A little Texas Christmas Magic - 12/21/2012

[MJDisFamCruisers]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks to a "pay it forward" from another Diser...we are officially on the Christmas cruise! We are looking forward to the FE, I will PM my info. We've been fortunate enough to make this a tradition so I can share a few things about the X-Mas cruise.

Most special events, you need to sign up at guest services: some of them have a small fee
Champagne tasting on Christmas Day
Gingerbread house decorating
Santa in the atrium X-Mas morning, along with cookies and hot chocolate, and fake snow
Characters wearing holiday wear
Special desserts on Christmas Eve
Ship decorated
I believe caroling one night, but we've never seen that
Special gift or towel folding on X-Mas day in your room
They provide cookies for Santa on X-Mas Eve

Things to make it festive, bring a tiny tree for your room, Christmas magnets, use stockings or holiday bags for your FE holder, wear your Santa hat on boarding day and to the dis-meet. In addition to your tip, bring a small wrapped gift for your room host.

I think that does it!
Jill

Wow that sounds like so much fun! Do you know whether there is a fee for the gingerbread house decorating? I think I read to sign up as soon as we get on the ship for this activity...also, is it just for a certain age group or can anyone participate?

 

[sinnika]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks to a "pay it forward" from another Diser...we are officially on the Christmas cruise! We are looking forward to the FE, I will PM my info. We've been fortunate enough to make this a tradition so I can share a few things about the X-Mas cruise.

Most special events, you need to sign up at guest services: some of them have a small fee
Champagne tasting on Christmas Day
Gingerbread house decorating
Santa in the atrium X-Mas morning, along with cookies and hot chocolate, and fake snow
Characters wearing holiday wear
Special desserts on Christmas Eve
Ship decorated
I believe caroling one night, but we've never seen that
Special gift or towel folding on X-Mas day in your room
They provide cookies for Santa on X-Mas Eve

Things to make it festive, bring a tiny tree for your room, Christmas magnets, use stockings or holiday bags for your FE holder, wear your Santa hat on boarding day and to the dis-meet. In addition to your tip, bring a small wrapped gift for your room host.

I think that does it!
Jill

Thanks for all the tips about the Christmas cruise! Makes it even more exciting!!! Your name sounds familiar. Did you sail on the May 2010 Med cruise or the repo cruise to Dover following it? Or the late June 2011 Med cruise?
This is our first holiday cruise. We are also sailing over Halloween so our two favorite holidays will be spent with the mouse!

 

[jgura]

Yes, anyone can participate in the gingerbread decorating. I think it was free, it is one per family or stateroom If it did cost, it was less than $20.00
You cannot bring the house off the ship with you, because it is food. The gumdrops are the only tasty part of the house though.

Hi Sinnika, yes I believe we have cruised together before! I know we have shared information together on the 2010 cruise. Looking forward to this one, maybe we can put a face to name this time!

If I can ever conquer getting pictures up, I'll share some from the past XMas cruise.

Jill

 

[Zyla2000]

Good Evening Everyone!

My husband and I are getting so excited for our cruise! We aren't traveling with any children, but would like to participate in the FE exchange.



Kayla (30)
Jeff (32)

We haven't been assigned a room number yet, but we have a 'Navigator's Viranda' room. I'll update that info as soon as we get it.

We LOVE Donald Duck!

Thanks!

 

[kimwhitt93]

The official FE list

PM or post your information and I will add you to the list. Let's spread the Christmas MAGIC during our Christmas cruise! Let's try to finalize the list by December 1st.

Felicia-dfsc (42), DH (49), DS (8), DD (12) / room: GTY

Shannon (39), DD (16), DD (12), DS (14) / room: GTY

mickeymo (Monica) DH (john), DD - Maggie (15), DS - Mike (18)/ room: 6112
Brian, Mariella, Matt (11)/ room 6114

theeighthdwarf - Room 8504 Dh (Lee), ds10 (Anthony fav character Jack Sparrow), ds8 (Justin fav char Sorcerer Mickey)

Room 8506: (Lauri), dd12 (Sarah fav char Belle), dd4 (Kate fav char - Rapunzel and Merida).

MJDisFamCruisers, George (DH), Gina, DD (23) - room GTY

cheesehead3: Cabin 7594, Charles (DH), Tammy (DW), Zachary (DS) 19

kidz dream: Rosie, DH (OZZY), DS (11yrs), DD (6yrs) - room #?????

We would like to participate in the FE. We have 2 rooms.

7629 DH(Mike) and DS(18 Brandon)

7627 Me(Kim), DD(11 MaryBeth), DS(5 Connor)

Thank you for doing this. I have only been on one Disney cruise but it was 13 years ago and i don't remember seeing this. I'm trying to figure all of this out.

 

[dfsc]

I have updated the FE list - post #65. Please check your information.

I have changed the finalization date to November 24th, per the request of a diser.

Welcome Kimwhitt93, Zyla2000, and jgura to the MAGICAL Christmas FE exchange.

 

[gizmoliz]

dfsc - thanks so much for organising the FE, it sounds like so much fun.

We would love to participate too, please add us to the list.

Cabin: 6542, gizmoliz - Nick (DH), Liz (Me!), Hamish (DS 7 loves Cars movies), Philippa (DD 4 loves princesses).

We still haven't told the kids that we will be travelling to the US this December/January - trying to keep the excitement confined to as short a period as possible.

Is it OK to include food in FE gifts (I have some traditional Australian cookies in mind)?

Liz

 

[theeighthdwarf]

Welcome! How exciting to surprise your kids!! Have they been on a Disney cruise before ? I have 4 kids - one 4year old girl and a 8year old boy as well as a 10 and 12 year old. We haven't told our kids yet either - I need to figure out when and how.
I'm not sure if our group has set up any official FE rules, usually anything is fine.

Lauri

 

[kimwhitt93]

Chippy our Elf on a shelf will be traveling with us. Will there be any other Elf's creating mischief on the Magic?

 

[jgura]

Yes, food items are good Fe gifts. If anyone has a serious allergy to something, you may want to add it to your name or just give the gift to your host.

Our elf on the shelf will be joining us too. I've seen some with tiny mouse ears on or a tiny santa hat.

We need to organize a meet on boarding day. How does Promenade Lounge on deck 3 at 2:30 sound?
I know rooms are usually ready at 1:00
Deck party 4ish
Safety Drill ???

For the newbies; at the meet you of course have time to put a face to a name and get to know each other. The kids have time to meet each other as well. You also need to bring any stateroom changes to the meet if you are in the FE exchange. We will need to know where to deliver your gift. You do not need to be in the FE to come to the meet.
Jill

 

[MJDisFamCruisers]

Chippy our Elf on a shelf will be traveling with us. Will there be any other Elf's creating mischief on the Magic?

Our elf on the shelf will be joining us too. I've seen some with tiny mouse ears on or a tiny santa hat.

What is "Elf on a shelf?"

 

[kimwhitt93]

What is "Elf on a shelf?"

Elf on the Shelf is an stuffed elf that comes around at Thanksgiving time and reports to Santa each night to let him know how who is being good or bad. The kids are not aloud to touch him. He tends to get into mischief when he returns back to your house. Here is a link to the website.
http://elfontheshelf.com/Home.aspx

Here is another link to Pintorest with ideas that people have came up with.
http://pinterest.com/chandlerjandk/elf-on-a-shelf-ideas/

Hope this helps. We just got on one last year. Not sure what the elf will be doing on the cruise ship.

 

[dfsc]

Welcome gizmoliz to the FE exchange!

jgura: I like the idea of the dis-group Christmas meet. The later the time, the better for me. My daughter will potentially have finals Friday until noon which will put us in the terminal around 1:00 PM.

 

[MJDisFamCruisers]

Elf on the Shelf is an stuffed elf that comes around at Thanksgiving time and reports to Santa each night to let him know how who is being good or bad. The kids are not aloud to touch him. He tends to get into mischief when he returns back to your house. Here is a link to the website.
http://elfontheshelf.com/Home.aspx

Here is another link to Pintorest with ideas that people have came up with.
http://pinterest.com/chandlerjandk/elf-on-a-shelf-ideas/

Hope this helps. We just got on one last year. Not sure what the elf will be doing on the cruise ship.

That sounds like so much fun! I will have to look into getting one!

I like the idea of a meet on the first day...on my last cruise during our meet there were people there that weren't part of Disboards so it was kind of confusing trying to figure out who was part of our group and who wasn't...could we come up with a fun way to "identify" ourselves?

 

[theeighthdwarf]

So it looks like they opened up the IGT/OGT/VGT rates for our cruise. We'll see if it helps fill up the ship - we look so empty right now. Although the prices still seem quite high, maybe it will help.


Lauri

 

[skypixy]

Hi fellew Dis cruisers!
I just booked our family of 4 & my parents for this cruise! Can't wait to tell my husband...
This is our 5th DCL cruise. The last one was the 11 night So. Carribean on the Magic over Christmas 2010.
Wait 'til you see all the "magic" touches for the holiday! Last time we experienced:
castmembers wearing special Christmas gear
characters in holiday wear
special towel animals
Christmas tree lighting
children carroling
Christmas music all over the ship
special Christmas morning visit from you know who!
huge gingerbread house on display

and more!

I am considering the FE, need to check with my other half to see if we want to participate...

So excited!

 

[Hmorale]

Hi Everyone! My family DH- DS(10) and DS(8) just booked the Cruise.
We are so excited! We are traveling with Skypixy and another family - petdoc (I'm sure she will be posting shortly)
This is our second Disney Cruise. Last Cruise was the 11nt Holiday Cruise 2010 and it was one of the best vacays EVER
I definetly want to get on the FE list - on the last cruise it was about 50 families maybe - that was a lot of work but tons of fun. Please let me know who I need to get intouch with to get the ball rolling.
If anyone has ideas about which airport, hotel, and transportation out of Galveston please share as I have never gone in and out of the port.

Thanks - Morale Family

 

[gizmoliz]

Thanks for adding me to the FE group.Welcome to our new cruisers - Looks like we are starting to get some more action here as it gets closer.

We've just booked dinner and brunch at Palo, an excursion to the ruins in Costa Maya - what other excursions are you planning on booking ?

Liz

 

[cheesehead3]

Thanks for adding me to the FE group.Welcome to our new cruisers - Looks like we are starting to get some more action here as it gets closer.

We've just booked dinner and brunch at Palo, an excursion to the ruins in Costa Maya - what other excursions are you planning on booking ?

Liz

We booked Dinner and Brunch at Palo (DS's first trip) and the ruins in Costa Maya also (tried for Adult only), I have been to Key West too many times to count so picture stop and a walk down Duval, Cozumel will be a nice relaxing day. Looking forward to the tastings on the ship, haven't been able to get into those on previous cruises.

 

[MJDisFamCruisers]

Thanks for adding me to the FE group.Welcome to our new cruisers - Looks like we are starting to get some more action here as it gets closer.

We've just booked dinner and brunch at Palo, an excursion to the ruins in Costa Maya - what other excursions are you planning on booking ?

Liz

We also booked the excursion to the ruins in Costa Maya. We have never been to any of the ports so this will be new to us. Do you have any good tips on Key West for those of us just planning to walk around? In Cozumel I think we are just going to take a cab to one of the beaches nearby. I can't believe that there are only 62 days until our cruise!