9/19/09 Western Magic

[carolrie]

carolrie - I'm a fellow homeschooler, too! Oh my gosh! I went and looked at your website - your pictures are absolutely beautiful! What a gift you have!
I wish I could have you take pics of my girls!! We're all the way across the country though!! (Atlanta, GA) Can't wait to meet you!

Yea! Another homeschooler! Thanks so much about the pictures. You are so nice! I'm sure I will be taking pictures on board the ship... I just can't seem to stop myself. Still not sure what camera and lens to bring though. How old are your girls?

nvcruiser-LOVED the decorations! So creative

I have a 9 yr. old dd as well, she takes dance classes (jazz, acrobatics and lyrical). She would love to "meet" some other kids before the cruise. She's so excited about the kids clubs, it would be wonderful if she already had some friends

So glad to have another 9 year old and a dancer as well! Sounds like our girls are going to have a lot of fun in the clubs.

Is there a list somewhere of all the DIS cruisers and their families? I probably missed it and haven't had a chance to check out the whole thread yet, but didn't know if it was somewhere?

We are doing 3 classes in our co-ops. Story of the World, we have a few chapters of 1 left, and in October we will start SOTW 2. We are doing "Meet the Masters" it is all about artists and composers, and finally Science. We started Real Science 4 Kids Pre- Level 1 Chemistry last year that we are going to finish, and then Matter from Academy of Science For Kids. My girls take tap, ballet and jazz. They don't do the boyfriend thing either, just play with their friends, boy or girl.

Love your website, beautiful pictures. I am actually a Photopass Photographer at Disney too. Sure seems like we have a lot in common, I look forward to meeting you.

Can't wait to hear how the girls take the news.

Okay Lori you are scaring me how alike we arewe also did Story of the World the past two years (1 and 2) and the Charter School I am working for is classically based and we are doing Story of the World 3 (early modern) for history, Meet the Masters for our art and music, and Real Science Chemistry for our science! (I am still looking for a good upper Chemistry though for my class and may go with Holt-I have to decide soon, school starts next week!) How fun to be a Photopass Photographer! Do you shoot with Nikon? They use Nikon 70d's here at Disneyland. I guess they are the only model that works with the relay system they have (at least that's what one of the Photopass Photographer's told me) I am still trying to decide what to bring with me camera wise-I love the images I get with my "big" camera, but it is heavy to lug around all day. I may just get a smaller lens-that would help too. We will also be going to the parks after the cruise for four days-will you be working then?

The big unveiling was a success! The girls were beyond excited. I will post tomorrow with all the details and some pictures! Now to go work on my blog...

 

[kileybeth]

HI All, I should be in bed but guess I had a little to much caffiene a bit to late tonight!

So instead I was "researching", some fun and other not so fun.

Do we have any Government Employees on this cruise? I am up to my eyeballs in researching benefit packages for this new job. We have several health related expenses that make it important to choose the right insurance. And that was my not so fun research.

When I realized we would be losing a good amount of monthly income due to differeing insurance then we carry now, I gave up and turned to DCL to research!

As much as we all say there is no reason or logic to DCL assigning GTY cabins? I came up with some interesting info tonight. Just checked, by CATs what was left available, Except for Cat4 and up. No need for me to dream that big this time around.

Cat5's have 7 cabins showing on Deck 7, didn't pay to much attention to that either, would be a huge stretch.

Cat6's and Cat7's are both only showing GTY's at this time.

Cat8's are showing one cabin on Deck6 and 7 cabins on Deck5. All these sleep 4 guest. Not holding my breath there either BUT they do have the most combinations of 2 cabins near each other, never know. . .

Cat9's have 8 available showing. Only two pairs anywhere near each other. All of these CAt9's are on Deck2 . I could be very happy in a Cat9! woo-hoo portholes. Again, not counting on that at all either. The interesting thing here, all remaining cabins sleep only 3.

Cat10's still showing 8 available cabins, all on Deck2, none of these cabins have any two near one another These cabins all sleep 4.

Cat11's are showing 8 available. 1 cabin is on Deck7 and the other 7 are on Deck 6 Again, all remaining cabins in this CAT only hold 3 guest! So higher deck, no split baths. Only one set adjacent to each other.

and of course, the 13 GTY Cat 12's on Deck2, as always, remain unassigned.

We are a family of 6 with 3 people in each cabin. We booked 2 Cat12 GTY's.

My guess from the start has been we will pull one of the original Cat12's as that is how many truly fit in a Cat12, just 3!

Other than that, I can only see us getting a Cat11 on Deck6 or a CAt9 on Deck2, either of which would be a very nice upgrade for us!

I know DCL tried to seperate linked ressies back in the spring on a few cruises and it did not go well for them, so even though in theory they can do it, they would really rather not.

All of that to say, yes I should be in bed and there is a little insight for those of you still waiting. I wonder how close to "right" I am with my guessing?

And of course, that doesn't account for those they give free upgrades to in order to move others around. . .

so yeah, I got nothing! But at leat NOW I am tired and can go to bed!

We'll be on the ship but only the Disney God's know where I guess!

 

[disneyfinatics]

carolrie your pictures are absolutely beautiful. I'm also a fellow homeschooler. Do you think you could give me a few tips on picture taking. My dad is letting me borrow his Cannon Rebel for the cruise. I'm still trying to figure out what I'm doing w/ it.
Is anyone else taking their own snorkels? The boys & I have never snorkeled before so I'm not sure what kind of snorkels would be best. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Soccer season has begun so this will make the weeks fly by. I haven't told the coach about us being gone for the cruise yet. His wife says he was born w/ a soccer ball. I'm afraid he freak at the idea of someone missing at least 2 games. I'm sure he'll survive.
Shelly

 

[Sinderelly]

Wow this thread is really hoppin! I really enjoy reading all the posts.

Disneyfinatics-We are so sorry for your loss. My new DH lost his mother a little over 8 months ago right before Christmas to cancer. She had lung cancer and had never smoked a cigarette in her entire life.

Nvcruiser-So glad the wedding went well. The decorations look great.

Welcome aboard Carol! Wow sounds like we have alot of photography talent onboard. My DH is bringing his Rebel and some other "fancy" camera with the lenses, tripod etc. You can tell I'm really camera savy.

Kileybeth-We are right there with you and everyone else who is still in GTY status. If the CM I talked to last Friday morning is correct it should be today. My DH is a goverment employee and the benfits are definitely not as good as the private sector. He is a prosecuting attorney and really likes his job though. I work for a personal injury firm and joke with him about joining us.

I can't wait to get that cabin assignment then I can concentrate on packing and lists. I'll have more time too as I won't be checking several times a day.

 

[mamajojo]

hello everyone! yep something is causing DCL to lag on the cabin assignments for certain, I read somewhere that travelocity is offering a CAT 12 on our cruise for $599 w/ a $100 OBC so I am assuming they need to fill our ship some.
we have been doing some reading on the MNSSHP tips/tricks post...so I thought I would say hello! oh sorry guess I should say CAKESNJAMMOM here...dh started the MNSSHP research so we are logged on as him!
my kids would love to email and meet too (ds 7 and dd 5)

welcome aboard carolrie!!

open house for school today...kids are excited to meet their teachers!
check in again soon,

Are you going to MNSSHP? We are going on the 18th. We have purchased the tickets already, so I am hoping that is doesn't rain. Have not decided on costumes yet.

 

[LoriS]

YOkay Lori you are scaring me how alike we arewe also did Story of the World the past two years (1 and 2) and the Charter School I am working for is classically based and we are doing Story of the World 3 (early modern) for history, Meet the Masters for our art and music, and Real Science Chemistry for our science! (I am still looking for a good upper Chemistry though for my class and may go with Holt-I have to decide soon, school starts next week!) How fun to be a Photopass Photographer! Do you shoot with Nikon? They use Nikon 70d's here at Disneyland. I guess they are the only model that works with the relay system they have (at least that's what one of the Photopass Photographer's told me) I am still trying to decide what to bring with me camera wise-I love the images I get with my "big" camera, but it is heavy to lug around all day. I may just get a smaller lens-that would help too. We will also be going to the parks after the cruise for four days-will you be working then?

The big unveiling was a success! The girls were beyond excited. I will post tomorrow with all the details and some pictures! Now to go work on my blog...

Wow, that is scary how similar our lives seem to be. We are heading off to our first co-ops today, I will post tonight and let you know how it went. We do use Nikon's too, I think we have both D-80's and D-70s's.

 

[mamajojo]

I love your hubby's goofy picture. My oldest is a goofy fan.
Things are going to be a bit somber around here for a while. My mother-in-law lost her battle w/ colon cancer this morning. My youngest is having a hard time w/ it. I'm very glad that she's no longer suffering. When we were in GA a few weeks ago to get the boys from my moms it was very hard to see her so much pain. Cancer is such an ugly disease. I'm glad to know that we will have good friends on our cruise to help us have a great time. I'm really glad we found these boards.

I am so sorry. What sad news. My thoughts are with you. It is a horrible disease. My first operation 9 weeks ago was to remove cancer. Thankfully they had found it really early and they were able to get it all. Again, I am very sorry

 

[LoriS]

I know we have had a few more late bookers join us, so I wanted to post the link to the yahoo group again for anyone who may have missed it. Please join us over there too.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sept09cruisingmagic/

 

[mamajojo]

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone

disneyfinatics-I am so sorry for your loss

mamajojo- I am excited to hear about your big unveiling! I want to hear all the details. We are going to do one today.

My girls will go nuts because we weren't planning on this and just booked two days ago. We have been on five disney cruises (yes, I am terrible about setting up signatures) but haven't gone in about three years since I resigned as a school psychologist to stay home and home school my kids. $ has been tight, but I just got a job teaching for a charter school that is perfect for us. I will be teaching at their classical academy two days a week (6,7,8 grade history, science, art, and music) and supervising home schooling families the rest of the the days. So I will be able to still home school my own girls and bring in some income I already had a vacation to WDW planned for this time so my new school let me keep it as a condition of hiring. When I looked at cruises for the times I'd actually be off (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Spring Break) I was shocked at the prices Wow. That's why we always loved cruising in Sept./Oct. Because of all of that we decided to turn our WDW trip into a cruise and my girls who have been hearing "maybe again some day" are going to freak out when I tell them we can actually go. We are planning on making an invitation for the cruise, putting it in a metal box, and having Dh go to the beach before us and bury it in the sand. Then we are going to have our girls take their metal detectors (they are so funny, they are kids ones I got through National Geographic and they have been "detecting" everything metal around the house for a week now) and go down to the beach for a family walk and "see if we can find anything" Hopefully DH doesn't bury the box too deep- we don't really know how well they work for real detecting through things.

I'd love to hook my girls up with some friends and we are excited to meet everyone as well.

Kileybeth - Thanks for letting me know about the meet ups. We are planning on the 3:00 and will try to check out the 8-9 as well. We usually let the girls swim in the mickey pool first thing. Are there other things planned. I'm sorry I haven't had a chance to read through the whole thread yet. I am also a photographer and have been getting my new blog and wedding web site set up. Trying to get it done before I start teaching next week.

LoriS - My 8 year old is Caitlin and she is turning 9 in November (born in 2000) She will be glad to have a friend

Thanks again everyone for the warm welcome we are so excited to make this happen

Good luck today and let us know how everything goes. We booked this cruise almost a year and a half ago and have kept it a secret from everyone. No one knows except our work. We have a HUGE reveil set up for Sunday.

 

[cakesnjammom]

just checking in to say HI! Hope everyone is having a great Monday!!!!

25 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[gvivanco]

Is it physically broke? or is it possible he just muted it? This is on my computer, but you go... Start, All Programs, Accessories, Entertainment, Volume Control and look to see if all the slider bars are up or if any of the "mute" boxes are checked... Good luck with that! HTH!

Jenny, No, it's not just muted......I've checked all that, as well as going into control panel and looking....don't really know what to do in there. Sometimes I think if I do anything, I'll break something else.... My computer is weird anyway, it won't work with regular speakers, only through a headset thing. Now I can't even get any volume in that! Irritating!

 

[cakesnjammom]

please make sure I am correct.... we are waiting on cabin assignments from DCL for the following cruisers from the 1st FE list:


ChrisLei,



If this is incorrect please let me know...working on MAP for 1st FE. Thanks

 

[5CruisinDisney]

We are booked on this cruise and want to be added to the 2nd FE list. Unfortunately we are unable to PM you QueenoftheCastle, due to having less than 10 posts. We are a party of 5 (2 adults and 3 kids) in 2 cabins. Please PM us to let us know what we need to next. Thanks.

 

[disneyfan551]

My cabin # should be listed on the 1st FE list...it is 5522. Thanks!

Also...I need some info. on the 2nd FE. Does anyone know who is running it or any other info.? I need to join for myself (#5522) and for my friend (# to come shortly...). Any info. is appreciated!

 

[so_oregon]

pixie DUST!!!!

got room assignment (looked at website)...bumped up to a 4, room 8004. Noisy reviews on disboards website, and at front of ship, but hey, it's all good!!!.

so, 8004 (which is easy to remember).

 

[cakesnjammom]

pixie DUST!!!!

got room assignment (looked at website)...bumped up to a 4, room 8004. Noisy reviews on disboards website, and at front of ship, but hey, it's all good!!!.

so, 8004 (which is easy to remember).

yay!

 

[daveyc150]

pixie DUST!!!!

got room assignment (looked at website)...bumped up to a 4, room 8004. Noisy reviews on disboards website, and at front of ship, but hey, it's all good!!!.

so, 8004 (which is easy to remember).

Congratulations

 

[Sinderelly]

Congratulations Karen!

 

[briandama]

pixie DUST!!!!

got room assignment (looked at website)...bumped up to a 4, room 8004. Noisy reviews on disboards website, and at front of ship, but hey, it's all good!!!.

so, 8004 (which is easy to remember).

CONGRATS on your upgrade and room assignment!!!!! Still waiting for my room assignment....

 

[LoriS]

I've got a room listed today, according to the DCL website, we are in cabin number 7024!!!