7/24/2011 5 Night Disney Dream cruise

[keishashadow]

js yes, the disney board is rather quiet @ CC vs here. I don't visit the site much unless doing another lines' offerings, thanks for the reminder i'll check it out.

Those are all great schools. Lehigh has a program my son participated in PA Free Enterprise Workshop that is a scholarship type summer thing...not sure if non residents can avail themselves of it or not. Nice bonus is they get a small renewable scholarship if attending Lehigh. We looked @ Bucknell, Gettysburg and Drexel out your way but didn't get enough 'love'to make it viable. Interesting thing re the private schools is many don't have that May commitment signing date. DS still has his scholarships in place waiting for him until the end of July. In PA the state subsidies, even for the private schools, is supposed to be cut drastically. Should know the end of June how much tuition is going to rise. Received a letter from Penn State indicating a $5K per semester increase projection. Guesstimates for PA are the private schools will increase tuition up to 5%, tier 2 up to 20%, and tier 1 50% unless the new governor backs down to public pressure. I realize the budget needs balanced but it was difficult to make a commitment to attend a school a few weeks ago when the tutition is in veritable limbo.rant over, back to vacation happy place lol

notice in your signature line you're a SSR owner. We will be staying @ SSR our 1st time in Oct. Requested Congress park (hoping for DTD view & ability to walk to DTD) any hints?

 

[js]

Hi JS,
I grew up on Long Island and went to college waaaayyyy upstate (8 hours!). DS surprisingly chose a school only an hour away from us (he'd prefer it was halfway around the world! ) but went to look at it and fell in love with it. Lucky for us (he'll live there, but it definitely makes travel easier!)

Did you say BASEBALL????!!!!! omg, omg, omg - we are so into baseball!!! DS 14 has been playing travel ball since he was eight - he's at his pitching lesson right now, then to the cages to hit! On the Disney ships, you'll find him most days hanging out on the sports deck! Sounds like they may be a good match!

OH YES, I said BASEBALL! My ds, who turns 13 next week, is baseball 12 and plays up on a travel team. He, too, is a pitcher (and catcher). We also have private pitching lessons, which my dh brings him too and hitting lessons. Baseball is his only love in sports. He doesn't play any other sport but "trys" to throw the basketball around a little. Baseball, even in NY, is 12 months a year, with workouts and lessons in the winter. I live in Staten Island (NOTE:We are NOTHING like anyone sees on TV OMG ) I am sure our kids will touch base. Heck, maybe we have played you in tournaments LOL

Hello,
For all of you looking at colleges, my DH is the Director of College Counseling for the independent school at which we both work. He would be happy to provide any advice or guidance that you might need. If you don't want to get into a public discussion on the Board please PM me. My DS just finished the process and is off to The College of Wooster in the fall. I am counting the days to graduation and our cruise

Thank you minniemouse. I, too, work in a college. It is a small private college in New York. I work in the Provost's office and so thankfull I am here!
My dd does summer lab work here with a professor for the last 3 years and since she wants to go into the sciences, it is wonderful.

Wow, I just left college confidential, and I feel like I'm back there. DS 16 is finishing up his junior year. He says by the end of this year, he'll have taken every type of standardized test offered (SAT, ACT, AP, SAT II, and various local tests.) This cruise is supposed to be a well-deserved brake for him, before he starts the college application process in the fall.

DD 14 will be starting HS in September. sounds like they'll be lots of teens in Vibe.

js--as far as Remy, it's supposed to be like V & A at the Grand Floridian. DH and I went there for our anniversary two years ago, and it was really wonderful. If this was a 7 night cruise, we would definitely go. But we'll do our one night at Palo and spend the rest with the kida and check out the rotational dining on the Dream.

Lauri

Thanks Lauri. Although my dd and mother have been to VA, my dh and I have not but we do like to go out every so often with friends to nice dinners and enjoy relaxing and taking our time with dinner and drinks. Really looking forward to it. My dd and I both go on CC. My dd told me she thinks getting into college will be harder than actually being there LOL I believe her LOL
We are all looking forward to relaxing in July!

js yes, the disney board is rather quiet @ CC vs here. I don't visit the site much unless doing another lines' offerings, thanks for the reminder i'll check it out.

Those are all great schools. Lehigh has a program my son participated in PA Free Enterprise Workshop that is a scholarship type summer thing...not sure if non residents can avail themselves of it or not. Nice bonus is they get a small renewable scholarship if attending Lehigh. We looked @ Bucknell, Gettysburg and Drexel out your way but didn't get enough 'love'to make it viable. Interesting thing re the private schools is many don't have that May commitment signing date. DS still has his scholarships in place waiting for him until the end of July. In PA the state subsidies, even for the private schools, is supposed to be cut drastically. Should know the end of June how much tuition is going to rise. Received a letter from Penn State indicating a $5K per semester increase projection. Guesstimates for PA are the private schools will increase tuition up to 5%, tier 2 up to 20%, and tier 1 50% unless the new governor backs down to public pressure. I realize the budget needs balanced but it was difficult to make a commitment to attend a school a few weeks ago when the tutition is in veritable limbo.rant over, back to vacation happy place lol

notice in your signature line you're a SSR owner. We will be staying @ SSR our 1st time in Oct. Requested Congress park (hoping for DTD view & ability to walk to DTD) any hints?

keishashadow-I work in a private college in NY and although it isn't guaranteed, I have about 300+ schools where we get Tuition Remission, all throughout the US. They put $35K towards the school but like I said, it is not guaranteed. Although at Muhlenberg, her Admissions person really must have liked her in the interview since she told us if we keep in touch and put down EA, she will see we get the spot (they had only 6 open spots last year for Tuition Exchange). The only school that we have looked at not on our list was Lehigh. All others are on our list and I am stying on our list. $35K for a $45K+ school that she would love, I'll take it and she must too LOL
She really liked Muhlenberg but for EA, must LOVE it. For $35K I told her she needs to love it

Yes, we are SSR owners but have never been there, sorry. We are going pre-cruise at the THV, but not the actually SSR. We have been to BWVs, the cruise and THVs and going to BLT in September but never SSR. We toured there before purchasing our points and loved it. We ended up purchasing resale (well my mother purchased our points for us with the stipulation she always comes with us LOL). It looks lovely.

Talk to you all soon! Off to check my ressies for our pre cruise to make sure we have dinner scheduled somewhere for each night.
We are doing Chef Mickey's Saturday night before the cruise so the little kids (my sisters) can see the characters prior to boarding in case they miss them, they won't be looking for them.

See you all soon and Happy Mother's Day.

 

[daboof]

thanks for the warm welcome poohjen and michellevw just got off the magic for easter but ready for the dream

 

[Lolo's Mom]

Hi all -- my crew (dh, ds - 10, and dd - 7) will be sailing with you as well. This will be our 9th Disney cruise but first cruise on the Dream. Looking forward to the 2 stops at CC (I booked a Cabana for both days).

If anyone has children close in age to mine - send me a PM if they would like to correspond via email prior to the cruise. DS emailed a friend for several weeks before a prior cruise and I think that the friendship was one of the best parts of the trip.

 

[VKtravel]

Is there a problem with the online check in? I was in the middle of it and then it told me an error occurred and now I can't get back in because it says, "Either there has been a system issue or another Guest in your stateroom or another stateroom linked to yours is currently arranging activities in My Cruise Plans. Please try again later."

 

[MichelleVW]

Is there a problem with the online check in? I was in the middle of it and then it told me an error occurred and now I can't get back in because it says, "Either there has been a system issue or another Guest in your stateroom or another stateroom linked to yours is currently arranging activities in My Cruise Plans. Please try again later."

I haven't been able to check in either. I have booked a massage on Castaway Cay, but that's it.

 

[PoohJen]

Welcome Jean to our Friendly Group!!!

To those having check in problems - sorry to hear that! Keep trying!

What are we up to - about 75 days?!!! Woo Hoo!!!

 

[MichelleVW]

Welcome Jean to our Friendly Group!!!

To those having check in problems - sorry to hear that! Keep trying!

What are we up to - about 75 days?!!! Woo Hoo!!!

I'm all checked in!!! I got a 12:30 port arrival time because I want to go to the beach for an hour or so that morning. We have a beach front hotel, so my plan is to chill at the beach from 10-11 then come in, clean up then head to the port.

I have a massage scheduled on Castaway Cay for 10 am on the first day.

 

[EskiLvr]

Got my hubby and son checked in - now have to wait for the computer to unlock my reservation for our connecting stateroom so that I can get my other son and I checked in. Got the 11:00 - 11:30 port arrival - which is exactly what we wanted. Only disappointment so far is that there were no cabanas available when I got online at 6 AM Central today - so we'll just have to waitlist when we get there and hope for the best.

It's 9:30 at night and 91 degrees here in Nebraska. If I'm going to have July weather, why can't our cruise be closer?

Kris

 

[mmtska]

We're checked in! I got the 2 excursions we wanted, an 11:00 check in time and my friend's daughter registered for the club! The only thing I couldn't get is Palo brunch. DH and I were going to go to Palo one night, but we can't decide which night to go, so we just said forget about it and we'll do it on the next trip. Hopefully we can get brunch onboard!

 

[VKtravel]

WOO HOO!!! We're all checked in! I was up at the stroke of midnight (eastern standard time) to start the process. I couldn't finish up until 1:30 AM because the crazy computer kept locking me out of my reservation ! We got the 11:00 AM check in time, Palo ressies for the second night, and a cabana massage at Castaway Cay! I am thrilled but I might give up Palo because I don't want to miss anything! LOL We are truly in the countdown now! NOW IT FEELS REAL TO ME!

 

[Hanover]

Hi JS,
I grew up on Long Island and went to college waaaayyyy upstate (8 hours!). DS surprisingly chose a school only an hour away from us (he'd prefer it was halfway around the world! ) but went to look at it and fell in love with it. Lucky for us (he'll live there, but it definitely makes travel easier!)

Did you say BASEBALL????!!!!! omg, omg, omg - we are so into baseball!!! DS 14 has been playing travel ball since he was eight - he's at his pitching lesson right now, then to the cages to hit! On the Disney ships, you'll find him most days hanging out on the sports deck! Sounds like they may be a good match!

My son Keegan (who will be 14 this Friday) and our friend's son Jake (he will be15 by the cruise) will be living on the sports deck too. They are both double rostered on a farm team and junior legion team. Keegan is a pitcher, catcher and center fielder. Jake plays 2nd and 3rd. They have 37 games between now and July 7th and then play offs begin... my ds10 has 20 games and then traveling all stars. They both have played since they were 4. They are very much into football too and will probably be looking for kids for pick up games on the sports deck. DS10 is also a year round wrestler so we are forever in gyms and at fields! We all love it!

 

[Hanover]

Hey everyone! I am just now getting on the boards for the day and I feel like I'm going through withdrawal! Does anyone have kids my age? DDs will be 9 and 7 when we sail but they don't know anything about it yet. We're surprising them!

My son Brennan turned 10 in February. My friend Beth's daughter is 8 and her middle son is 11. They will be sailing with us too. We surprised our sons with a cruise in 2006 ---they didn't know about it until we pulled up to the port and gave Keegan a final birthday gift---the cruise documents wrapped up. We had been at WDW a few days and they thought we were leaving the next day and just going to watch the Magic sail off. They were shocked and thrilled.

 

[VKtravel]

My son Brennan turned 10 in February. My friend Beth's daughter is 8 and her middle son is 11. They will be sailing with us too. We surprised our sons with a cruise in 2006 ---they didn't know about it until we pulled up to the port and gave Keegan a final birthday gift---the cruise documents wrapped up. We had been at WDW a few days and they thought we were leaving the next day and just going to watch the Magic sail off. They were shocked and thrilled.

What an awesome surprise! I hope to get the same reaction after our scavenger hunt the day before we fly out. I would love for the DDs to start meeting other kids before we go, but I don't want to ruin the surprise! It's hard to keep this a secret!

 

[js]

thanks for the warm welcome poohjen and michellevw just got off the magic for easter but ready for the dream

Welcome daboof! Funny, my dh and I have a friend we call boof. His hair use to be so "big" so we called him Boof and it has stuck for over 20 years

Hi all -- my crew (dh, ds - 10, and dd - 7) will be sailing with you as well. This will be our 9th Disney cruise but first cruise on the Dream. Looking forward to the 2 stops at CC (I booked a Cabana for both days).

If anyone has children close in age to mine - send me a PM if they would like to correspond via email prior to the cruise. DS emailed a friend for several weeks before a prior cruise and I think that the friendship was one of the best parts of the trip.

Hi lolo. I'll tell my sister to come on these boards. She will be on board with her 3 sons, oldest is 7.

I haven't been able to check in either. I have booked a massage on Castaway Cay, but that's it.

How frustrating!! At least you got your massage on CC. I've been thinking about doing that since we have 2 stops there and planning on the Sheraton as another beach day in Bahamas. My mother had a massage on Serenity Bay years ago when we were on CC and said it was so relaxing hearing the ocean while getting the massage! Have a great time!

I'm all checked in!!! I got a 12:30 port arrival time because I want to go to the beach for an hour or so that morning. We have a beach front hotel, so my plan is to chill at the beach from 10-11 then come in, clean up then head to the port.

I have a massage scheduled on Castaway Cay for 10 am on the first day.

So happy you got exactly what you wanted!!!

Got my hubby and son checked in - now have to wait for the computer to unlock my reservation for our connecting stateroom so that I can get my other son and I checked in. Got the 11:00 - 11:30 port arrival - which is exactly what we wanted. Only disappointment so far is that there were no cabanas available when I got online at 6 AM Central today - so we'll just have to waitlist when we get there and hope for the best.

It's 9:30 at night and 91 degrees here in Nebraska. If I'm going to have July weather, why can't our cruise be closer?

Kris

Happy you got what you wanted! Hope a cabana opens for you!
We are 10 people so that wouldn't have worked for us, although we were looking into it.

We're checked in! I got the 2 excursions we wanted, an 11:00 check in time and my friend's daughter registered for the club! The only thing I couldn't get is Palo brunch. DH and I were going to go to Palo one night, but we can't decide which night to go, so we just said forget about it and we'll do it on the next trip. Hopefully we can get brunch onboard!

KEEP CHECKING! At first I couldnt' get Remy for 5 ppl for the night we wanted and I kept checking and about a week or so later it opened up.
Whenever you are on the computer, just take a quick peek and see if it opens. Good luck!

WOO HOO!!! We're all checked in! I was up at the stroke of midnight (eastern standard time) to start the process. I couldn't finish up until 1:30 AM because the crazy computer kept locking me out of my reservation ! We got the 11:00 AM check in time, Palo ressies for the second night, and a cabana massage at Castaway Cay! I am thrilled but I might give up Palo because I don't want to miss anything! LOL We are truly in the countdown now! NOW IT FEELS REAL TO ME!

GREAT! I guess it all worked out!!!

My son Keegan (who will be 14 this Friday) and our friend's son Jake (he will be15 by the cruise) will be living on the sports deck too. They are both double rostered on a farm team and junior legion team. Keegan is a pitcher, catcher and center fielder. Jake plays 2nd and 3rd. They have 37 games between now and July 7th and then play offs begin... my ds10 has 20 games and then traveling all stars. They both have played since they were 4. They are very much into football too and will probably be looking for kids for pick up games on the sports deck. DS10 is also a year round wrestler so we are forever in gyms and at fields! We all love it!

Hi! We love to be at the games too! Baseball is my ds's only sport, THANK GOODNESS! He, too, is a pitcher, catcher and 1st base. I keep telling him there will be many boys his age on board that love sports more than Disney LOL He loves cruising (we usually cruise RCCL) and is skeptical about having teens on DCL. I am SOOO happy there will be lots of teens with a love of sports!

My son Brennan turned 10 in February. My friend Beth's daughter is 8 and her middle son is 11. They will be sailing with us too. We surprised our sons with a cruise in 2006 ---they didn't know about it until we pulled up to the port and gave Keegan a final birthday gift---the cruise documents wrapped up. We had been at WDW a few days and they thought we were leaving the next day and just going to watch the Magic sail off. They were shocked and thrilled.

That's Great! I remember one year we woke up the kids on a weekday about 4 or 5 am and told them it was time to get up for school. I had a video and had my dd read some poem I got off the disboards that told them to get dressed, we were going to Disney. About 45 minutes later a limo was outside and off we went to the airport. It was great!

I also have a dd-17 and is hoping beyond hope will have other girls/boys her age on the ship. Like I said, we cruise other lines, mostly RCCL, and both kids always have a BLAST so I keep telling them there will be other teens on board other than little kids.

On RCCL, we have a cruise meet/greet where we all get together the first day at/before sailaway and everyone can meet up, perhaps the kids meet up (unless they are already looking for friends). Are we doing that this cruise?

My family is going to the Sheraton in Bahamas. Is anyone else doing that for the day?

Have a great week everyone and I so hope this rain STOPS although we are suppose to have it ALL week. My dd is going to her bfs Senior Prom on Wednesday and our college has Commencement on Friday and when it rains, it is in the gym and SO stressful for lineup, seating, etc., since my office is the one that oversees Faculty and Student Line Up

My mother, dd and I are heading to Disney on Wednesday and the rest of our group is coming in on Thursday. We booked the Keys to the Kingdom Tour on Thursday since we usually just visit a park and this will be something new.
Going to BlueZoo Wednesday night, just the 3 of us, and that will be new too.

Have you all made your plans to get to the Port? We will be staying at THVs and booked Tiffany Towncar to pick us up at THV to Port and Port to MCO.
I found their prices very good and it includes a stop to the store so we will make a wine, liquor, beer and water stop

Have a great week everyone!

 

[EskiLvr]

Have you all made your plans to get to the Port? We will be staying at THVs and booked Tiffany Towncar to pick us up at THV to Port and Port to MCO.
I found their prices very good and it includes a stop to the store so we will make a wine, liquor, beer and water stop

Have a great week everyone!

Shhh... don't tell my boys - they think we're taking Disney Transportation to the port from OKW and then back to SSR when we get back... but we booked with Happy Limo for an actual stretch limo for the "to port" portion of our trip. I can't wait to see the look on their faces when they realize what's going on...

<mwahahaha>

 

[js]

Shhh... don't tell my boys - they think we're taking Disney Transportation to the port from OKW and then back to SSR when we get back... but we booked with Happy Limo for an actual stretch limo for the "to port" portion of our trip. I can't wait to see the look on their faces when they realize what's going on...

<mwahahaha>

oohhhhh....how fun and exciting! Promise..I won't tell

 

[5Days]

Just wondering if anyone's teens/tweens would be interested in a thread of their own to get to know each other before the cruise. I see that some of the other cruise dates have done this. Not sure how to go about it but I'm sure someone could help me out with this!

DD#1 - age 15 - loves softball, volleyball, swimming, her ipod, texting....

DD#2 - age 11 - loves dance, music, swimming...

 

[keishashadow]

We're checked in! I got the 2 excursions we wanted, an 11:00 check in time and my friend's daughter registered for the club! The only thing I couldn't get is Palo brunch. DH and I were going to go to Palo one night, but we can't decide which night to go, so we just said forget about it and we'll do it on the next trip. Hopefully we can get brunch onboard!

just noticed you're north of Pittsburgh, i'm northeast

so, anybody start packing yet? accidently clicked on one of the june meet threads the last week of the month & saw many are starting to get their docs, we're up on deck

 

[mmtska]

just noticed you're north of Pittsburgh, i'm northeast

so, anybody start packing yet? accidently clicked on one of the june meet threads the last week of the month & saw many are starting to get their docs, we're up on deck

Sweet! I miss home-I moved to North Carolina, but it's not home. It never will be. Not lovin it here....