20041218-cruise-friends-memories Part 2

[tkd lisa]

Hi everyone. Good news! We're all back at home! About noon yesterday the dr. said that Kaylie was back to normal, and she had no reason to keep her there! She's actually back in school today (per the drs recommendation). I'm going to go over to the community board and put up a post on the details since there was a big thread there about ADHD medication and I had posted about the one DD was on. I know a lot of people are nervous about mental health type issues, but if our experience (which was pretty horrible) helps another family make a better decision (or recognize symptoms earlier) then it's worth it. DD's problem truly was a drug interaction, and I'm just so greatful that it's so easy to fix. No more strattera for her!!!!

Anyway, Charlotte, I just noticed you're from Maryland. Where??? We live in southern MD, about as far south as you can go without falling into the bay. Feel free to pm or email me if you'd rather keep that info off a general board (or just ignore the question if you want!). If we're halfway close, maybe we could do a meet? Our kids are 12 (DD just turned that on Sat), and 10 1/2 (DS).

Happy Tuesday all!

 

[djs113]

Charlotte,

did you call Carol at Cruise Planners?

- David

 

[GlenelgMom]

Hi again,

Forgot a few things:

afff - what ages are your kids? We have DS (will be 8) and DS (will be 5).

Stacey - Saw that you stayed in the Polynesian on one of your stays.....did you like it? Comments on the discussion boards seem to be split - people either love it or don't care for it. Our DS #1 did the Neverland Club there.

Gail - Glad to hear you're taking DD out of school to go early. It's been our experience that schools out here "wind down" in the week just before Christmas - not much happens academically, so they wouldn't miss much.

Any thoughts out there on the Grand Floridian? Since it's my folks' 50th, we want to splurge on this one. Is GF worth it? Being right on the monorail would be easier on the kids.......and me, too....I'm getting old these days!

Matt - Whoo hoo - Hawaii! We went years ago and loved it. Will you be on Maui? We stayed in Hana - drove the infamous Hana highway and lived to tell about it. You'll have a wonderful time!

Virgil and Lynda - Thanks for the welcome....it is a great board!

Later all!

 

[DVC4US]

Stacey - I am sure we could squeeze you in if we really tried

Charlotte - we got lucky and got the Walt suite. Actually we got lucky just getting either Cat 1. DH is such a sweetheart, I just give him a kiss and send him off to work every morning (well sometimes I am still asleep) so he can pay for all of our vacations. We leave next Thrusday aftertoon to drive to Dubuque, IA and will fly to MCO on Friday morning and board the ship on Saturday. We are sooooooo excited.

We like Cakebread too. As a matter of fact we had a bottle the other night. I am not sure if Iowa has any regional wines, I will have to check. I was thinking about bringing a few bottles of wine from Amana Colonies. They make very different flavored wines such as Dandelion wine. We had a taste if that once. not sure I would buy a whole bottle but I thought it would be fun for everyone to at least say they had tried it.

Linda - hope you have a great time in Maui.

S*** did not last long this morning and now it is just grey and overcast.

LeiLani

 

[DVC4US]

Okay, posting again because people posted while I was typing.

Lisa - so glad to hear that you are all home and DD is feeling better. It's always nice to get things back to normal.

Charlotte - we have always wanted to stay at the GF, but just never made it there. We are DVC members and it is hard to go back to a regular hotel room after staying in a 2 bedroom unit. Also, the four of us just don't seem to fit into one hotel room, so we usually have to get 2. Isn't that pitiful? We were going to try the GF for our cruise next week since we are having dinner at Victoria & Alberts, but they wanted like $450 dollars for the rooms (3 of them) and we are staying at the Hyatt for $149 for 2 rooms and 69$ for the third. We figured we could spend that extra money on the cruise. We usually stay at the Boardwalk Villas and 2 weeks ago we stayed at the Beach Club Villas.

LeiLani

 

[tkd lisa]

Charlotte, we decided to take the kids out of school two extra days and go to Disney Thursday and Friday before the cruise. We rented points at Boardwalk off the DVC rent board. It turned out to be almost the same as value rates at pop century, and we are within easy walking distance to Epcot and have the boat available to MGM. We picked it specifically for ease of access with the in-laws. Now we did get standard rooms which probably aren't available anymore. That dropped the price dramatically.

You could also try the Swan and Dolphin. That also has the same transportation options.

We're not doing MVMCP. I can't really justify the extra money for the tickets, and we're not big parade people. We're just going to park hop and focus on the rides the kids were too little for in the past. And watch the joy on the grandparents faces. They haven't been to WDW in more than 25 years!

 

[WDWLVR]

Wow - you have all been very busy this morning!

Charlotte - DH and I honeymooned at the Grand Floridian 14 years ago! They do a beautiful job of decorating for the holidays. They have a huge gingerbread house in the lobby with a person inside selling sweets. It is a must see!

AHHHH - DVC does spoil us. It is kind of hard to go back to regular rooms after being spoiled by DVC. We did do the Contemporary last year and it was fun!

Lisa - wonderful news that you are all back home and DD is better and back to school!

 

[videogal1]

Originally posted by justmestace
Darn it....still here....
You guys have got me looking at the Romance package. I'm still thinking champagne breakfast in bed with the kids wouldn't be that much fun. Oh, Caasshhh..............

Now, personally, I think it's great if you and Cash want to work out some kind of "kidwatch" thing... I am bringing about ten tennis balls that he just LOVES to fetch and play catch with......Send all the urchins over. We'll have a play day with bunches of kids off at the pools early..or maybe off at the walking/running track area and work his little legs off....??....Cash will need to get his exercise and there's nothing like a game of keepaway.....Ordinarily my other two dogs race him around but on board the ship if he's not working I don't want him just sleeping. I'd like to see him getting used to treating the ship like a familiar home. If you think that would interest your kids we could set it up....He won't obey them so they shouldn't picture themselves running around without his handler...but I'd love to see him playing too for part of the vacation (at least for the number of hours it takes to have a nice relaxed breakfast in bed......??

 

[WDWLVR]

Wow - we're at 4248 already. 5000 will be here before we know it. Has anyone heard from Karyn lately? She's going to miss 5000 if she doesn't report in soon. Hope all is well with her and Randy. Anyone?

 

[GlenelgMom]

Gee, you'd think I'm addicted to this board already -- and you'd be right!

David - Sent you an email.

Lisa - GREAT news about your daughter! How scary to watch your child go through something like that! So glad she's home and back to "normal" things.
I'd love to get together.....DH does work for the Navy in the Virginia Beach area from time-to-time, so maybe we could plan to meet when I know he'll be down that way or we could meet half-way. Let's brainstorm!

LeiLani - Good for you - the big kahuna suite!! I, too, would gladly volunteer to be smuggled into your luggage! Maybe a steamer-type trunk....... We gave up a Cat. 2 on a September sailing to go on this one.....boy, was that hard to do. We had picked Sept. way back when, just assuming my folks would rather celebrate on the actual month of their anniversary. Then I mentioned Disney was having a first-ever 10-day cruise over Christmas this year. My Mom let out a squeal and said something like "oh, wouldn't THAT have been a nice one to do." Thus, we're on the Christmas cruise!

Lneeley - I'd fit in just fine in Utah - Diet Coke is my main drink!

Til the next post - cheers all!

 

[afff]

Charlotte......our kids DD (will be 10) and DS ( will be 6 ) at cruise time.

DW and I have decided, we are going to make the cruise a complete and utter surprise.

Two days prior to the cruise, we will have to wake them early up to throw them into a cab to catch our flight. ( surprise # 1)

Our hotel, in Port Canaveral has a "lazy river" and "water slide" and a kids club. (surprise # 2)
We are hoping that this will keep them occupied and satisfied for awhile and unaware for what is about to happen.

After those couple of days, we will then tell them that, we are driving somewhere else for the next part of our adventure.
That is when we pull up and park in front of the "Magic" ( surprise # 3 )

Oh....I can see there faces now.

 

[afff]

Lielana......I noticed the timeshare booths at Downtown Disney and Boardwalk.

I wanted to get some DVC information, but due to timing was unable to.

In your opinion is it all worth it? How do they treat the DVC members?

Just curious....Can you buy DVC from a timeshare resale Broker?

 

[GlenelgMom]

afff - Your kids are going to explode when they see the Magic docked. We'll know who your family is from the screams coming from your cab/shuttle bus!!

What an inspired idea to keep it a total surprise.......I'm a big surprise person myself -- love coming up with ones for my family members who, alas, are not as "into" the thrill of a well-thought-out surprise effort! The world is divided into "love surprises/hate surprises" people, I now believe.

Great, great idea!

Cheers!

 

[gail1771]

Originally posted by GlenelgMom
Gee, you'd think I'm addicted to this board already -- and you'd be right!

David - Sent you an email.....thanks again for the info on Carol and Cruise Planners. I emailed her last night.

Charlotte, I am glad you called her. Carol is awesome. That is who we used. I was posting the information to tell you and it never hit the DIS boards. I kept looking for the post and it disappeared??? I referred about 6 people who booked their DC through her. We booked other cruises through her also. She had the best prices and I did my checking around.

Linda, DD would love to walk Cash around or come play with him.

Lisa and Diana I sent you an e mail.

Afff, what a great surprise for the kids.

Anyone going on vaction have a great time.

Where is Karyn?? 5000 is coming up! Has anyone heard from her? I hope she is ok. It has been a while since she posted. I e mailed her and I never heard back from her.

Time to pick up DD from school and bring her to Hip Hop.

Talk to you all later. Gail

 

[lneeley]

afff-we have owned at Old Key West since 1994 and love DVC. This will be our fifth DCL. We have only paid (or should I say are paying) for the kids and grandkids (10 of them, for three staterooms). We used points for our stateroom on this upcoming Xmas cruise.

We exchanged once and went on Holland America to Alaska for 7 days and took my father in law before he passed away. It was the last trip he went on before his death and he never quit talking about it.

We love, love, love, DVC. There is no other way we would have ever done all these trips since we can use the points to our advantage when planning.

I'm sure all the other DVC owners will give you feedback too! There is nothing better than walking into one of "our" resorts and being told "WELCOME HOME"

Linda

 

[justmestace]

WOW!!!

I have to work all day for one lousy day, and look at what you guys do!!!

I don't know where to start.

Charlotte....We had a concierge room at the Polynesian, with a great view of the lagoon....the Electric Parade on water was excellent from our balcony. I was not impressed with any of their restaurants, but we hardly ate there anyway. We all loved the pools, and I specifically asked to stay there instead of GF because we wanted the tropical feel. With our Land/Sea pkg, I guess I was entitled to a room at the GF, but liked the concierge idea at Poly. If I were to do it again, I'd go for the Grand Floridian. The kids have traveled to enough exotic locales now, that the "tropical" thing wouldn't matter.

Lynda....my Jared is the man for Cash. The boy runs and runs. He loves to roll around with Molly and Ash, toss the ball, etc. Jordan is a much gentler soul...she's the one for quiet times. She wouldn't run unless she heard they were handing out free C.D.'s somewhere.

Lisa, so glad Kaylie is back home.

Have to go back and read the pages again to see if I missed answering anyone.

 

[justmestace]

Talking about surprising the kids....ours still don't know that we are going to Disneyland when school gets out. I don't know why I haven't told them..just haven't. I also don't know how I will tell them. They'll figure it out on their own when they see me start gathering all of our Mickey clothing!

Lisa, our sons will be the same age for the cruise. Yours will find mine in the game room. Or running with Cash.

LeiLani......I am closing my eyes until you leave for your cruise...you are tempting me too much!

Someone tell me that the 4 of us will be just fine in our Cat 4. I've never seen one. We were in the 2 twice, and I saw the 5's and the inside staterooms. I guess it's just like a 5, only a hair longer, right?
Maybe we should practice by all of us sleeping in my bedroom between now and then? NOT!

Back later.....

 

[WDWLVR]

afff,

Another happy DVC'er here! We've been members since January of 2000. We have done cruises on points, stayed in a studio, one bedroom and a two bedroom. DVC is the best. If you want a recmommendation for a resale agent pm me - I know someone great!

 

[justmestace]

I was just reading about DVC on the DVC board and I'm confused. (So what else is new?)
If you're buying points, but not an actual location, why do the sales list locations? And what does the month after the listed location mean?
I guess I should have asked them.....
DH wants to invest in something, this would be MY idea of an investment!

 

[WDWLVR]

Stacey - you buy points at a home resort. Right now Saratoga Springs is the resort for sale from Disney. All others are only via the resale market. At your home resort you can make reservations 11 months in advance. At any other DVC resort you make them at 7 months or less.

With a regular timeshare you get a certain size room for a certain week at a certain resort. With DVC you use your points as you want. There are point charts for all the different resorts, exchanges, etc. So you may want a studio for just a few nights for very little points or go all out with a Grand Villa for a week. The choice is up to you.

You can bank points into the next year or borrow points from the next year. Check out the DVC FAQ on this site. DVC FAQ

If I can answer anything let me know. If you want the name of someone to buy resale from also let me know. Plus if you want to use me as a referral then by all mean (we get something for it)