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

[hamm1207]

Thank you Sarah for volunteering...you're hired! I apologize if you were strong-armed into it. Please let the rest of us know what we need to do in order to participate. Should we just post here the family info or PM it to you directly? And I was serious about helping, if you need any.

It's really no problem! Anyone wanting to participate just needs to PM the following info:
Disname
Names
Stateroom number
number of adults/children
Ages and genders of kids
Any special info, such as diabetic, food allergies, etc
Any special celebrations

The cutoff date will be approx one month before the sail date.

 

[2CME911]

Hi, new to site.. new to Disney Cruise. We are booked and eagerly awaiting to cruise Magic. We are a family of 4 DH Scott, Me Taresa, DS Trevor 8, DS Joshua 8. I have requested FB group as well. Looking forward to any advice.

Can someone explain what FE is?

Welcome to the thread tkell. You are not alone in being new to the cruising or to DCL...This is also a new experience for my family as well. We'll just have to figure it all out together.

FE as I understand it stands for Fish Extender. You can search this forum for a mountain of information. It boils down to this: outside your stateroom is a fish clip thing mounted to the wall. It's for notes/mail/etc from the ship staff to you. Thousands of prior DCL cruisers have created this I guess you would say tradition of leaving small gifts for other participating families. When you participate, you make or buy enough gifts for all the families, and you leave them in a gizmo hanging from the Fish...ergo Fish Extender. Likewise the other families are doing the same for you. Each cruise might be structured a little different and/or have it's own particular style. If you're interested, there's a whole thread just on FE ideas with pictures of items that have been both made and bought by other cruisers...some very creative stuff...way more creative and crafty that I'm capable of coming up with. Here it is
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1980639&highlight=fe

We now have an FE leader: hamm1207 on these boards. I will be taking the lead from her, and I'm sure she will make any rules clear before too long. Please PM hamm1207 if you are interested in participating in the FE for this cruise.

See you in a few months!

 

[MGoerz]

I am interested in doing FE exchange. We are a family of four and I think it will be neat for the kids to get something everyday. Pretty neat idea. This is our first cruise with Disney and as a family. We are excited. Please keep me posted.

I am not able to send PM's yet as I am new on DISboard.

 

[hamm1207]

I have received some info for FE participants!! I will start compiling the list soon; hopefully thus weekend. If i ever disappear it's because of hockey season! We are season ticket holders to the alaska aces up here in anchorage, so we usually have a few games each week.

To all newbies...welcome! Welcome! I am super excited that you have joined disboards and the cruising worldM you will soon find yourselves hooked on cruising! Feel free to make lots of ranom posts just to get your 10 poss so that you can PM.

Has anyone been to the caribbean before? We havent, and we are super excited!

 

[2CME911]

I have received some info for FE participants!! I will start compiling the list soon; hopefully thus weekend. If i ever disappear it's because of hockey season! We are season ticket holders to the alaska aces up here in anchorage, so we usually have a few games each week.

To all newbies...welcome! Welcome! I am super excited that you have joined disboards and the cruising worldM you will soon find yourselves hooked on cruising! Feel free to make lots of ranom posts just to get your 10 poss so that you can PM.

Has anyone been to the caribbean before? We havent, and we are super excited!

Thank a lot for taking this on Sarah! I know you'll do an awesome job and we'll all have a great time!

I am interested in doing FE exchange. We are a family of four and I think it will be neat for the kids to get something everyday. Pretty neat idea. This is our first cruise with Disney and as a family. We are excited. Please keep me posted.

I am not able to send PM's yet as I am new on DISboard.

MGoerz you just need to chat it up a little bit to get over 10 posts. I'll help you get started:
So where are you from?

 

[MGoerz]

We are from Florida and have been on a couple of cruises before. This is our first with kids. We are excited to vacation with Disney and looking forward to meeting some new friends.

 

[MGoerz]

Looking for tips on the ports of call for this trip. I have two small children (3 and 5) and we want to have fun together. Do you recommend the butterfly trip on either St. Thomas or St Marten??? I heard the beaches are nice too. Any advice would be great.

 

[MGoerz]

Anyone dinning during the main seating? We will just so the kids and eat a couple night with us especially in Lumiere's and Pirate night.

 

[2CME911]

We are from Florida and have been on a couple of cruises before. This is our first with kids. We are excited to vacation with Disney and looking forward to meeting some new friends.

Good Start. We're from Maine. That's kind of like the opposite of Florida.

Looking for tips on the ports of call for this trip. I have two small children (3 and 5) and we want to have fun together. Do you recommend the butterfly trip on either St. Thomas or St Marten??? I heard the beaches are nice too. Any advice would be great.

Not from me...I'm not planning on doing any excursions at all...not really interested.

Anyone dinning during the main seating? We will just so the kids and eat a couple night with us especially in Lumiere's and Pirate night.

We're doing late even though we have young kids...7 and 9. I figure we're going to be so busy, I don't want to rush to get to such an early dinner time. Opinions seem to run strongly either way though.

 

[jazaman]

Just found this site. We are booked on our first cruise and we are from Bar Harbor. Me, my wife and 2 kids 8 and 10. Since we are new, any advice would be great. Especially on entertainment schedule to plan our Palo. Also any advice about the destinations. We are pretty active and prefer "doing" rather than sitting on a boat or tour bus. Thanks!

 

[2CME911]

Just found this site. We are booked on our first cruise and we are from Bar Harbor. Me, my wife and 2 kids 8 and 10. Since we are new, any advice would be great. Especially on entertainment schedule to plan our Palo. Also any advice about the destinations. We are pretty active and prefer "doing" rather than sitting on a boat or tour bus. Thanks!

Welcome to the thread jazzman! Another family from Maine...cool.

If you go to the main Disney Cruise Line thread page, you can search on your keywords there and read lots of information on those topics. Or, you can just load that same page and browse the topics which I believe are continuously reordered by date and time of most recent post, so it's always changing.

We're new to DCL as well, so unfortunately we don't have an opportunity to book anything until January 29th I think it is. That day...starting at midnight...you can start booking excursions, Palo, etc based on what's available. I'm kind of expecting to have to do some wait listing once on board for some of that stuff, since repeat cruisers have already booked.

As far as doing stuff, I only know what I've read here or based on prior trips. My wife says shopping for jewelry in St Maarten is good, if that's your thing. Also lots of people have mentioned the beach where the international flights land... Check this out: http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=/&gl=US#/watch?v=zhnGIxrepEI

Looking forward to meeting you and your family. See you in April!
Pete

 

[jazaman]

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.

 

[hamm1207]

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.

Welcome to disboards and welcome to the cruise! I am not sure of the evening schedule, but I do know that you can call DCL and a representative can usually fill you in on that.

The dinner attire is a frequent question on disboards, and there are a lot of opinions floating around. Personally, I dress based on how my servers are going to be dressed; after all, you will be eating fancy food in fancy dining rooms. However, it is Disney and they will not kick you out of the dining rooms if you're wearing shorts or jeans. On formal night you will see some men in khakis ans some men in tuxes. A lot of little girls wear their princess dresses on formal night. I think if you really want to wear nice pressed shorts and a collared shirt on the cruise casual nights that you would be fine. I think the main purpose of the dress code is to discourage ratty clothing and sweats in the dining rooms.

 

[hamm1207]

I haven't checked out any excursions yet. I do know in St Maarten we will be at the beach watching flights arrive, as my husband is a pilot and aviation photographer.

 

[hamm1207]

Okey dokey! I have created a roll call/FE list for the cruise. The link can be found in my signature. The list is compiled of those joining us on this cruise including their names, hometown, cabin #, participation in FE, etc. Please feel free to send me a PM with the needed information, or if you do not wish to be included on the list. I can't wait to see everyone aboard!

 

[MGoerz]

Hello Jazaman,
Welcome to Disboard. This is our first cruise also on Disney and I read Birnbaum's 2012 Disney Cruise Line. It has a lot of info on everything from dinning, dress, entertainment and the ports of call. I checked it out at the library. I also have searched key words on Disboard as there is so much info. I also have searched some info on the ports of call for other than excursions and the beaches are supposed to be some of the best with lots of activities and you can take a taxi to the beaches right from the dock. Looking forward to meeting you. See ya in April!

 

[jwcosta]

Hey all. I haven't posted here in about 6 months, but just want to let you know that we have a Facebook page for this cruise as well. Unfortunately, I'm new to these forums, so it won't let me post a link to the page.

Feel free to find it if you're on Facebook.

My wife and two daughters (ages 13 and 12) will be on the cruise with me. We're from MA. Looking forward to it!

Joe

 

[jwcosta]

Anyone dinning during the main seating? We will just so the kids and eat a couple night with us especially in Lumiere's and Pirate night.

We are doing the late seating. We’re concerned about feeling rushed during the daytime excursions.

 

[jwcosta]

It's really no problem! Anyone wanting to participate just needs to PM the following info:
Disname
Names
Stateroom number
number of adults/children
Ages and genders of kids
Any special info, such as diabetic, food allergies, etc
Any special celebrations

The cutoff date will be approx one month before the sail date.

Sarah: So how do the logistics of the gift exchange work? Is everyone assigned a day/time to go around and attach their gifts to the FE’s of everyone in the group?

 

[hamm1207]

Sarah: So how do the logistics of the gift exchange work? Is everyone assigned a day/time to go around and attach their gifts to the FE’s of everyone in the group?

Each family puts together a gift or goody for the others-it can be for eaxh family or each person, that is up to you. You can deli er the gifts/goodies whenever you would like during the cruise. There is no schedule or set times for anything.