12/10/05 ~ Anyone else cruising.....??

[lbgraves]

Well, I didn't say it before, but my shopping is done.

 

[cristit14]

Lisa, I thought you said your shopping is done. You are kidding right?

 

[lbgraves]

Your ears...or maybe eyes in this case...are just fine. I am scaling way back this year with the kids & actually bought their GBAs on Black Friday...this past year. I will probably find a couple deals during the year & pick up a couple more games for them, but for the most part, I am done. When Target went 75% on Christmas I picked up a couple things but I really finished up when it went 90%. I picked up gifts for both of DD's godparents, all the kid's teachers next year, both SILs, 2 BILs, I think that I have the IL's gift too. The gifts for the nephews are left from last year's stash along with the soon to be neice...LP Christmas sets that I picked up at 75% last year. Oh, and for the classroom parties...all set too. I grabbed 48 stockings, mini M&M guys, candy canes, & other assorted toys from the bins.

Maybe we can set dates to help get your lists done first?

 

[lbgraves]

No, Amy, I haven't started packing for this cruise yet.

 

[cristit14]

Wow, Lisa! You are really good. I thought I was doing well this year when I started shopping in October. I actually did a lot better this year. I had everything bought about 3 weeks before Christmas and most everything wrapped a full week ahead of time. This past fall was pretty busy too with a bunch of home remodeling projects. This year won't be as bad. We just finished painted the inside last weekend. The only projects we have left on the books for this year are replacing part of our fence and DH wants to build the kids a clubhouse in the backyard (those sounds like projects that I will have little to do with ). We are going to spend the year just enjoying our new house.

Its funny you mentioned packing. I was putting clothes away today and started thinking about different things that would be good to take. Oh, I've got it bad. How much longer!!!!!

 

[MrsMork]

We went on the 10 day cruise this past Dec. I spent the past 3 days finishing up my scrapbook from that trip. It was a great weekend to do that as I was not feeling up to being out and about. It's done, now I am ready to start thinking about what to pack for this trip! I took too much stuff on the 10 day, but we spent a week at WDW first so we had way over 2 weeks and 2 very different places to pack for.

 

[MrsMork]

Do you all make door signs? DH made 4 for us this year. It was fun to switch them out. One for embarkation, one for Christmas, one for Pirate night and one "general" use. I cannot wait 11 whole months.

 

[MrsMork]

Is anybody going to be at WDW prior to the cruise? We hope to be at OKW for 6 days. It is not our "home", so we have to wait till May to book there. Waiting...waiting

 

[MrsMork]

Lisa, the website looks good. Suggest a DIS meet on deck 10 around 3 pm. It is not so crowded then and affords some "quality" get aquainted time before the safety drill.

 

[lbgraves]

Cristi, I do my shopping with the after holiday sales. I am enjoying it while the kids are young & are pretty satisfied with whatever goodies they receive. I also bargain shop during the year.

Angie, I hope to be able to work on the scrapbook for this cruise within a few months of coming home. I have spent the last three weeks working on our first cruise books 11/15/03. I have 60 of the 82 pages completed & waiting for journaling...alot of which is on my other harddrive hoping to be recovered so that I don't have to do it all over again. I hope to be able to go thru the pictures from our last cruise 12/4/04 and order prints for our album & scrapbook by March. It will depend on if those files are recovered as well. I do have the pictures on the original cards & burned on CDs but I had just finished doing the red eye touch ups on over 800 pictures & hadn't burned them yet. It will take me a couple weeks to get thru everything again. I already know what I would like to do on some of the pages for this cruise & hope to have some of the paper & ideas ready before we leave.

We will be going to WDW for 2 days after the cruise & driving home Monday...all day...so that the kids can go back to school on Tuesday. They will probably be dragging but they can get thru it & go to bed after school that day.

I know that if the weather allows we will be at the Mickey pool from about 2 until 3:30 when we need to get the kids changed for the drill. We get to the port ASAP and that will be easier since we will be staying in PC Friday evening this time.

We make one big door sign and use the ones for the kids that I made our first cruise. I have made small ones for DISers on past cruises. It was neat our first cruise because several people made small magnets & every day we would find something new on our door.

 

[lillygator]

We made door signs for our last cruise....but our cabin was 2502, so no one really got to see it!

We will be at Disney two days prior to the cruise....not sure of the resort yet....either Poly, GF or CR.....along the monorail.

I just booked the CR for March - got it for $174 per night! Pretty good I thought. We are only going for three nights....but DH said "with a new baby, we'll need to be on the monorail" - good thinking honey! So - now I just need to have the baby!! Send some labor vibes my way - and pixie dust too!

 

[lbgraves]

Come on out 'lil gator.

 

[cristit14]

Come on out 'lil gator!

We will probably do two days at WDW around the cruise. I am not sure if we will do before or after. Right now I am leaning towards before since we will need to fly in ahead of time anyway. I am thinking maybe flying in on Wed and doing the parks Thurs and Friday.

We did a door sign before our last cruise. Lisa I like the idea of doing small magnets and changing them around. That would be fun.

 

[MrsMork]

Little magnets to be placed on others doors sounds fun. It's those little 'Neighborly" things that makes this DIS group so fun. We played secret Santa for the DIS kids across the hall from us this past trip. Didn't know them very well and that kind of threw them off our track for awhile. The mom finally figured it out about day 9. They had mini stockings on the outside of their door and they were just TOO tempting for us. Just had to put little gifts in them throughout the cruise.

 

[lbgraves]

OH!!! That sounds like so much fun, Angie!!! I enjoy getting the kids things to have show up on their beds at night during the cruise. The Mickey & Minnie graduation packs arrived this weekend! I will be busy creating a diploma for them. I wonder if I can get Mickey to sign the bottom during the cruise, maybe at the character breakfast since we wont be getting other autographs there? Hmm....

 

[missmulan]

hi everyone! i just wanted to set the record straight about the missing school thread....my kids are on the year-round schedule. we are off every April, August and December (beginning the day before Thanksgiving thru New Years Day). i don't mean to sound offensive and hope no one took it personally. i felt the need to do this because i just got a PM from someone else confronting me about it.

 

[lbgraves]

ROFLMAO!!! LOL! I read your post & wondered but figured that it was something like that. I wish that I had more time on my hands. As far as I am concerned, each parent needs to make the best decision for their children. With DH's work schedule keeping him away from home 50% of the year minimum and insanely late hours at the office & hanger when he is in town we book our cruise when it is best for him to be out of the office. Our kids are only in 4 yo PS & Kindergarten this year so it really didn't affect them to miss 8 days. The 12/17 cruise was great for having lesser time out of school but this week works best for us. DS's teacher joked with us that him being gone for 8 days would give the other kids a chance to catch up with him. If the kids were ever in the situation where they are struggling in school, we will cancel & reschedule our vacation.

How is your scrapbook going tonight? You can always trim the refills down to match up with your original top loading sleaves.

 

[missmulan]

lisa, you're on the scrapbook thread too?? social services need to be knocking on our doors! LOL! i spend waaaayyyyy too much time on this board & another board.

i really should be scrapping right now. i just have several more events to do and i'm done. my dining room looks like a mess. my DCL scrapbook is busting at the seams. i just did the jr. chef experience and used the kids paper chef hats & their diplomas. i know that if we do decide to cancel this cruise, the only thing i'll be happy about is not having to do the scrapbook for it. i bet you totally understand!

and you're right..only a parent or parents will know if they should pull their kids out of school or not. as for our kids, they are still very little and it's the higher grades that really counts. a dear friend of mine is a kindergarten teacher and she will not hesitate to pull her older kids out of school for a vacation. i just feel differently so when i sounded the way i did on the other thread, it's because i was thinking about her.

 

[lbgraves]

Well, there is nothing happening on the deals board I am on and things were slow here since both kids are sleeping & I don't have to worry about cleaning everything up since DH is on another trip so I was bored & looking for something new to look at. LOL! I am putting off journaling since the files may still be saved from our failed hard drive and I would really rather not redo it. I have them on 3 1/2 inch discs but the new towers don't have the slot for them. I need to call a friend tomorrow to see about transfering the info over to a CD or at least print what I have out so that I can just copy it quickly.

 

[Jhalkias]

OK Lisa, I am going to call Amy right now from DC and tell her that you are done with your shopping already. I bet that she will take back what she said when you had not started packing yet!

Some of us in life are always ahead, and the rest of us are always trying to catch up!



John