April 1 2010 cruise meet

[CarolinaBlue]

Doing the paid in full dance, too!

 

[Deb T.]

Doing the paid in full dance, too!

Exciting! Congratulations!

 

[kdlong]

This will be our first Disney cruise! We would love to participate in the Fish Extenders. Sounds like a lot of fun!

Kari
Russell
Bryson (age 7)
Austin (age 5)

Room 5024

 

[Deb T.]

This will be our first Disney cruise! We would love to participate in the Fish Extenders. Sounds like a lot of fun!

Kari
Russell
Bryson (age 7)
Austin (age 5)

Room 5024

Welcome Aboard Kari and Family! You are going to love Disney cruising! Thanks for joining in on the FE Exchange, too!

 

[Aye-Landers]

We are on the April 1 cruise and want to join the FE group. We are Ron & Beth with daughter Emily age 13. We are in a GTY cabin at present and will post again when we have a definite cabin number

 

[Deb T.]

We are on the April 1 cruise and want to join the FE group. We are Ron & Beth with daughter Emily age 13. We are in a GTY cabin at present and will post again when we have a definite cabin number

Welcome Aboard Ron, Beth, and Emily!

I'm thrilled to add you to our FE Exchange! We now have 8 families participating! This is going to be so much fun!!!

Here's the list so far:
ppiew - Gert & Jack, Lori & Rob, Sophia (13), Olivia (8), Cabin GTY
Bobo_UK –Deano & Katie, Jessica (5), Cabin #7127
Deb T. – Deb & Jeff, Cabin #6566
CarolinaBlue – Karen & Steve, Kelley (19), Caroline (almost 16), Cabin #2592
Isi – Isabel, Jose, Bryan (8), Brianna (8), Cabin #6051
Mouseskis – Kristi & Brian, Matthew (7), Andrew (4), Cabin #2105
Kdlong – Kari & Russell, Bryson (7), Austin (5), Cabin #5024
Aye-Landers - Ron & Beth, Emily (13) Cabin - GTY

Anyone else???

 

[TDWZ]

This will be our first Disney cruise too! Please sign us up for the fish extenders. We are in room #2512

Trisha (me)
Kurt
Adam (11)
Hailey (9)

I just realized the last day of the cruise is Easter Sunday. Does anyone have the easter bunny deliver on the ship?

 

[Deb T.]

This will be our first Disney cruise too! Please sign us up for the fish extenders. We are in room #2512

Trisha (me)
Kurt
Adam (11)
Hailey (9)

I just realized the last day of the cruise is Easter Sunday. Does anyone have the easter bunny deliver on the ship?

Welcome Aboard TDWZ! So glad you're joining the DIS Boards and our FE Exchange!

 

[Deb T.]

For the last three years, we've sailed on this same exact cruise - the 3-night Wonder that ends the morning of Easter. Evidently, the Easter Bunny does not have the proper kind of passport or birth certificate to board cruise ships. And, DCL has not done anything special for guests on Easter morning. Nothing "Easter" was left on the beds during turn-down the night before, either. Now, that's not saying that DCL won't end up doing something this year... but I seriously doubt it. It might be a good time to start thinking ahead about what you'd like the Easter Bunny to do for your household. You might want him to do something crazy like mail his baskets to the ship or ask him to sneak them into your luggage when you aren't looking! Or, maybe the Easter Bunny could leave surprises at your house as usual for when you get back home.

Shirley's "The Perfect Gift" is an option to assist the Easter Bunny, but keep in mind that Shirley's stuff is always delivered to staterooms upon embarkation (Thursday afternoon) and can't be held for a later delivery of Easter morning.

If anyone would like suggestions, I would be more than happy to assist the Easter Bunny in any way possible. He's been visiting us for years so we are very good friends now. Feel free to send me a PM if you'd like me to contact him to set something special up.

 

[kdlong]

I had a question about the Castaway Cay excursions - today is the day that the first time cruisers can start booking our excursions for our April 1 cruise. When I went in this morning, the boat rentals were not listed as an option. Does this mean that all of the rentals are already reserved? We really wanted to do the aquatrikes.

-Kari

 

[ppiew]

the info i got was you just 'walk up' and get them when on shore. you can't pre-reserve anymore. first come first serve!

 

[Mozart]

For the last three years, we've sailed on this same exact cruise - the 3-night Wonder that ends the morning of Easter.

Okay, so that means you've spent Good Friday in Nassau before, right?

Will anything be open?

 

[ppiew]

I guess I was there for GF last year! I did go into town and the jewelry stores and most everything were open. Matter of fact I didn't see ANYTHING closed!!! I guess that is why I was surprised about the Graycliff being closed. Maybe it is an employee issue.

 

[Deb T.]

Okay, so that means you've spent Good Friday in Nassau before, right?

Will anything be open?

To be honest, we usually don't get off the ship in Nassau anymore. But, plenty of others do, and I do believe most of the shops near the port are open. I know for sure that one family purchased quite a bit of stuff from the Del Sol shop.

 

[mmmears]

Deb T. -- I want to thank you for sharing your experiences and knowledge here with us "newbies." I don't know yet if we'll be able to participate in the FE since we only travel with small, carry-on luggage. From what I've seen in the photos, people bring and receive a large amount of "stuff" from their FEs... But I am so glad that you are organizing the exchange. I'll figure out soon if we have room or not. With a 10-day trip and extra-nice clothes for the cruise portion, it's going to be really tight.

 

[ppiew]

to MMMEARS: I do hope you 'find room'. We have a similar problem and are on another cruise (2 wks) including formal nites and then another 2 wks in Fla. b4 our DCL cruise. We have self imposed a small (overnite/wknd type) bag for each of us. We found last year, this was very doable. We were visiting our daughter for a month and got by with 2 small overnite bags.. I know we will be able to do it this year. Heck u can wear the same Mickey tee shirt for 3 days - we won't care!!!! It looks like we will have a bumper crop of FE folks this year. My criteria for FE gifts is small, flat, and takes up little room. So far I am not encountering a problem. Just have to be a little smarter than last year! Deb T. does a great job and keeps us on our toes with info etc.!!!!

 

[Deb T.]

You are both too kind. I love all things Disney, and I love, love, LOVE sharing the magic and WONDER of Disney... pun intended.

ppiew, count us in as those who travel light, too! The only time lately that we checked a suitcase (for Disney's Mediterranean Cruise in '07) it was lost for five days... almost half of the 11-night cruise! Summer '08, we spent a little over a week in Europe (Austria, Germany, France) with one carry-on each. (I was worried about the luggage restrictions on the smaller European airlines. We ended up washing a couple of loads of laundry during that trip.) We also did Disney's Mexican Riviera cruise that summer with two carry-ons each. Last October, we spent 9 days in China with two carry-ons each. We will have two carry-ons each for the 12-night Baltic cruise plus 3 days in London trip this summer, too. Definitely no more checked luggage for us!

We each take one swimsuit, rinse it out every night, and hang it to dry. A couple of t-shirts/shorts double as swimsuit covers and casual wear. I've gotten really good at mixing up a couple of pant/skirts/tops to turn them into several completely different looking outfits. So, basically, we each take a roll-aboard carry-on with all our clothing, folded flat. For our longer trips, my biggest secret is taking clothing I can throw away as we go along, and tossing all the travel-size toiletries the last night of the trip - it makes lots of room for souvenirs! Then we each take a carry-on duffle bag - we share one with shoes, toiletries (travel size), and any odds & ends, and the other with items for the flights: snacks, books, magazines, neck pillows, etc. We no longer haul our laptops because the Disney ships have them (and you pay the same amount to use the Internet whether your use your own or one of theirs), and we can usually find one in hotels.

People always say that they were sorry they over-packed for the cruises. Another trick I've heard is to set out everything you want to take, then get rid of half of it! I figure, the worst that could happen is we end up needing to do a load of laundry during a trip.

mmmears, I'd be happy to send you a pm with FE suggestions that would take up very little room, if you'd like. It really is a LOT of fun to participate!

 

[mmmears]

ppiew -- thanks for the reassurance. Glad we're not the only ones. We take one international carry-on size suitcase each and that's it except for one backpack for the laptop, camera, DS, and plane tickets... Don't think I'd have room for a FE not to mention the gifts, but I'm thinking about it now...

DebT -- thanks for your reply, too. I'd love a PM with some ideas. I don't even see how we can bring the FE. Now that our DD isn't small anymore, it's such a pleasure to be able to pack lightly and not have to wait for our luggage at the airport (or worry that it gets lost). We use the Eagle Creek pack-it organizers and stuff it all in our suitcases. I've only heard of the "take old clothes then throw them away" idea recently, in regards to overseas trips, and it sounds like a great idea! We want to look nice on the cruise, though! Any advice is welcome about FEs, gifts and all. I just have to think about it since we need to pack for a 10-day trip, not just a 3-day cruise.

 

[Deb T.]

Here are the Laundry Room locations onboard The Wonder:
Deck 6 across from cabin 6588
Deck 7 across from cabins 7590-7596
Deck 2 across from cabin 2096

 

[Deb T.]

Here are some nautical terms with interesting info for ya...

A "Bright Star" announcement indicates a grave emergency onboard a DCL ship.

Aft - rear or stern of the ship. The hallway carpet is decorated every few feet with a rounded red and blue anchor design. The red anchor points in the direction of the aft of the ship. Just remember that both aft and red have three letters each.

Fore - The front (bow) of a ship or the forward mast on the ship. The blue anchor in the carpet design points to the fore of the ship. Blue and fore both have four letters each.

Faintail - The rear or aft overhang of a cruise ship, the area after the end of the main deck.

Bow - The extreme front of the ship, also known as: prow, front

Knot - A unit of speed equal to one nautical mile (6,076 feet) per hour.

Nautical Mile - One minute of latitude or 6,076 feet; about 1/8 longer than a land mile of 5,280 feet

Port - The left side of the ship looking forward toward the bow. Remember that port and left each have four letters. Port side of the ship is indicated with a red navigational light.

Starboard - The right side of the ship when looking forward toward the bow, opposite of port. The starboard side of a ship is indicated with a green navigational light.