3/24/07 Western Magic

[jldunbar]

Had to move our reservations back a couple of weeks to 3/24. Looking forward to a cruise after "comando style" park touring for the last few years. We are staying at the Radisson on 3/24 - anyone intersted in meeting for dinner?

 

[jldunbar]

I posted to another area for this same time also - hope you are all conntected as it is late and I probably am not (RN working varied shfits). This will be my daughter's and I first Disnry Cruise. We are staying at the Radisson on 3/23 - anyone interested in meeting for dinner?

 

[pclaire]

Welcome, jldunbar - Bellelinus and I have been trying to get this thread going, so thanks for the help! My daughter and I are also staying at the Raddison the night before the cruise, but i'm not sure we'll be there in time for dinner. We haven't booked our tickets yet - they are way expensive from Denver right now, so I'm playing a waiting game and hoping they go down in price. where are you from? It looks like your daughter is 8, so is mine. keep posting so we can keep the thread up on the board (and bury that really old one).

 

[bellelinus]

Welcome, jldunbar! We are probably staying at the Hyatt the night before, since our flight gets into Orlando about 7:40 on Friday the 23rd . . . I was thinking I'd rather get the luggage and get the kids to sleep and then get up early the next morning, then go straight to the port.

Good luck with the airfare, pclaire! Luckily we already have ours (was able to do it with Jetblue frequent flyer points, too). It's always so stressful to know you have to get somewhere, and then to watch and try to decide when to buy. It's like an enormous gamble, I guess.

 

[pclaire]

It is a gamble, especially with spring break. southwest hasn't opened their fares for that week yet- and usually Frontier and united will follow. I'm hoping at least . . What do you do Bellelinus, do you work outside the home?

 

[bellelinus]

It is spring break time, so that gets tough for airfare. I thought I was really lucky to get to use my Jetblue miles.

Yes, I work outside the home -- I am the executive director of a classical music performing group here in Manhattan. However, being the mother of three (as well as two dogs) is yet another full time job! Planning a cruise trip (or two -- we are also booked for the Mediterrean on Disney next summer) is quite a pleasant recreation, don't you think?

 

[jldunbar]

Welcome, jldunbar - Bellelinus and I have been trying to get this thread going, so thanks for the help! My daughter and I are also staying at the Raddison the night before the cruise, but i'm not sure we'll be there in time for dinner. We haven't booked our tickets yet - they are way expensive from Denver right now, so I'm playing a waiting game and hoping they go down in price. where are you from? It looks like your daughter is 8, so is mine. keep posting so we can keep the thread up on the board (and bury that really old one).

I haven't booked airfare yet either but am planning a morning flight so Caitlyn will have plenty of time to swim (I read somewhere that the Radisson closes their pool at 7pm).

When we went to Disney last March I got great airfare on Airtran ($99) - keep watching and they run these specials every few weeks.

 

[pclaire]

Its hard work keeping this thread towards the top with only 3 people! It looks like we already have 2 8 yr old girls and 1 9 yr old. Plus Bellelinus's 2 teenagers. Are you both single moms - or at least for this trip? no boys on this cruise! Bellelinus, I love thinking about excursions, it makes the lead up to the trip more fun - spreads out the excitement. Plus, I'm a lawyer and I have a trial out of towen for 3 weeks in February, so I need to plan ahead!

 

[bellelinus]

I'm not a single mom in everyday life, but on vacation I usually am! My husband will only go to the beach, but not on a "real" trip . . .

Yes, pclaire, planning excursions is a lot more relaxing than real life, isn't it? Good luck with having such a big trial the month before you leave! One of my sisters is a lawyer, so I know how stressful a big case can be.

 

[bellelinus]

So -- is it just me or is everyone having a hard time getting excited about Key West? Is anyone planning an excursion there, via Disney or on your own? I am thinking of just walking around near the port with my girls, and perhaps finding a beach to hang out on for a while. However, I am open to change if anyone has thought up something wonderful there . . .

 

[pclaire]

I'm with you .. not too excited. I was thinking about booking brunch at Palo . . if I can get in - and then just walk around a little in the afternoon, maybe the pirate museum if my dd wants to, definitely get some key lime pie on a stick. Otherwise, not too much to get jazzed about. plus, some of the excursions we are planning at the other ports are pretty exciting and all together, will get fairly expensive (dolphins, sting rays, parasailing), so a low-key day isn't a bad thing. I've been to key west once before - I was still married and my dd was 3 - it was hot and she was tired, and had the temper tantrum to end all tantrums. I think it started beause she saw her dad's ice cream cone was bigger than hers - or something equally ridiculous. It was a truly epic tantrum, though, and that's my memory of Key West!

 

[bellelinus]

That's a really funny -- and quite vivid -- memory of Key West! I'm sure your daughter will be very embarrassed one day when you retell that one . . .

I was reading a thread on the main cruise board about Key West, and it sounds more and more like I will walk around a bit with my girls and just see things on our own. Pclaire, from when you were there before, do you remember how the beaches are? Are there any nice ones close enough to port to walk to? If you don't remember I'll have to do some looking into that.

 

[pclaire]

I'm already thinking about paybacks - she's starting to get to that "mom, don't embarass me by singing or dancing in public" stage (which I mistakenly believed would start years later . . ) so maybe I'll walk down the street and sing some oldies really loud. It is funny how some memories are so vivid though . .
We never saw the beaches, but I've heard most are quite rocky. apparently the sunset is not to be missed.

 

[bellelinus]

Oh, it's never too early to embarrass your kids!!!!!!!

I'll have to look into whether there are any sandy beaches. I have heard that The sunset (and the people watching) is great at Mallory Square, and I think it might be just as good from the ship. I'll look into some trip reports and see if anyone has mentioned watching the sunset from the ship.

Pclaire, do you have early or later dinner seating? I would think that it might be difficult to see the sunset if you had early seating. We did on our last cruise, and I just found it too early, so I asked for the later seating this time. I found we all stay up late on thr cruise, too.

 

[pclaire]

We have early seating - we tend to be very early risers and on our last cruise, we went to bed fairly early as well. I'm a little worried because last time early seating was at 6:00 only, which was ok, but now they have 5:30 and 5:45 times also. I really don't want to eat dinner at 5:30. also, my dd obviously likes to stay up a lot later than she did when she was six, and we're travelling to eastern time, so who knows how it'll go. So much depends on who we meet and who she is wanting to hang out with. I'm pretty flexible as long as there is wine . . .

 

[bellelinus]

We got the 5:30 seating last time and just thought it was way too early for us -- it also broke the day up strangely, interrupting the afternoon and then making the evening after dinner seem long. That was just our experience, though, and we'll see how we like the later seating this time.

We are early risers in "normal" life, but on the cruise, all my girls wanted to hang out at the lab/teen club, etc., after the show (we had the late show time, of course, since we had early dinner), so I was surprised at how our schedule seemed to shift on the cruise.

You know there won't be any problem finding wine on the ship, so you should be good to go!

 

[pclaire]

I'm just hoping my daughter will like the lab better than she did the club. Do your two teenagers get along well and hang out together, or is one or both in a "difficult" stage? On your last cruise did they include the youngest? I think its really cool that you take your kids on trips alone. They will have great memories of their mom

 

[bellelinus]

I'm very lucky in that, most of the time, my girls actually like to hang out together! The older two are really good about including the younger one, too. I found on the cruise that they mainly split up and did their own things when not all together as a family -- but on occasion the older two did things together, the oldest one and I watched ice sculpting together and learned (sort of) how to make towel animals, and once the younger two chose to watch a movie together.

I'll bet your daughter will enjoy the lab this time -- let her check it out the first evening and look at the navigator together and plan what activities she is most looking forward to. Maybe you could even look at recent navigators from the 7 day western cruises before you leave and talk about which activities sound most fun.

 

[pclaire]

Hey Bellelinus - too busy here, I let the thread drop! Have you read all the recent eastern trip reports with the brown water, bad service, etc? sounds like it was an isolated incident - just that trip and not everyone - but it sure would be frustrating. you really do expect a lot when you pay so much.

 

[bellelinus]

I know -- it is a little discouraging when you start to read so many negative reports. I have to say that I had no complaints at all on our August Wonder cruise. Of course any trip can get some unlucky breaks and we just have to hope that is all it is.