20040131 ~ Cruising Jan 31 2004 Western Who's with us?

[Tiiiigergirl]

If anyone wants to borrow my child, they are more than welcome. Especially today.

 

[Kabuli1]

Page 3! What's up with that?

Tiiiigergirl, still want to loan your child out for the cruise? NO! I don't want one! Been there, done that! I'll help tho, if you'll change meal times to eat w/ us!

Any of our folks suffer thru the black-out? Still without power? What a nightmare! Just talking to my BIL (in Detroit) - he said that the bright side was that he saw stars that night like never before!

Well, dear folks, have a lovely weekend!

Karyn

 

[Tiiiigergirl]

Karyn

Sorry I would love to eat with you but I just can't face the thought of late seating with Brandon. Arrrrghh. You are so sweet and I know we would have a blast!

There is still Brunch. We are hoping to do that the 1st sea day. I know if you have a big enough group but not too big they will sometimes put you in the private dining room. So how about it everyone! Do we want to try for that?

I wish someone in our group had concierge level service and they could arrange it ahead of time. We are planning on being there at 10:30 and it sounds like Karyn is too so hopefully between the two of us we can make the arrangements.

 

[Kabuli1]

Tiiig - just think! late seating is only 6:30 your time! So you'll just be eating at the "narmal" time! AND you can always grab a snack in the late afternoon - it's so much more relaxed and no rushing in the evenings. Of course that would mean we would have PLA again w/ a 10 yo and a 17 yo - but tha's ok.

I'd love to help organize - anything! Let me know. You bet, I'm going to be at the starting line when they drop the rope that morning! In lime green!!! LOL

Karyn

 

[Tiiiigergirl]

Karyn you are relentless! In all seriousness it has a lot to do with Brandon's Autism. He does not deal well with change and I don't want to find out if the early v. late seating throws him. Actually when you first meet him you probably wouldn't think there was anything wrong with him. But the first year we took him on a DisneyWorld trip it was a disaster. I thought he had a miserable time. He had a melt down at EPCOT and screamed at the top of his lungs I WANT A NEW FAMILY. Needless to say he did not get any takers although we definitely would have been happy with a two for one swap. We swore we wouldn't go back and then about 2-3 months later he was looking at the family picture of us and said, "You know, we really are a family." See Brandon is adopted and has struggled with bonding and it just took him a few months to process that he had a good time! I think I booked our next trip within the week. Now that he knows what to expect things go much more smoothly.

 

[kmc33]

Hi Tiiiigergirl. I saw your post the other day looking for takers and almost posted the same thing about my son. We had had a terrible day that same day and in fact, he told me that he wanted a new mommy that day during his meltdown.

How old was your son when he was diagnosed with autism? My son is 4 now and he was diagnosed with speech apraxia a year ago. Through speech therapy, his speech is getting better. Unfortunately some of the behavioral and social issues that we thought may be related to communication difficulties are not getting better and some days seem worse. He demonstrates some characteristics typcial of autistism and ADHD, but I have also been told that at an early age some of these same traits are demonstrated by preschoolers. However, I also have been reading that early intervention is valuable, so I am in the process of filling out questionnaires to have an evaluation performed.

 

[Kabuli1]

Ok Tiiiigergirl! I understand how important "routine" is for your son. Sigh, I'm coming after you if Disney sticks us w/ lousy dining companions! How's that for a threat? Any LATE diners out there???

BTW my #1 son has ADD and graduates from Cornell University on Monday! I'm pretty proud of him.

I'll be happy to help you book the Palo tables for brunch! I'll be there early! I want to see you arrive in style!

Karyn

 

[Tiiiigergirl]

Karyn its a deal! I know you must be very proud of your son. The difficulty of college but wow an impressive school and with a disability. I'm very impressed.

Actually, kmc our son was just diagnosed. The diagnosis has made things much easier. We now do things differently. I honestly blame myself for his meltdown a few years ago and we've not had anything like it since. We, his idiot parents, pushed him waaaaay too hard and he was exhausted. We all were but we had paid this much money to have fun and by golly we were going to! You know the drill. That's why unless we have to we don't mess with his routine.

Its hard raising a disabled child but I wouldn't in all seriousness trade him for the world.

 

[kmc33]

Thanks for the information and the encouraging words. We have been reading a lot and trying to learn what we can do to work with him to help. Now that I am learning new things, I can see how our actions and reactions can contribute to the situation. Thanks again!

 

[Tiiiigergirl]

As you can see by the countdown, we have rescheduled our cruise. I'll check in from time to time and hope you have a wonderful time. I was looking forward to meeting you but it just wasn't meant to be. Take care.

 

[Kabuli1]

I am so so sorry that Tiiiigergirl has had to reschedule. I know what that's like, we had to reschedule from a 11/15 sailing to this one. I had made some great friends on the thread for that cruise and it was so sad to have to make the change! Tiiigergirl, if you're still checking, I'll miss you! You were our great cheeleader!

If there are those of you out there who want to get together for a Palo brunch, let me know! I'll be onboard early and will be happy to arrange it for the first at sea day. In fact, I will be happy to help arrange anything. (Except babysitting!)

Hope this is a great week for everybody. It's been kinda quiet on this board. Maybe we'll gain momentum as we get kids back to school and Fall gets underway.

Still looking for some late diners!

Karyn

 

[kmc33]

Not only a great cheerleader, you were our first! Sorry that it didn't work for you to sail with us. We'll miss you!

 

[Kabuli1]

Bumping this up from page 5!

We're looking into a wild dolphin snorkel excursion in Key West. If we had three more people we could do a group charter of the boat. It looks like fun. If anyone is interested at all please pm me for the information.

How's everybody this weekend?

I feel silly bumping this up all the time! Hello? Anybody out there?

Cheers!

Karyn

 

[OKWMEMBER]

We're getting excited abpot our upcoming WDW trip. What a great week-end we're having weather-wise! Mid 70's and sunshine!

We're probably going to hang out downtown at Key West. Duval Street is fun by itself!

We got the PassPorter book for the Disney Cruise Line and we're using that to decide what else we want to do. I think Stingray City at Grand Cayman is a given.

Enjoy the rest of the week-end!

 

[Scott5150]

I got the passporter book too. I think that it is really well done. This will be our 4th cruise on the Magic, and there were still some new things in it for me. I am really looking forward to Key West. We will probably just get off the ship and walk around on our own. We will have one senior (My Mom, 62) and one infant (Sarah, 7 mos.) so that will slow us down.

My son Lucas (3) is doing well in potty training. We told him that if he gets potty trained by the cruise, he can swim in the mickey pool and play with the other kids in the kid area. I know that it is just as much an incentive for us as him, but we want him to be able to do it if he likes it.

One of my favorite things to do is sharing Mickey Waffles for breakfast with my son, Lucas - Topsiders has awesome breakfasts with Mickey Waffles and made to order omlettes. I got a Mickey Waffler for making them at home, but it is not the same as getting them on the ship or at the parks.

Scott

 

[Kabuli1]

OKWMEMBER, when do you leave for the big birthday bash? And what day is the big day???? So where are you going to have dinner on that night??? I wish, wish, wish I could get down to Orlando for mine! But New Years Eve is kinda premium down there! We'll just toast the next 50 on the cruise, ok?

I love Stingray City - it was the most fun thing I've every done! My DH and DD didn't love it like I did. We did Capt Marvins it was fabulous. I want to do horseback riding that day as well, I don't know if I can work that out or not. Last time we did Capt Marvin's the whole boat was filled w/ DISers - and we didn't plan on doing ot together! What a blast! I had planned on doing the whole day this time, but if we can work out riding w/ Nikki we'll do that as well and go for the early 2 hr excursion or the 1/2 day.

Scott5150, mmmmm Mickey waffles, mmmm, I haven't had carbs like that in months - well, if I make it to goal before this trip, I'll be trying those out at least once!

Beautiful weekend here in Chi Town!

Karyn

 

[kmc33]

It's a beautiful weekend in Pittsburgh -- probably the nicest of the summer. Got in some golfing and two birthday parties (for a 4 and 5 year old). The 5 year old is my nephew whose family (DSis, her DH, DS5 and DD2) is also joining us on the trip. My ds is 4 and I think he would love to have a Mickey waffle maker here at home! I think I will have to look into that!

We are looking forward to 3 days in Orlando at Universal at the end of September -- just hubby and me, and DS is staying with Grandma. I have never been to Universal and thought that it would be a fun adult get-a-way since I think DS is still too small for many of the rides. I had been contemplating the idea and then when USAir had a one day sale to FL and I got direct flights for $156, that sealed the deal.

Enjoy the end of summer! I can't believe next week is Labor Day already!!!

 

[Kabuli1]

kmc33, could you keep checking in every few days - I need to watch a count down clock! I can't have one in case my DD sees it and this is a surprise.

That's probably the reason I'm always on here looking for everybody - I want to talk talk talk cause I can't do it at home! I have no idea how I'm going to keep quiet for the next 5 months. My excuse for being on the boards is that we're on the 2004 10 day Christmas cruise. My daughter thinks I'm really obsessing about something that is 16 months away! Oh well!

Karyn

 

[OKWMEMBER]

Kabuli1,
We're flying down on 9/27/03 and my 50th birthday is 9/28/03. We're staying off-property Saturday night to conserve DVC points and we're checking into OKW on my birthday! We're having lunch at Olivia's (Cuban Sandwich!!!! ) but we haven't decided on dinner yet. I love Longhorn Steakhouse and there's a good one on Irlo Drive in Kissimmee that we've been to several times so that's a possibility. We're going to toast my birthday bigtime on the Magic!

I guess we're going to just miss you, kmc33! We're just up Interstate 79 from you in Erie! Maybe we can meet at the Grove City Outlets before the cruise. We're going to Universal for the first time on this trip also. We'll have to cpmpare notes!

Scott5150,
The Hemmingway house is a good place for casual sight-see. Six toed cats for the kids and interesting artifacts for the adults. I will be having the Mickey ice cream bars instead of the waffles!

 

[Kabuli1]

Hmmmm what a dilemma! Mickey waffles or Mickey ice cream bars? Hmmmmm????? And then there's the chocolate souffle in Palo!

I think I have some work to do before then . . . . . .


Karyn