8/17/2008 Double Dip 4-day Wonder

[disneymama]

 

[Dizzyworld]

disneymama.............glad the skating went well. What a neat thing to be involved in. Congrats to your DD on her finishes. Well done!!

 

[addicted_to_WDW]

We have a 7:00 AM flight on the 15th so you'll find me scrambling around like a crazy woman after work on the 14th. If I pack earlier than that I'll forget what's in the bags and just pack more.

 

[Willem]

Will pack friday, we leave saturday at 6AM.
Found a underwatercamera yesterday, at only €3,50 !

 

[disnutz]

Good job Willem!

And congrats to your DD, disneymama! I know from experience how hard they work for competitions (my DD does competitive dance), so she deserves a big hug.

I am so glad I am not the only last minute packer. I just can;t seem tog et it together. I am a little thrown off because when we go away, we usually leave first thing am on Saturdays. Well this time, we are leaving late Wednesday night, and I am working until 5. So, no real time to pack that night. It has just thrown me for a loop!

 

[Lynda Silk]

Willem, I love your door sign! It looks great!!!! My DD is working on ours right now; she's the creative one in the family!

By the way, Willem, what grade do you teach? Just curious.

Should we be worried about the storms? Coach Rick had a good point about seeing other ports but I was hoping the current storms would be over by the time we're onboard.

Disneymama, congrats on your DD's great skating results! My DD just announced that she wants to do a horseback riding competition the Wednesday before we leave! Not sure if I'll be able to get off work plus her dad was going to spend the day with her and her brother...another thing to worry about it and try to squeeze into our already busy schedule! And I hear you about the laundry...it never does end!!!!

Coach Rick, re your query re whether disneymama had packed her FIL..you are too funny!

 

[Willem]

Our education system is a bit different. I teach at a "secundary school" that prepares for university studies. We have pupils from 12 - 18. I teach Dutch at the 12y/o and informatics at the 16 y/o. This is about a part time job. The rest of my job is "communications coordinator". That means I'm responsible for everything that has to do with communications at our school (website, brochures, newsletters, open days, ...). I love the fact that I can combine these different things, that makes my job quite interesting.

 

[Lynda Silk]

Thanks for the info, Willem! That sounds like a very interesting job with lots of variety!

 

[virginiamama]

We leave for Florida in 7 days!!!!!!

Oh good, I thought I was the only one who was freaking out!!! I keep thinking, I only have a couple more things to pick up, dramamine, etc. then haircuts, etc. etc. For not having much left to do, I sure have a lot left to do. All of this while working on a HUGE project at work and beginning home construction. This is the good kind of stress, right?

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

Boy, I go away for one week and I had about 10 pages of posts to catch up on. Whew.

Got my cruise docs yesterday for both cruises.....yeah, we're doing back-to-back cruises so we stay onboard for the 3-night cruise then fly home after we get off the ship.

So no WDW visit for us this year.

Wow - everyone has been busy, isn't summertime supposed to be relaxing????

I'll answer some questions people have been asking......

Yes, pack an extension cord as there are no outlets in the bathroom and you'll need the extra outlets for all the electronics that somehow have become necessities in our lives. (I need a separate suitcase just to pack all the rechargers for the various phones/gameboys/camcorders/cameras/etc/etc/etc)

Pirate night party starts around 9:30-9:45pm. If you have late dinner (we do) then you basically have to skip dessert in order to get to the party on time. I think DCL needs to rethink the whole pirate party timing because its not fair on the people who have late dinner.

The cruise docs DCL sends us doesn't contain much anymore since we can do online check in. We'll get a tipping sheet on the second to last night of the cruise.

Coach Rick.....loved the description of your kids reaction to hearing about the cruise. So glad they are all getting excited. How is your father doing?

Willem.....wow, what a great door sign. I just bought my magnetic paper to print out my door signs.

Definitely buy the disposable underwater cameras before getting onboard to save costs. I would buy several as you'll be taking lots of pictures at Castaway Cay.

One piece of advice with the underwater cameras....if it turns out its cloudy at CC then the pictures under the water of the fish will turn out rather dark due to the low light.

In terms of the weather.....I wouldn't sweat about it. Last year during our August cruise it looked like a hurricane was heading for the Bahamas but the storm instead crashed landed in Costa Maya, Mexico.

Our bigger risk is it being too hot at Castaway Cay.

I, too, am a late packer. I'll start packing the day before.

 

[Willem]

If I remember right there are lots of teachers in this group, no? What is everyone else teaching?
Think everything's ready here now, just have to pack everything. Went to the library for some books. After all these years finally The Da Vinci code was availble!
Thanks for all the compliments about the door sign. Have printed it on normal photo paper but have a magnetic frame from DLRP to stick it on the door. Tried it on the fridge and it works
Only 4 days to go now... Weather looks about the same as 4 years ago, only without the hurricane We definatly want to take the WDW more relaxed then in 2004. Back then we were exhausted after 4 days simply because we didn't rest enough. We plan to sleep as long as we want and go back to the hotel to take a swim if it's too hot. We did it that way in California and enjoyed it much more. After all we have a week to spend at WDW and have done it before, so there aren't many "must do's", only the new stuff and toppers like TOT.

 

[5lilfish]

If I remember right there are lots of teachers in this group, no? What is everyone else teaching?
.

DH is a teacher. He teaches Advanced Placement Calculus and Computer Programming....mostly Juniors and Seniors.

Jess

 

[5lilfish]

We definatly want to take the WDW more relaxed then in 2004. Back then we were exhausted after 4 days simply because we didn't rest enough. We plan to sleep as long as we want and go back to the hotel to take a swim if it's too hot. We did it that way in California and enjoyed it much more. After all we have a week to spend at WDW and have done it before, so there aren't many "must do's", only the new stuff and toppers like TOT.

Same with us but we tackle it a little differently (with younger kids). We'll be at the parks when they open, BUT we'll be leaving right after lunch. We'll spend the afternoon hours swimming and resting. In the evening we'll decide if we feel like going back to the park. More than likely, I'll head back with the older 3 kids (11, 9 and 8) and my DH will put the 14 month old twins to bed. Then he'll get online and relax. He doesn't mind that at all.

We're always popping in on Disney World and we have a full blown Disney trip planned for April. So, it's not a big deal for us to see/do everything either. We're going mostly to extend our vacation and to hit some of the new things.

Jess

 

[addicted_to_WDW]

We haven't decided yet what we are going to do. We only have 2 days. My dad wants to spend both days at Epcot but....no, we aren't doing that! I'm thinking of a few hours a day at Epcot with dad's family and MK with my family one evening. We also want to fit in Adventurer's Club since it will be our last chance to visit. We've only been there once before and it is a WDW highlight for us.

 

[Willem]

Wow Jess, doing WDW with 5 kids must be exhausting. And we are complaining.

 

[Willem]

We haven't decided yet what we are going to do. We only have 2 days. My dad wants to spend both days at Epcot but....no, we aren't doing that! I'm thinking of a few hours a day at Epcot with dad's family and MK with my family one evening. We also want to fit in Adventurer's Club since it will be our last chance to visit. We've only been there once before and it is a WDW highlight for us.

Epcot is our favorite park too! I love Illuminations. Watched the video of it we made in 2004 yesterday. A friend of us who did a show at the Walt Disney Studios park here works at the French pavillion now, so that's another reason to visit the park.
On our previous WDW trip we didn't go to any of the PI clubs, we were just too tired. Visited DTD though, I loved the Disney shops there. So much more merch then in Paris.

 

[disnutz]

Epcot is my favorite too!!!

And anyone who wants to do the PI clubs - better do it now since they are closing. We absolutely love Adventurers Club and asked DD if she would take DS to the movies at DTD while we went to the club one last time.

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

We always overdo it at WDW. We try to pace ourselves but end up saying "just one more ride" too many times and get back to the hotel utterly exhausted.

We, too, book at the concierge level when we stay at a WDW hotel. The benefits of having the "free" food available anytime outweighs the extra cost.

BTW.....I was checking over my cruise documents and noticed that DCL is saying that the all aboard time in Nassau is 5:15pm.

Just saw the movie "Mama Mia". It was great!!! Ahhh....seeing those spectacular waters makes me think of Castaway Cay.

And my family is definitely looking forward to warm water. We spent last week at the Jersey shore and the ocean temperature was in the 50's!!!! I am not joking at all. We had a day or two when the temps crept into the low 60s but otherwise it was unbelievably cold.

We had several days of fog that swirled in off the ocean. No worries about sunburn when you can't see the sun through the mist.

One afternoon a young girl had to be taken off the beach by EMTs because she was suffering from hypothermia!!!

I survived because I wore three layers of wet suits.

On the plus side, the waves were fantastic!!!! And I am the proud owner of an 8 foot 6 inch surfboard.

Last day was great.....sunny skies and great waves. DH took some great shots of me surfing. I have to upload them then I'll post them.

So my prediction of our two days at Castaway Cay are extremely hot and sunny to make up for our foggy days and cold ocean temperatures last week.

And I'm proud to say that I just finished my final load of laundry. The washer/dryer has been running continuously since Saturday night. I had four in-laws staying with us so I had bedding/sheets from their stay with us at our house plus the bedding/sheets from 8 people staying at our place at the shore.

I will be so happy to get on the Wonder and not have to worry about cooking and cleaning and washing sheets and making beds

 

[Coach Rick]

Well hello everyone. A couple updates, all shirts, except for Lynda's have been shipped...You should all have your tracking numbers... and you should all have your shirts by tomorrow, except for Shirley's, which went out today. ( I had to wait an extra day for the 3X to come from Jacksonville before I could print it). I am anxious to see what you think of them. Let me know when you get them. Anyone else that may be interested, I do have a few extra I ordered just to have them. PM me and let me know what you are looking for and I will see what I can do.

On a down note, Dad just went back to the hospital today, and we don't feel bringing him on this cruise would be in his best interest. It saddens me very much, but I am determined to make this a special trip for my kids. Especially my oldest daughter who endured 5 years of college and graduated this past May. We did finally get dad to agree to enter the liver transplant program at the Lahey Clinic in Boston. That is the only way we will keep him with us beyond a year at best. So if you can continue to keep him in your prayers. BTW, my DS immediately volunteered along with my oldest DD to donate part of their livers for grandpa...man, there goes the water works again! I had said from the beginning that I wanted to give part of mine, but am not eligible at this time. I would have to loose about 70 pounds in 2 months, and that is not advisable. Anyhow, if all goes well we will get him on another cruise, and it will be a celebration beyond celebrations!

My Dsis is torn between going and not going. They have told us, he is not in "grave" condition, but she feels guilty. We will see what happens with that, but with one week left to us leaving, we just can't take the chance of him being "Mediflight" off the ship. Now I gotta call the insurance and see how that works.

I am sorry to be a bit of a downer with all the excitement going on. Thanks everyone! I can't wait to meet you all.

 

[disneymama]

Oh Coach, what horrible news!! I was hoping that no news was good news.