A MAGICal FANTASY of an Anniversary - Now Jan 2013 - *Happy News!* 04/26!

[Disney9.9.10]

Hello and welcome to my trip journal!

This is my first time writing a report on the cruise board, but I have written reports for other trips. I look forward to checking out all of your reports as well!

So let's get this thing started!

My name is Krysten and I will be the one taking you through this report. I am 24 years old and am addicted to Disney! I have been going to WDW since I was just a baby, including going on one previous Disney cruise. I also enjoy scrapbooking (my millions of Disney trip photos!), dancing, writing, shoe shopping, traveling and spending time with my family.

This is my husband Michael. He enjoys sports, cars, and spending time with family. He has been to WDW twice (with me of course!) and has never been on a cruise, so this will be a new experience for him.

We got married on September 9th, 2010 at Disney's Wedding Pavilion. It was an absolutely perfect day, and Disney made everything run so smoothly I didn't have to worry about a thing all day. This trip is going to be for our 2nd wedding anniversary.

We live in a home together with our Cockapoo puppy Scarlett. We just got her in December and she is such a good little puppy! She will be staying with my family while we are on vacation.

Up Next… details of our trip!

 

[Disney9.9.10]

Okay so now I will get into the details of our trip!

Originally, I didn't think that we were going to be taking a vacation this year. This was upsetting but I had pretty much come to terms with it. I just started a new job last August, and we are working on paying off the rest of my student loans and doing some renovating to our home, so I didn't think that there would really be any money left for vacation. After some research on my part, and some discussion with my husband, we decided that a vacation was within our reach this year!

Michael really wanted to go to Eastern Canada this summer, but I couldn't get time off in the summer for us to go. And if I was going on vacation, of course I wanted to go to Disney! (WDW, DL, DCL, it doesn't really matter lol) I always want to go to Disney! But Michael isn't quite the Disneyphile that I am, so he wasn't crazy about this idea. Blasphemy, right?! How could anyone not want to go to Disney? lol

In the end, we decided to compromise between Eastern Canada and Disney with…

A 5 Day Eastern Canada Cruise on the Disney Cruise Line!

Michael has never been on a cruise before, and I have never been to Eastern Canada, so there are new things for both of us! And we didn't do anything for our first anniversary (life got in the way!) so it will be nice for us to celebrate our 2nd anniversary in such a great way!

 

[Disney9.9.10]

I phoned Disney this morning to book our cruise! I spoke to a wonderful cast member who was extremely helpful and very friendly. I was concerned only about the fact that my vacation dates aren't set in stone and I wanted to make sure that I was able to change my date if I needed to. So I was given a date when final changes need to be made by in order to avoid penalties.

I haven't booked flights just yet, but we are going to be flying with Southwest airlines from Buffalo to New York City. We will probably fly early and arrive in New York City around 10 in the morning.

We will then be taking the Disney bus to the port to get on our cruise!

Our Itinerary

September 12th
Depart New York at 4:00pm

September 13th
At Sea

September 14th
Saint John, New Brunswick at 8:30am

September 15th
Halifax, Nova Scotia at 10:15am

September 16th
At Sea

September 17th
New York at 8:30am

Because we just started planning this trip, I still have no detailed itinerary and am not sure what things we are going to do at each of the ports, but we have time to decide and I love researching and planning!

We are going to be eating during the second seating. We are hoping that this will be a bit quieter and it will give us more time at the ports if we need it - we won't have to rush back to the ship to get ready for dinner.

Our Stateroom

We have booked an oceanview stateroom with verandah, which should look something like this

Isn't it heavenly?

So those are really all of the plans that we have so far, but I look forward to updating with all of the exciting plans as they come about!

 

[Disney9.9.10]

Hello? Is there anyone out there? lol

Today we are 6 months out from our trip!

It feels weird that we just booked and we are already 6 months out - I usually book earlier than that.

This also has me a bit nervous though. I am still waiting on work to finalize our vacation schedule. They have screwed up my dates, and so I have to re-fill out the form for vacation and wait for it to get approved. My one boss (who I know personally from before I started the job) said that it shouldn't be a problem for me to get the dates, it is just about waiting until the paperwork is all sorted out. Our schedule was supposed to be posted weeks ago, and they asked some of us to change weeks but gave us other weeks?! It is getting me a bit stressed out, but hopefully it will all be worked out soon. I haven't booked any flights yet because of this schedule, so I just hope that the flight we want is still available and still cheap when I can book (hopefully in the next week or so).

If for some reason I can't get these dates off for my vacation, the weeks I currently have will allow us to take a DCL cruise to the Caribbean. So it won't upset me terribly if I have to switch my cruise dates. I just want to know what is going on! lol

I have been looking into hotels and things to see in New York City - but again not booking anything until we know for sure what dates we have.

So that is where we are up to this point. I hate being in limbo, but I am so excited about going on a cruise!! Hopefully I will have a good news update real soon!

 

[JoshAndEvsMom]

Hi Looks like I'm the first one! Looking forward to hearing about your trip!

 

[Disney9.9.10]

Hi Looks like I'm the first one! Looking forward to hearing about your trip!

Hi! Thanks so much for stopping by! Hopefully this PTR gets more exciting real soon lol

 

[Disney9.9.10]

I have had hotels in NYC on my mind since we booked the cruise. I have never been there before, so I have so many questions and things that I am unsure about. I don't know how far things are from each other in the city, where the best places to stay are, how much to expect to pay for cab fares while we are there, etc., etc. I have cruised with Disney before, so I know what to expect and I am excited to plan, but the unknown has been pressing a bit more.

We are planning to arrive in NYC on the day of the cruise - we live close enough that I feel okay doing this. But we want to stay in NYC for a couple of nights after the cruise is finished.

I really want to stay here

The Waldorf Astoria. I have heard of this landmark hotel before, and I would love to stay there. The price really isn't too bad compared to many rates in the city (from what I have seen doing a quick search). And it is so beautiful! I love how ornate and elegant everything is.

Has anyone stayed here before? Or has anyone done this cruise and stayed in NYC and has a hotel they would recommend? I would love to hear from you!

We might just end up booking the Waldorf (if I can convince DH that $400+ a night is reasonable lol). But I am an organized, obsessive-planning type of person so I like to have a lot of information before I make any decisions - especially ones that could cost this much money!

 

[Disney9.9.10]

So I have a very strange schedule at work and have today and tomorrow off this week. Time off for me usually means housework, lots of walks and cuddles with the puppy, and of course Disney thinking/planning/obsessing!

My latest fixation is on the stateroom position. I knew that our stateroom was in the aft of the ship, but I just looked up the actual position today. The room is one of the very last rooms along the side of the boat before it sort of curves in the back (does that make any sense at all?) I have cruised before and am not overly sensitive to motion sickness, but I am not sure that I really want to risk it. On my previous DCL cruise, we specifically asked for midship because my mom is very prone to motion sickness, and this room was excellent. On my RCCL, I cannot remember where our room was (going to go dig through some papers in my scrapbooking room to see if I can find out) but I wasn't bothered in this room either. DH has never cruised before, but he can go on roller coasters and things which I cannot, so I am thinking that he should have no problem.

My DCL planner is away this week, so I am left to my own devices - and to be honest, I would really rather not harass him with a million e-mails and questions So if anyone has any experience with aft staterooms that they would like to share with me, I would love to hear them. Until then, I will just keep pondering, and I may end up asking if there is a midship stateroom available in our category to switch to.

 

[HermanTriplets+1]

I'm looking forward to following your PTR, too! Keep writing! We're doing the same cruise in June. You're from "up North" but have you ever been to Halifax or Saint John before?

 

[Disney9.9.10]

I'm looking forward to following your PTR, too! Keep writing! We're doing the same cruise in June. You're from "up North" but have you ever been to Halifax or Saint John before?

Thanks for stopping by! I have been looking for reports of others doing the same cruise as us, so I will definitely stop by yours!! Yes I am from up north but I haven't been to either of those places before. My husband has been to Halifax once, but he was quite young so this should be a different experience for him

 

[MinnieDiva]

My latest fixation is on the stateroom position. I knew that our stateroom was in the aft of the ship, but I just looked up the actual position today. The room is one of the very last rooms along the side of the boat before it sort of curves in the back (does that make any sense at all?) I have cruised before and am not overly sensitive to motion sickness, but I am not sure that I really want to risk it. On my previous DCL cruise, we specifically asked for midship because my mom is very prone to motion sickness, and this room was excellent.

We were midship in the Med and forward in Alaska. Now, comparing these 2 trips is like comparing apples to oranges, as the waters were quite different. In Alaska, try to envision a cute lil' 8 year old hugging the bed and refusing to get off.....

It was the first day and we were in a bit of open water. We finally got a bit of shelter and it calmed down. We lugged her out of bed to Lumiere's so she could have some toast...and be mid-ship.

None of us had any issues in the Med.

 

[Disney9.9.10]

We were midship in the Med and forward in Alaska. Now, comparing these 2 trips is like comparing apples to oranges, as the waters were quite different. In Alaska, try to envision a cute lil' 8 year old hugging the bed and refusing to get off.....

It was the first day and we were in a bit of open water. We finally got a bit of shelter and it calmed down. We lugged her out of bed to Lumiere's so she could have some toast...and be mid-ship.

None of us had any issues in the Med.

Hi! Thanks for coming by my PTR! Thank you for sharing your experience with cabin position. I may still send an e-mail to my planning guide and see what he thinks - he was super helpful! Your poor DD not feeling well on the cruise in Alaska At least the med was good for your family, what a beautiful place to cruise!

I looked up both of the staterooms from my previous cruises and neither of them were in the middle of the ship. One was quite a way aft and one was completely the opposite direction. I didn't have a problem with either cruise, so maybe I will be okay with this stateroom. We are on deck 7, which is a good place to be and on my previous cruises I was on either deck 6 or deck 7. I'm starting to ramble here but I have too much going through my mind lol

 

[Disney9.9.10]

I am back on day shift this week (finally!) so I got to speak to my boss about getting my vacation weeks sorted out after all of the confusion, so that I can go on this cruise. We dug out all of the paperwork and found the schedule on the computer (which was supposed to be posted for the employees in our lunchroom a month ago ) Where I work, we can have a maximum of 5 people off each week for vacations. During the first week I want, there are 3 people off and the second week there are only 2!! So this pretty much guarantees that I can get the time off for the cruise It still has to be "approved" officially by our lead foreman, but my boss told me that all that the foreman cares about is the number of people who are off each week, so he will make sure that it gets approved - yay!!

The skeptic in me wants to still wait for the official word before booking my flights, but they are at such an incredible deal right now that I may have to book! And if work keeps going the way that they are, the schedule may not get posted until I leave for my vacation lol

I am glad that I am more sure of this all now. I didn't want to do too much planning in case I ended up switching cruises and had to make all new plans but the obsessive planner in me couldn't wait. So now I don't have to hold back, I can plan away!

 

[Disney9.9.10]

What's that? Another update already? Absolutely!!

I booked our flights!!

I got a verbal guarantee from work that I will have those dates for my vacation and the prices of flights were so good, we just had to book. I paid $328 for both of us, round trip!! Amazing deal, I'm pretty excited. That is now one more expense off of our list.

Since it is a short flight, we are going to just fly in the morning the cruise leaves (Sept 12th) on the earliest flight available (7:40am). Our flight is scheduled to land in NYC at 10:35am.

We are flying out on September 19th, leaving us 2 nights to spend in New York City!

 

[Disney9.9.10]

A couple of posts ago I mentioned how I was a bit concerned with the location of our stateroom (a little too far aft for me) but I have now solved that problem!

I must not have paid complete attention when I first booked, but we originally had a stateroom with a whitewall verandah. This is all fine and well, but I was able to upgrade us for only $100 more to a category 5 room instead of a category 6 - with a clear verandah instead of a whitewall. This room is also closer to the middle of the ship, where I wanted it to be!!

So that is one less thing that I have to worry about, and now our view will be even more beautiful for not much more money

 

[Disney9.9.10]

What a crazy week

There has been so much going on, and a ton of back and forth at work, my car had issues, one thing after another… I am ready for my cruise today, please

We just found out at work that we are getting cut back some (still full time, but less overtime money - it works out to a good few hundred dollars a month difference) and we are going to have a layoff. The layoff is supposed to be for 3 weeks right now, but you never can be sure with them. Last time I got laid off, it was only supposed to be for a week and I ended up off for a whole month There is also a slight chance that I could work in another department at some point during the layoff - but I am low seniority so I am not going to count on that.

I booked this cruise late, so I only have a limited time to pay it all off, and I was banking on paying it off by May by putting a bigger portion of my pay onto it every other week. Now I am going to be going a month without pay, which really puts a damper on my payment schedule, and I will need to make sure that I keep a little extra back for bills and such for the time when I am laid off - and keep even more extra in case the layoff continues longer than expected.

I am just worried that this layoff will be longer than anticipated and I will need the money to pay bills and unexpected expenses (should my car die!) I am thinking about maybe postponing the cruise a little bit, just to take some of the pressure off while I wait to find out how long I will be laid off for. I am a big worrier about finances (even though we aren't in financial trouble or anything) I just like to make sure that I always have extra money for emergencies, and paying for a trip, plus a layoff is making me worry. Our jobs really aren't the safest (our company just closed one of their plants in Texas) but I also need to live my life and can't wait around for something bad to happen. I still have to talk to DH about all of this and see what he thinks. There are so many little things to consider. Just needed to get that out. I will keep you updated on whether we are going to postpone or not.

 

[Disney9.9.10]

Hello to anyone who's reading!

Going on a cruise has me super excited, but I just wish that I had more to write about right now.

Work is still way up in the air. There is not going to be any chance of me working during the layoff now, so I won't be getting paid for 3 weeks unless I decide to apply for unemployment. Last time I had to do this, it was a huge pain, and I'm not even sure that it is worth it in the end if we are only going to be off for a few weeks (rather than a few months).

I think that DH wants to postpone the cruise so that we don't have the pressure to pay everything off so quickly, and we can have extra money to splurge on whatever we want. And part of me agrees lol But part of me also knows that this may be our only chance to do this cruise, and I want us to get in some traveling just the two of us before we decide to start a family. And if I can take a trip this year and next year, why not?!

Who would have thought that one little trip would bring up so many little thoughts and problems. My brain never shuts off and just continues to run from one thing to the next.

I guess only time will tell what we end up doing.

I am enjoying reading all of your TR's and I hope to have an exciting update of my own really soon!

 

[HermanTriplets+1]

Reading! Hope you can make a decision together without too much difficulty -- not an easy one! (Personally, I hope it comes out "yes vacation; yes DCL"!) - here's crossing fingers for you!

 

[Disney9.9.10]

Thank you! I am sure that we will be going on a DCL cruise, I am just not sure if it will be this cruise out of NYC or possibly a Caribbean cruise in January, or maybe something else lol It is just a waiting game at this point - something that I am not very good at!

 

[Disney9.9.10]

Good morning everyone!

So it is looking more and more like we are going to have to change our cruise. Things going on at work and home are making this exact trip next to impossible! Our area has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country and places are closing left right and centre. We are very lucky to have the jobs that we do, but I am always afraid of my place closing down. We are the only manufacturing company left in the area and there is always a ton of talk about us and how long we will remain open. This means that I have to work whenever I can, take overtime whenever I can to boost our savings incase we do close down, and I have to take my vacation when they say that I can. I am a bit upset about the possibility of not taking this cruise, but DH really wants to see PEI and more of Eastern Canada, so we will probably just take a road trip out east within the next couple of years. This way we can see all of the East that we want to see, it just won't be with Disney lol

This means that we are sort of back at square one as far as trip planning goes. We need to decide on another trip, and pray that things work out as far as work goes.

The number one cruise on my list if we are to switch is a 7 day Eastern Caribbean on the Fantasy in January 2013. Here are the reasons why:
- I love the Caribbean
- I have never been to all of the ports that this cruise stops at
- It is 7 days!!
- I have never been on the Fantasy, and would love to be on one of the new ships
- DH hasn't been to any of these locations before
- January is a great time for me to get time off from work - there are hardly any people who take time off in January and February
- It is not too much further away than September, so we aren't waiting too much extra to get on our trip
- It gives us some more time to play with for payments and to see how things are going at work
- Possibly a day or two at WDW

So there are a lot of good reasons to switch to this cruise!

DH isn't sure whether he will like the Caribbean or not, but I think that there is only one way to find out!

Some other trips that we have thought about are:
- Europe; which we both like the destination, but the dates are going to be extremely difficult for me to get off of work so I am hesitant to even try and possibly miss the January cruise
- LA to Vancouver; again good destinations for us, but the dates are also a problem
- There are also always Bahamian and Caribbean cruises on other dates we could try

I have never had a trip so disorganized as this one and it is driving me crazy! I just want a plan that I can follow!