2/02/2013 5 - Night Bahamian Cruise, Miami FL on Wonder

[dzfitch]

Yes to all of the above!!! A hesitation on the FE's. I've been reading about them, but I don't think I understand all the details, can you explain how it would work, and what kind of things we we bring?

We only booked a week ago, and I've been on the DIS, but I'm reading everything I can rather than posting.
I guess I should introduce myself a bit... Me, DH, DS8 and DS11... and we are on deck 6. First time cruise to anywhere. Both of our trips to DW were 10 day trips, and we love Epcot! DH gets travel sick, so I'm a bit worried. EVERYONE said he'd be fine... and I talked him up to a 5N from a 3N... the day after we booked, I ran into someone at my kid's school who spent an entire cruise sick.
I haven't told him, but if that happens I'm in BIG TROUBLE! LOL!

Ok here is how the FE exchange works:

1. Member of the group sign up to participate (participation is completely voluntary)
2. Once you have signed up, you then prepare a gift for the other participants in the exchange. The gift can be purchased or made, the choice is up to you! You can also choose to either give 1 (or more) gift(s) per person or 1 (or more) gift(s) per stateroom/family. At some point there is usually a cut off date, so everybody knows how many people are participating (and ie how many gifts to prepare for).
3. Prepare something to hang beside your stateroom door that will be used for holding the gifts from other participants. You can either purchase you FE (people sell them on ebay and etsy) or you can be creative and make your own - anything goes!
4. When you get onboard the ship, hang your FE beside your door.
5. At some point during the cruise, deliver the gifts you have brought for the other participants to their staterooms and leave them in the FE next to their door.

People give everything you can think of, from tiny bottles of rum to tote bags to pencils to picture frames. It can be as elaborate or as simple as you choose and everything is appreciated!

On our first cruise we made individual passport covers for each person in the group - which turned out to be almost 90 covers, yikes! They turned out really cute but the process was so time consuming that the for our second cruise we made a gift for the whole cabin (Adventure books inspired by "Up" with a bag of tools for recording the adventure - crayons, child proof scissors, glue sticks etc).

Its very exciting to get a new treat in your FE when you come back to the room and I highly recommend participating! It can be a bit overwhelming but this group looks like it is going to be on the small side, which might be a good FE initiation fir first timers.

Does this help? Anymore questions?

 

[Fabooliss]

That does help thank you, we'd like to participate although it looks like it might just be us and you right now! hopefully some more people join in after Christmas break. lets check back soon.

 

[Realfoodie]

Hi everyone,

OK, I don't know why I am not getting updates from this thread in my email. I am new to this so I guess I just need to bookmark the page and check it daily!

We are up for whatever...FB page, totally in for a FE exchange. Does anyone know, can we go somewhere else on the Disboards and say "anyone going on this cruise? Come on over to this thread!" Let me know if that is "OK" and where a good place to post it is, or just go post! There HAVE to be some more people on this cruise!

Well, we are all set for this cruise. It is me (Colleen - 37), my DH (Mike - 38), DD (7) and DS (4). It is our first Disney Cruise. My husband and I have cruised before on other lines. It is our second Disney vacation as a family. We went to WDW about 18 months ago and had a blast. This whole thing is a secret for our kids. We are still working out the details but we are gonna get to the airport and at some point between then and arriving at the ship, we will tell them!

Time to go look at some more FE gifts. There are so many fun ideas!!!

 

[dzfitch]

Happy New Year everybody!!! I hope everybody enjoyed wonderful holidays and I wish health and wealth and happiness for all in 2013!

My personal resolution is to organize the FE exchange, so here's what I have put together so far!

Shillee + DH + DD 5 + DD 3 (No FE)

Eyeore Girl (FE? )

Shmeena + DH + DD 10 1/2 + DD 7 1/2 (FE? )

Donaldseeyore 36 + DH 40 + DD 14 + DD 12 + DS 8 + DS 19mo + MIL + FIL (FE? )

Mickeyschickie (room 1) Nicki + DH Ernie + DD Charlotte 10 + DD Norah 6 + DS Walter 9mo (room 2) Mom + Dad (room 3) Brother + SIL + Nephew 4 (FE? )

Realfoodie Colleen 37 + DH Kelemvor Mike 38 + DD 7 + DS 4 (FE confirmed! )

Fabooliss Fiona + DH Spencer + DS Tristan 8 + DD Rhianna 11 (FE confirmed! )

Dzfitch (room 1) Molly 32 + DH Brett 30 (room 2) Mel 32 + DH Dave 31 (FE confirmed! )

[I know Rexpanda and Pretty Poly were in this group but I believe they have both moved to different cruises]

Soooooo everyone please let me know if you plan to participate in teh exchange! Hopefully more people will be joining us soon now that the holidays are over and we all have more time to spend planning Disney vacations!!!

32 days!!!!!

 

[dzfitch]

Is anyone interested in meeting up on the first day of the cruise? We have done that on our past two Disney cruises and it was a fun way to put some faces with some names!

Also, is anyone interested in planning any other meet-ups? Maybe a champagne girls? I also have heard about something that some friends organized for their kids on a Carnival cruise and I thought it might be fun since we have so many girls in the group - they did "Tu Tu Tuesday" and planned a meet up where all the girls (and women!) wore tu tus and had some cocktails and mocktails for an hour. The pictures were also ADORABLE!!! It sounded so fun and even though I don't have any kids (yet!) I am dying to do this! Let me know what you guys think, of course all other suggestions are welcome!!!

32 days!!!

 

[Fabooliss]

Yay!

You swapped me and real foodie though!


We are:
(Me) Fiona, (dh) Spencer (DD11) Rhianna (DS8) Tristan

Please excuse the typos and grammar I just got an mini iPad for Xmas, and am still learning to type with my thumbs.

Looking at the ages of the kids etc... I think a meet would be fun. Maybe we should try PMing the missing people on this thread... They probably aren't getting notifications of new postings.

 

[Realfoodie]

Happy New Year everybody!!! I hope everybody enjoyed wonderful holidays and I wish health and wealth and happiness for all in 2013!

My personal resolution is to organize the FE exchange, so here's what I have put together so far!

Shillee + DH + DD 5 + DD 3 (FE? )

Eyeore Girl (FE? )

Shmeena + DH + DD 10 1/2 + DD 7 1/2 (FE? )

Donaldseeyore 36 + DH 40 + DD 14 + DD 12 + DS 8 + DS 19mo + MIL + FIL (FE? )

Mickeyschickie (room 1) Nicki + DH Ernie + DD Charlotte 10 + DD Norah 6 + DS Walter 9mo (room 2) Mom + Dad (room 3) Brother + SIL + Nephew 4 (FE? )

Faboolis Colleen 37 + DH Mike 38 + DD 7 + DS 4 (FE confirmed! )

Realfoodie + DH + DS 8 + DS 11 (FE confirmed! )

Dzfitch (room 1) Molly 32 + DH Brett 30 (room 2) Mel 32 + DH Dave 31 (FE confirmed! )

[I know Rexpanda and Pretty Poly were in this group but I believe they have both moved to different cruises]

Soooooo everyone please let me know if you plan to participate in teh exchange! Hopefully more people will be joining us soon now that the holidays are over and we all have more time to spend planning Disney vacations!!!

32 days!!!!!

Just a little change...these two need to be switched:

"Faboolis Colleen 37 + DH Mike 38 + DD 7 + DS 4 (FE confirmed! )

Realfoodie + DH + DS 8 + DS 11 (FE confirmed! )"

SHOULD BE:

Realfoodies Colleen 37 + DH Mike 38 + DD 7 + DS 4 (FE confirmed! )

Faboolis is + DH + DS 8 + DS 11 (FE confirmed! )

THANKS!!!
-Colleen

 

[Realfoodie]

Is anyone interested in meeting up on the first day of the cruise? We have done that on our past two Disney cruises and it was a fun way to put some faces with some names!

Also, is anyone interested in planning any other meet-ups? Maybe a champagne girls? I also have heard about something that some friends organized for their kids on a Carnival cruise and I thought it might be fun since we have so many girls in the group - they did "Tu Tu Tuesday" and planned a meet up where all the girls (and women!) wore tu tus and had some cocktails and mocktails for an hour. The pictures were also ADORABLE!!! It sounded so fun and even though I don't have any kids (yet!) I am dying to do this! Let me know what you guys think, of course all other suggestions are welcome!!!

32 days!!!

Oy...32 days. Gotta get working on my list! Anyways, since we have never done a DC and we really don't know what to expect, I am hesitant to agree to more than about 1 meet up. I guess we are always so scheduled in our lives and so I just want to be able to come and go and do whatever moves us, until our scheduled dinner time at least (we have the late seating.). But, those who have been on before know if there is a time when the kids club isn't open yet and there is nothing scheduled (like you said...day 1 maybe?) then a short meet up to put faces with names would be fun. Where do ppl typically meet up?

I have to go find the first timer tips somewhere. I feel like I don't even know what I don't know!! And with all the Disney bloggers in this world, there are surprisingly few posts on DCL (at least on the Wonder or Magic) as compared to the posts on WDW or DL.

Happy New Year!
- Colleen

 

[Fabooliss]

I feel the same way you do Colleen! For our two WDW trips I booked in August and researched even before that ...I feel like I'm running trying to catch up! I don't know if I'm allowed to post the link or even mention it but there is another cruise forum ...cruise critics that has lots of Disney info and info on stops etc. I've done a bit of research so far post here , I'll answer it if I can!

 

[kelemvor]

We'll be on this cruise. We've cruised before but not with Disney.

Me: Caribbean-Carnival, Caribbean-Royal Caribbean, Alaska-Princess.
Wife: Caribbean-Royal Caribbean, Alaska-Princess
Kids: Never cruised before

Can't wait to escape the cold of WI and head somewhere warm.
Stateroom 7000-something

 

[Realfoodie]

We'll be on this cruise. We've cruised before but not with Disney.

Me: Caribbean-Carnival, Caribbean-Royal Caribbean, Alaska-Princess.
Wife: Caribbean-Royal Caribbean, Alaska-Princess
Kids: Never cruised before

Can't wait to escape the cold of WI and head somewhere warm.
Stateroom 7000-something

Kelemvor is the DH to Realfoodie..just so you don't think there is another family!!! And today, driving down the snow covered driveway in 30 degree weather, I thanked God we get to escape this for a week!!! I can't wait!!

- Colleen

 

[dzfitch]

Just a little change...these two need to be switched:

"Faboolis Colleen 37 + DH Mike 38 + DD 7 + DS 4 (FE confirmed! )

Realfoodie + DH + DS 8 + DS 11 (FE confirmed! )"

SHOULD BE:

Realfoodies Colleen 37 + DH Mike 38 + DD 7 + DS 4 (FE confirmed! )

Faboolis is + DH + DS 8 + DS 11 (FE confirmed! )

THANKS!!!
-Colleen

Whoops! How embarrassing!! I am adjusting right now!

 

[kelemvor]

Welcome to the thread! Great that you have an extra set of hands with you for the cruise I hope you have the early seating for the meals! That is what we have for ours - our kids will be just turned 3 & 5 on the cruise.

My DH runs. He didn't do the CC5K on our last cruise but is considering doing it for this one.

So what's the 5k about? Is it something officially run by Disney and you have to sign up for it? I might be up for that. Just have to adjust my workouts for the next few weeks to start running again.

Ah, just found some info about it over at disunplugged. Looks like fun. I'm in.

And here's a countdown for anyone who wants it.
http://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/generic?iso=20130202T16&p0=156&msg=Disney+Cruise&csz=1

 

[shillee]

Ooh, I am so glad to see that the ship is filling up! Although if it was empty and we were bumped up to a really nice room that would have been okay too! LOL!

No FE for us unfortunately. There is no way I can smuggle enough gifts into my suitcase due to space. DH would be thrilled if I could fit all our stuff into 2 suitcases. I know my limit is 3 for the fees so we will see how I can do.

Although it would be fun to do as the group doesn't look too big which is nice as I hear some groups get to be very large. I always admire all the FE's I get to see on the cruise. One of these days I am going to get to participate!

 

[dzfitch]

Hi everyone! I sent a private message to Eeyore Girl, Shmeena, Donaldseeyore and Mickeyschickie to see if they are still on our cruise and also to see if they want to participate in the FE

We are getting very excited!!! We reserved a cabana on Castaway Cay and we are SO EXCITED! We are still looking at excursions for Cozumel, anybody have any suggestions?

 

[dzfitch]

So what's the 5k about? Is it something officially run by Disney and you have to sign up for it? I might be up for that. Just have to adjust my workouts for the next few weeks to start running again.

Ah, just found some info about it over at disunplugged. Looks like fun. I'm in.

And here's a countdown for anyone who wants it.
http://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/generic?iso=20130202T16&p0=156&msg=Disney+Cruise&csz=1

I have never experienced it (our only opportunity to see Castaway Cay was eliminated by our ship rerouting due to Super Storm Sandy in October, booooo!!) but I think they give everyone who participates a medal!

 

[dzfitch]

Here is the updated list (as of now) for the FE exchange!

So far there are 8 confirmed cabins, including 14 adults (7 women and 7 men) and 10 kids (including 5 girls and 5 boys) = 24 people in total

Please give me your stateroom numbers when you get them, also if anybody is celebrating anything special (birthday, anniversary, etc).... Im getting SO EXCITED!!!

Donaldseeyore 36 + DH 40 + DD 14 + DD 12 + DS 8 + DS 19mo + MIL + FIL (FE! )
Room #1
Room #2
Room #3

Realfoodie Colleen 37 + DH Kelemvor Mike 38 + DD 7 + DS 4 (FE confirmed! )
Room #7062

Fabooliss Fiona + DH Spencer + DS Tristan 8 + DD Rhianna 11 (FE confirmed! )
Room #6055

Dzfitch (FE confirmed! )
Room # 8602 - Molly (32) + Brett (30)
Room # 5127 - Melody (32 - Birthday!) + Dave (31 - Birthday!)

AmberJennings AJ 28 + DH 42 + DD 3 + DS 19mo (FE confirmed! )
Room #

Eyeore Girl (FE? )

Shmeena + DH + DD 10 1/2 + DD 7 1/2 (FE? )

Mickeyschickie (room 1) Nicki + DH Ernie + DD Charlotte 10 + DD Norah 6 + DS Walter 9mo (room 2) Mom + Dad (room 3) Brother + SIL + Nephew 4 (No FE)

Shillee + DH + DD 5 + DD 3 (No FE)

 

[dzfitch]

I (finally) checked our group in online today! I know this ship isnt nearly full, but I was still surprised to see that only one check in time was unavailable - on our past 2 cruises, even when we checked in at the 120-day mark, the first few check in times had already been blocked out. But here we are, 28 days away from sailing and only the first slot was unavailable.... one of our rooms is a concierge room, so we are going to check in at 11am anyway, but I was curious how many of you had completed check in and what your arrival/check in times are?

 

[AmberJennings]

I would love to be added to the dish extenders list. We are going to be on this cruise and it's our first disney cruise! We are really excited! It is myself, my husband, and my two children.

AJ - 28 (mom)
BJ - 42 (dad)
EG - 3 (girl)
JJ - 1 (19 months) (boy)

I would love to do the meet the first day also?
Could I get some updates details for the group? It's ours first DC and I am a little behind. I am trying to read about first time tips

Thanks!

AJ

 

[AmberJennings]

I (finally) checked our group in online today! I know this ship isnt nearly full, but I was still surprised to see that only one check in time was unavailable - on our past 2 cruises, even when we checked in at the 120-day mark, the first few check in times had already been blocked out. But here we are, 28 days away from sailing and only the first slot was unavailable.... one of our rooms is a concierge room, so we are going to check in at 11am anyway, but I was curious how many of you had completed check in and what your arrival/check in times are?

I haven't checked in yet. Planning to do that next week!