Ahoy! Sailing the Wonder 2/8/09

[jedijill]

I'll take some boiled peanuts. That probably won't do too well though.

Bring a highlighter!!!! Its very handy to mark your Navigator the night before so you know what activities you want to take part of.

Some people like an over the door shoe holder to put toiletries, etc and keep them organized and out of the way.

If you have an inside cabin, bring an alarm clock that you can see in the dark and/or a nightlight. It gets very dark in there.

Bring your own alcohol or soda on board if you want. Its cheaper that buying on board.

Put swimsuits in your carryon so you can go swimming when you get onboard. You may not get your luggage until later in the afternoon/evening.

Decorate your door! Its soooo much easier to find your cabin and it is super fun! One easy way is to print a sign on magnetic paper (found at office supply stores and Walmart) or glue magnets on the back of those little Mickey head paint samples from Home Depot.

Ok, that's what I can think of for now.

Jill in CO

 

[plaidsmom1]

Hi Jill, thanks for the FE update. The new one seems to be in the newer version of excel though and I can't open it. Has anyone else had this problem? It could be just my lack of computer skills. Also, since this is my first Disney cruise and FE participation can you tell me if we bring things for everyone for each day of the cruise (can you tell I am easily confused?) or for 1 day. By the way, thank you 2grbrits for the poem. We are having our treasure hunt tomorrow . I can't believe we have been able to keep it from the grandkids for this long.

 

[jedijill]

Ok, sent it from home where I have Office 2007....let me see if I can resend it. Sorry.

Jill in CO

 

[anetnmike]

Hi Jill. I made a sincere attempt to PM you just now. I am such a newbie!!
I am not sure if you have our FE info or not. I did not recieve an e mail with the FE info from you but I did e mail you several weeks ago with our info ( or I thougth I did) It kicked back to me twice. I am seriously computer challanged.If you don't have our info could you let me know so we can figure out a way to be in? Thanks so much for getting all of this together for us!

 

[anetnmike]

Hi ljm23! Don't be sad about your sister! Soon it will be you walking across the threshold of that beautiful ship and not a snowflake in site!!And all of us will be with you! We won't have to hear the words"wind chill" for 4whole days!!! But we will have to consider the words" sun block" thoughtfully as we plan our days at sea...

 

[2gr8brits]

yeah - boiled peanuts would be nice, but won't keep for the ride down I think. I'll do some research though and if I can get them in, I will. LOL I wish I could identify with some of your weather issues. We had cold weather very early, but by Christmas Day it was 75 degrees! We even had a day last week that it was almost 80! Rather unseasonable, even for SC. Today started out nice, around 60, but as the sun set, the temps dropped and now we sit at about 30 I would really love for my kids to really experience snow - neither have really seen very much!! Needless to say, whatever the weather in SC - I am ready for the BAHAMAS!!!!

 

[anetnmike]

Happy New Year Everyone! Did anyone else catch the Disney shows on the Travel Channel last night? I just don't know how I am going to wait now!!!
PS Thanx Jill!

 

[nokidz]

Happy New Year everyone! Soon, so very soon, we willbe aboard the Wonder.....

 

[Sneeuwwitje]

Happy New Year to all of you!

And thanx Jill for sending the FE list!

 

[elmo2200]

Happy New Year Everyone! Did anyone else catch the Disney shows on the Travel Channel last night? I just don't know how I am going to wait now!!!
PS Thanx Jill!

I have them on DVR even though we've seen them several times before!!!! Can't wait to watch them today....

 

[plaidsmom1]

We had our treasure hunt reveal yesterday and it went very well. 8 year old GD is excited beyond belief. 4 year old GS doesn't want to go because of all the characters. He conceded, if I could promise Mickey wouldn't look at him. Got to admit I am a bit worried how he is going to handle this. He has a fear of anyone in costume. Any suggestions on helping him get over this? Also, how are we going to handle the FE's. Are we planning on just choosing a day each or getting gifts for all everyday? I was reading other posts about this and it seems that each group decides for themselves how to handle it. I guess the biggest thing is the time involved in delivering them. What do the rest of you feel about this?

 

[jedijill]

I'm glad your treasure hunt went well! You shouldn't have too much of an issue with the characters. They have meet and greets in the atrium that you can stand in line to meet each character. Some of the characters walk around the ship but its not in your face or anything....fairly lowkey. Is he going to be able to handle seeing the characters at the shows when they are onstage?

As for the FE gifts, I was planning on just making one delivery. Delivery takes a little while so I don't want to spend the whole time making deliverys.

Jill in CO
36 days!

 

[plaidsmom1]

Thanks for the info Jill. He is fine if they don't get near him so he should be okay. One delivery would work great for us. I assume we will be adding others before the cruise. Any idea how many extras we should plan for?

 

[jedijill]

I don't know....I think we have everyone included that expressed interest.

Jill

 

[kcashner]

Hello, My name is Kathryn and I am a DCL addict.

That says it all...we have cruised 17 times on the Magic, but this will be our first sailing on the Wonder. I'm so glad that I found this thread. I was beginning to think that the Wonder gang just wasn't as into DIS as the Magical ones....


Looks like I have 17 pages to catch up on. Our group will be myself and my DD who will turn 18 on the cruise.

 

[kcashner]

So you've sailed in February before? What is the temperature like? Was it too cold to swim? I know it's mostly just luck, but I wondered what your experience was...

February seemed like the best choice for us with school and extra-curricular activites... plus it doesn't hurt that it's less expensive than the other times!!!

We are also going to be in the parks for the 3 days before the cruise... It's going to be new to us to only be spending 3 days... we are used to going for a week or more!!!

Feb. weather is variable. We've cruised 7 times in Feb, and countless WDW trips. 5 of the 7 were great--high 70s during the day but cool on deck at night. 2 of them were downright cold. I spend an hour or so shivering under 2 towels at Castaway before I got smart enough to go back to the ship! And I hadn't been near the water. Of course, when it was 50 at Castaway, it was 40 in Orlando and 0 at home.

 

[kcashner]

Ahhh, My DH is going to be so mad that you mentioned that... Now I want to add another night to the end of the trip, so we can see the launch!! My DS9 (and DD7) would be fascinated by that!!! Do you think you can see it from the port area or would it be better to head toward Cape Canaveral?

Did I read that right? Are your family members going up in the shuttle???? That's amazing!!!

We have seen two shuttle launches--one from WDW and one from the Magic. At WDW, it was amazing. We didn't know what was happening (yeah, we weren't reading newspapers while on vacation), but suddenly the entire place got quiet. We were at a bus stop at DTD--a bus driver told us that it was 30 seconds to launch and things would start running again 1 minute after launch. You cannot imagine WDW in total silence. That in itself was amazing; seeing the shuttle was really cool.

On the other one, the launch had been re-scheduled so the captain took us as far in as we were allowed in order to watch the launch. It was rather funny....it had been scheduled on or near our departure day, then re-scheduled for a day during the cruise, and finally as we were coming home. DCL really went out of their way with schedules so we could be close to watch--full speed back toward port, etc.

Registering kids for the clubs can be done on line, in the terminal, or after boarding. If you do it on line, you will still need to confirm the information after you check in at the terminal--you will get your pager. Don't worry about the language issue--we all smile in the same language. The CMs speak many different languages, so if a translator is needed they will either page you or get another CM who can speak Dutch.

OK, I think I'm up to speed on reading thru these posts. Are we planning a DISboard meet? Common times/places are like 3 pm on embarkation day by the Goofy pool....or by Studio Sea. If you do it by the pool the kids can swim while the parents meet.

How many are in the FE group? Will you be doing a final list at a meet? We are in a gty cabin, so I can't give you a number yet--and remember that all cabin assignments are subject to change until we actually board. FE is fun IF it doesn't get out of hand. 6-12 cabins is great. We had one cruise with over 50 cabins participating. That's just too much--just delivering the stuff becomes a chore. I do know that on the repo they split it into FE groups so no one had to do the 100+ that participated on that cruise.

 

[jedijill]

Welcome Kathryn!

Wow, 17 cruises!!! I'm soooo jealous.

Currently, we have 10 cabins participating in the FE exchange so its not too bad. 21 adults and 15 kids. I think the consensus is just one delivery. Let me know if you want to participate. Just email me at gijiill_1_98@yahoo.com

BTW, I got my Magical Express documents today ...I'm hoping the cruise docs come soon. I need to do the cruise doc dance.

Jill in CO

 

[kcashner]

Cabin assignments for gty usually come out 28-30 days before sailing.....docs usually arrive about 3 weeks before; don't worry until you hit the 2 week mark.

We're visiting parks after the cruise--again the reverse of my usual plans, but it worked this time.
Thanks for the FE info. Do I sense a shopping trip in my future?

Do we plan a dis-meet? Best place for Dis name tags is the paint chip section of Home Depot!

Kathryn

 

[pjpoohbear]

Welcome aboard Karthryn!

We are hoping to do a group photos up at Goofy's Pool around 3:30pm, to be confirmed by the group, on the first day. In the past it has been fun to get the Dumbotron in the background, a shot of the Drink of the day is always festive, lol.