April 15, 2006 - Spring Break -

[waterfun]

We will be sa iling, first time, on the Magic during spring back- my husband, myself, our 7 year old Hannah and 3 year old, Christopher. It would be great to have the kids meet some new friends prior to our big adventure.

 

[Justkimm]

?? - DS 7, of Kim - JustKimm

- David

Not sure what you needed to know...

My name is Kim... DS will be 7 (2 days before...yippee!!) and my DIS name is JustKimm- there will just be the 2 of us- I am a single parent.

 

[Marypoppinsiam]

Welcome Waterfun!! It is too our first Disney Cruise for our family. I have been relying heavily on David and John for the expertise. We are going to have an awesome time!!

 

[disneycruising]

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Welcome to all the new people: JoyV, Justkimm, & Waterfun. I am so glad that more people are joining our group!

I called DCL last week to see if Easter Baskets would be offered for stateroom delivery. The person I talk to said "no" they would not be offering anything. But, did say they will have an egg hunt and crafts in the childrens programs. I then call the Perfect Gift and they said they would do an Easter basket. Now I just need to decide, what I am going to do...carry everything with me or order from Perfect gift.

I think that having the 'meet and greet' on deck 10 is a great idea. Any suggestion on what time we should do this?

-Cindy

 

[djs113]

Kim

what is your sons name?

Welcome waterfun and all new cruisers

Waterfun what is your first name?

Let the planning begin!

I know my daughter is willing to start emailing other kids her age from the sailing.

Last few trips we emailed pictures back and forth prior to the sailing so everyone had the warm fuzzy feeling when we actually boarded

If anyone is interested - PM me

- David

 

[djs113]

Updated

we should start planning a meet and greet before the Sailaway party - we usually meet up on Deck 10 - right above the party / dance floor

here is the list as we know it

Hannah and Jordan, DD 9.5 and DS 6 of DJS113 - David
Ryan, DS 6 of MaryPoppinsiam - Mary
Kevin, DS 15 of Swede63 - Marc
Gabrielle and Mathew, DD 10, and DS 7.5 of DVCfromNJ, Maria
Madison, DD 10 of UWbadger, Sherri
Brian, DS 10 and Brendan, DS 8 of MV Photon - Kevin
Bree, DD 9 of Chris and Renee
Ben, DS 13 of JDietz40 - John
Ali - DD 12, JC - DS 10, Chris - DS 8, Katie - DD 6, of Disneycruisin - Cindy
Leigh - DD 12, Patrick - DS 10, Ryan - DS 6, Ben - DS 3 of Kathy - Kathyfm1
Robert - DS 13, Rachel - DD 8, of Joy - JoyV
Nicole - DD 6, Michelle - DD 6, of Tatt / Rose
Martin - DS 12, Mathew - DS 5 of Gerard / Betsy
Brandon - DS 7, of Kim - JustKimm
Hannah - DD 7, Christopher - DS 3, of Sara - Wonderfun

I usually just show one parents name - whoever is the DIS poster - no offense intended to anyone who might be a single or dual parent

- David

 

[Marypoppinsiam]

Good news, I got all the reservations I wanted last night. My DH and I woke up at 2am CST to do them. I was thrilled that Palo & the spa was not all booked up.

We are doing the Doubloon excursion at St. Thomas in which Ryan has been practicing with his snorkeling gear.

At CC we are doing the stingray excursion (for now, I might cancel this) and of course parasailing.

Anyway I just wanted to share my good news with you. I know most of you have already did your reservations a long time ago, but as a newbie I had to suffer until 75 days out. But all went well.

 

[djs113]

Mary

what time did you get for stingray at CC?

We are doing the 11am

Are you doing anything in St Maarten? We are taking a cab over to Orient Bay

- David

 

[waterfun]

Mom's name is Sara.

Questions about the excursions- is it worth signing up to go to the beaches on St. Maarten and St. John's with Disney- or just taking a cab to wherever. If we sign up with Disney- do we just stay the allotted time-or are there shuttles back and forth to the ship? What about the butterfly farm? Any thoughts on that for a 3 and 7 year old?

Thanks!!!!!!!

 

[djs113]

Hey Sara

Here is my 2 cents

If you want to go over to St Johns, I highly recommend using Disney because there is so much much travel time involved, making connections to ferries, etc .. and planning by you to figure out the times and schedules and if for some reason one part gets missed you would miss the Magic leaving port

If you are on a Disney Excursion - and things get delayed, the ship will always wait for the excursion to return, no matter what

Most excursions you must stay the allotted time, a few had 2 return choices like Megans Bay on St Thomas

Regarding St Maarten - I do not think it is necessary to use Disney to go to Orient Beach - you will save more than half the price to jump in one of the cabs yourself. In addition, when going by cab, you can go to any of the beaches on the island you prefer - we wil be going to Orient Beach by cab and you are more than welcome to follow us.

Sorry, I do not have experience with the butterfly farm there, we went to a butterfly farm on Key West and it was OK.

- David

 

[kathyfm1]

Paid my balance today on 2 rooms. The Maiden Family will cruise Now if I can just stop my dreams of my 3 year old going overboard, I will be fine!

 

[djs113]

Welcome aboard Kathy

We need to start emailing back and forth

Did you book any excursions yet?

- D

 

[joyv]

Welcome waterfun and kathy!

We are still undecided about any excursions on both stops. I think I've given up on the dolphin excursion although DD really wanted to go. I couldn't get enough feedback on this to make a decision - especailly since it's kind of expensive to take a chance. plus, we also want to spend some time on the island, instead of spending 8 hours in Aguilla for a 45 minute encounter with dolphins. I told DD that we will try it some other time, maybe using discovery cove in FL. We were thinking of doing a tour of the island first on St. Maarten and maybe go to a beach in the afternoon.

Didn't even finish the research on St. Thomas yet, so any help would be appreciated. is Orient Beach very crowded and is it ok to bring kids? Don't want them to be shocked with the nudies.

David (or any other expert on disney) - How come I can't get into the castaway club member only site at disneycruise.com? It is telling me that I have an invalid number? I verified my number with Disney and they confirmed it was right - weird! Any ideas?

 

[djs113]

Joy,

Orient Beach is not very crowded, and it is the widest and longest beach on St Maarten by far. Any beach on the French side is subject to nudity, but my experiences at Orient have always been the occasional bather strolling down the beach. In the past they have been elderly people, that really should not have been showing everything....

Almost all of the nudists are comfortable staying at some of the nude beaches that are way down the other end of Orient.

The family beach usually doesn't have any "nudies" laying on it - just the occasional walker

Orient beach has the most activities on it, and some of the better eateries and facilities


Regarding the castaway club site, I have heard many times similar problems to yours. Almost always it is the CC number you are using is not the one attached to the reservation. The reservation is probably booked in your husband's name, thus you would need to use his CC # to log in.

- David

 

[DVC from NJ]

Mary, I signed up my family to go on the Doubloon (did I spell that right?!?!) too. It sounded like a great time!!! We are also doing the Stingray swim at CC but not until 3:00. It's the last one of the day.

David, my daughter Gabrielle would love to hear from your daughter. Let's set it up!

Maria

 

[joksten2000]

My Daughter lost control on the ski slop and ran into a tree. Broke her neck in three places. We've been in a panic for two days. Thank God a specialist in Philadelphia saw her today and he said no operation would be needed. She'll be in a special body brace for six weeks at least. My stomach is still doing flips. My wife took today off and will also be with her Tuesday. She can not be left alone. I'll be with her Wednesday. and my DIL Thursday and my son Friday. Her husband just got a big promotion at work so we feel he needs to be there. He's really been a basket case, he saw the whole thing happen, he doesn't think he'll ever forget the picture burned in his brain. All prayers will be appreciated.

 

[djs113]

Geez

God Speed John

And we worry about silly things like early seating vs late seating

puts it all back into perspective

Much pixie dust to you and all of your family

- david

 

[Justkimm]

Hello.. my sons name is Brandon!!!

 

[joyv]

John, my family's prayers wil be with you and your family for the speedy recovery of your daughter.

Take care and God Bless!

David, I logged in CC membership using my husbands number and it worked! Thanks so much!

 

[djs113]

chalk that one up to Disney experience

- D