2/11/13 Wonder Sweetheart Cruise

[emtmom0104]

Hi emtmom0104! We are neighbors! We live in Middletown!

I wish we were doing a B2B this time! So much fun!

Are you guys driving or flying?

 

[Kristin632]

My husband and I are thinking about booking this cruise as a Christmas gift. DD is 3 and we'd be traveling with a just turned 6 month old! Please offer me convincing reasons why we should do this vs do a Caribbean All-Inclusive as I think I would be more excited than my daughter! We'd love to do the FE too!

 

[emtmom0104]

My husband and I are thinking about booking this cruise as a Christmas gift. DD is 3 and we'd be traveling with a just turned 6 month old! Please offer me convincing reasons why we should do this vs do a Caribbean All-Inclusive as I think I would be more excited than my daughter! We'd love to do the FE too!

Oh my goodness, I could go on with this one FOREVER!!! I hate being on the water but this is a new sense of relief! I will have to write you. Book later as I am headed to school now, but look for my post tonight

 

[candle817]

My family will be with you all for our first Disney Cruise!! Myself, DH, DS17 and DS9! It's the kids first cruise ever and so excited when I checked with the bank this morning and there's a $850 credit from DCL for my kids sailing free! makes it even better! So excited! Any pointers for our first DCL adventure? Also, fish extenders... Curious for more info on this and how it really works. Thanks!

 

[emtmom0104]

My family will be with you all for our first Disney Cruise!! Myself, DH, DS17 and DS9! It's the kids first cruise ever and so excited when I checked with the bank this morning and there's a $850 credit from DCL for my kids sailing free! makes it even better! So excited! Any pointers for our first DCL adventure? Also, fish extenders... Curious for more info on this and how it really works. Thanks!

Welcome! My older son will be 9 just after this cruise. We did "pen pals" online before our last cruise and the kids were INSEPARABLE the whole trip! For your first trip I'm going to tell you this. Don't try to do it all!!!' There is so much to do that this will be our 4th and 5th cruises and we still have things we haven't done. Pick a few things out of your navigator that you absolutely want to do and do those but don't stress about not getting to it all. We do something new every time we go. My boys will never leave the oceaneers lab and my daughter never leaves the tween club, although we give her a walkie talkie and she has free roam on the boat. We left the kids in the clubs as much as they wanted and we did more "adult" things, like meeting with other couples from the board for some adults drinks and getting off at islands the kids didn't want to. We are still in contact with quite a few of the families we became really close to. My youngest has a friend in tx and they FaceTime on the iPad whenever they have time and are planning our trip to tx for us lol. We all plan on cruising together again on our next trip. Most of all just "relax". I am more relaxed on the ship than I ever was in the parks. You guys are going to love it. The hospitality is beyond words. If you think the parks are great your in for an amazing treat.

 

[emtmom0104]

My husband and I are thinking about booking this cruise as a Christmas gift. DD is 3 and we'd be traveling with a just turned 6 month old! Please offer me convincing reasons why we should do this vs do a Caribbean All-Inclusive as I think I would be more excited than my daughter! We'd love to do the FE too!

Ok, so where do I start.....lol..we took our first cruise when my youngest was 4. Although I cannot tell you anything about the nursery I can't tell you about the kids clubs. They are incredible! I think they have to be 4 and potty trained to stay by themselves in the club. There are times that you can go with your child and play with them. It's called "open house". That is the only time parents can go in with the kids. There is limitless possibilities for activities on board and off the ship. Our first cruise was only a 3 day so I felt a little rushed because i tried to do it all, thinking we would not be able to cruise again. The shows are incredible. They are broadway style and you will find yourself trapped in the performance singing right along. I am sooooo looking forward to Aladdin! DH wants to see golden mickeys. My youngest watches all of the shows lol. He throws a tantrum if he doesn't get to see them. There is an actual movie theater and they play adult and children's movies at various times. There are always family activities going on all over the ship. I have never once said I was board...not even on the sea days. The fact that you don't have to pay for a soda cup and carry it everywhere to get a drink is awesome. There are drink stations on deck 9 and you just go and get your own, whenever you feel like it. The pools are amazing! Always kept super clean, the seating area is always kept clean and the cast members will come around and take your dirty food plates. The food is some of the best food I have ever had. I never walked into a restaurant that my kids said they didnt like anything..we i did once but my son only wanted pizza that night and our server actually went up to the pool deck and got my son the pizza he wanted for dinner! i wish my servers could have come home with us. You can order as much food as you want! Trust me my husband almost ordered the entire menu. They will bring out whatever you want even if you only try one bite. They really get to know you and the foods you like and make great suggestions. I also have a severe allergy, the chef comes out and tells you what you can have and if its a buffet they tell you don't touch anything on the Bar to let them know exactly what you want and they make it fresh for you taking every precaution to keep you safe. We took a tour of the spa, but didn't use it. I think we will be trying it out this time around. We LOVE pirate night! The fireworks are breathtaking. My kids have actually cried on our last day because they didn't want to leave...never had that happen at the parks. My youngest doesn't like it when they page me to get them at midnight from the clubs lol. He wants to stay. My daughter and I got our hair braided on the ship. It was a little difficult to get a time so if your going to do it sign up the first day as early as you can. For both of us it cost like $40 plus tip. The adult entertainment is incredible. I loved the back in the day dance parties, the sports bar was relaxing, even though I hate sports. The adult entertainment is amazing and they know how to get you to have fun. I could go on and on forever...best decision we ever made! We have asked the kids which they would rather do a cruise or the parks and its the cruise without hesitation. I am also a runner and something I did on this last cruise was do the castaway cay 5k. We don't get to stop there on this cruise but I will on my first part. And I will do it again this year! The sail away party on the pool deck on the first day is amazing. Rey really get you excited for the trip. By then end of the party you are off into relaxation mode. The atmosphere is amazing.

I just asked my youngest why you should do this trip and he said "because its awesome!" Lol. Hope this helps. If you have any questions feel free to ask

 

[gopherlawyer]

Just booked this one as a b2b!!! We are also doing feb 7th cruise. Paying tomorrow!!!![/QUOTE

Congratulations on the B2B and welcome to our small group. I wish it was February already. This is our first cruise, so It was nice to read your posts sharing your tips. I think I am actually more excited than my kids.

 

[ddavis860]

SOOOO Glad our little group is getting more active!

I know the feeling about big groups for the FE and too much $$. Our last cruise, we split the groups and even then, it was lots of cabins.

I updated the list of DISers cruising with us. Hope I didn't leave anyone out...

We are making our plans, getting so excited here. We drive down, and will be staying at Vero pre-cruise. We have never left out of Miami, so this is all new for us. Hoping for fantastic, unseasonably warm weather when we are in FLA!

65 days!!

 

[emtmom0104]

SOOOO Glad our little group is getting more active!

I know the feeling about big groups for the FE and too much $$. Our last cruise, we split the groups and even then, it was lots of cabins.

I updated the list of DISers cruising with us. Hope I didn't leave anyone out...

We are making our plans, getting so excited here. We drive down, and will be staying at Vero pre-cruise. We have never left out of Miami, so this is all new for us. Hoping for fantastic, unseasonably warm weather when we are in FLA!

65 days!!

Lol. Our last cruise was a b2b and we had 2 large carry on bags....as big as the limit is, and both were JAM PACKED with FE gifts. I think we had a total between both cruises about 35-40 cabins! Wayyy too many. I will be looking into other things for the FE this time around and this was our first time doing it. I do think we should have a cut off for it so that everyone has time to prepare their items and get packed. Also, is anyone putting together a spreadsheet for the FE? If not i will be happy to do it.

Also, we did do a meet and greet on one of our last cruises. We all met at the promenade lounge, on the magic it's deck 3 midship. Not sure if its the same on the wonder. We agreed on a time and met everyone, took pics and got to know the people we had been chatting with for months. My kids all did pen pals ahead of time so they all knew someone a little better around their age. Most of us are still in contact and I created a fb page so we could all keep in touch well after our cruise had ended

For those of you who aren't sure what the FE is all about, it's called a fish extender. I will find the link to mine and post it later for everyone to see. I'm not crafty by any means and I saw some really good ones while we were on our cruise. So what you do is join the group on our page and hang your FE outside your room on your mailbox hook. People from the group then drop off little surprises for you. You can choose to drop something everyday, which I did, or you can drop off once during the trip. They can be for each person in the cabin, which I also did, or a group gift. I did everyday because it gave the kids something to look forward to when they came back to their cabins. We have gotten candy from other countries, small bottles of spirits, handmade keychains, can coozies, picture frames, bottles to put sand or small shells in, pillow cases with markers for character signings, autograph books for the kids, small games..you name it people do it!

 

[emtmom0104]

SOOOO Glad our little group is getting more active!

I know the feeling about big groups for the FE and too much $$. Our last cruise, we split the groups and even then, it was lots of cabins.

I updated the list of DISers cruising with us. Hope I didn't leave anyone out...

We are making our plans, getting so excited here. We drive down, and will be staying at Vero pre-cruise. We have never left out of Miami, so this is all new for us. Hoping for fantastic, unseasonably warm weather when we are in FLA!

65 days!!

We are talking that we may have to drive down too...for 5 airfare is a little pricey! We have always gone out of port canaveral so Miami is all new for us as well. Parking is $20 a day...that's about as much as I know right now. We are looking into hotels for the night of the 6th. We will be leaving on the 5th either giving the kids a half day of school or leave when they get out of school...we need to avoid that wash. Dc traffic though. The last cruise we left at 4 am and made it well into Virginia by 7 am, totally missing all of that traffic. However, Miami is another 3 hours from Orlando and we got there at 9:30 pm last time, thanks to potty breaks and stopping for food. With 3 younger kids we just can't drive straight through without stopping. We usually trade driving every 4 hours or so.

 

[emtmom0104]

Just booked this one as a b2b!!! We are also doing feb 7th cruise. Paying tomorrow!!!![/QUOTE

Congratulations on the B2B and welcome to our small group. I wish it was February already. This is our first cruise, so It was nice to read your posts sharing your tips. I think I am actually more excited than my kids.

Thank you for the welcome! I don't get excited until its all paid off and I know it's really happening. I'm sorry if I talk way too much on here lol.. I'm pretty much a stay at home mom so I need something to do with my time other than pack and re pack. If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask. This is my first time on the wonder but all the videos I have seen it looks EXACTLY like the magic which we just spent 9 days on in April. Soooo excited!

 

[ddavis860]

We are talking that we may have to drive down too...for 5 airfare is a little pricey! We have always gone out of port canaveral so Miami is all new for us as well. Parking is $20 a day...that's about as much as I know right now. We are looking into hotels for the night of the 6th. We will be leaving on the 5th either giving the kids a half day of school or leave when they get out of school...we need to avoid that wash. Dc traffic though. The last cruise we left at 4 am and made it well into Virginia by 7 am, totally missing all of that traffic. However, Miami is another 3 hours from Orlando and we got there at 9:30 pm last time, thanks to potty breaks and stopping for food. With 3 younger kids we just can't drive straight through without stopping. We usually trade driving every 4 hours or so.

We did the exact same thing last year, and got in at the same time. We were eating burgers on Boardwalk and watching Epcot fireworks... it was AWESOME!! This year we are talking about leaving at 0300, since we are going all the way to Vero. Once you are past DC, it's smooth driving till Jacksonville, and we hit there at rush hour

If you can do the spreadsheet that would be fantastic! I agree, we need a cut off. 2weeks before is 1/28, 3weeks is 1/21, 4weeks is 1/14. What does everyone think? I'm good with any.

 

[emtmom0104]

http://m107.photobucket.com/albumview/albums/emtmom0104/photo.jpg.html?o=0

This is my FE that I mad last year. I am by no means creative and this was kind of a last minute thing..did it in less than a month with zero time. There are muc more creative and better ones out there but you get the idea.

 

[emtmom0104]

I will wait for opinions on the cut off date. We had done 1 month out on the last one that way we had a few weeks to pack and get all the last minute things we needed since some were vacationing right before but I am open for opinions. Here is how the spreadsheet will be set up:

Dis name Cabin#. Real names. M/f Age

If anyone has any allergies please list them as some people choose to give food items! Obviously better safe than sorry.

I will update the list as we go so that people can get started. I had about 6 months to do this last time so 2 months seems like a crunch. I already have some things in the works though.

 

[candle817]

So with FE do you give to all cabins or are some cabins assigned to some? Being our first cruise I'm trying to figure it out. From what I see its fun especially with kids

 

[emtmom0104]

So with FE do you give to all cabins or are some cabins assigned to some? Being our first cruise I'm trying to figure it out. From what I see its fun especially with kids

You give to all cabins unless it becomes so big that we have to split the cabins into smaller groups.

 

[ddavis860]

We had the cut off at 1 month also for the FE. That way you had exact numbers.

A meet at 3 PM on embarkation day seems to work the best time wise. We can get in our cabins after the rope drop at 1, and that gives us a couple of hours to get settled in and unpack. At the meet we can get any last min cabin changes for the FE, and have a conch cooler (YUMMM) and then it breaks up for muster drill. The Promenade Lounge on deck 3 is a good place to meet, and weather doesn't matter. We have also met the group between the stacks on deck 10, but weather is a factor (and no bar access... it's all about the conch cooler for me )

 

[emtmom0104]

I agree Debbie! I say we plan the meet and greet at 3pm at the promenade lounge. I wanna get at least 2 weeks before the trip for the wrap up of the FE since I am leaving about a week before the cruise for the first part of my b2b. I do understand about last minute changes in room.

Here is our info for the FE and I will get it on a spreadsheet as soon as others join in:

Dis name-Emtmom0104
Cabin # 8556
Jessica 30
Trevor 36
Destiny (f) 12
Dylan (m) 8
Jayden (m) 6
Participating in FE? Yes!

And if everyone could say yes or no in participating in the FE that would be great!

 

[ddavis860]

We are in too!

Dis name-ddavis860
Cabin # 7622
Debbie-old
Ed-older
Participating in FE? Yes

 

[gopherlawyer]

Help me convince my wife that FE will be fun and not an extra burden on the cruise.