April 18th, 2009! - PATRIOT'S OF THE CARIBBEAN - Western Magic!

[castlegazer]

This was posted by granmaz on the DCL pic of the day thread and I was loving it! It's totally not the Western Caribbean, but it's such a cool shot I had to share:

 

[aljsmom]

Where is that? What a cooool shot!

 

[aljsmom]

I love Coastal Maine. We explored the St. George and Port Clyde area this trip. Our cottage is actually in Newcastle, but on the lake. We use it as a 'jumping off' point a lot to explore other areas. Love Boothbay, the kids get a kick out of all the shops.
York is so nice and CLOSE! The only problem with Maine is the distance!

Have you ever gone to Moody's Diner in Waldoboro?

 

[sandyam76]

Well it seems I am very late signing up!! Well we are also from Massachusetts and have a bunch of Cruise newbies coming with us!! On the cruise it will be.....ME , DH , DD (15) (Turning 16 the day before the cruise leaves), Mom , Dad, , Grandma ,and two of my retired neighbors !!
We (my family) have been on 1 Disney Cruise, 1 Norwegian, & 1 Royal Carribbean!! Cant wait for the next Disney Cruise!! Thank goodness it is school vacation...as DD is going to be a Sophomore...and boy would I get the EVIL EYE!! See you all there!!

 

[castlegazer]

WELCOME sandyam76!!!! Of course you're from MA!

Glad you are joining us. I too have been on other cruises, but only one other Disney cruise in 2006!

Oh I totally remember giving my parents total grief when they took me away from school on vacation - how dare they take me on vacation when I have this dreamy boyfriend back home who would totally miss me (yeah right) and I would totally wicked miss out on the gossip, man...totally

oh, yeah, can't wait for the teen years with my kids

I am thinking the Royal Caribbean commercial for you - the rare sighting of the smile, it's ellusive but can be found on a cruise from teenage girls!

aljsmom - nope never been there. Is it cool? Yup, love our 1 1/2 hour drive!

I think the photo is Cabo - it's definitely on the West Coast cruise to Mexico.

 

[aljsmom]

Welcome from another MA family. We're in Metrowest.
You have quite an entourage coming with you, should be fun.
It worked out nicely that this was MA vacation week...the cruise prices for the next week are much more expensive.
I will have a newly minted teen (turns 13 in two weeks) and two teen wannabee's (will be 11) when we cruise.

 

[castlegazer]

Hey guys, I updated our front page with everyone's info. I realized that after my surgery I didn't go back and update with a ton of people's info like Wes and Deanna and Tinkerbelle77's, so please let me know if I have missed you, if you are out there reading along and just want to be included in the roll of who's going and not post, and anything else I may have screwed up on. I told you all from the start that I was a reluctant starter of a meet thread.

So everyone waiting for SW airlines, have you seen this?

According to the SW website:


Quote:
Travel Tools
We are currently accepting air reservations through January 9, 2009. On August 21, we plan to open the schedule for purchase through March 6, 2009. This date is subject to change. Please check back frequently.
http://southwest.com/travel_center/t...ref=trvltls_gn

I guess the April dates will be yet another wait beyond that.

 

[o4me2playn]

Dang, we can't be the ONLY west coast folks on this cruise!

Good News is - this weekend I saw quite a few "Spirit" Halloween stores starting to be set up - so we're one holiday closer!

I also made our airline reservations this morning as AA is changing their frequent flyer program come Oct 1st. We'll be staying at Mickey's "World" for one night before heading to the ship. On our last cruise (also our first), we didn't have any luggage for over 2 days as our flight from Miami to Orlando was cancelled and we had to take a 4.5 hour bus ride and almost missed the boat at that! DCL held the last bus for us and we got to the ship just in time for the drill. So this time I want to make SURE we have no hiccups (and clean clothes) for this trip!

 

[castlegazer]

OMG!

We're coming in on Thursday afternoon.

We will be eating at Chef Mickey's (I think) and then heading over to Cocoa Beach for two nights. Oh...... could I be more excited!!!!

My favorite friends last cruise were the California people we were sailing with, so, totally awesome to have you west coasters in the mix!

Today's pic has to be the view I will have that Thursday night, although it's taken from a little lower than I will be in the building - my home away from home in Florida!:

 

[o4me2playn]

OMG! We're actually flying in LATE Thursday night (my husband just reminded me that I was WRONG - we're staying 2 nights before we meet Mickey on the boat and 2 nights after - Gotta make those reservations too!)

I too am SO EXCITED! After having to cancel the EB Canal Crossing (I know..I know... old boss refused to approve my vacation time so I changed depts! NEW bosses said..vacation? Go when you want - just let us know where you are so that we don't worry about you gotta love them

 

[aljsmom]

We're not flying in until Saturday, then going directly to the boat....
it's making me nervous, I DON'T want to miss this boat!

 

[o4me2playn]

Several people had told me before the 1st cruise to fly in a day early but I said - NAW...we're taking a red eye out of San Francisco thru Miami - we'll be there in PLENTY of time! HA! No we were not. AND when we got our luggage in St. Maarten, AA had gone thru our belongings and had stolen all my new makeup, new perfume bottle, husband's new cologne, etc..etc. At least we were smart enough to bring our valuables in our carryon.

One more thing to add - Disney CruiseLine was WONDERFUL!! When they finally received the luggage and found that it had been broken into AND the seam on one of the pieces totally ripped - gotta LOVE Miami airport - they called us in our state room and told us at 3am in morning but at least we knew and when we got to St. Maarten - the room steward told us to empty the ripped bag and they would try to repair it or replace it (it was Mickey Luggage). They repaired it and the repair looks beautiful - could hardly tell!

Long story short - Hubby and I have made the decision to ALWAYS fly in a day or 2 early before a cruise just so we won't "almost" miss it again! OH and never to fly thru Miami again

 

[KandiB47]

Hello everybody!

It looks like we will be sailing together This is the second Disney cruise for DH (will be 30) and me (28). We are also bringing our DS, who will be one month away from 3 years old.

We live in Wisconsin and we will be celebrating our 5 year anniversary on this cruise (April 24). The first Disney cruise was for our honeymoon so it's been almost 5 years. I miss cruising!

I look forward to meeting my fellow DISers. Now that I've introduced us I will go back and read this 12 page thread

 

[castlegazer]

Welcome KandiB47!!!

You are rounding out our US contingent by adding some more middle geography people in!

We were married a couple weeks later on May 13th - but almost 10 years ago.

aljsmom - weren't you booked through Disney, though? They will hold the ship for you if you are. At least it's not January so you will most likely not be held up by weather.

I would be more nervous about the airline changing the flight time, but if they do, I have learned that what you do is not accept it and ask for a different time or flight and they need to try to accomodate that.

Todays pic:

I am going back to Cozumel:

Carlos & Charlie's at the foot of the pier:

and where we will be:
Chankanaab:

I was going to put in the other beahces that people may be going to, but I wasn't sure which ones everyone was htinking of so here is the link to all of them - and it's a just spectacular pictures that make you drool:

http://www.caribbeanportreviews.com/CozumelWestBeaches.htm

 

[aljsmom]

Really? They will hold the entire ship for one family??
Cool - I hope we don't have to do that though!

I wanted to go down a day or two early, but my oldest is in high school and they get really nasty about them leaving early.

 

[KandiB47]

Okay, I finally got around to reading the whole 12 pages.

I'm sailing with a lot of people from Massachusetts Just kidding

I see I have the same wedding anniversary as Rala from Germany. Maybe we will see you at Palo that night. April 24th is our Castaway Cay day, I believe.

I'm surprised that a good price from Boston is $350. Milwaukee to Orlando was about $200 when I booked for this December. That was several months ago though. I hope I can fly for under $250 round trip but maybe it's wishful thinking.

 

[castlegazer]

depends on if it's your kids school vacation week in Wisconsin like it is here in MA. The problem is that it's most of the northeast's vacation week, which is why there's so many of us from MA on the cruise.

aljsmom, they will only hold the ship if you booked airfare through Disney and if it's a whole contingent of the people booked that way that are delayed. I don't book airfare through Disney, so I don't know the contract specifics, but I do know that that is one reason why people do book it with them and pay the amount they want. It provides peace of mind.

I, on the other hand, have no peace of mind, so I come in early. Plus, no way do I like getting up that early. I like mid morning flights.

So we had a great weekend up in Maine! It was beautiful each afternoon and I am sitting here with one nasty sunburn on my back - the portion of my body I forgot when sunscreening. Had the best lobster I have had in a long time, and am steamered out from some of the best steamers I could ask for too.

Here is our picture of the day:






snorkeling!

 

[castlegazer]

Over on the pic of the day thread by TIGGER/POOH 4

It's taken from Deck 10 of Cozumel!

 

[KandiB47]

I wish I could post pictures from my last cruise but that was in 2004. I was still using a disposable camera back then and the pictures didn't turn out so well

All this talk of expensive flights made me start searching. The cheapest I could find was Milwaukee to Tampa $192 round trip with a stop in Atlanta (Airtran). I decided to pay extra for the convenience of a non-stop flight. We ended up paying $229 for Chicago to Orlando. I also had to pay extra for assigned seats so the final price was $241 per ticket. I am usually an pretty cheap but imagining a lay over, an extra hours drive, and sitting away from my husband on the plane was worth the $150 extra. If we didn't have DS2 with us I would consider just saving the money. I know from experience that a whole day of traveling in planes and cars does not work well for my toddler

Are flight prices from the Boston area still $350 if you are lucky?

 

[o4me2playn]

LOVE the picture!

Can we leave tomorrow, PLEASE!!!!! I promise to be good - honest I will be!

I guess I really DO NEED a vacation - more than I thought!