April 11, 2010 4 Night Cruise

[leslie l]

I am in Valrico, are you near by?

 

[Tarabra]

We will also be on this cruise.

Tara - 43
Rob - 46
Ava 5
Jonah 2 1/2

This will be our 8th DCL. We can't wait to get back on. Although I wish it was a 7 day, but I'll take the 4 day.

Zalansky - a fish extender is a little extender that attaches onto the fish outside of the stateroom, people put little trinkets in them each day. Someone will post on here everyone that is participating, and each day you will put a little goody in the other people's extenders. I've never participated, but others do. It seems like a lot of running all over the ship. If you do a search on here, you should be able to find a pic of one.

We are gty 12, so we don't know our room yet. I can answer any questions that anyone might have. It'll be a blast!

 

[zalansky]

leslie - we're near the lowry park zoo.

tarabra - thanks for the info on the fish extender! I wouldn't do that either. I can't worry about that kind of stuff when I am relaxing!

We wanted to do a 7 night also but this deal came out and it happens to be spring break that week so it meant not having to take the kids out of school. The 7 night will be our next cruise.

 

[winnyis]

I am in Valrico, are you near by?

Leslie - I am in Valrico too... right near Mulrennan Middle School.

I think this will be a floridian cruise since its spring break for Hillsborough county and a great deal at that. So glad I booked when I did- the only rooms left now are double what I paid..

 

[suzyqn]

I'm very impressed with all the "Veteran" DCL cruisers we have on our thread.

I am especially jealous of Ginny's upcoming Halloween cruise. I'd love to hear all about it when you return. Is this the first cruise after Dry dock? I'm excited to hear what changes have taken place.

Is it too soon to make an organized list of who all is sailing on 4/11 and ages of kids? I just thought it would be neat to keep track of everyone.

I think I saw that there were 171 days until we cruise...but whose counting.

 

[leslie l]

Winnyis

Hi- I am on the other side of 60, off Valrico Rd, my daughter is at Valrico Elem. Do you have any children there?

 

[Tarabra]

Are any of you staying at WDW before or after the cruise? We are planning on spending at least 3 days there. I just wish Sat. wasn't one of them. The parks are so busy. Maybe we'll just swim that day. I think that's what we did the last time. The last time our cruise was Thurs - Sun, so we spent the week before at the parks. We are DVC members, so I'm still deciding where to stay. Saratoga Springs is great, but that is where we usually stay, so I think we will try something new.

Tara

 

[winnyis]

I'm very impressed with all the "Veteran" DCL cruisers we have on our thread.

I am especially jealous of Ginny's upcoming Halloween cruise. I'd love to hear all about it when you return. Is this the first cruise after Dry dock? I'm excited to hear what changes have taken place.

Is it too soon to make an organized list of who all is sailing on 4/11 and ages of kids? I just thought it would be neat to keep track of everyone.

I think I saw that there were 171 days until we cruise...but whose counting.

The Halloween cruise was great - short - but great. DCL had a costume parade for the kids and trick or treating all over the ship - my son came home with 8-1/2 pounds of candy. He weighed it. They were giving out handfulls at every station. Every kids dream. All the CM's had costumes, all the characters had costumes. It was alot of fun and I would definately do it again.

The Drydock changes were cool. The Quiet Cove area is beautiful - the new addition to the Cove Cafe and the enclosure are gorgeous. Very impresive. The whole adults only area looks very classy.

We had a sideways Cat 11 for this cruise and loved it - so much more space than a normal cat 11.

 

[winnyis]

Winnyis

Hi- I am on the other side of 60, off Valrico Rd, my daughter is at Valrico Elem. Do you have any children there?

My kids are now in Mulrennan (6th grade) and Durant (9th grade)
They both went to Nelson Elementary

 

[zalansky]

Are any of you staying at WDW before or after the cruise? We are planning on spending at least 3 days there. I just wish Sat. wasn't one of them. The parks are so busy. Maybe we'll just swim that day. I think that's what we did the last time. The last time our cruise was Thurs - Sun, so we spent the week before at the parks. We are DVC members, so I'm still deciding where to stay. Saratoga Springs is great, but that is where we usually stay, so I think we will try something new.

Tara

We're DVC members too. We have been to the parks a lot this year so we decided to try Vero beach after the cruise - I have had enough park time for a while, plus like you said I have a feeling the parks will be crowded. We've always wanted to try Vero so we're excited.

 

[winnyis]

bumping up.

 

[IrishCowboy]

Have a great cruise!

 

[zalansky]

Well, now that Xmas decorations are all down in my house, the next thing on my list of to-do's is .......what else? Obsess over the upcoming cruise in 15 weeks! I believe we lowly silver members can start pre-booking Palo and spa ressies on the 11th which is a week from tomorrow. I went ahead and paid our balance so we are good to go. Anyone else planning on Palo? I am thinking we will book it for the 2nd night since the 3rd night is pirate night and we don't want to miss that.

What do you all have planned and what dinner seating do you have?

 

[winnyis]

Hi all - my family has decided to cancel this cruise and go to Hawaii for spring break instead. I found a great deal on airfare that we could not pass up. My kids didnt even hesitate when I asked their opinion (they wanted a break from DCL - I guess that happens after 9 cruises) so I know we made the right choice. I guess I will have to wait until 8/2011 when we sail on the Dream to make platinum status.

I hope you all have a terrific cruise.

Aloha!!

 

[zalansky]

winnyis - I am jealous! Have a great time in Hawaii, thats a trip we want to do when our kids get older...

 

[suzyqn]

I booked my Palo and Flounders reservations last night (at midnight [insert sleepy icon) so now I am officially excited!!!!

We chose to book Palo on the Pirate Night. Hopefully, we'll catch the Pirate Night dining experience on our next cruise since this is our first 4-night one. My princesses were not quite sure about the whole pirate thing to begin with so this way they won't be stressing about dinner. (silly I know but they are little)

Anyone else book their reservations yet? Anyone doing any excursions?

 

[zalansky]

I just booked our Palo reservation this morning for the 2nd night. We don't want to miss Pirate night, our kids love it. We won't book any excursions, we just plan on going with the flow. 13 weeks, woo hoo!

I did register the kids for Oceaneer Club and was happy to see they will be in the same one even though they will probably not stay with one another. It was different, not having to worry about Flounders this time around.

 

[suzyqn]

Zalansky - I saw that you also have a 4 year old dd. My 4 yr old can not stop talking about this trip. It helps that we went last April so she really remembers details.

Last cruise we basically ate, played in the pool/splash area, napped, ate, and slept. The 3 night just went way too fast. That 2-3 hour nap the girls took in the middle of the day really ate into things but it was necessary.

This time I want to get Bella (4yrs) to more of the planned kids activities. I am wondering if I can take my 2 year old with us if I stay with them. I saw a puppet show in a Dec. Navigator that my littlest one would like.

This time we are also going to skip the show the first night since dh and I have seen it 3 times. Hopefully, that will set a slower pace for the trip. We still want to see Toy Story and Disney Dreams, however.

We planned on not cruising until our 2 year old was old enough for the kid's club but this Kid's Sail Free along with my birthday seemed too good to pass up. We have first seating this time so our Flounder's Reseverations were a bit trickier than last time. Our little one didn't join us for dinner last time (second seating) so it made it easy. This time we are trying to change it up so we have different experiences. (Our last 3 cruises we got the same dining rotation)

OK, I am rambling. Can you tell that I want to talk about the cruise?

 

[zalansky]

Ramble away, because all I can do is think about the cruise today too. I know its because of the booking window opening up that got us going!

Which night is Toy Story? Thats the only show we have not seen. I am questioning my Palo reservation now, maybe I should move it back an hour if its night #2.

This is the first cruise we will be on that we won't have to worry about naps. On the flip side of that, the kids will be so active that come dinner, they should be a handful.

If you plan on using the club for your DD we should plan to try and introduce our kids the first time we check them in - so that it might help them feel like they have a friend. Sometimes my daughter is totally fine with a new situation and then again, she might freak when we drop her off. You never know!

 

[suzyqn]

Ramble away, because all I can do is think about the cruise today too. I know its because of the booking window opening up that got us going!

Which night is Toy Story? Thats the only show we have not seen. I am questioning my Palo reservation now, maybe I should move it back an hour if its night #2.

This is the first cruise we will be on that we won't have to worry about naps. On the flip side of that, the kids will be so active that come dinner, they should be a handful.

If you plan on using the club for your DD we should plan to try and introduce our kids the first time we check them in - so that it might help them feel like they have a friend. Sometimes my daughter is totally fine with a new situation and then again, she might freak when we drop her off. You never know!

Thanks for sharing in my rambling excitment! Toy Story is on the second night. We saw it in the spring and really thought it was great. I have heard others that did not share in our positive reviews. It did not keep my youngest engaged as well as the other shows did (since the scenes were a bit longer) so I think we will put her in Flounders for that night. It makes me feel a little guilty but I am trying to create for myself a really fun birthday that day since I am not loving the age.

My dd is all about having a friend to meet. I told her that there would be another 4 year old on the ship that she could be friends with and she wanted to know all about her. I laughed and told her the girl is 4 - that is all I know. That was enough to make her happy Here is a link to our trip report which has lots of pictures of Bella in it. I just looked and am amazed how much she has grown in 9 months. http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2189789