April 21, 2007 -- Western Magic -- anyone?

[curlybop]

Just popping in to see if anyone else has joined us. Just a bit over one year. Yay!

This week DH has been talking of heading to FL, to do things outside the parks like the space ctr, Sea World, etc. He REALLY wants to go......but I keep making excuses about how expensive it is, etc., how we should just save our money for a while, my work schedule & his probably won't allow much time, etc. Now I've gotta keep this up for a few more months until I tell him I've already spent the vacation money on a cruise!

 

[ohMom]

Happy Easter everyone!! when is Easter next year?? just think we'll be just shy of our cruise next Easter

corryn -- oh i so LOVE the rainforest room and i'll meet you at 4:30 or so every night at the bar at the adult pool (the name escapes me) and we'll pick up our drink of the day and head into the rainforest room. I never once showered in the stateroom our last cruise, the spa for me every night. and it was so nice to get back to the room to find the fam showered and putting on the finishing touches for dinner. 14 families - WOW! my DD Taylor will be 14 on this cruise and she's looking forward to some late night Stack time.

curlybop/Amanda -- you are the queen of secrets! i would never be able to keep a secret like this! especially after DH starts talking about a trip to FL! we did keep our first trip to WDW a secret from our DDs for awhile until it was closer to time of going, i send them on a treasure hunt throughout the house and the end clue revealed the trip, it was fun, good clean cheesy fun

my oldest DD, Taylor, is already talking of a dolphin swim -- we had given her one for her b-day b4 our last cruise and then Hurricane Wilma took it away from her. i believe i have her birthday shopping done

i had on my CC t-shirt friday and an older gentleman came up to me at a local coffee shop and said "i was just there a couple weeks ago" well laa dee da-- i'll be there in just over 365 days. LOL

 

[Cavecats]

Wow....I can't believe I'm already thinking about my next cruise...and it's only 1 year away...lol

Dyer...we were on that Wilma cruise...we wanted to go WEST!!! So my DM and I have booked this cruise CUZ there ain't suppose to be hurricanes in April.

Glad to see there is a place for me to check on from time to time in the next year.

 

[Dyerneeds]

Dyer...we were on that Wilma cruise...we wanted to go WEST!!! So my DM and I have booked this cruise CUZ there ain't supposed to be hurricanes in MAY.

Cavecats...

we thought the same thing about the hurricanes... We actually considered Oct. this year, but decided against it. With our luck, it would happen again. We really wanted to go west too, but we hadn't been to St. Maarten. We were scheduled to go parasailing on CC, along with Cass & Rob, but it was too windy. So they cancelled us. Rather disappointing.
I can't complain. It was still a great trip.

We'll have to make sure we meet this time.

 

[Dyerneeds]

ohmom

Happy Easter to you, too.

gotta love this warm Ohio April weather, huh?
We're not used to this.

Hey everyone...

1 YEAR FROM FRIDAY

 

[Corryn]

1 YEAR FROM FRIDAY

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

[strega7]

Hello, a year from today!!!! I will be joining you guys. I am soooooooo excited. We cruised in jan, and were stupid and didn't book onboard. We didn't think we would cruise again for several years, but we had post cruise blues so bad we had to book again. I also talked my parents into going with us again (wasn't too hard to do). See you all in a year!

 

[ohMom]

hey it is one year today! no wonder it thought to check in here! off to go remind my kids!! i have been saying things like "no we aren't going to mcdonald's we are saving for a cruise' and they reply "MOM that's more than a year away"

funny how we saved for about 18 mos for our first 7 day! now it's old hat huh? not for me! one year away!

 

[curlybop]

This weekend I was just thinking..."next year at this time...." I'm so glad to see I wasn't alone with those thoughts! I've done well, still haven't told DH yet. I think Father's Day would be a great time though. I can't wait much longer!!

 

[Dyerneeds]

robin usually responds to these but i thought id give it a try. from a guys point of view, the cruise surprise on fathers day would be a great gift. for our 30th anniv last oct we did the 7 day western diverted to eastern because of wilma. i had made the reservation the previous december and didnt tell DW until june. i kept it a secret for over 6 months. figured i better tell her so she could arrange for the time off. cant wait to have stawberry smoothies on the deck while soaking up sun.!!

 

[alikat99]

Hi everyone! Boy, it's been a while since I've been here.

Can you believe it? One year from now, we'll be on our MAGICal vacations. We just got finished celebrating my DHs 39th birthday on the 22nd, so we'll be celebrating his 40th next year on the Magic!! Plus, my youngest DDs birthday is this Friday, so she'll turn 3 on the day we disembark.

I don't know if I can wait a whole year!!!!

 

[jsnare]

Hi all,

My husband (is this what DH means?) and I just booked the April 21st Western. Neither of us has been on a cruise before. We've done Magic Kingdom with our kids for a few years and thought we'd do something a little different.

Kids will be 4-boy and 6-girl. We looked at the port excursions and figure we'll stay on boat except for Castaway Cay. Looks like many of the things to book don't work for kids under 5.

We're talking with travel agent about anything we need to book in advance. Right now, sounds like a Palo night and some rafts.

Tips?

Thanks,
Jodi

 

[alikat99]

Hi Jodi - welcome to the group. You are right that DH means dear (or in our case Disney) husband. Anyway, when we sail, our 2 DDs will be 5 and 3. When we sailed the Western in the past, in Grand Cayman, we booked the Stingray City tour directly with Capt Marvins, and they allow under 5 yr olds. We plan on doing that again!! Our oldest DD, who was 2 at the time, just loved swimming with the stingrays.

 

[curlybop]

Just checking in again......... I see we have a few more joining us.

For our excursions, DH will probably want to parasail. Thought about stingrays too, we'll probably book ourselves. Other than that, I haven't planned much more....so any suggestions from experienced cruisers would be great. Our DD will turn 5 on the cruise, so it's got to be age appropriate.

Now, as for me, I'm about to BUST to keep from telling DH about the cruise. I think I can hold out another month until Father's Day.....but I tell you, it is difficult to smuggle things in the house & hide them w/out him knowing. Just small things, like a shirt, or hat or something w/ Disney on it. I hope he doesn't plan on opening up our suitcase anytime soon, or it will be heavier than he expects!

I received our Passporter a couple of weeks ago, and after DD was in bed, I would read it. DH looked at me sort of weird, but I said "In case we ever cruise, I want to know what to expect" Little does he know.

 

[ScouterJT]

We'll be there -- my two DS's (16, 13 at that time) can't wait (neither can their parents) -- really enjoyed the 3-night Wonder, so booked the 7-night as soon as we could on board.

 

[Corryn]

Just stopping in to say "hello"! I see someone else has joined us!
ScouterJ - My daughters will be 13 & 14 when we cruise - I'm sure they'll be hanging out in the teen club together. My now 12 year old wanted to find someone to talk to on the DIS about the cruise. I told her to start her own thread, but she said that she tried and no one responded.
If your son's wanna talk beforehand about the cruise, she would love to tell them what she knows. She's my sporty girl and gets along well with boys (she likes skateboarding, stuff like that). My other daughter is my girlygirl. She's a little more reserved....
CurleyBop - J u s ttttt h ooooo l d o o o nnnnnn! You can do it!!!!
We are definitely doing the Xcaret tour down in Cozumel. My dad said it was AWESOME and two of my students went and they said Amen to that!
We're going to do it through DCL this way if we (the tender) run late, the ship won't leave without us!
We're also going to do the EcoTour on CC. That'll be our second time. It was just amazing, really amazing!
As for Key West (Cayo Hueso) we went there for our honeymoon. There are a TON of art galleries, places to buy paintings. There are an awful lot of starving artists down there! I wanna get a really nice painting for my tropical bedroom. They also have jet boat tours down there that take you through the mangrove which are also amazing.
I Can't Wait!!!!!!!

 

[ScouterJT]

does Western have "teens only" excursions?

My older son (at 15) enjoyed Wild Side on CC -- but he didn't get off the ship at Nassau because "there was nothing to do" (of course, that meant he got to sleep in that morning, which was not a complaint)

 

[Scorpio1112]

Hello All And Welcome Everyone who has joined in recently

Just as a recap (in case you don't feel like reading back (yeah right)... this will be our 2nd DIS cruise, the first being the Turkey Day Cruise of 2005 (before which and at which I corresponded with and met OhMom --- we shared some exciting and funny formal wear chats -- and some other funny chats)

My DH and I will be with our (at time of cruise) DS9 and DD11 and no this is not our spring break so it'll be interesting to say the least! I'm glad to see that there will be other "older" kids possibly playing hookie!!!

We loved our first cruise as it was our first ever cruise BUT we did not do ANY of the planned ports (besides our dd to cc) rather than Grand Cayman and Cozumel we got Costa Maya period (woo hoo ) we did tour the ruins and it was great and our kids loved it BUT it was the best day of the entire week and I woulda rather spent it on the beach than in the jungle (with an extremely weird side adventure).

Can't wait to see who else joins in on the fun!!! Just to get started with some additional chatter.. this time we booked 2 rooms (we couldn't believe how long our "getting ready" time was with 1 bathroom) and actually it cost less than us all being in 1 (with the booking onboard credits in our favor)... we will be on Deck 7 with a cat 5 and cat 11 --- anyone else on 7???

 

[ohMom]

fellow cruising friends!

to any and all who are joining us --

i was watching rachael ray and she was at Key West and I thought "hmmmm......i'm going to KEY WEST!"

i'll recap like Sherri, it's hard for me to keep track of everyone

my crew is DH (Preston) myself (Molli) and DDs at cruise time age 14 1/2 (Taylor) and 10 (Paige). Taylor loved the Stack on our last cruise. Our first cruise was a 4 day Wonder back in 2003, our 2nd was 2005 Thanksgiving week that Sherri was on I too felt a bit bummed that we missed at the 'normal' ports (GC and Coz) thought the double dip to CC was fantastic! we are looking forward to seeing new ports next April

Last year we booked the royal dolphin swim for Taylor for her 13th birthday (in August) and then it was cancelled, she has asked for a repeat this time. DH and Taylor did the stingray swim at CC and enjoyed it. Paige and I parasailed and loved it, thought it's pricey.

sherri -- it's nice not to have to think about formal clothes as obsessively huh. and you know looking back i could've cared LESS what myself or anyone had on b/c we were on vacation!

as for getting ready in the stateroom -- well i'll be in the Rainforest Room relaxing if anyone cares to join me there. worked out well last year, i showered up there and by the time i got back to our stateroom the three of them were all showered and dressed.

we are winding down the school year here -- it's been very rainy and i have TONS of yardwork awaiting me. bleh! but i'm ready to enjoy a summer. my oldest daughter shows her dog in AKC and has been busy lately with that, Paige is preparing for her dance recital. we are also planning a kitchen remodel. hey sherri didn't you just do that? any words of wisdome besides "Bob Evans"

i have a few mins i'll try to upload some pics to intro the fam

 

[Scorpio1112]

Hey Hey... let's get this thread rolling!!!

OhMom... I totally agree about the formal wear thing! At least I know what I'm wearing this time (remember we talked about not having to buy again LOL)... as for the kitchen you really aren't going to believe this BUT my backsplash is still HardyBacker? or whatever the stuff is that gets you ready to tile... we have the 2 small boxes of $400 tile... but I think DH is scared to start it because it cost so much and he never did it before.. Yikes!!!! The floor... Ha Ha... never even started BUT we just had a ton of windows put in and got resided (DH didn't do this (wanted to but I knew it'd be a 3 year project))... this is our second house together and we totally put tons of sweat and love into the first one to restore a handyman estate tudor back to its original shine... problem was it was in a poopy school district and then well you know, kiddos happen!!!

On the side, I booked an RCI for April '08 ????? no flight involved as it is out of Jersey and it is actually on spring break...

To all... is this your spring break week (i know so far we have a lot of pre-schoolers) just curious!!

We got to get chatting!! Less than a Year!!!

Sherri