20060902--Eastern Sept 2nd, 2006

[allears]

I'm so pathetic! To help easy my DCL withdrawal symptoms, I requested one of those DVDs they send when you're planning a cruise because I never had one. It came in the mail today and I'm DYING to watch it! I'm trying to control the urge until Tyler comes home from his dad's and we can watch it together. I'll bet we'll watch it every day until the cruise!

Anybody else going nuts from the anticipation?

I guess you could say we are nuts with anticipation as we spend tons of time on here and lots of time planning. My DW is out right now with our youngest son trying to finish picking up any of the clothes he needs.

 

[Joyce]

Our Dolphin adv. starts at 11am-6m
Joyce

 

[BigBlueMan]

A while back, I was told you can't request a specific server onboard until the week before sailing. OK, we're just a FEW weeks away from sail date. As it gets closer, what is the best avenue to go to request a specific server, etc?
(Talking phone number, etc)

Thanks!

 

[allears]

A while back, I was told you can't request a specific server onboard until the week before sailing. OK, we're just a FEW weeks away from sail date. As it gets closer, what is the best avenue to go to request a specific server, etc?
(Talking phone number, etc)

Thanks!

We have always had our TA add the request to our reservation, but I don't believe it has ever actually been done. We go right to the dining assigment station at Rockin Bar D and make our reqeust. They immediately make the change, which usually changes whatever rotation we were assigned and we're in our favorite Head Server's station. This really is the only way to be sure that it gets done. No matter how or when you make the request ahead of time, it will always be a request and not a guarantee.

 

[bielen]

Can you change a group table of 8 to a table of four? When we originally booked, we were sharing a table. I think we may want some privacy at the table.

 

[crainbow]

DW and I sat down this week to fill out the online docs. Very painless. I was expecting (due to faulty memory) more forms to fill out. Very nice process. Now all I need to do is get a couple of SD cards for the new camera and we are ready to go.

Chuck

 

[allears]

Wooohooo, got our flight information from our TA tonight! We have an 8am flight out of Philly and arrive in Orlando at 10:30. As long as all goes well, we should be at the port between 12:30 and 1:00! Very exciting!

 

[HollyTyler]

Wooohooo, got our flight information from our TA tonight! We have an 8am flight out of Philly and arrive in Orlando at 10:30. As long as all goes well, we should be at the port between 12:30 and 1:00! Very exciting!

Awesome! I'm jealous---I don't get to MCO until 12:30. At least it's a hair better than last time. Last time we got to MCO at 1:00 and by the time we got onboard, we just had time to go to drop off our carryon bag in our room, then had to head for the emergency drill. This time, I'm thinking I might get to the ship quicker if I arrange transportation other than the DCL bus, but it might not be enough of a time saver to bother. Still undecided on that.

 

[allears]

We have transfers also booked through DCL. I'm all about the convience of it. I figure if we land on or about on time, we should be in the main terminal by 11, to the bus by 11:30 and probably on our way shortly there after. I would usually book our own air and get there a little earlier, but with this being hurricane season, we're going to let Disney worry about flights. And now with the online reservations, we're pretty well set, so don't have to worry about that once getting on board. Though we were very anxious to see what kind of times we got, and I guess we did okay.

 

[nuzmom]

For those flying in the day of the cruise - aren't you worried about cancelled/delayed flights? This is our first time cruising and I thought the "standard" is to fly in the day before.

When we flew down 2 years ago (USAirways), our morning flight was delayed for 2 hours and then cancelled due to mechanical problems. The next flight was in 1 hour. That flight ended up being delayed 1 hour and then cancelled. An announcement was made that the next flight could only hold about 1/2 of the passengers. There was a crazy dash for that ticket counter. We RAN down the terminal to the next manned counter and got that flight. We landed in MCO at something like 7:30 PM, when we should have been there by 11:30 am. The people who didn't make the flight were even later.

That was by far our worst experience getting to MCO. Are some airports better than others and you're flying out of "good" airports or something?

Again - just wondering (I'm a rookie cruiser).

 

[HollyTyler]

For those flying in the day of the cruise - aren't you worried about cancelled/delayed flights? This is our first time cruising and I thought the "standard" is to fly in the day before.

Yup, I'm nervous about it. Had no problems the first 2 times flying in the same day, but I'm sure my luck will run out one of these days. The first time I had no choice because my dad booked for the whole family. The 2nd time, I just didn't realize the risk. This time, after I booked the cruise and arranged for the time off work, but before I booked the flight, my son's dad decided to set his wedding date for the night before the cruise, so we have no choice but to fly the day of. I just have to keep my fingers crossed!

 

[BigBlueMan]

For those flying in the day of the cruise - aren't you worried about cancelled/delayed flights? This is our first time cruising and I thought the "standard" is to fly in the day before.

Depends on a couple of things. What part of the country you are coming from, and whether you have to do flight changes as the primary concerns.

We fly from Nashville, and there are a lot of direct flights to Orlando. Still, I'm flying out at 7AM to get into Orlando at 9:55. With a less than 2 hour flight and only one time zone difference you can get away with that.

Should there be a problem with the flight, there should still be plenty of time to get into Orlando to get on the ship.

(I've had my share of flight delays, once getting into Reno nine hours after I was supposed to; and having had to spend the night in Minneapolis one night when I couldn't get to Missoula, Montana. Those are the worst.)

For the Med cruise next summer, I will NOT be cutting it this short!

 

[allears]

Originally Posted by nuzmom
For those flying in the day of the cruise - aren't you worried about cancelled/delayed flights? This is our first time cruising and I thought the "standard" is to fly in the day before.

We've done this twice out of four strickly cruises, the first was land and sea. Since we live near Philly there are tons of flights going out on any given day, so we're not too worried. We've also booked twice ourselves and gone downt the day before. This is actually our preferred method, but we decided to go with DCL as an extra measure of insurance since we're again cruising during hurricane season.

When we cruised in Sept 04, we had our own flights booked and were going down the day before, then our cruise got delayed from Sat to Mon due to hurricane Jeanne. We chose to fly down on Friday afternoon and weather the storm in Orlando, because I figured our chances of getting flights out on Monday when everything was re-opening were slim.

Also that year one sailing stayed at sea for several extra days. Passengers on the ship who had DCL air had their flights changed for them as many times as needed. If you flew on your own you were on you own to get a line to the shore and change your flights. Also if they have to change the port we come back into, there might not be enough time to get back to the air port to catch the return flight.

All in all we've decided the risk of flying in same day is less than the potential problems that could occurr if we're impacted by a hurricane. Again, for us it is like extra insurance this time as well as less to worry about.

 

[racrj]

Hi. We - myself, DH, DD(7) and DS(3), along with my DM and DF are joining the cruise on 9/2. (Hope I wrote that right....)

This is our first cruise and this is my first post. I have been reading along for months and finally had the time to sit and actually join the DIS. DH may not be happy, due to the fact that I have spent nearly EVERY evening glued to the computer researching this cruise!!!

I am getting VERY excited about the cruise and I would like to thank all of you for posting the GREAT information.

While looking over the posts, I had a question related to the magnets. How would I go about creating one? Do I need to have special paper? I am a little inept at anything creative......

Thanks, again, for all your wonderful information. I don't think I would be as prepared as I am, although not packed, if it weren't for all the advice and past experiences you all have brought to the board.

 

[CourtneyMc]

Hi. We - myself, DH, DD(7) and DS(3), along with my DM and DF are joining the cruise on 9/2. (Hope I wrote that right....)

This is our first cruise and this is my first post. I have been reading along for months and finally had the time to sit and actually join the DIS. DH may not be happy, due to the fact that I have spent nearly EVERY evening glued to the computer researching this cruise!!!

I am getting VERY excited about the cruise and I would like to thank all of you for posting the GREAT information.

While looking over the posts, I had a question related to the magnets. How would I go about creating one? Do I need to have special paper? I am a little inept at anything creative......

Thanks, again, for all your wonderful information. I don't think I would be as prepared as I am, although not packed, if it weren't for all the advice and past experiences you all have brought to the board.

Hi there and welcome to our crew!
There are a few ways to do magnets. If you design one on your computer you can print it on regular paper, have it lamintated and put magnet tape on the back, or you can just buy paper (I got mine at WalMart) that has white on the front and magnet on the back so you can just print it on the magnet paper and save the steps.

If you want ideas, check out the Creative DISsign board for tons of ideas and people who might customize something for you or let you use one of their generic DISigns. http://www.disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=105

-Courtney

 

[racrj]

Thanks, Courtney. I am going tomorrow to buy the paper. I like to do things in one step, so if the paper has the magnet on the back, that's a bonus...

 

[BigBlueMan]

This is our first cruise and this is my first post. I have been reading along for months and finally had the time to sit and actually join the DIS. DH may not be happy, due to the fact that I have spent nearly EVERY evening glued to the computer researching this cruise!!!

Tell the hub that he OWES you, because of all your hard work and studying, you guys will have a MUCH better time! (Wow, first cruise AND first post. And she's hanging out with US?!?)

Welcome aboard, matey!

 

[racrj]

I will certainly tell him that! He does say I overplan everything, but I just want to be prepared......

Thanks for the warm welcome!

 

[scifihippie]

bigblueman - thanks for the no-iron tip! That's a great timesaver!

This will be our 5th cruise. We're coming in the day before. I've done both - day of and day before. Day of works pretty well. The reason we're doing day before this time is b/c of the baby. I'd rather him have a nice restful night and sleep in before we head to the ship.

Now that back to school clothing is out, all the summer stuff is on sale. I've bought a bunch of stuff for the cruise pretty cheap!

I'm really getting excited!!

 

[topcroozerkt]

is anyone going on the september 30 eastern disney cruise??