9/23/06 Let's go!!!! Who's with us???

[mom x4 grandma x4]

4 months!!!



Kathy

 

[sftnslky]

if you dont mind driving a little farther there is Busch gardens too. It is a neat place to go too. We have been to all the places I have mentioned many times, so if you have any specific questions about any of them, please ask and I will try to answer them for you.

We are not roller coster people.. lol but what is bush gardens? it sounds cool... we are flying into Orlando but staying at the new Residence Inn in Port Canaveral. So where is bush gardens from there..and what is there to do? and how much is it? With the cruise the next day we don't want to spend to much $$$

We will be leaving the twins at home...and even more so now that there was ANOTHER 'man over board' the other day on RCCL. But our girls are also NOT roller coster people..and I can't guess how tired or not tired we all will be from flying and or being in air ports for over 12 hours the previous day.

I am SOOOOOO looking forward to our cruise.. I hope it is at least 1/2 of what we are hopping it will be. I am a tad worried I keep reading the boards and seeing both good and bad things about the kids clubs and the food..I hope both are better then most folks are saying...we are going with an open mind so that should help.

Have a great Tuesday all.... many and much

 

[sftnslky]

Hello everyone.. I can't find the post now that I need it : but I read a post saying that kids are NOT allowed to attended any of the "clubs" the first day/night at sea? Is this true? And if so can anyone explain it to me, why it would be?

I know that there is no club the last day/morning...so if there is no club the first day and none the last day...is that the counselors days off? Buy technically the last day is the first day for the new passangers...sooooo lol I hope all of this makes sense..lol

many and much

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Hi,
since you are not roller coaser people Busch gardens is NOT for you. It i s90% roller coasters and 10% animals. Those few animals are not worth the drive (Tampa) and the cost about $60 per adult.
I dont do coaster either, but the grandkids and DH love them so we have gone there, but I just walk around and watch accept for the Serengety animal area, which is awesome, but like I said it is mostly coasters. I think they have a web site. www.buschgardens.com if you want to check it out. You can get to it from sea worlds web site too. They own both parks.
There is always Discovery cove which sea world runs that is an all day adventure where you learn about dolphins and swim with them , meals included. It is spendy, over $100 per person, but i have heard awesome reports about it.

Kathy

 

[sftnslky]

There is always Discovery cove which sea world runs that is an all day adventure where you learn about dolphins and swim with them , meals included. It is spendy, over $100 per person, but i have heard awesome reports about it.

Thanks for all the advise... Discover Cove sounds nice... Is there a big zoo or such like a wild animal safari park/tour/ride place? Do you have a link for Discovery Cove? Or links for other places we might like? Thanks again for your time

Many and lots of

 

[yazee1]

I am a tad worried I keep reading the boards and seeing both good and bad things about the kids clubs and the food..I hope both are better then most folks are saying...we are going with an open mind so that should help.

An open mind is exactly what you will need, that and this discussion board. Last year was our first cruise. I can't even begin to tell you the hundreds of things I learned from this board that came in handy. Some people curse these boards because of the expectations, for better and for worse, they can create. I, on the other hand, am thankful for every post. For example, that I should expect breakfast to be a pedestrian affair, that is useful. That I should expect the kiddie pool to be crowded and a little unruly on at sea days, well I would expect that but if I didn't have experience with kiddie pools, that would be useful. That there are things not on the menu that you can ask for, that's good to know. That buying the Passporter's Guide is worth the money, very true. The suggestion that we let the kids go to the clubs after dinner while we eat our desert and drink coffee without them, golden!

I have to disagree with your perception that most people have posted negative experiences with the food and the kids' clubs, but I will admit that last year when we were preparing for our first DC, the negative posts stuck with me and I worried that we would have the bad luck to experience all the pitfalls. My big fear was unruly kids in the hallways at 2:00 in the morning because I had read about something like that on the boards. I worried about the deck chair warfare, too.


My motto is "prepare for the worst and pray for the best". It's a good idea to keep in mind that when a person posts a negative experience we're hearing one side of the story, and there are usually several. Not knowing what to expect seems to be a common denominator in an unhappy cruiser. Not being flexible is another. A person's going to be disgruntled if he/she thinks a Disney Cruise is a floating Fantasy Island where everything is perfect and you rarely see another person unless it's part of your fantasy. As for the food complaints, I think it happens like this. Twenty of their peas were hot, but 2 were cold, so the food stinks. Just kidding. I think you're going to have a fabulous time and so will the girls.

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Howdy,
Discovery cove is owned by Sea World so I'm sure you could go to sea worlds site and find it there. i think it is just www.seaworld.com
The only real animal place with safari rides is WDW at Animal Kingdom, which you could do easily in a day. I think it closes around 6 or 7 p.m. in September. But if your there when it opens you could easily do it in a day. Crowds will be down in September, especially on a Friday.
Busch gardens has an animal section, but not big enough to be worth the time, gas, and admission to do unless you wanted to do the coasters too, which I know you are not interested in.
Let's see. there is The HolyLands off I4. They have a web site too or google it by the name. Gatorland is a 1/2 day place near Kissimmee, an hour and 15 minutes from the port area. It is kind of like a tiny zoo. 99% gators there. Gator feeding, gator wrestling, gator jumparoo show, reptile show, 2 trails to hike and a few other animals. judy a black bear who couldnt survive in the wild, flamingos, a small bird aviary where you can go inside and feed them, small kids water play area, small petting zoo for kids. there is a train ride for $2 which isnt worth it!! You walk everywhere it rides, so nothing else to see really on the train. Basically this is snakes and gators. The shows do have alot of humor and they have a great gift shop.
It can be done in 5 hours easy, mostly takes that long so you can see all the shows. I think it's about $15 per adult. www.gatorland.com I think. I fnot just do a search and you'll find it.
Cypress Gardens is now a type of amusement park. Basically it has rides like you'd find at the state fair. NO line shere at all!! Very low key and afavorite with the locals as it cost less than the big parks and has rides for every age group. Plus they have a good water skiing show,a lovely garden area to walk through. trails loop all over the far end of the park. Beautiful!! Also has awater park which opened this last year, wave pool, slides and a large kiddie area. very clean friendly place. They have a small butterfly garden, a bird aviary, and a few animals at one end of the park, which they have just opened up about a year ago, so not sure about the naimal area. i have been there twice with grandkids, but no animal section at that time. Plus most fridays , saturdays have live concerts in the evening that are included in your admission. They have a big variety of people there, lots of big names and no names too!! www.cypressgardens.com I think.
War bird air museum near Kennedy space center. A great museum for people who like the old style air crafts, WW2 era, for the most part.
If I think of anything else I will let you know!!

Good luck choosing what to do,
Kathy

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Ok everyone,
we were at the bottom of page 2 again!!

Shame on us!

Our cruise is almost a month closer, next week it will be JUNE already!!
is going to fly by the next few months!
Anybody got any summer plans?
We arent going any place until the cruise, however we have one daughter,maybe two coming out with their families from Oregon to visit this summer. The one who is coming for sure will be here for the month of August. During that time we will be doing theme parks on the weekends and a few things during the week too. I will need the cruise to rest up from chasing after grandkids for a month!! Especially if both daughters make it out, that will double the amount of grandkids!! I am really looking forward to it! that will help pass the time some.
Well time to zip out to the store and get the cold things before it gets too hot!! Suppose to be in the 90's again. It was already 70 about 6 a.m. this morning.
The cows have been hiding in the trees all day, that is a sure sign if the heat.

Have a great day everyone,
Kathy

 

[sftnslky]

Soul Patrol Rules!!!

For those of you who might think i've lost my mind... it is a catch phrase the winner of American Idol says... I am SOOOO happy he won.

Many & lots of

 

[sftnslky]

Anybody got any summer plans?

[ We have a few things going on... This weekend as an anniversairy present to hubby and I [our anniversary is on Saturday 5/27/95] a very good family friend of ours is taking our kids on their very first camping/fishing trip... DH and I are SOOOO not the camping type. I would be crying about the heat, the dirt and bugs...and I am TOO old to sleep on the groud. And DH is a computer Geek so they don't do the outside without a wireless modem

Then next week We are taking the kids to Great America in San Jose. We actually got a good deal through our church. We are taking Amtrack from here to there, and doing the Park, and an all you can eat BBQ chicken lunch and from 11-2 all you can drink sodas and ice cream...plus each kid gets a samll souvinour...and the train back... all for only $49 each person. The kids are sooooo thrilled Its very rare that we take all four of them to an amusement park... for 6 of us...with gas, park tickets, food, and such we EASILY spend $500 plus... So typically we go once a year during the early summer.

And as you can tell by my signiture line... I am going on a gilrs only spa retreat up in Calastoga. From Thrusday July 6th through Monday July 10th. Hubby is NOT thrilled about being a fulltime dad for 5 days LOL but sometimes you gotta suck it up

Then The first weekend in Aug. The 4-6 We have our yearly Worship Arts retreat... All of the worship arts ministry... ie the two bands, the full chior, the full drama team and the praise team..all go up to Half Moon Bay for 2 1/2 days of fellowship and food. There is usually about 250 of us that go.

Plus we already have a few bbqs, and swim partys that are planed...and the third weekend in June is a Couples only Bunko party... I LOVE BUNKO.

Hope you all have an awsome Thursday...Many & lots of

 

[sftnslky]

An open mind is exactly what you will need, that and this discussion board.

Thank you for trying to ease my mind, but we are still worried.. you see hubby and I have cruised many times before..and you are always gonna have to "just deal with" something and we are not "foodies" so we always thought [90% of the time] that the meals were very nice ..

But the reason we are worried is because last year we thought "ok the girls are old enough..lets take them on their first cruise". We went for 7 days to the Mexican Reveria on the Carnival Pride. We had read MANY, MANY MANY boards, reports, stories about how much people/families LOVED camp carnival... So we were "prepared" for a great family vacation with some adult time. MAN OH MAN was I wrong. Our girls HATED, HATED and oh did I mention HATED the camp. They literally spent 3 hours total in the camp the WHOLE cruise.

The camp was TINY literally the size of my bedroom. It had a small tv/dvd player...a small child sized art table with four chairs and a few art supplies...and some bean bag chairs. THATS IT. So because of that I NEVER got to attend dinner in the dinning room, nor did I get to see one single "broadway" show. And we didn't feel comfortable taking our kids into port at two of the stops so I stayed on board. I had a HORRIABLE time. Wished I had NEVER paid that much money and would have had a better time staying home....

So this time we read tons, viewed trip reports, talked to freinds, and travel agents... ALL of them said 'OH YOU GOTTA DO DISNEY' lol so we were soooo happy Then just in the past week or so I have read alot of negitive reports aobut the Disney kids club and such... So I'm REALLY starting to worry and DON'T want a repeat of last year. And since we haven't paid the final payment for our cruise...I'm begining to wonder if we shouldn't take the girls now.

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Hi Becca,
Boy you have a busy summer ahead of you!! It all sounds like fun!!

Dont worry about the kids clubs. they are great!!! They have free time in there and they have structured events they do. Some you just show up for, others you have to sign up for. Plenty to do for everyone there. They have large rooms and play equipment in there. I have been in there with one of my GD's before and it was really nice. You can help your kids read their navigators and decide what events they want to do for sure. Plus there are lots of family events in Studio Sea too. Dont forget about those too. they are fun for the entire family.
Plus for different events the kids are taken out of the clubs to other areas of the ship too. So they are not stuck in one area all the time.

I guess it would just depend on the kids if they would like it or not. Some kids like structured events, others only like free time.
DCL offers both.

Kathy

 

[strawberryblonde]

The nice thing about DCL, the shows are fun and appropriate for kids. On the off chance that your girls don't like the clubs, there is so much to do as a family that you won't feel as though you are missing out. The clubs are much bigger than a little room. Many special activities are planned. DCL has a movie theater with movies playing every day, most ships don't have that. If you don't care for the main show, you can watch a movie instead.

We have done Princess and NCL since our DCL cruise. We still had fun, but there isn't near as many choices. I really missed having a movie theater on the other ships. We couldn't take the kids to any of the shows because of inappropriate jokes ect. I am a kid at heart so I prefer the DCL entertainment. I feel happy on the ship. The music playing everywhere lifts the spirits in a subtle way. Most of the complaints I have read about the kids clubs are for the younger ones 3 to 4 year olds. My son would not have liked the club at 3 or 4, he wasn't ready for that many kids and some can be rough. My daughter loved it at 4. She called it her club and begged to go more than I would let her. My son was 7 and he loved it too. DD enjoyed the clubs at Princess and Ncl but DCL was her fav. She can't wait to get back onto the ship.

My son just asked if we could take it easy on the cruise. He doesn't want to do alot of excursions, he wants to stay on the ship and enjoy it. He wants to spend alot of time in the club. He is 9. My kids love getting room service and watching some TV right before bed. They love eating the fast food and fruit by the pool and they love going to the club as soon as they are finished with dinner. My son likes to watch some of the Disney shows so we will pick him up to go with us. My DD will only see a show if it's on in the afternoon, she wants to spend every night in "her club".

I really think you will enjoy yourselves. I would hate for you to leave the girls behind and then see all the things they would love all week long. Good luck in making up your mind. You will have a good time either way you decide.

 

[Nikki&Me]

Howdy,
Who is going with us???
We just changed from 12/2/06 to 9/23/06, now I'm looking for lots of great people who will be going with us.
This will be DCL cruise #11 for us. We also have another 7 day booked for 11/25/06.
We are traveling as a couple, no family this time.
We are looking forward to getting aquainted with everyone, so drop me a line to say Howdy!!!!
Let's get this thread rolling!!!!!!

mom x4,grandma x4

I have a 6:25 pm flight out that night.....

 

[yazee1]

Becca, I'm sorry. I wrote my post forgetting that you had been on many cruises. If I had taken the time to scroll back, I wouldn't have put my foot in my mouth. I humbly ask for your forgiveness for talking to you like you didn't already know what the deal is. I can see why, after the experience you had, you'd be skeptical. I would be too. I haven't been reading the general DCL forum as much the past few weeks. I'm going to do that tonight to see what's being said.

Be back later!

 

[yazee1]

Bunko! I love bunko! Before we moved, I was in two bunko groups as a sub for both. Naturally, with 12 women in each group, I wound up playing every month. It was great because I never had to host.

Since Heidi's shared her Club experience, I'll share ours. Three kids - three different flavors of club experience. Leah was only four, so talking about her wouldn't do you much good. She did have fun but I wouldn't say she begged to go either. Spencer and William are about the age of your daughters. Spencer will be 9 in a couple weeks. William is 11-1/2. William loved the Lab experience. If we allowed it he would have spent every waking hour there. Like the others said, being in the Lab isn't always being indoors. Structured or free time, he loved it. I didn't matter if it was time for sports, karaoke, science lab, charades or computer time. He did it all. Spencer's story is a little different. We put him in the Club because of his age. At first he liked it because it was free time and he likes to play alone or with one other child. Once the scheduled activities started, he had second thoughts. The program that frustrated him to tears involved dancing and singing, something he's never liked to do. The counselors tried to encourage him. Had they known his personality, they wouldn't have wasted their time. He's kind of laidback and the noise and the "babyish" (in his words) activities grated on him horribly. If there had been an alternative activity, I think he would have been okay, but there wasn't. It's kind of like there's one thing on the menu, take it or leave it. Before switching him, we thought if we were mindful of letting him pick and choose which Club activities he attended he'd like it better, but after reading the Navigator for his age group, there wasn't much the Club had to offer that he liked well enough to stay there. The remedy was simple, he wanted to try out the Lab. He liked it MUCH better. The activites suited him and there was more free time.

I hope you'll be coming. I'd hate to see Carnival ruin it for you.

 

[sftnslky]

Becca, I'm sorry. I wrote my post forgetting that you had been on many cruises. If I had taken the time to scroll back, I wouldn't have put my foot in my mouth. I humbly ask for your forgiveness for talking to you like you didn't already know what the deal is. I can see why, after the experience you had, you'd be skeptical. I would be too. I haven't been reading the general DCL forum as much the past few weeks. I'm going to do that tonight to see what's being said.

Oh Gosh Monica...I didn't take ANYTHING you said negitively. NOTHING I just took it as you trying to encourage me. to bring my girls. I 100% agree with you that on EACH AND EVERY cruise you must go AND KEEP an open mind There is ALWAYS gonna be stressful situations and or [most likely ] people on ANY cruise.

Even Hubbys dear Mom would COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN each and every time about the life boat drill ...and don't get me started on her complining about the SLOW elevators...kids in the hall....not enough room service options....paying for diet soda....too much "not american" food on the buffets... But she LOVED cruising... Would make me scratch my head everytime DH and I finally started NOT sharing a cabin with her.

When I have more time I will write and tell you all about mine and DH's first cruise... Talk about NEEDING an open mind

Have a great Friday morning all...many & lots of

 

[yazee1]

Hi, Becca Ready to play Scrabble? I'll be around. My username for wordbiz (www.isc.ro for download in case you need that info) is yazee1

You can IM me too. It's mtchurchmonica on yahoo messenger.

I'll understand if life gets in the way of our scrabble date, though.

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Good Morning,

I hope everyone is having a good start to their long weekend.
With the heat index we are suppose to feel like 104 today. Sounds like a good day to jump into the pool!!!

I am going to try to remember to watch the ship pull out on the web cam this evening. I missed it on Thursday.

Kathy

 

[sftnslky]

Hi, Becca Ready to play Scrabble?

We have a Scrabble EXPERT in our little group. MONICA BEAT MY BOOTY BIG TIME Her new nickname is Monica the scrabble shark

All kidding aside..I had a GREAT time playing with you last night... DH can't wait to play you... He at least would be able to give you a run for your money Hope everyone has a safe and fun holiday weekend. Many & lots of