20050514..May 14, 2005...Official Check in Disney's 1st 14 Day thru Panama Canal

[Hygiene99]

Welcome to all the new folks.. Did not recieve the excursion info could some one, Please Email to Hygiene99@aol.com.

here is a link to the website for the list

http://www.tiggerfan.net/canal/



Peter

 

[Scott H]

With all the new folks making reservation for this cruise I thought that our GTY status might have changed and that we might have a stateroom assignment. Called DCL and we are still GTY cat 5.

Coupon for Curacao Sea Aquarium is for two and expires 12/31/05. Value $15 per person. If we go diving, we get to see a really big aquarium.

 

[moocow35]

I didn't hear anyone being rude, just some honest observations.

The Disney cruise *is* for kids, both big and small. As I said in my previous post....waving the white flag....I love kids, I have one (actually who is now considered an adult) I don't think we need to have two separate threads, those of us who are cruising as adults only, are cruising Disney because we love Disney. Perhaps, those of us who did mention something about the amount of kids has had a "situation" on a previous cruise. But......speaking for myself, that is not stopping me from going on another and another Disney cruise. This will be my 5th, and the 6th is booked. My personal opinion is the unruly kids parents are more at fault than the kids. I'm sure we all could share some stories! Like Kim's and the child crawling on the table, the parent is to blame.

If I said anything to hurt you, I'm sorry Please realize no comment was directed personally to any specific cruisers child. What can we do to make you feel warm and fuzzy again? Come back and share the excitement with us, okay?

Robin

 

[moocow35]

Peter, I forwarded the email to you!

Robin

 

[3DAN]

Robin and Kim,
My dd Kristen is dying to go horseback riding. It looks like Mazatlan is the best choice. She is nine and I think she will be able to go there. Just visited the web site. Let me know if you guys are going to go.
Bill

 

[moocow35]

Will do Bill! I've read a lot of good comments about Randi's ride over on the Cruise Critic boards. The lunch afterwards sounds delicious!

Robin

 

[Scott H]

After looking over the excursions together we are leaning towards the Snorkel Kayak Eco tour, and will see what the Sierra Madre tour is about.


Will see as we get better descriptions.

 

[Juli]

I just have to come out of lurkdom as well. With only 4 months until we leave I'm getting pretty excited. I said hello way back when, but have been busy with one thing and another and couldn't get to the thread much.

We are Tony (DH), Juli (me), two of our 3 boys, both age 9, and my MIL & FIL. We should already be on the list that Jeff is keeping. I was hoping our 22 yr old son could join us, but even if we could get him a cabin, he most likely won't be able to take all that time off of work. We can't take him in our cabin for 4 and it doesn't look like we'll be able to move up to a Cat. 4. As much as my in-laws adore their grandson, I think 2 weeks in tight quarters is asking too much. (In other words, I'm too chicken to even ask).

This will be our 3rd Disney Cruise and we are all so excited. We'll be adding on a couple of days in San Diego to see BIL and family as well. Perfect trip!

Hope to be around a whole lot more from here on out.

Juli
(the one without a clever or fun screen name)

 

[Juli]

Robin and Kim,
My dd Kristen is dying to go horseback riding. It looks like Mazatlan is the best choice. She is nine and I think she will be able to go there. Just visited the web site. Let me know if you guys are going to go.
Bill

Hi Bill,
Our boys are 9 and love to ride. In fact, they have a great deal more experience than we do. Um, anyone with more than an hour in the saddle has more experience than I do, but that's beside the point. I was thinking of a private driving tour in Mazatlan, and have to consider my in-laws, but this looks like something we may want to do as well.

Juli

 

[DisneyPinDiva]

Hey, last cruise, my MIL brought her own blender and stuff for Margaritas. I laughed at her for awhile, but then began to like the idea! May have to consider it, since its 14 days. Thats one heck of a bar tab for us!

Kim

No worries Kim.. Margaritas will be plentiful, lethal and cheap in Mexico!!! Of course there are all those sea days........ Maybe I should bring my Vita-Mix after all.........

 

[Scott H]

After trying to get some info on these shore excursions we went to the Princess web site and noted that DCL on the average is about $10.00 cheaper for their excursions.

Really bummed that the Sierra Madre tour in Mazatlan was not led by Walter Huston leading a donkey.

OK trivia time, in the movie Treasure of the Sierra Madre, who sold Bogie the lottery ticket? Easy Question.

 

[DisneyPinDiva]

Found this at Mazinfo.com.... looks like a great tour that can include a little bit of everything... even horse back riding! We're thinking about booking it but wonder if anyone else has ever booked an excursion outside of Disney.

Stone Island Tour, Mazatlan, Mexico


Hope the link works... not sure if I did it right....

 

[nasmith]

Okay, Okay (in a Stitch voice) - I was kidding for pete's sake (about the separate thread).............It was just that I started to notice a trend in "kid-grumbling" and really would rather not read all that not-so-positive stuff here. I come here for escapism!!

Oh - About the kids ----We just moved to MS - and the schools here get out in early May, start again the first week of August (Seems odd to me , I always thought schools ran Sept. -June, but not here) - so that may account for the increased numbers....

I'm glad the excursions list has come out -now I can do some research and figure out what I want to do.....Me, Primarily I just want to get some GOOD mexican food (I'm ex-San Diego ) ---so We may just strike out on our own in search of Good Eats at one or more of the ports (DH and I - I probably won't drag the 5 yo thru the streets of Mexico (He doesn't even like tacos!)). DH has been to Curacao and Cabo.

The First Mardi Gras parade is here this Saturday - and there are parades every weekend until Fat Tuesday...Lots of beads and moonpies to be had! I'm making Muffaletta's - and have more than enough to go around - so everyone's invited (kids or no kids )!

Actually, we'll be on the Wonder on Fat Tuesday (Our "trial" cruise) - and I've stocked up on beads to pass out to our fellow passengers - Thank Goodness we are driving, as I've got about 25 lbs of beads . It was either the beads or stale muffaletta's.......Laissez les Bons temps rouler -Jill

 

[Az Pirates]

With all the new folks making reservation for this cruise I thought that our GTY status might have changed and that we might have a stateroom assignment. Called DCL and we are still GTY cat 5.

Coupon for Curacao Sea Aquarium is for two and expires 12/31/05. Value $15 per person. If we go diving, we get to see a really big aquarium.

Scott,

I had the same idea - still GTY for us as well.

Put us on the list as interested in the Sea Aquarium Coupon - I think that's something the kids would really enjoy.

The door magnet tag sounds like fun!


I knew getting the excursion list would put all the planners on this thread into overdrive!


I noticed there are two Cliff Diver excursions on Acapulco. I guess we won't know for sure what the difference is until we get more detail from DCL. Has anyone done a similar excursion before?

There are so many of you out there who are experienced cruisers - do you usually just stick with the DCL excursions or do you book your own?

 

[tadsdaddy]

Welcome Elaine! So glad you are joining us! Tell us more about yourselves.

As we pick up new people, maybe some of us who have been here for a while can also say a bit about ourselves again.

Welcome Elaine and thank you for the excursion data, Kara! The analysis has begun amongst the family members.

We are providing 3 of the 550 children on our cruise: DD12, DD10, DS9. We currently have a GTY Cat 4 (that sleeps 5), and are foolishly hoping for a miracle cat 3 upgrade. My wife homeschools and I'm an R&D software manager. Our only other cruise was last February on the Wonder 4-day. We're annual passport holders for DL and DCA, so we won't need a return flight home. My boss finally approved my vacation request, but when I first told him, he didn't seem thrilled.

 

[JenKatt]

Let me first say I didn't mean to offend anyone about being glad there were less kids on this cruise. I love kids, some day Jeff and I will have a couple. I'm the friend that takes kids off my friend's hands. But 1000 kids in a confined space for 14 days spells trouble to me. 14 year olds will be getting bored and unruley no matter how well behaved the are since the clubs will be maxed out and so many days at sea. I just don't see how Disney will be able to accomadate so many kids for so long and not have problems. I see this as a bigger issue for the kids than myself since I can hide in the adult only areas if need be (although last cruise not one CM enforced those rules in the clubs). Anyways, it's not about me being put out, but the kids. That's just my 2 cents, but it's Canadian 2 cents so it's really only $0.02.
Ok, I'm tired, off to bed with me

 

[kaylin]

I will check out the riding link and let you know. We will probabley do it! I have wanted to take Kaylin on every cruise we have been on, but either could'nt find one, or was a little worried about the ones I saw.

Kim

I like the magnet idea too!

 

[karaeric]

Scott,

I had the same idea - still GTY for us as well.

Put us on the list as interested in the Sea Aquarium Coupon - I think that's something the kids would really enjoy.

The door magnet tag sounds like fun!


I knew getting the excursion list would put all the planners on this thread into overdrive!


I noticed there are two Cliff Diver excursions on Acapulco. I guess we won't know for sure what the difference is until we get more detail from DCL. Has anyone done a similar excursion before?

There are so many of you out there who are experienced cruisers - do you usually just stick with the DCL excursions or do you book your own?

As we become more experience, we are going out on our own more with excursions. However, that being said, I noticed that on the 10-day cruise that those who booked their own excursions had more problems with those excursions. Operators cancelled last minute, and in some cases, the cruisers didn't even know about it until they arrived at the proprietors location. And you have to deal with trying to get the refund back on your own when that happens. The other consideration is that DCL will not leave you behind if you book through them and your excursion arrives back late. If you go out on your own, then they will not wait for you.

I also agree that pricing is actually pretty competitive, so booking through DCL is worth it. If you don't see anything you want to do, then consider booking on your own. We've done it both ways.

 

[first timers]

I have to start by saying that I took my Mom on the 4 day Disney Wonder cruise at the end of November 2004 and we absolutely loved every minute of it so I went on the Disney Cruise Line site to start getting quotes for another cruise in May 2006. While on the site, I was having a hard time deciding between the Eastern & Western cruises and then I thought how cool would it be to book back to back eastern & western caribbean cruises. I called the Castaway Club number and spoke to a wonderful CM who answered all my questions about the back to back and then she inquired if I'd be interested in doing the 14 repositioning cruise through the Panama Canal this May 14-28. I advised that would be a trip of a lifetime but heard it was sold out. She said that she thought there were a few cabins still available and she checked and sure enough there was a category 9 stateroom available and I took the plunge and booked it. I am so excited...I still can't believe that we are actually going on this cruise...I called Disney again this morning just to confirm our reservation!!!!

Thanks to everyone who redirected me to this thread. Now to go back and read all 177 pages!!!!!

Elaine

Elaine: Great to have you on board. We are Alex and Carolyn. We did a back to back eastern/western last year, it was very interesting but the 14 day Panama Canal cruise should be even better. After the 10 day Christmas cruise, we noticed that we met more people than on the back to back, and we got to know the crew much better. Carolyn is a pediatric RN but currently working in the church office, Alex is a certified registered nurse anesthetist. We have two children and three grandchildren. We are cruising without children but love to watch the kids on the cruise- they all seem to have such a great time. Oh to be that young again! This is our 21st DCL cruise.

 

[kaylin]

I am going on the horseback riding Robin! She just e-mailed me back and said there is no age limit, and the youngest that they have taken has been 3yo. They tied her horse to another, but she had a great time. I just have to figure out the date we will be there so I can reserve some spots. If anyone else wants to go, you can reserve a spot right on the website, or let me know & I'll include your names when I do mine!

Kim