants FE gifts.

BITE ME

Oh shucks, there goes my warm and fuzzy glow!

 

[TiggerKing]

BITE ME

I'm glad someone used that on her for once! Especially a BFF!

 

[TiggerKing]

Hey folks!

I hope that everyone's day is going well. It has been...well...a MONDAY around the office all day so far, and I am having to play firefighter!

Have a great day! It can't go anywhere but up!

 

[woogal]

Morning nanas!

I need info. on the fish exchange... does anyone have any idea how many adult & children bags we need to do? Am I correct that everyone is giving a treat to every person participating, rather than 1 per room? I've got to get on the ball, and any help would be great!!

Good Morning! Some people are doing by room, some by individuals, so it's your call on what you want to do that is the least stressful for you!

 

[Mjasp]

LOL I tell my DH he is a firefighter all the time

 

[woogal]

Joanna ... what does Mitch do for a living?

 

[favoriteslave]

I say it with all the love in my heart. And most likely I will get bit at some point, be it by a BFF or the Mutt.

Mutt, Trey says his butt is getting dirty, can he wash it since it will only be about 2 weeks until he sees you?

 

[Mjasp]

Joanna ... what does Mitch do for a living?

Director of US Services for a large corporation. AKA Firefighter

ME...As Tory Kiam tells me. I am CEO of my own company

 

[GreatDaneMom]

Director of US Services for a large corporation. AKA Firefighter

ME...As Tory Kiam tells me. I am CEO of my own company

Must be nice...I have about 450,000 bosses (citizens, Council Members, Mayor, etc.) No wonder I'm exhausted at the end of a work day.

 

[LindaBabe]

Tonya, that WAS a great post! And definitely why we keep booking the same time of year over and over and over again. lol

CMom, the Magic Kingdom Fireworks will be at 9 pm on Friday. The best view will be from the Polynesian beach.

 

[jollyg]

GOOD MORNING NANA'S!!

My kids are getting really excited!! They only have 5 more days of school before we leave for Orlando.

This Saturday we're going to do a "test packing" to see how many bags we're going to need.

So far so good.....Delta hasn't changed our fly schedule for almost 2 weeks now!

I'm going to be busy today meeting with contractors and architects, but I'll try and check in when I can.

Have a great day Nana's!!

 

[CruisingCamper]

Well we have never sailed anything but DCL so I don't have a point of comparison. However, we chose DCL for the following reasons and haven't been disappointed:

1. First and foremost we are Disney people. We love WDW so we figured we'd love their cruise ship just as much. We do. Maybe more.
2. Reputation for family friendliness. Check
3. Kids programs. Check
4. A chance for us to have quality adult time while kids were having fun in their own club. Just like the commercial. Check.
5. No casino. Not that we are against gambling but we are all VERY sensitive to smoke and just hate being around it and I doubt that any cruiseline (even Disney) would have a casino without smoking. So having it not be there is good for us.
6. Ditto on the no smoking in staterooms. I really would like to try other lines but can't even imagine getting a stateroom that had a chain smoker in it the last cruise. No matter how much cleaning they do, I'd still know it - and more importantly our DD4 with asthma would know it. And that would ruin the trip. So I'm sticking with DCL and may try RC since they no longer allow smoking in staterooms but the others..no way would I risk it.
7. Entertainment. From what I have heard DCL is superior in this area. They put on shows that we love. That's all I know.
8. Having places like Studio Sea where the whole family can enjoy some after dinner/after show entertainment, dance parties, family karaoke, family game shows. It's one of our favorite times of the day.

That's it for now. I'm sure there is much more I'm not thinking about now. But seeing as this is our fifth Disney cruise since Aug. 2006, I think you can say we're sold.

The first time I sailed on DCL was for our 25th wedding anniversary. Having never been on a cruise and afraid our girls at the time who were 6 and 10 were going to fall overboard LMAO (this is true though, I was a sicko) we felt safe on Disney. We had a real crappy cruise and DCL gave us 50% off our next cruise. So 2 years later we sailed on Disney and there was a hurricane and DCL kept us at sea an extra 3 nights and we had to dock at Fort Lauderdale when we got back because Port Canaveral was damaged. Then DCL transported everyone to Port Canaveral and if you couldn't get a flight home because they were booked, That was us They bussed us to Port Orleans and put us and by us I mean EVERYONE who couldn't get a flight out up for FREE!!!
Then the next day they took us to the airport again all for free. That IS the Disney difference because at the airport we met Carnival passengers and they said Carnival just dropped them off at the airport with no where to stay.

Then we went on a Costa cruise and it was OK Entertainment sucked!!!

Then we went on Royal Caribbean Explorer of the Seas on a 9 night sailing out of Bayonne NJ...OMG The mega ship with the Promenade is our ALL TIME FAVORITE! WE LOVE LOVE LOVE RCCL FUN FUN FUN

I personally do not like the shows on Disney and my DD never liked the clubs so I was never able to enjoy the night life Disney offered. But this time I plan on going to the clubs as she is old enough to go back to the room and read if she wants to

We are going Disney on this cruise because our friends are going and we can't wait to see if we will sail Disney again after this or will continue to try different ships and lines.

Disney does have the BEST service by far.

I'm hoping this cruise is AMAZING!!!

Edited to add: During the hurricane cruise DCL kept us well informed, The captain came on 3 times a day and gave us an update. They kept us in beautiful weather and calm waters the entire time except one day because they had to pick up the stabilizers to pick up speed. We were never worried for our safety.

Hi Stephanie! What a great question - and nice to hear other's responses on past experiences in cruising with DCL and otherwise.

Agreeing with all in Jeff's response as to why we choose DCL over and over. It is just such the right thing for our family right now; great balance of children's and adult activities and things that we can do together and separately that we have not found anywhere else.

I hope that you find that for you and Greg and Wyatt.

Hi Steph,

We've never sailed with DCL, but we have sailed with both Norwegian and Carnival and enjoyed both lines. Carnival is a little to "neon" for me so I'm not sure we'd go again unless we got a really good deal.

We originally were going to book RCCL for this vacation, but decided to try Disney because we'd heard good things about the kids clubs. (and Kathy threatened to use her whip on me if we didn't go!)

Good Morning, Everybody!

First cruise, I went with three disney nut girl friends. We had the cabin right next to the walt suite and I was dizzy the whole time from the ship rocking gently and too dumb to take bonine. Booked a 7 day for two years out with my dh. He really didn't want to go and the closer it got, the less he wanted to go, so I enlisted some friends to go with us.

After boat drill - and his first beer - and discovering he did, indeed, have sufficient room to put his things away, he decided he loved it!

Safety is a huge reason we are loyal to Disney. They're a class act, and that's a hard act to follow. Also, we're not big into casinos, rock walls, wave pools, night clubbing - so Disney is just our style.

I'm with Jeff, too. No smoking is really important to us.

We'd like to cruise Alaska, but I think we'll wait a bit to see if Disney goes there before jumping ship to another line. We're Disney people, after all - DVC, AP holders, you know the drill. Mickey has his hand in our pockets but good!

Good morning Nanas!!

Steph, we started cruising in May of 2005. This is our 3rd DCL. We've also done 1 NCL and 6 RCCL in that time (with 3 more RCCLs currently booked.)

We cruise DCL because they treat our daughter like an absolute princess. We find our fellow cruisers on DCL to be more accepting of the fact that we have a child with us on the cruise. She's very sensitive to reading other people's feelings and she picks up on how some of the cruisers on other lines don't like kids. Not fun... So DCL is something we do periodically for her. But I have to be honest and tell you that we really do enjoy our RCCL cruises. Especially if it's just hubby and me.

To those who are sensitive to smoke, we've actually had much better luck on RCCL. Maybe because many smokers tend to hang out in the casino which I can easily avoid? We're hoping we fare better on this 3rd DCL because our first two were not good as far as smoking went. On our first we were downwind from heavy smokers on the verandah right next to us. On our second I booked an interior cabin since the verandah was wasted on the first. Every night the interior stateroom reeked of fresh smoke while we were trying to sleep. I don't know where it was coming from because we were surrounded by other interiors. Yes, I should have said something to the Purser's Desk but it was only for 3 nights so I just bit my tongue. In hindsight I guess that was foolish. I guess my point is that if smoking is an issue DCL is not the guaranteed cure. Yet, I've never smelled smoke in any of my RCCL cabins nor on the verandahs. It's all the luck of the draw I guess...

We've only ever done DCL. We started in 2005 with the Turkey Gang. We love the fact that our child can do what he wants and is SO comfortable with the ship. I mean the first year we had to lay down ground rules like no standing up on the rails, etc. Hunter has always enjoyed the clubs (once he went that first time) and has loved all the activities that Disney offers. As for us we love the ocean and everything that goes with it, but honestly its about friends. We really enjoyed getting to know people on the Disboard before we went on the Turkey day cruise in 2005, but in 2006 we met all these crazy people almost as crazy as us. We honestly fell in love. So much that in 2007 we went on a 3 day and missed all our friends. We were originally not suppose to go in November of 2007 but DH decided we HAD to go and booked us 3 months out. For us its all about the people we meet, spend time with and then still talk about even after were off the ship. And with this group, we hit the MOTHER LOAD.

Ok, I will dry my eyes, look at my Mickey on my desk and he says 11 days until you leave. Ya who.

Long live the Nanaheads.

TTYL, I will be lurking but I actually have to work today. How dare they.....

Thanks for all the replys!! We are also "Disney" people. We love WDW, and everything Disney. We love cruising too, so for us, it's a perfect match. I hope we are pleased with our first sailing.

We have sailed on other lines.

Carnival, to me, it's like one big bar at sea!!! Some of you would love that line..it's all about drinking, and more drinking. I guess I'm getting old, b/c now what's important to me is Wyatt and that he has fun and that we have a great family vacation, and Carnival is a bit too wild for small kids, but the older kids love it. They also do have a Smoke problem.

RCCL- We love it! Great HUGE ships. Great for families too! Service is much better than Carnival, but the food, to me was the same. They are very strict about the No Smoking also. It's about having fun, but they market things to do as fun, like sports, crafts, dining, dancing, etc...not just drinking.

Celebrity- Just like RCCL, but a little older more refined crowd. I liked RCCL better.

 

[CruisingCamper]

Joanna ... what does Mitch do for a living?

Good Morning Shell

Why did you and Mutt orginally choose Disney?

 

[GreatDaneMom]

GOOD MORNING NANA'S!!

...I'm going to be busy today meeting with contractors and architects, but I'll try and check in when I can.

Ooooooohhhh, hide your checkbook Greg!

 

[CruisingCamper]

GOOD MORNING NANA'S!!

My kids are getting really excited!! They only have 5 more days of school before we leave for Orlando.

This Saturday we're going to do a "test packing" to see how many bags we're going to need.

So far so good.....Delta hasn't changed our fly schedule for almost 2 weeks now!

I'm going to be busy today meeting with contractors and architects, but I'll try and check in when I can.

Have a great day Nana's!!

"Test Packing"

I feel sorry for you, I bet you have lots of bags!! Greg says that I overpack, but this time, I hope not to.

 

[CruisingCamper]

Ooooooohhhh, hide your checkbook Greg!

Good Morning Cheryl!!

 

[CruisingCamper]

Tonya, that WAS a great post! And definitely why we keep booking the same time of year over and over and over again. lol

Hi Linda!