Anyone from Jersey on the 11/2 Magic Cruise?

[Eisai Babe]

There is a song (a country song of course) that has a line, "on the 8th day, God made sweet tea." Yummers! Yes, southern iced tea is always sweet, and My3Kids is exactly right. The further south you go, the less you will be offered a choice, and the more often you will get sweet tea as a default.

My3Kids is also right about adding sugar while the tea is still hot (from brewing). Otherwise, the sugar just sits at the bottom, and what's the point of that? My suggestion, AnnaB is to try a Bojangles on your way through the deep south (do you have them up there?) (it's a fast food restaurant) and make sure you get some tea from there. They make the best you can get from a fast food joint.

My3Kids - nope on the Duke fan issue. Sorry. We have a mixed marriage here. DH is a Carolina fan (University of NC) and I am a State fan (University of NC at State) (go Wolfpack!!). Our poor DH is just confused most of the time, but not so confused that he has become a Duke fan.

Can't wait to meet some of you. Isn't it customary to wear green ribbons on the first day of the cruise? Will everyone be wearing one? We will if others are........

 

[SweetSpot]

Add one more 7 yr old girl. My DD will be thrilled to have other little girls in camp since she has to be separated from her brothers.

We are arriving the night before (hopefully). We are driving and although I planned on leaving Thursday night and taking our time driving I soon realized Halloween was on Thurs so we will trick or treat and then nap and head out around 3AM. We will be the ones arriving very late to the Radisson with kids carrying large bags of candy. Hopefully some of it will survive the 16 hour drive.

 

[AnnaB]

SweetSpot : We've driven down before and surprisingly it isn't a bad drive. We are driving down again this time but are planning some days at WDW. We are going to the Mickey's Not SO Scarry Halloween Pary on the 31st.

Eisai Babe & my3 kids - thanks for the info on sweet tea.
I will have to give it a try. - I have to admit I am hooked on Cracker Barrels.

Last year when we drove down ...I had a slight cold and ended up losing my voice. I have never lost my voice before and my DH thought it was an act of GOD. I couldn't utter a sound the whole way down to Fla. I felt so icky and wanted something warm and good to eat. I thought for sure that was impossible to find on 95....but the food at cracker barrel was exactly what I had in mind and it was great.

We stayed in Ga for the night and then next morning had breakfast at a real truck stop ( Waffle House). When the watress heard of my voice delima ( no pun intended) she fixed up an ole southern recipie...a FULL SPOON of honey with a lemon squeezed over it. She shoved it in my mouth before I could say no. Now who knows if the cold just got better or the ole' southern recipie worked...but I had my voice back the next morning.

For all you Forked River people - does anyone know the Maguire Family - or Quinn Family. I have cousins ( 3 to be exact who all live on the same street and my one cousin is Principal at an elementary school - not sure which one)

 

[c_u_soon]

Jumping in on this thread...
DH, DS 5 (this week), DD 8 (last week), Me (crazed from birthday parties this month)

--Still need to book the limo to the port, and return trip to airport.
-Reserved the a.m. catamaran trip on St. Maarten for all of us
-Counting down the days every morning with the kids

CAN'T WAIT!!!

 

[SweetSpot]

Anna:

We drove to WDW last year also. With all the 9/11 cancellations we had no other choice (and truthfully I was grateful the flight was cancelled) and now I can't justify the cost of flying 5 of us since the drive isn't so bad. Last year we made it from Gloucester County in 15 hours but only stopped at a few rest stops, gas and drove through McD's once. This time I want to at least stop at a Cracker Barrel, a thread last week still has me craving their food.

Where did you stop along the way? One of the reasons we didn't stop was that everything off of 95 didn't look like a place we would want to stop and try to get a room.

c_u_soon:

Good luck with your birthday planning. Just think the busier you are the faster the time will fly. My kids count down every day also. I tell them everything I learn here and they are so excited.

 

[AnnaB]

SweetSpot - we stopped at Savannaha GA. For the life of me I can't think of the name of the hotel....but I will ask my DH. It was brand new and quite lovely. There was also a brand new Fairfield Inn at the same exit. We found that once you hit SC and GA at almost every exit there were hotel - and quility name hotels to boot. I think we paid about $89.00 for the night. We left NJ around 9:30 and pulled into Savannaha around midnight. We did make bathroom stops and then stopped for dinner around 7:00.

 

[cantwait2go]

There will also be 3 families from IL going. We're also really excited - booked it 1 1/2 years ago and can't believe it's almost here. This is all of our first Disney Cruise. My family consists of my DH, DS11, DS7 and me. The other has DH & DW, DD11 and DS7; and the 3rd family is DH & DW, DD12 and DS7. Therefore my DS11 is looking for other DS11 to hang out with.

What a plus that there's a launch too!!

 

[my3kids]

Can'twait2go: We booked 1 1/2 years ago also.....it has been a long wait! My oldest son is 12, so they will be in the same group in the Lab. Sounds like lots of kids 7-12. Good to see there will be a few families besides eisai babe, c u soon & us not from New Jersey....not that there's anything wrong with that!!

I still can't find that there is a launch that day. I'd sure love it if there was, but I can't find it on the website. Am I looking at the wrong one?

Where is everyone staying on the ship? We are in 2 cabins on deck 5.

 

[cantwait2go]

We have two cabins on Deck 8 and one on Deck 7. I'm glad to hear that there will be so many kids. We originally had two more families going with boys in my sons grade but they had to cancel out. He was pretty bummed.

Yeah definitely not anything wrong with not being from NJ but also glad to hear there's a few more from other places going.

We're leaving Halloween night to take in a day at Universal but now I'm thinking we might check out NASA instead. Anyone else coming that early? The closer it's getting the more anxious we are to go!!!

 

[lUVTOGO]

CUSOON, we also reserved the a.m. catamaran trip in St. Marteen, and the St. John trip for St. Thomas, but the St. Thomas one I haven't made up my mind yet. I still am thinking about going on our own to Meghans Bay.

 

[Flik]

Thanks to the Teachers Convention, we're on this cruise too. DD will soon be 8; DS will be 7 by the time we cruise. They are both very excited. DS reads the DCL brochure practically every day, and tells us where all our rooms, Oceaner club, restaurants and pools are. Think he's ready?

Hi Mattall and cyndip84.

 

[Eisai Babe]

We are coming down a day early and will stay at the Radisson. I think we don't arrive until late, though, so no sightseeing for us!

Our party consists of me DH, DS12, DM, and best friend (BF?) and his DW. We have two cat 3's, one midships & the other a handicapped one aft (DM is in semi-poor health). BF and his DW will be staying with DM (this is sooo confusing with the letters!) and my family in the other one.

I'm so glad to see people checking in from all over the US. I was worried that we really WERE going to stand out with our accents! Okay, okay, so we still will, but you'll have to listen hard for us.

We have signed up for Snuba in St. Thomas, but other than that, we plan to just hang loose and stay on the ship as much as possible. (LOVE THAT DISNEY SHIP!)

 

[garyss7]

We have 14 people going on cruise. I have DD-14, DS-11 and we have cousins B-13, B-12, B-11, G-9 and G-7. Can't wait to see what Dinner seating arrangement Disney comes up with! This is my family's second cruise, we went 2000 during teacher's convention also. Was lots of fun. Looking forward to it again! Cheers, Gary

 

[psimon]

Now I know for sure we are getting close.... the paperwork came!

So little to do, so much time.... oops, reverse that!

Actually, I'm surprised it came this early. I had heard it usually shows up within 2 weeks of departure.

I'm sure not complaining!

Paul

 

[Eisai Babe]

How cool is that! Your paperwork came! Whoo hooo

Can't wait for ours. Made me happy just knowing you got yours already!!

Doin the happy dance for you!

 

[my3kids]

Cool! I was just searching for this thread to ask if anyone had gotten theirs yet. My travel agent said to expect them about a week before we sailed. I hope that was worst case scenario! It would be very exciting to have them now. It would seem like a much shorter wait then.....like Disney really was expecting us!

 

[psimon]

Originally posted by my3kids
Cool! I was just searching for this thread to ask if anyone had gotten theirs yet. My travel agent said to expect them about a week before we sailed. I hope that was worst case scenario! It would be very exciting to have them now. It would seem like a much shorter wait then.....like Disney really was expecting us!

Getting the paperwork this early sort of seems like a tease! Yes, you are ready to go, here are all your papers, but, oh, by the way, sit tight, you aren't going for more than a month!

Oh well...... we shouldn't wish away our lives. We should be happy we have these days between now and the cruise. If it started tomorrow, it would be over that much sooner...... yea, right!

I WANNA GO NOW!!!!!!!

Paul

 

[TMcG88]

Man, youse guys from Jewsey are really bummin' me out! I'm on the 11/3 Wonder cruise I was hoping would be full of Jersey folk!Our South Jersey schools are off for 4 days this year instead of 2, so....we thought we'd do the 4 day cruise and 4 days in Disney. Now I wish we did the 7 day.............So, here's my proposal, Let's all do it again in 2004!!!!! (can only afford this every other year!)

Who's with me??????

 

[psimon]

Originally posted by TMcG88
Our South Jersey schools are off for 4 days this year instead of 2, so....

WOW! 4 days? Cherry Hill is 1/2 day Wednesday, and off Thurs and Fri. Where in NJ are you?

Paul

 

[TMcG88]

Hey Paul, we're in Cinnaminson. Our kids are off Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, & Friday! They were last year, too....so I'm hoping they will do it every year!!! I just feel sorry for the few kids left in school on Monday!