9/19/09 Western Magic

[so_oregon]

okay, can't spell.

I looked on tripadvisor to make sure that booking a non-cruise day at this place was a good idea....got rave reviews

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUser...97-Nachi_Cocom-Cozumel_Yucatan_Peninsula.html

and their website is:

http://grandcaymancruiseexcursions.com/CozumelShoreExcursions.htm

Nachi Cocom is the right way to spell the name (rather than Noco whatever i spelled). I am going to go ahead and book the day there; is anyone else interested (would be much nicer to have a group there...DD is going to get tired of talking to me by then).

I think I am also doing the Grand Cayman stingray sail with them as the ship's do not provide for my 2 year old grandson to go.

Karen

 

[mamajojo]

I am so happy we finally told the girls tonight that we are going on the cruise!!! They were thrilled. They actually each got an envelope in the mail with a note and t-shirt from Mickey saying he can't wait to see them at the sail away party for their birthday cruise. Now I can put them to work helping me with door magnets, fish extenders and gifts.

That sound like fun. Did you video tape it? We haven't told our kids yet. We have a VERY elaborate plan. We won't be doing it until they get home and start school. We are thinking about a day or two before we leave. We were going to wait and not tell them anything. We were going to just drive and tell them we are going on an adventure ( which is what we do with a lot of our surprises) but we were afraid that the surprise would be ruined at the border and we didn't think that was a very fun way to reveal it, soooo, we have this crazy long thing planned , which is going to be so much fun . No one else knows that we are going either except our work and kids school. We were afraid that someone would slip and say something. I have made all of our magnets, FE gifts, ADRs, etc while they were at their grandparents.

 

[gvivanco]

gamomof2 and yonkrs girl,

I'm also from GA!
In a suburb of Atlanta - Snellville. Where are y'all from?
(I'm also a native, so "y'all" has ALWAYS been in my vocabulary! My Cuban
husband calls me a redneck for that! )

 

[LoriS]

That sound like fun. Did you video tape it? We haven't told our kids yet. We have a VERY elaborate plan. We won't be doing it until they get home and start school. We are thinking about a day or two before we leave. We were going to wait and not tell them anything. We were going to just drive and tell them we are going on an adventure ( which is what we do with a lot of our surprises) but we were afraid that the surprise would be ruined at the border and we didn't think that was a very fun way to reveal it, soooo, we have this crazy long thing planned , which is going to be so much fun . No one else knows that we are going either except our work and kids school. We were afraid that someone would slip and say something. I have made all of our magnets, FE gifts, ADRs, etc while they were at their grandparents.

No, we didn't video tape it because we didn't want them to know we knew about it. My dh didn't want to tell them at all either, but it was too much for me to keep it a secret. I can't wait to hear all about how you tell you kids. How old are they?

 

[Yonkrs_Girl]

I never noticed before you live in GA, I assumed with the name Yonkrs Girl, you were a New Yorker. LOL

Well, I am really a New-Yorker at heart - I was born and raised there and moved to Georgia in 1991 with a Corporate Relocation. So, as they say - you can take the girl out of New York but not New York out of the girl

 

[Yonkrs_Girl]

gamomof2 and yonkrs girl,

I'm also from GA!
In a suburb of Atlanta - Snellville. Where are y'all from?
(I'm also a native, so "y'all" has ALWAYS been in my vocabulary! My Cuban
husband calls me a redneck for that! )

We are in Woodstock

 

[mamajojo]

No, we didn't video tape it because we didn't want them to know we knew about it. My dh didn't want to tell them at all either, but it was too much for me to keep it a secret. I can't wait to hear all about how you tell you kids. How old are they?

My DD is 7 and my DS is 6. I am taking a lot of different ideas from the boards and mixing them all into one big giant reveal. I haven't finalized everything but my husband and I have been putting ideas together.
I know that they are going to have a treasure hunt. They will not only find written clues but also "something" related to each step of the trip with the clue such as a toy car and a map for driving, a giraffe for the AKL, a toy boat floating in the bathtub for the cruise, a dinosaur for ADR at the TREX restaurant, something Halloween for the MNSSHP and so on. Along the way they will also find scrabble pieces that they have to put together to figure clues out, as well as a puzzle, that I will have made at Walmart, that they will have to put together. At the end we will somehow reveal that they will be going to WDW. ( haven't decided how yet. It will be something explaining all of the things they have found, except the boat part. I might do an invitation ) After the excitement has worn down from that, I am thinking that I will then go in to the front room and pretend to do something and then knock on the door. I will tell them that I am busy and ask them if they can go together and answer the door. When they open the door there will be two wrapped boxes with big bows and lots of ribbon, that have their names on them. They will bring them inside and I will have them open them together. When they do, a helium balloon with a letter attached, will float out of each box and in the bottom will be a wrapped DVD and some things for the cruise. They will read the letter attached to the balloon telling to put in the DVD. The DVD will either be my DH and I telling them they are going or the cruise planning video or maybe we will combine both ( haven't decided on this either)

Like I said there is still a lot of planning on it but this is the start of the plan. My kids love treasure hunts ( they even made me do one to find my Mother's day present and my birthday present ) so this will be really fun. I tend to go overboard when planning things for them. When we took them last year for their first time to DW, I had 5 pages of confirmation numbers alone! We had such a great time and they grow so fast so I try to do stuff that they will remember forever. I go into crazy detail about their birthday parties and trips that we do. You have no idea the stuff that I have done . I have people ask me if my kids realize how lucky they are and I tell them not yet ( because they have never know any different ) but they will. I get just as much( maybe more) fun then they do.

I did have a scare last weekend though. We were watching a fishing TV show and my DS( who is kind of nervous about stuff) says ``I would NEVER go on a boat!`` My heart dropped into my stomach. ( I have pictures of us dragging our DS on the boat kicking and screaming " Mommy don't make me go on the Mickey boat") So after my heart started beating again I said " why not?" He then tells me that you could fall off the boat and he would NEVER, NEVER go on one I wait until I start breathing again. Before I booked our trip over a year ago this was the same kid that had begged us to go on the DCL! So I said " Well that will be great, it will save Mommy and Daddy tons of money when we decide to go on the Disney boat and you can stay home with grandma " He looks at me like I have lost ALL of my marbles and says " Oh I was not talking about the Disney boat. I REALLY, REALLY want to go on that. The DISNEY boats are really safe and you can`t fall off of them. They have glass covering the railing. I am talking about every OTHER boat`` Leave it to my 6 year old child to worry about safety. Can you tell that my DH works as a National Safety Manager for his company?

 

[Melissa R]

Hi, I guess I'll go ahead and sign in on this thread. My name is Melissa, and my husband, Jim, and our two boys - James (12) and Logan (7) - will be cruising on the 9/19 Magic as well.

We went on the Wonder for a 4 night last fall and we couldn't believe how fast the time went. I hope that the 7 night will leave us feeling less hurried and more able to do more of the great activities!

I didn't sign up for the FE because I am worried that we'll still feel like we don't have enough time to do everything we want to do. But I figured I'd post here so that maybe we might still see some doors of people from here on the DIS.

The boys and I made our countdown chain yesterday so now we have a visual of how many days we have to wait. We're so excited to cruise but of course the realization is there that to have the cruise date be here, we have to say goodbye to summer and go back to school, so it's sort of a double edged sword!

Oh, and it looks like there's a number of Georgia cruisers going...we're in Cumming (about 45 minutes north of Atlanta).

 

[gvivanco]

Oh, cool! I have family that lives in Woodstock! I'm there a lot! "It's a small world!" ;-)

Gretchen

 

[gvivanco]

Hi, Melissa - fellow Georgian!

Glad you're here!!

Gretchen

 

[Mrsjvb]

wooHoo! the $500 credit to the credit card for our military discount hit today..

and I even have an unofficial return date for DH.. this week is turning out very nicely indeed....

 

[gvivanco]

wooHoo! the $500 credit to the credit card for our military discount hit today..

and I even have an unofficial return date for DH.. this week is turning out very nicely indeed....

That's awesome!!

 

[cakesnjammom]

hi all!
to all you GA folks...I am a GA girl...from Augusta (born and raised) and we now live in NC!

welcome Melissa! Glad you joined in! I have a 7 yr old ds too!! YAY. He is super excited about the cruise BUT he has been misbehaving a bit this summer and we still tell him we are undecided on whether he is a sure thing on our trip!

mamajojo- wow talk about a heart stopping statement! Thanks goodness he did not mean the DCL boat! Glad he thinks of safety. I do not think my kids have processed the reality of the boat yet....they both get car sick so I do fear that a lot. But I bought Bonine for kids awhile back so i am hoping it will be fine. I think they get sick b/c they watch DVDs in the car?? DD threw up on our last trip to the beach! argghhh!

 

[gamomof2]

We're in Warner Robins which is right below Macon. My sister lives in Fayetteville. I'm up in Decatur alot though because our youngest is in treatment at Egleston for an immune problem.

Been in Georgia since 78' so I guess I'm pretty much a Georgia Peach.

 

[disneyfinatics]

I'm also from Georgia. I was born in Marietta. Moved to the mountains when I was twelve. Now I'm living in Maryland. I still have a lot of family there. In two weeks we go to pick up the boys in Tennessee. My parents live there now. I can't wait to see my dress. My mom made me a dress in the style of the ones worn by Elizabeth Swan in the first Pirate movie. She is amazing with that stuff. I just have to get the right shoes for it.

 

[kileybeth]

Well. . . I am not a Georgia girl but I think your state is a lovely place each and every time I pass through it or stay over (Atlanta and surrounding communities, Savannah, Stone Mountain (that's Georgia right?)) in it. And I already know you are all peaches in the personality department so yeah for us! Lots of southern ladies to show us how the heat is done! It is the one part of the Caribbean I am dreading but since we generally do free dining at WDW in Spetember, I guess I must think it is worth it!

Paige, sounds like you have hit a rough patch, never fear, everyone needs a roof over their head and things will pick back up. I am so glad you decided to still cruise and your DH is on board with it all as well.

Seems to me we have all had our moments over the past several months trying to make this vacation happen. I am thrilled to finally be over that paid in full hump and the rest will just have to run like water off a ducks back.

Sinderelly is settling into married life and Dsineymoon0909 is creeping or is it hurtling ever closer to her gorgeous fall wedding. Mrsjvb, has her DH coming home and everyone is in back to school mode with a ray of sunshine in there as we all look forward to the cruise. Dsineyfanatics is gonna blow us away with her mom's sewing, I can't wait to see all the finery!

And so much more. I have really enjoyed getting on here and reading but have not had so much time to post of late. Welcome to all the newbies.

one more note, mamajojo, your plans sound awesome! Your kiddos are so blessed. Can't wait to hear how it all works out.

Gotta scoot for now, I missed last roll call as I was in the depths of depression thinking I would need to cancel our cruise if something didn't happen with so many things BUT here I still am and I will be checking in on Sunday for sure (as I pack two kids in one direction, two kids in another, rent a car, and leave in another direction for a few days away with the DH). Summer is flying by!

 

[LoriS]

Well, I am really a New-Yorker at heart - I was born and raised there and moved to Georgia in 1991 with a Corporate Relocation. So, as they say - you can take the girl out of New York but not New York out of the girl

That's how I am too. I have been in FL since 1995, but I will never be a Floridian, I am a New Yorker!!!

My DD is 7 and my DS is 6. I am taking a lot of different ideas from the boards and mixing them all into one big giant reveal. I haven't finalized everything but my husband and I have been putting ideas together.
I know that they are going to have a treasure hunt. They will not only find written clues but also "something" related to each step of the trip with the clue such as a toy car and a map for driving, a giraffe for the AKL, a toy boat floating in the bathtub for the cruise, a dinosaur for ADR at the TREX restaurant, something Halloween for the MNSSHP and so on. Along the way they will also find scrabble pieces that they have to put together to figure clues out, as well as a puzzle, that I will have made at Walmart, that they will have to put together. At the end we will somehow reveal that they will be going to WDW. ( haven't decided how yet. It will be something explaining all of the things they have found, except the boat part. I might do an invitation ) After the excitement has worn down from that, I am thinking that I will then go in to the front room and pretend to do something and then knock on the door. I will tell them that I am busy and ask them if they can go together and answer the door. When they open the door there will be two wrapped boxes with big bows and lots of ribbon, that have their names on them. They will bring them inside and I will have them open them together. When they do, a helium balloon with a letter attached, will float out of each box and in the bottom will be a wrapped DVD and some things for the cruise. They will read the letter attached to the balloon telling to put in the DVD. The DVD will either be my DH and I telling them they are going or the cruise planning video or maybe we will combine both ( haven't decided on this either)

Like I said there is still a lot of planning on it but this is the start of the plan. My kids love treasure hunts ( they even made me do one to find my Mother's day present and my birthday present ) so this will be really fun. I tend to go overboard when planning things for them. When we took them last year for their first time to DW, I had 5 pages of confirmation numbers alone! We had such a great time and they grow so fast so I try to do stuff that they will remember forever. I go into crazy detail about their birthday parties and trips that we do. You have no idea the stuff that I have done . I have people ask me if my kids realize how lucky they are and I tell them not yet ( because they have never know any different ) but they will. I get just as much( maybe more) fun then they do.

I did have a scare last weekend though. We were watching a fishing TV show and my DS( who is kind of nervous about stuff) says ``I would NEVER go on a boat!`` My heart dropped into my stomach. ( I have pictures of us dragging our DS on the boat kicking and screaming " Mommy don't make me go on the Mickey boat") So after my heart started beating again I said " why not?" He then tells me that you could fall off the boat and he would NEVER, NEVER go on one I wait until I start breathing again. Before I booked our trip over a year ago this was the same kid that had begged us to go on the DCL! So I said " Well that will be great, it will save Mommy and Daddy tons of money when we decide to go on the Disney boat and you can stay home with grandma " He looks at me like I have lost ALL of my marbles and says " Oh I was not talking about the Disney boat. I REALLY, REALLY want to go on that. The DISNEY boats are really safe and you can`t fall off of them. They have glass covering the railing. I am talking about every OTHER boat`` Leave it to my 6 year old child to worry about safety. Can you tell that my DH works as a National Safety Manager for his company?

WOW!!! You certainly are going to go all out. I am sure it will be a thrill for all of you when you finally tell them. I was very relieved that they know know. They were both super excited to get a note from Mickey. It's great to have such powerful friends. LOL

 

[so_oregon]

okay, smallllll world indeed.

I grew up in Augusta, Georgia and left in 1975 (you are way younger, huh....). My y'all comes in handy out in Oregon.

hi all!
to all you GA folks...I am a GA girl...from Augusta (born and raised) and we now live in NC!

welcome Melissa! Glad you joined in! I have a 7 yr old ds too!! YAY. He is super excited about the cruise BUT he has been misbehaving a bit this summer and we still tell him we are undecided on whether he is a sure thing on our trip!

mamajojo- wow talk about a heart stopping statement! Thanks goodness he did not mean the DCL boat! Glad he thinks of safety. I do not think my kids have processed the reality of the boat yet....they both get car sick so I do fear that a lot. But I bought Bonine for kids awhile back so i am hoping it will be fine. I think they get sick b/c they watch DVDs in the car?? DD threw up on our last trip to the beach! argghhh!

 

[DisneyRN1]

wooHoo! the $500 credit to the credit card for our military discount hit today..

and I even have an unofficial return date for DH.. this week is turning out very nicely indeed....

Hi,
We just got our military discount too. What cat. are you in? Vicki

 

[gvivanco]

How cool about the dress your mom made!! That sounds so awesome for pirate night!!