9/20/09 Wonder

[Pinky166]

It went well. We had a really good time. I was surprised at how easy we all connected again. That's why a small graduating class is so nice. There were a couple of people that just never changed. And some that we were so proud off because they turned out to be really nice, nice people after being total brats in school But seeing everyone, catching up and spending time with their spouses and children was lovely. I was really fortunate to have a really good crew of classmates. Of course, none of us could figure out how many we graduated with...was it 31, 32, 35 or 36? Isn't that so wrong?

2 nights of reunion fun, birthday party for DS's friend, entertaining family and Father's Day celebration - I am content and worn out.

I just got my MNSSHP tickets in the mail!

Wow you had a very busy weekend. I am glad you had such a great time.

The tickets are really cute aren't they.

 

[Pinky166]

Hello, everyone. I posted way back on page 1 (post #4). I don't think I've posted since. I don't really post much on the DIS anymore.

Last month, we had a real tragedy in our family. My dad, who was joining us on this cruise, passed away suddenly the day after Mother's Day.

We've had this cruise planned for two years. We were taking my parents on their first Disney cruise to thank them for everything they've done for us (too much to list here). So, I faxed a request to get the Walt Suite before the 2009 dates even came out. (Normally, I'm way too...um...frugal to book such an expensive trip, but--as I said--we really wanted to treat my parents.) When I found out we got the suite, I decided to surprise them once we boarded the ship. Yeah, that lasted about two days. I was just too excited to keep it to myself. My mom and dad were ecstatic, telling everyone who would stay still long enough all about the suite.

Anyway, fast forward to last month. My dad had prostate cancer surgery and was given a clean bill of health. Cancer free. A couple days after being released from the hospital, he started having trouble breathing. Turns out he had multiple blood clots in his lungs. We lost my dad about an hour later. It all happened so fast.

At first we decided not to go, but we know that my dad wouldn't have wanted us to cancel. So, we're still sailing, and we've added another passenger. We've invited my older cousin to join us. She has really been there for my mom since my dad died, and she's always wanted to go on a Disney cruise, so it was an easy decision.

To those of you who've stuck with this way-too-long post, thanks for "listening."

Here is our group:

Me
DH
My mom
My cousin
DS, 9
DD, 7

This is DH's and my 4th Disney cruise (1st was our honeymoon), DS & DD's 3rd. I'm looking forward to meeting some DISers.

I am so sorry to hear about your dad. I am sure he will be watching down on you all on the cruise & pleased to see you having a fun time.

I am looking forward to meeting everyone.

 

[LC30]

Hey everyone! Just booked Palo dinner and brunch. Last cruise we didn't get into the brunch. So, now I just have to work on getting DS potty trained so he can go into the club. He didn't like Flounder's last time. There wasn't enough to keep him occupied, so he kept crying for us. Needless to say, getting paged at dinner made it less enjoyable since we were worried about him and rushed through dinner to get him.

Really looking forward to brunch since I heard its fabulous. And dinner was definitely the best meal we had on board.

 

[dis ms.]

Thanks for the encouraging words about my dad.

Paid the balance of our cruise a few days ago, just received the kids' passports today. After two years of planning, I can't believe it's finally almost here!

 

[Pinky166]

Hey everyone! Just booked Palo dinner and brunch. Last cruise we didn't get into the brunch. So, now I just have to work on getting DS potty trained so he can go into the club. He didn't like Flounder's last time. There wasn't enough to keep him occupied, so he kept crying for us. Needless to say, getting paged at dinner made it less enjoyable since we were worried about him and rushed through dinner to get him.

Really looking forward to brunch since I heard its fabulous. And dinner was definitely the best meal we had on board.

We have booked Palo brunch & dinnder too. I booked at 105 days out as I added the romance package to our booking. We also have a spa treatment booked. I can't wait - I am getting soo excited!

I was wondering if we need to put a close date on the FE sign ups? It crossed my mind the other day as we will need some time to shop for &/or make the gifts. I leave the UK on the 6th Sept so would like to have everything prepared a week or two beforehand including the list of cabin numbers etc. What are your thoughts guys?

 

[Pinky166]

Thanks for the encouraging words about my dad.

Paid the balance of our cruise a few days ago, just received the kids' passports today. After two years of planning, I can't believe it's finally almost here!

It is going to come around so quickly now. I have just sent mine & dh's passports off to be renewed....can't believe how fast those 10 years went!

How much do passports cost you guys? Over here an adult 10 year passport is £72 / $ 120!

 

[dis ms.]

It is going to come around so quickly now. I have just sent mine & dh's passports off to be renewed....can't believe how fast those 10 years went!

How much do passports cost you guys? Over here an adult 10 year passport is £72 / $ 120!

It was $85 for a child passport. I got mine 6 years ago. I can't remember what I paid for it. Somewhere around that amount, I think.

 

[LC30]

I was wondering if we need to put a close date on the FE sign ups? It crossed my mind the other day as we will need some time to shop for &/or make the gifts. I leave the UK on the 6th Sept so would like to have everything prepared a week or two beforehand including the list of cabin numbers etc. What are your thoughts guys?

Yes, we should a date on closing it so everyone has time to prepare. I'll send a note out in the next day or so.

 

[LC30]

Hey everyone. Happy Saturday. I apologize for the long note, but want to include as much info as I can now for you.

So far we have 5 families participating in the FEs. Let's set August 31st as the deadline for people to join in the FEs. This will give us about 3 weeks to get the FE gifts ready, especially for those who will be arriving early to enjoy the parks or Orlando prior to the cruise.

For current participants, if you haven't sent me your stateroom numbers, please PM them to me before August 31st.

For new participants, if you are interested in being part of the FEs, please PM me the names in your family, ages of your children, any special day you might be celebrating on the cruise and your stateroom# by August 31st.

If you do not have your stateroom numbers by then, no problem, just send them to me when you have it.

I'll PM a final list of participants with all the pertinent information on Wednesday, September 2nd. If there are any changes after that especially stateroom numbers, I'll update the list and make it available for our meet. Some of you may get upgrades at the port, so we can update the list once we are at the meet as well.

FE Deliveries:
Since its a short 4 night cruise and there's so much to do, let's keep deliveries to 2x over the cruise if we have 6 families of less. If we have more than 6 families, let's do only 1 delivery. You may deliver the goodies anytime that works for you on the cruise.

FE List:

mitadoh - Tim, Andrea, Shirley MIL, Frank FIL & Elizabeth(3) - Tim & Andrea: 5 yr anniversary
Pinky166 - Claire, Lee
LC30 - Linda, Jonathan, & Jackson (3) - Linda celebrating early birthdayOurOhana - Kelli, Bryan, Pauline & Malia (4)
Mbrwr - Marina, Eric, Gabriella (8) & Nathan (5) - Marina celebrating graduation from nursing school
dis ms. - Ivy, Darren, Pat, Linn, Reed (9) & Regan (7)
cara620 - Cara, Ray, Will(10), Brooke (8) & Hope (2) - celebrating 15th anniversary on 9/24
cgbsilver@hotmail.co - Christian, Aimee, Maria (11), Christina (7) & Paulina (2) - celebrating Aimee's birthday on 9/16
momcicle - Mitzi, Candace, Heather

Meeting Place: Promenade Lounge 3 p.m.
I've read that a good meeting place is the Promenade Lounge. So let's meet there at 3 p.m. on embarkation day. We can make this meeting for all DISers on this cruise as well as all the FE participants, if everyone wants to meet.

Does this work for everyone? If I left anything off or if you have questions, comments. Please post them. Looking forward to surprising you all with goodies on the cruise. Its going to be lots of fun.

 

[LC30]

Hello everyone. Just checking in. Its been really quiet on the board the last several days.

Let me know if you would like to change anything on the Fish Extenders. Happy to get suggestions or make any changes. I'm on mandatory vacation from work this week, so we're off to SeaWorld today with some friends . DS is excited about seeing the sea lions and of course Shamu.

Hope everyone is well.

 

[Pinky166]

Hello everyone. Just checking in. Its been really quiet on the board the last several days.

Let me know if you would like to change anything on the Fish Extenders. Happy to get suggestions or make any changes. I'm on mandatory vacation from work this week, so we're off to SeaWorld today with some friends . DS is excited about seeing the sea lions and of course Shamu.

Hope everyone is well.

Hi Linda. I think the the FE details you posted sound fab, thanks for organising.

Hope you have a great time at Seaworld, I would love to see some pics.

I have been so busy this past week. It was my husbands birthday on Saturday so we spent time with familly, went up to London to the theatre & out for a meal, then we went to the cinema on Sunday so it was a very busy but fab weekend.

We are also having a bit of a heat wave here in England (34 degrees today!) which is pretty rare, it is due to last a week I was hoping to make the most of it but have been ill the past few days.

 

[Pinky166]

Happy 4th July to you all!

It's a special day for me too as it's our 8th Wedding Anniversary. Have a great weekend.

 

[LC30]

Happy 4th July to you all!

It's a special day for me too as it's our 8th Wedding Anniversary. Have a great weekend.

Happy Anniversary to you!!!! What a wonderful day for you. What are you and DH doing for your special day? I'm sorry to hear you haven't been feeling well. I hope you are feeling better.

Happy 4th Everyone! I hope you are all having a wonderful 4th of July. We're doing the 4th tradition grilling out in the 3 digit temperature. Why??? Because that's what we do in Texas.

 

[Pinky166]

Happy Anniversary to you!!!! What a wonderful day for you. What are you and DH doing for your special day? I'm sorry to hear you haven't been feeling well. I hope you are feeling better.

Happy 4th Everyone! I hope you are all having a wonderful 4th of July. We're doing the 4th tradition grilling out in the 3 digit temperature. Why??? Because that's what we do in Texas.

Thank you so much. We didn't really do anything as I have not been feeling well this past week or two, but DH did cook me a lovely meal & bought me some beautiful Pandora charms for my bracelet.

How was your 4th July cookout? Hope you had fun!

Any of you guys use Facebook or Twitter? I would love to add you as friends if you are.

 

[fahernand]

10 weeks to go -rounding down of course LOL)!!!!!!!!

I can't believe how everyone in our party is so excited about our little cruise!!

 

[LC30]

Thank you so much. We didn't really do anything as I have not been feeling well this past week or two, but DH did cook me a lovely meal & bought me some beautiful Pandora charms for my bracelet.

How was your 4th July cookout? Hope you had fun!

Any of you guys use Facebook or Twitter? I would love to add you as friends if you are.

Hey there. Just started a new job on Monday in the same company, so have been busy trying to learn the new business. Anyhoo, the cook out was lots of fun - but HOT! Good thing we were able to go to a pool to cool off later that afternoon. And we saw some great fireworks too!

I'm on Facebook. You can look me up there. As for Twitter, I'm not on there, I'm just not that interesting to have people follow what I am doing I would lose followers instead of gain.

Fahernand, I was just looking at my countdown banner and it says 2 months and 9 days till we leave for our trip! I'm grateful the next 2 months are going to be busy for me, so I won't be counting the minutes, although I'm sure I will be the week before we leave.

 

[Pinky166]

Hey there. Just started a new job on Monday in the same company, so have been busy trying to learn the new business. Anyhoo, the cook out was lots of fun - but HOT! Good thing we were able to go to a pool to cool off later that afternoon. And we saw some great fireworks too!

I'm on Facebook. You can look me up there. As for Twitter, I'm not on there, I'm just not that interesting to have people follow what I am doing I would lose followers instead of gain.

Fahernand, I was just looking at my countdown banner and it says 2 months and 9 days till we leave for our trip! I'm grateful the next 2 months are going to be busy for me, so I won't be counting the minutes, although I'm sure I will be the week before we leave.

Glad to hear you had a fun 4th of July.

I am not that interesting on Twitter either - I just follow lots of people. How can I find you on Facebook? I am http://www.facebook.com/pinky166 so feel free to add me.

It is coming around so quickly now - I am about 7.5 weeks until we leave for Disney!

Has anyone started their FE shopping yet? I have got quite a few bits. Do we wrap the gifts & put a tag on to say who it's to & from?

 

[LC30]

Glad to hear you had a fun 4th of July.

I am not that interesting on Twitter either - I just follow lots of people. How can I find you on Facebook? I am http://www.facebook.com/pinky166 so feel free to add me.

It is coming around so quickly now - I am about 7.5 weeks until we leave for Disney!

Has anyone started their FE shopping yet? I have got quite a few bits. Do we wrap the gifts & put a tag on to say who it's to & from?

Hello! I just added you on Facebook. I started buying some FEs already but have to get more next month. It entirely up to you if you want to wrap the gifts and put a tag on it. Whatever is easiest and most enjoyable for you. Last time, I pre-packages the gifts in little ziplock bags for the items that fit and other items I just left loose. And I put a label on them so I know which family and which rooms they were. And when we got on the ship, some people had their rooms changed, so I just handwrote the new room numbers in for easy delivery. I haven't decided what I'm going to do this time yet. But I know I'll definitely pre-package them with family/individual names and room numbers at the very least.

I can't believe you will be leaving in 7.5 weeks. It's going to come up fast.

 

[Pinky166]

Hello! I just added you on Facebook. I started buying some FEs already but have to get more next month. It entirely up to you if you want to wrap the gifts and put a tag on it. Whatever is easiest and most enjoyable for you. Last time, I pre-packages the gifts in little ziplock bags for the items that fit and other items I just left loose. And I put a label on them so I know which family and which rooms they were. And when we got on the ship, some people had their rooms changed, so I just handwrote the new room numbers in for easy delivery. I haven't decided what I'm going to do this time yet. But I know I'll definitely pre-package them with family/individual names and room numbers at the very least.

I can't believe you will be leaving in 7.5 weeks. It's going to come up fast.

I decided that I am going to gift wrap my FE gifts with a tag saying who it's to & from. I bought some more of my FE gifts today.

Do you think that we should deliver twice to each room if there are only us few taking part? I have heard of other groups doing that.

 

[LC30]

I decided that I am going to gift wrap my FE gifts with a tag saying who it's to & from. I bought some more of my FE gifts today.

Do you think that we should deliver twice to each room if there are only us few taking part? I have heard of other groups doing that.

Definitely. Right now, we only have 5 families. So 2 deliveries would be perfect. If we have more that 6 or 7 families, then one delivery would be good.

Happy Friday.