20041218-cruise-friends-memories

[WDWLVR]

is this 1400?

Woo Hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[jilljill]

I forgot to say that we will be at WDW for Easter week. I know someone asked earlier who would be down there then.

gaRry, I always forget to pack something - gotta have some excuse for shopping, not that I need one. I haven't even started to pack for Ireland and that trip is in less than 3 weeks
More importantly, the house needs to be packed up so that we can sell it this spring.

 

[WDWLVR]

We start pre-packing about a month before we sail and finalize our backing the weekend before. So we got 10 more months of buying and then packing!

 

[wdwgoose]

we b there tooooo
see I knew we could make it with time to spare !!!!!!!!
jilljill we'll meet you at the small small world ?????????????
or the bar garden ?????????

being consistent is A good thing ????????

have A great night everyone

gaRry

 

[jilljill]

gaRry, if we do meet up we must not breathe a word of the cruise to DD, she won't know about it until sometime in December. If you wear your sneakers I'm sure I will be able to find you day or night

Packing.....we usually finish about 10 minutes before we are ready to walk out the door.

 

[paulcrsb]

I like to wait 'til the last minute to pack. Drives DW up the wall!

Paul

 

[WDWLVR]

I'm a planner and packer meaning I make lists long before we start packing to figure out what to bring. I do 90% of the packing for both of us (I do all the clothes, DH takes care of the cameras, computer, etc.)

 

[wdwgoose]

GOOD morning all,

Mary yes if you would please send me your list and I'll see what I don't have ??? thank you by the way do you ever unpack??
I'm not sure who gets to travel more you guys or Leilani,
last minute packing not me if I tried that I would be shopping every day for things i forgot !!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHAT !!!!!!!! another secret ??????? HOW do you ladies do this to your lovely children??????
jillybean is that A mean thing ???????????

Deds hill are you still around???????

Lorraine are you ???????????

CRUISERS COME ON POST !!!!!!!!!!! some of us are totally NUTS so we could use some of the normal people to help NOT scare off first time cruisers.
SO post some so we know your still on the list and going........


everyone have a nice day, I have things to work on so

gaRry

 

[gail1771]

Good Morning everyone. Happy Monday.

We go away 2-3 times a year. I do all the vacation planing. Usually one Vac. is to visit family in Florida which is not a vacation and the others are pleasure. I have always done ALL the packing for everyone in our family and let me tell ya with a baby or toddler in tow it is alot of work. I am not complaining but it is hard not to forget something with a 6 year old and 2.5 year old. I use to pack 2 days before when it was just DH and myself. I now start packing a week before with a list.I started doing that when my son was born. I got smart this time and left DD clothers at the inlwas house in Florida so when we drop her off in February to go on the Celebrity cruise I will have to pack hardly anything for her. My husband has it easy all he has to remenber is his sunglasses, watch, wallet and razor. This year is a big year for packing. We will be away in February, DD and I will be in florida for 6 days during passover to see family(DH and DS will be home. DH has to work). We will be going on a a cruise to Alaska in August and the DC in Deceber. We have never been on 3 cruises in one year. We are hooked. DH and I started cruising 3 years ago and usually take one cruise for a week and a mini 3 day since than but this year we had a RCCL credit of $1000.00 we needed to use by Sept. and they would not let us use it on Celebrity. So we are doing RCCL for Alaska. We also got a great rate to fly direct fofrom NY $293.00pp on Cathay Pacific. I am lucky to have in laws, sister in law, my parents and a babysitter p/t who has been with us almost 6 years to help us with the kids. I hope we can pay for all of this as I am not working at this moment. Mabye I will start playing the lottery.
JillJill, We were going to be at WDW and staying at our timeshare in April but we had to cancel due to DH starts a bid job the end of Feb. that goes through May. Sorry we will miss you all.
For all you travelers. AA had a newpaper article out that if you fly and complete two trips(you have to show up and fly) between Boston or NY to Fla. or Calif between 1/15 and 4/15 they will give you a voucher to use anywhere. So all of you who live in NY and Boston and fly for businees or leisure check it out. DD and I got lucky and are flying to Fla. twice in that time frame. Anyway time to feed the children breakfast. School closed today. It's going to the movie day. Lots of ice outside this am hope it melts. Fondly-Gail1771

 

[tkd lisa]

I'll probably start packing in late summer/early fall. Definitly will be 90% packed by October. On our May 2002 cruise, we booked in something like January, and I was packed by the first of March! But we'll be wearing some of the cruise clothes probably through September.

Mary, thanks for the DVC chat invite. We really don't go to Disney often enough to make DVC ownership worthwhile. We did a 5 day trip in 97, a 2 day trip in 99, and then just one day after our last two cruises in 02 and 03. I may pop in to a different DVC chat just to ask my rental security question. Is it every Sunday? I'll be home from choir practice just about 9, so it would work fine time-wise.

Diane, for us it cost $17 more to rent 2 standard view studios instead of 2 Pop Century. No tax on rented points, at least 11.5% tax on room rentals. Weekend nights (i.e. Friday) do bump up the cost of the rentals considerably. Good luck finding a rental!

Hope everyone has a nice day off (for those who have a holiday today?).

Lisa

 

[DVC4US]

I am the one who does most of the packing in our house. I'm a planner like Mary, and I usually have long lists for each trip. DH drives me nuts because I have to stay on him to pack. His idea is to get up in the morning pack then leave. It drives me crasy. And DD (teenager) thinks she has to take everthing in her closet. I let her pack last year without checking what she was taking - BIG MISTAKE . Luckily we were at WL for a couple days before the cruise so we sent some stuff home. For 12 days she had 16 pairs of shoes, 25 tops, every belt she owns (which must be 20), and every bottle of body spray she has. Needless to say Mom now checks her suitcase every time. Since we are going to WDW in March and then on the cruise 3 weeks later, the girls and I are just going to leave our suitcases packed. I will just wash when we get back then repack them. We won't need those cloths in Iowa in March or April.

LeiLani

 

[PrincessAuroraInBlue]

You know what? I'm just soooo excited that I think i'll start packing right about now... OH WAIT!! that's right, all y'all haffta wait around 11 months for the Magic, and i only have twelve days!! HeHe, sorry - had to rub it in a little!!

need to shop! Need To Shop!! NEED TO SHOP!!!
Sorry, i'll try and supress my girly urge....

So, i'm graduated!! yay!! no more school until august! This is quite exciting, it feels GREAT!! Hmmm, now that the excitement has kinda died down, i gotta get my fingers back to crocheting, sh'ant i? hmmmmm, yeah...

Talk to you later, Happy Monday and Happy Martin Luther King Jr day!! hehe, byeeeeeeeee!

 

[PrincessAuroraInBlue]

Although, on the other hand...

the 1-31 people were pretty pushy about the fact that i spend more time on 12-18 than on them... I made it perfectly clear that i'm going to remain perfectly loyal to my Christmas cruisers even though it's longer off. Be Happy- i know everyone here much better than there!!

 

[tinkfan]

We have to pack the house and move before we can begin to think about packing for this trip. I am curious to see if they add another semi-formal or formal night too??? Anyone know where the laundry room is on deck 8? We will definately need it.

I was the one asking about who would be at WDW near Easter. We are supposed to be at the Boardwalk Villas April 3-10. We are still waiting for DH to get more info on our move and hopefully it won't ruin the vacation plans. If we don't go then we will definately reschedule because we have annual passes that expire at the end of June and need to get another trip in before that.

At least the sun is shinning today, even if its only 25 degrees!!
Have a great day

 

[athurstance]

I am the planner in our family - since we booked this cruise I have been busy reading all the past cruise trip reports on the DIS - everyone seems to have such a fantastic time I can't wait until 18th December.
We are over at WDW for Easter from 27th March to 16th April so I plan to drive over to the port on one of the Magic's port days to see if we can get a look at her and check out some hotels.
I haven't been able to book flights from the UK yet but we plan on flying into Orlando on 17th and staying overnight near the port so we are ready bright and early in the morning for the cruise.
Have any of you cruised on any other cruise lines? Our only other cruise was with P&O this Xmas but we have been looking at possibly Celebrity, NCL and Royal Caribbean for 2005. P&O was very child friendly and I'm kind of assuming Disney will be.
Its very important to us that the kids have a good time so a good youth program is absolutely essential so your comments would be most welcome.

Angela

 

[gail1771]

Oh my gosh If I were to let my husband pack he would pack either the last minute which he would do (which also drives me nuts) or he would forget stuff. As for my DD who will be 7 in March she is a total pack rat. If she could she would pack her entire bedroom. We let her pack one small suitcase to her grandmother's house and it was stuffed with everything. I can just imange what she will be like when she is a teenager. I am ok if I start my list two weeks before we go away and pack the week of and make sure it is all done the day before we fly. I really should be one a few days before but it is the last minute stuff. I am glad I am not the only one who packs for the whole family. I am also the Total trip planner. My DH has never planned a trip or called to book reservations before we go away. I do all the investigating and he goes along with the program. That is one of the things I love about him is that he is so easy going. He is to busy to even look into all this stuff. I love doing it. I should of been a travel agent.

Have a great day everyone. Talk to you soon. Fondly-Gail

 

[Dancind]

Can't pack yet. I intend to be smaller by next December, and I'm sure DD will be bigger (growth spurt). This is going to be an expensive trip!

Gail, if you're thinking you might want to stay at a DVC, look into it now! Decide where you want to stay and rent the points from someone that has that one as a home resort. By seven months out, those resorts are pretty much booked, though you could probably stay at OKW. BCV studios have more amenities than a standard room at BC, though the second bed is a pull-out couch.

I'm going to backtrack through these posts, and make a list of everyone that wants to sit in the same area for second seating. I'll post it here, then we can figure out how to accomplish it. If we keep this up, we might be able to have our own DIS rotation in both seatings! Kind of like how we will take over Palos for brunch.

Maybe we could also figure out who will be staying AFTER the cruise at WDW. We might consider it. Can't go before, DD is already missing three days of school if we fly out the night of the 17th. We won't be able to DVC for New Year's, too many points, but might be able to stay at Swan/Dolphin. Anyone up for a NYE Illuminations cruise? Bet that's hard to get! Diana

 

[Dancind]

Whoa, two posts in a row.

Angela, welcome to our group. Yes, DCL is very kid friendly, and you will have a great time too. Excellent choice! We have cruised on Celebrity and I can tell you they are NOT kid friendly.

Here's our group so far for second seating, I will post this again whenever it needs an update:

Dancind (Diana, Kevin, DD12)
DVC4US (Leilani, DH, DD15, DD8)
WVMD (Virgil, DW, DD19, DD10)
Jilljill (Jill, DH, DD10)
GaRy (GaRy, DW, kid1? , kid2? )
Tdk lisa (Lisa, DH, kid11, kid12, in-laws)


Is anyone going to be at WDW the week of August 9? DD and I will be at BCV for six nights, she would love a friend to do the slide with! Once down the slide is good for me. Diana

 

[tinkfan]

Diana,

Please count us in on the 2nd seating rotation.
We are Me (Tina), DH ( Sam) DS 11, DD 13

Thanks!!

 

[tkd lisa]

Diana, FYI, the 11 year old is a DS, and the 12 year old is a DD.

Angela, you will be so happy with the kid-friendliness of Disney cruise line, that you won't believe it! Everything is set up to make things easier for parents! I'm not going to say that your kids will love the kids programs, because not all of them do, but it runs the gamut from kid-friendly food nearly all waking hours, to bathtubs in the staterooms, to movies that you won't worry about your kid seeing, to family style cabaret shows, etc. etc.

I know some folks that took a parallel western caribbean when we were on our first one (actually, there were two separate families we knew who were on the same ship! Small world, huh). When we started comparing notes when we returned, they both said that they would definitly do DCL if they took the kids again. The kids programs were limited, the food wasn't geared toward them, etc.

IMO, it's worth the money to know that we'll all have a good time!