8/17/2008 Double Dip 4-day Wonder

[Ski-and-Sea]

Time to start the "official" countdown....52 Weeks!!!!!

Yes, we had a couple of anxious days thinking hurricane Dean might head to the Bahamas. But I'm saddened to see that Cozumel is going to take another hit.....just in time for the Magic to return. We cruised there at this time last year and I'd been heart broken if we couldn't visit.

I think the fact that Dean avoided the Bahamas for this week bodes well for next year. The sea Gods must know we are cruising at this time of the year.

It will most likely be sunny skies and insanely hot weather......perfect for a cruise to remember.

 

[Lynda Silk]

Yahoo, less than a year to go!

Coach Rick, I had tried to reply to your post on Aug 17 but got busy and somehow, the post got deleted.

It is too bad about Cozumel; we were there last year in March and you could still see the damage from the year before.

Hopefully you're right, Sea-and-Ski, and we will be lucky next year! Cross your fingers!

 

[addicted_to_WDW]

We were at WDW last week and on Friday the 17th I paused at 4:00 and announced, "FINALLY, we are just one year from the cruise."

DH said, "you're going to drive me nuts about this, aren't you?"

I'm so glad he humors me.

 

[Lynda Silk]

That's too funny, Jen! And it's something I would have done too. I guess we're all lucky to have family that humour our little quirks; that's probably why they love us so much!

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

Hey all,

Got off the Wonder yesterday.....to put it quickly....WOW!!!!!!

It was an amazing cruise and I am so psyched for next year.

The Wonder CMs made the big difference - they were fantastic. We gotta generate enough pixie dust so that they are all back for us next year. Christiaan is an amazing cruise director....Pikey and the rest of the entertainment staff were fabulous. Pikey said he might be on the Wonder next summer. Christiaan said he goes back and forth between the ships so he wasn't sure at all. I told him he better be on the Wonder double dips next summer.

Absolutely bring the pirate outfits.....there were only a handful that wore outfits on our cruise and all the CMs were absolutely delighted that we did and we got stopped everywhere by people. So many of the first time cruisers did not know they could dress up and I could tell they wished they knew.

The Wonder drydock changes are fantastic. Teak lounge chairs with cushions around the adult pool....aaahhhhh......heaven.

The Wonder has a different sailaway party than the Magic now. I'm so-so on it. Bingo has gone high-tech. Do not like that you re-use the same card every game.

Yes, Hercules will be replaced next winter with Toy Story.

We had fantastic servers, I'm going to request them for our cruise.

I know 12 months seems like a long time but I'm so excited for our cruise that I know the time will go by quickly.

 

[Shelebeen]

Question about Port Canaveral..

Just wondering if any of you are staying there overnight before the cruise? We will be in WDW from the 6-16, then want to experience Kennedy Space Center on the 16th and stay somewhere close to the ship on the 16th eve...

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

Question about Port Canaveral..

Just wondering if any of you are staying there overnight before the cruise? We will be in WDW from the 6-16, then want to experience Kennedy Space Center on the 16th and stay somewhere close to the ship on the 16th eve...

I was going to ask this myself.....we will be flying down on the 16th and stay at the port. We're trying to decide between the Radisson or the Residence Inn. I've heard mixed things about the Radisson but only good things about Residence Inn.

But the Radison has a better pool and my kids love pools.

Anyone else coming down on the 16th and staying at the port? We're willing to book with whereever anyone else wants to stay at.

As of now, I'm leaning towards the Residence Inn as someone on my Wonder cruise last week said it was great!!!

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

50 WEEKS TO GO!!!!!

Happy Labor Day everyone.

Ah, the end of summer approaches. My kids go back to school on Wednesday (they really need to go back now).

Time to turn our thoughts to this cruise. If this cruise is anywhere near as good as my 3 nighter then we definitely are going to have the best cruise ever.

Planning wise....we definitely need DCL to decide on what day they do Palo brunch. We're considering not getting off the ship in Nassau since we don't have a sea day. We did that on our 3 nighter and it was just heavenly sitting at the adult pool (love the new chairs) and the kids had a blast in the clubs that day.

 

[Lynda Silk]

Hi everyone!
Hope you all had a great Labour Day weekend!

Ski-and-Sea, any other drydock changes that you noticed besides the teak chairs (which sound absolutely wonderful!)?

We're probably not getting off the ship in Nassau either unless I can find a good place for my DD to do some horseback riding. If anyone knows of a good riding stable down there, let me know.

We're coming in on the 16th but I think we're going to stay at Pop Century. My plan is to arrive in the early afternoon and then go to Blizzard Beach. We couldn't fit it in when we were down in July and my DD was heartbroken. So I thought we'd try to go there first and make sure that we don't miss it. We're probably staying in WDW after the cruise for a few days but the days fill up quickly.

I'm not able to get into my email so you might not hear from me too much until they fix it. I started a new position (same company, different role) and something went wrong when they were transferring some of my stored info, and now it won't let me into my email at all! Just letting you know!

Have a great weekend everyone!

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

Hi everyone!
Hope you all had a great Labour Day weekend!

Ski-and-Sea, any other drydock changes that you noticed besides the teak chairs (which sound absolutely wonderful!)?

We're probably not getting off the ship in Nassau either unless I can find a good place for my DD to do some horseback riding. If anyone knows of a good riding stable down there, let me know.

We're coming in on the 16th but I think we're going to stay at Pop Century. My plan is to arrive in the early afternoon and then go to Blizzard Beach. We couldn't fit it in when we were down in July and my DD was heartbroken. So I thought we'd try to go there first and make sure that we don't miss it. We're probably staying in WDW after the cruise for a few days but the days fill up quickly.

I'm not able to get into my email so you might not hear from me too much until they fix it. I started a new position (same company, different role) and something went wrong when they were transferring some of my stored info, and now it won't let me into my email at all! Just letting you know!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Lynda, sorry about your computer problems. DH has similar problems at his company.

We, too, may stay onboard at Nassau since we don't have a sea day. It was great having a day to just relax onboard at the adult pool.

Other Wonder changes........the ship got the big screen on deck 9 - great for watching movies. New sailaway party - I'm so-so on it. New toddler splash area at the Mickey pool. That looked adorable and even some of the older kids were dying to try it. We had wifi in our stateroom. Connection was fine, it just took forever to set up the account. Bingo is different - I do NOT like re-using the same card for every game.

How about this in the kids' clubs: playstation2, gamecube, wii, guitar hero2 and there is a DDR machine in front of the teen club. My kids did not miss the separate Oceans Quest area they have on the Magic. I thought that would be a problem but it wasn't.

The teen area has a decor that looks just like a loft. It looked cute.

I was impressed with the breakfast buffet at BeachBlanket. The food was always warm.

I'm heard that the Toy Story show that will be debuted next year is going to be fantastic.

The soda at the drink station on deck 9 tastes a little funny - we didn't like it. I think the mix of syrup and seltzer isn't right. It was fine in the dining rooms.

We need to all keep our fingers crossed that Christiaan is our cruise director. He is fantastic.

 

[Lynda Silk]

Thanks for the info, Sea-and-Ski! I was glad to hear about the big screen on Deck 9; I can't think of anything better than watching a movie up there!

Why were you so so on the sailaway party?

 

[Dizzyworld]

Other Wonder changes........the ship got the big screen on deck 9 - great for watching movies. New sailaway party - I'm so-so on it.

We need to all keep our fingers crossed that Christiaan is our cruise director. He is fantastic.

I agree with you about the new sailaway party. And I don't understand why the entire thing wasn't shown up on the big screen. A lot was missed if you were not on stage level.

Christiaan was terrific. I wouldn't mind him again either.
~~~~~~

Also, things changed for us while on the Aug. '07 Wonder cruise. My DH and my DS will now be joining us for the cruise. We were talking on the ship and I told my DH, "You know, your sailing scout adventure finishes on Sat. You could rent a car from the airport, find the nearest post office to mail your dirty scout stuff home, and meet us at the WDW resort. On Sun. we could all go together for the cruise." I'll either bring their cruise stuff or mail it to the resort. They are both excited about this. Going from a "working sailing vacation" to a DCL cruise will be a nice way to recover. For my DH anytime on the sea is wonderful.

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

Dizzy, you're right about the big screen not projecting what is happening on the stage. They did do that for our Magic cruise in 2006 and it helped a lot.

My issue with the new sailaway party is the choice of the song. The "old" one used to be an update of the Mickey Mouse Club opening song. It was upbeat and lively.

The new one sounds like it was recorded in the 1950s and lacks energy. In fact, the audience just stood still while listening to it. Things improved tremendously once that song ended.

 

[Dizzyworld]

We need a name for this group of cruisers. Any ideas anyone?

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

We need a name for this group of cruisers. Any ideas anyone?

I am not a creative person at all....I'm good at adapting other people's ideas.

That said.........hmmmmm.......I thought last year's double dip cruises had some really neat names like the "double scoop group" and "cruising castaways".

I was playing around with different ideas and come up with these....

Double Dip Delight
The Wonder Re-do Crew

I know DCL will have some "twice the Wonder" merchandise so I was thinking of "twice the Wonder" but in a different language, say something like "deux de Wonder".

We were also toying around with "The Other Big Cruise" since we leave the same day as the EB Repo.

Ugh....school started last week and DS is already home sick.

 

[Lynda Silk]

Sea-and-Ski, for someone who says they're not creative, you sure had some good ideas! I'm totally hopeless at coming with names so I'm taking the chicken's way out and saying I'll go with whatever the majority wants. If I was forced to vote, Double Dip Delight would probably be my choice.

 

[Dizzyworld]

Where did everyone go? I thought after summer, this thread would pick up.

Ski-and-Sea...I like you ideas too.

 

[Coach Rick]

I'm here, and standing by...

I have lime green t-shirts all picked out, and ready to print...

I like the two recommendations...

Here is another

"Twice as Nice!"

I can do t-shirts that read:

DIS Cruise is
Twice as Nice!

I can put the outline of the island around it. What ever we decide on, I will do up a design and put it on my website for you all to look at. I guess we can do a poll once we get a bunch of suggestions?

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

47 Weeks to go!!!!! (wow in the 40s now)

I have never been this busy, its just crazy. And its all unexpected stuff. My car was having problems so I take it to the dealer, it gets fixed and the next day something else went wrong so I had to take it back.

Our heater broke. Plumber comes over and fixes it and two days later it breaks again.

A family member had major surgery and was originally going to recuperate at home but last minute asks to stay with us. Its no biggie but I wasn't expecting it.

Both kids play rec soccer and both coaches scheduled a second practice during the week so that makes two more practices every week.

Our town decided very last minute to create a 12U fall softball team and DD was asked to join. Normally I insist the kids play one sport per season and DD had already signed up for soccer. But she loves softball and this was a trial thing for our league. DD loves it but softball has two practices a week.

Plus I volunteer a lot with Girl Scouts and we're camping on the beach in Wildwood, NJ, next weekend.

And I'm only halfway through writing my trip report on my Wonder cruise from last month. I'm determined to get that finished. Thank goodness it wasn't a 7-night cruise otherwise it would never get done.

I broke my foot at the beginning of the summer. I fractured my toe in multiple places. Walked right into the corner of an upright vacuum cleaner. It was at night and I didn't even see the vacuum cleaner at walked into it at a fast pace.

I've been seeing a podiatrist all summer and just saw him on Wednesday. The news isn't good. The fractures are all healing but there is a lot of joint damage so the toe still hurts. I got a cortisone shot to help ease the pain but if the pain doesn't go away in six weeks, I'm looking at surgery to repair the joint damage.

So just a whole lot going on right now. I am so glad I have this cruise to look forward to.

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

I'm here, and standing by...

I have lime green t-shirts all picked out, and ready to print...

I like the two recommendations...

Here is another

"Twice as Nice!"

I can do t-shirts that read:

DIS Cruise is
Twice as Nice!

I can put the outline of the island around it. What ever we decide on, I will do up a design and put it on my website for you all to look at. I guess we can do a poll once we get a bunch of suggestions?

Wow - I like that as well.

There is a fantastic aeral shot of Castaway Cay that you can get off the DIS. It doesn't have the Flying Dutchman in it but its a great shot of the island.

BTW.....have you checked the prices of our cruise......I looked a few weeks ago and its already gone up. Talking with people on my cruise last month, lots were booking the double dip Wonder cruises for next summer. No one was interested in the California cruises.