A ~Magical~ Adventure! Disney Magic 4/13/12

[hamm1207]

Pre and post stays booked! Pre cruise hotel will be the mco hyatt, it's cheaper than disney and we get to start catching the bus at 9. Post cruise will be a 4 day stay at Port Orleans River Side!

My goal is to get our FE gifts ordered today (while they're on sale)! I am going tobe ordering/making a specialized gift for everyone cruising (not just those participating in tne FE). Those who have cruised disney recently with a disboards group can probably guess what the gift will be...to all newcomers, have fun guessing! They will appropriate and usable (coming in handy) for everyone! Plus they make great collector items.

Please make sure that i have the names of all members of your party! Thank you!

 

[EAP'sDAD]

Just curious since this is our first DC and we will atempt to do FE, where do you order gifts from? is there any requirements or rules in the type of gifts we give out? I know my kids will enjoy exploring the ship while delivering the gifts

 

[hamm1207]

Just curious since this is our first DC and we will atempt to do FE, where do you order gifts from? is there any requirements or rules in the type of gifts we give out? I know my kids will enjoy exploring the ship while delivering the gifts

The gifts are entirely up to you. You decide what to give, if you want to do one gift per person or per stateroom ,or per family. There are no requirements or rules; except to have fun. I have ordered from vista print & oriental trading. I have also purchased things from Michael's and painted picture frames. Some people give gifts from their hometown, such as chocolate from Hershey, PA and candies from new zealand. It is entirely up to you.

 

[hamm1207]

Calling all cruisers! If you would like to participate in the FE gift giving, please send me the following information by Feb 15th:

Names(everyone in family)
Stateroom number
Ages/gender of kids
Special concerns/celebrations/notes

Thank you! I hope everyone will join in on the fun! The more people the better!

 

[tkell]

FE question....What happens if they change our stateroom once we arrive? You never know when you might get Pixie dust.

 

[tkell]

I don't know how you can handle the freezing weather up north. WOW! We were in the 70's yesterday. Hitting the upper 20's tonight then back to the 70's later this week... so far this has been a mild winter here in Texas.

 

[hamm1207]

FE question....What happens if they change our stateroom once we arrive? You never know when you might get Pixie dust.

You can write your new and old stateroom number on you FE gift, call people, or write it on our dry erase board tgat will be on our door.

 

[hamm1207]

I don't know how you can handle the freezing weather up north. WOW! We were in the 70's yesterday. Hitting the upper 20's tonight then back to the 70's later this week... so far this has been a mild winter here in Texas.

Where in Texas? We just moved up from Houston, where we lived for 5 years (we're from pennsylvania originally). The cold isn't too bad...it's easier to put more clothes on than it is to take more off!

 

[tkell]

We are just west of Fort Worth. I hope you visited other places in Texas, Houston is not the best of our great state.

 

[hamm1207]

We are just west of Fort Worth. I hope you visited other places in Texas, Houston is not the best of our great state.

We weren't to fond of Houston either, but we really enjoyed san antonio and the dallas ft worth areas weren't too bad.

I highly recommend trying to upgrade at the port after you check in-the upgrades are cheaper! On our Mexico cruise in December we upgraded from an oceanview to a navigators verendah or only $150! It was well over a $600 upgrade the week before when we called dcl. So far it looks like ths cruise might be low numbers as well, seeing how few disboarders there are...although, i could always be wrong. We shall see!

 

[DopeyFan1966]

I am hoping someone will join that also has a teenage boy so they would maybe chat by email or facebook before hand. My ds is shy and had a hard time making friens on the Carnival cruise and he drove me BONKERS lol so I'd love to hook him up with a cruise buddy before hand this time.

Can't wait to get chatting with someone as we plan this vacation!

Don't worry about your son being board or shy. There is PLENTY for teenagers to do on this cruise. I really doubt that he will drive you bonkers on this cruise.

Hi Everyone!!

We are joining you all on this 'Magical' cruise!! We are a family of four: Me, all around DISNEY FAN (Karen), DH (John), DD9 and DS12.

This will be our third Disney cruise, but our first 7 nighter!! We just got off the Dream last month and are looking forward to a good time!

So, how are you all? Is this trip during your school break? We are from Maine and our school break starts on the 16th, so the kiddos will miss one day of school. I am hoping that Southwest comes out with some great rates!!

Oh! And we will be cruising on my birthday!! Mom actually gets to get away for her birthday

I'd love to chat with you all!! Is anyone interested in a Fish Extender swap?

We have a daughter that is turning 10 in Feburary. This is our 3d DC all on the Magic. We did two Med Cruises while I was stationed in Europe. My daughter is going to miss 7 days of school for this cruise. But, the teacher is going to give us work for her to do, so it will be considered no absences!!!!

We will be celebrating my husband's birthday. It is at the end of April.

Maybe our daughters can talk on line before hand to get to know each other. I know my daughter would love to meet people before we go. Also, are you on main seating or second?

Does anyone happen to know the evening schedule? Which nights are formal, semi formal, pirate deck party, etc.? Also, it states no shorts at dinner. Every night? Will they object to nicely pressed walking shorts with a nice button down collared shirt? It's nice to dress up some evenings, but being that we're on vacation in a warm destination, getting dressed in long pants every night is not what we had in mind for a fun and casual cruise.

I don't know the schedule yet, but each night will be a different night. I've seen men wear shorts into the dining room, just not on formal night or in Lumiere's.

FE question....What happens if they change our stateroom once we arrive? You never know when you might get Pixie dust.

I highly doubt that they will be changing any rooms, this is going to be a very full cruise. I was looking at booking this earlier today and within 5 minutes it went from 4 cruises available in April to 2. It's filling fast.

 

[DopeyFan1966]

Oh yeah, forgot to add that we will probably be joining you for this cruise. We booked today, but I still have to get permission from my unit commander first.

 

[MGoerz]

We are just west of Fort Worth. I hope you visited other places in Texas, Houston is not the best of our great state.

Welcome to the Disboard. I have a lot of family in Texas. San Antonio, New Braunfels (My father has property here) Love tubing/canoeing on the Guadeloupe and Guene, Corpus Christi, and Dallas. I have also visited Forth Worth, Austin, Buda and Wichita Falls. Only a couple months to go! Yeah

Looking forward to meeting you all!

 

[hamm1207]

Okay...i need a vote on the number of people that you think will be joining us for the cruise. Our FE gift is actually goong to be a gift for everyone, especially since the minimum number i can order is 100. Do you think we will have 100 or 150 people cruising? I suppose 125 might even be an option. Thanks!

I just looked at our cruise and there are tons of stateroom catagories still available-the only one sold out so far is concierge. Hopefully ths will change and we will fill up, especially with disboarders, but on the other hand, not a full boat means cheap upgrades at the port! When searching for a cruise, when you have children in your reservation, the cruise choices may show as sold out if the kids' club spaces are full. In other words, the same cruise may be available to those traveling without kids.

 

[hamm1207]

FE gifts have been ordered! I ordered 100, hopefully that wiil be enough! I have designed the inserts for our FE gifts, now all I need to o is personalize them with everyone's names. Whether participating in FE or not, please let me know the names of all people traveling in your party, so that everyone will receive a special cruising gifts! Thanks

 

[hamm1207]

Checked in for the cruise...now it's time to start packing! Altough, i suppose that could wait a few months

 

[hepburn]

We are just joining the crew! A little last minute, but it seems not too late for the FE list I hope. We are a family of 3 from Ohio. DH- Bob and our almost 5 year old (a week away at time of sailing) DD- Sadie. This is our second DC. We did the Dream last year for a 4 night so we are pretty excited to experience a different ship and a longer length of time.

I learned a lot last year from these boards, but we didn't get to do the FE and I think DD would love it! She is a bit shy so to meet a friend or two would be great.

To those of you who are first time cruisers don't stress about getting excursions booked last. With 4000 people on the Dream...we still managed to get bookings for Palo and for excursions.

Any help from those of you who have done the 7 night would be great. I love when cruisers share their best tip. Those tend to be the little aha moments for those of us who are clueless.

 

[hamm1207]

Welcome to the cruise hepburn and family! We are super excited that you are joining us! I will add your info to the FE list! Once you have enough posts please send me the following info in a PM: names, age of daughter, stateroom number, any celebrations or special concerns, hometown, dining time. Thanks!

My husband and i love love love 7 night cruises. You do tend to get a little spoiled, and it's harder to get off. One thing is to think about rewearing clothes, such as khaki pants for cruise casual dinner. Or do you really need 3 outfits per day... Each night dinner will be different in the main dining rooms. There will be a captain's reception, with free adult beverages (i cantremember the night). There will be a special dessert buffet one night. There will be a dessert/food buffet on pirate night...

More to come but now i must head off to work! Have a grrrrrreat day!

 

[hepburn]

Ooops. Forgot to put my name! I am Audrey.

I am going to post my input sparingly to get to my 10 posts.

I remember last year our group from Disboards tagged our carryone bags with a certain color of Mickey Mouse paint swatch from Home Depot. That way if you wanted to be spotted by a fellow member of the group then you would know who one another was.

We had a family emergency right before our cruise last year and almost did not go. That is why I have all this info and zero input because I didn't want to put anyone out incase we couldn't make it.

Reading everyones posts is getting me more and more excited!

 

[tkell]

Trying to earn my ears so I need a few more post.