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

[SnowyW]

We are going on the Western Cruise also. It will be myself, DH, DS (8), DS (6) and my DM and DF. We are staying in a Category 8 Room because my mom was afraid of the balconies with the kids. We went on a Disney 3 Night Cruise a few years back in a balcony room and had no problem.

We are staying in Disney at the Contemporary the two nights before the cruise and the boys are so excited about that. The problem I am going to have onboard is my DS who is 6 not going to be able to be with his brother in the lab. Does anyone know if they will allow the younger one to go with his older brother? I think I have read that they would let the older go in with the younger kids, but I don't think my 8 year old would want to do that.

We have Palo reservations booked for 4/27 and my parents have 4/26. Is there a better night to have those reservations?

 

[alikat99]

We typically like to eat at Parrot Cay on embarkation, just because it's easier with the kids and bags to drop them, then go to the buffet. Maybe we can also try to meet up in the terminal, for those getting there early. We're usually at the port pretty early, so we can check in and grab a seat on the couches to wait to get onboard.

Also, on our last cruise, we had a "group" beach area on the family beach and it was really nice. We ended up going to the far end of the family beach and grabbed a bunch of umbrellas & loungers for everyone. We were close to the bathrooms, Heads Up bar. My DH thought it was a bit too far down the beach, but I'm up for a group area to meet up if you guys are.

 

[alikat99]

We are going on the Western Cruise also. It will be myself, DH, DS (8), DS (6) and my DM and DF. We are staying in a Category 8 Room because my mom was afraid of the balconies with the kids. We went on a Disney 3 Night Cruise a few years back in a balcony room and had no problem.

We are staying in Disney at the Contemporary the two nights before the cruise and the boys are so excited about that. The problem I am going to have onboard is my DS who is 6 not going to be able to be with his brother in the lab. Does anyone know if they will allow the younger one to go with his older brother? I think I have read that they would let the older go in with the younger kids, but I don't think my 8 year old would want to do that.

We have Palo reservations booked for 4/27 and my parents have 4/26. Is there a better night to have those reservations?

Welcome to the group!!! We have a few kids that are going to be in the 5-7 year old group, so maybe we can get them all together in the beginning, so they don't feel like they are "alone" without their older siblings. I know that my 5.5 yr old just loves the club, so much so that we have to practically have to drag her out of there. And, she loves making friends in there.

 

[alikat99]

Oohhh, exactly 2 months from now, we'll all be onboard, maybe at our DIS meet, getting ready to have our lifeboat drill and sailaway party!!! Boy, that makes me giddy inside!!!

 

[curlybop]

2 months!! How exciting!!

I'm up for a DIS meet also. It will be nice to finally see everyone I've "talked" with for so long. I plan (fingers crossed anyway) to be at the terminal no later than 11am. We'll be wearing our lime green Disney shirts, and I wouldn't be surprised to find we aren't the only ones!

I love seeing everyone's photos. If you haven't posted, do it!

 

[Cyndibear]

Hi everyone!!!

Welcome Bug and SnowyW!!

Yeah!! 2 mths!!!

DIS meet would be great. We will be at the port early too. I'll be looking for all of your lime green shirts.

We have plans to do the wine/martini tasting too. It's just the two of us so we can pretty much do anything we want anytime we want.

Just wanted to let everyone know that I picked up DH wedding ring (the suprise) yesterday. It looks great! Hope he likes it. Just have to keep it hidden and a secret until the cruise!

I can't stop thinking about it!!!

 

[dadlvsdisney]

Hello everybody,

I have been away for a few days, so took some time to read the latest posts. We will be at the terminal early as well 11:00 at the latest. A pre-meet(?) in the terminal would be great, but something official(?) on the boat as well is what I vote for.

I have not posted pictures, once I figure it out and get permission from the family, I will attempt it. We are the types that duck out of photo ops, turn our heads etc, so to find one of my whole family is near impossible. I will have to do multiples to get everyone in.

Welcome SnowyW. I have a DS who will turn 7 just before the cruise (Another April Birthday). I posted earlier that he is shy, but would like him to make some friends. He likes nintendo games, pokemon, Harry Potter (wants to read the books)soccer and baseball some. He is at the I don't like girls stage. (One of his girl classmates was calling him everyday. I think that has something to do with it.)

2 months

 

[Hudson5&Lennon3]

We have Palo reservations booked for 4/27 and my parents have 4/26. Is there a better night to have those reservations?

If your parents decide they want to change their date, we would love to do a swaparooski! We have reservations for April 25th, but our anniversary is the 26th. Since we're first timers, we had to wait until day 75 to book, and the 26th was already full. I will definitely be trying to change once we get onboard, though.

Hopefully we will be getting there early enough to be able to make the change in Palo. We can't decide whether to drive to PC on Friday night or stay at an MCO hotel--our plane doesn't arrive until 11 PM! DH wants to keep going from there, but I think DS5&3 will be too crabby for another hour's drive after being on planes for 7 hours! He's hoping they will sleep most of the way, but you all know the Disney commercial: "I'm too excited to sleep!" But if we get to the port that night, they will be able to sleep in a little bit later. Hmmmm.....such decisions! All we know is that we want to be there EARLY!

I'll try to post a picture sometime. I don't have any idea how to do it, though. I don't even know how to be cute (with my sig, that is!). Maybe sometime when it's not midnight I'll try to jazz it up!

Val

 

[Hudson5&Lennon3]

Amy (alikat99)--I didn't want to keep the thread on the main board about "which deck" going with personal talk, so I'll move it here! Congrats on the SPH! Of course, we booked fairly late (just a month ago!), and as soon as I found out about them here on DIS, I had to call and double check if they were reserved, and of couse they are full. She told me they are usually the first rooms to get booked. You must have booked a LONG time ago to get it.

I sure know a lot more now since joining this board and wish I would have done some things differently, but there's always next time (we're already addicted to DCL and have never even cruised before!). We're already planning on rebooking onboard with a dummy date for who knows when, so hopefully I can "play the game" and get a SPH for next time!

Here's to (hopefully) seeing you on deck 5!

Val

 

[alikat99]

Yep, we booked a LONG time ago for this cruise. I think that our original reservation was made Sept '05 for our SPH. We also just booked one for our 10th Anniversary in Dec '08 and were able to snag a SPH, and good friends of ours booked the connecting SPH to ours.

I hope that you make it on deck 5!! It's a great location, at least for us. And, you'll definitely notice our room with all of the door magnets, "fish extender", and various other stuff!!! Come on by and say HI!!!

 

[bryantyme]

I have wasted so much of my time trying to do this.

 

[alikat99]

Ok, here's what I do. I have an account with Photobucket and I upload my photos there that I'll post here. Then, once it's uploaded, you can just copy/paste the text that starts with

. Then, when you submit, it'll come up with the picture. That's probably one of the easiest ways to do it.

 

[ohMom]

bryan -- i thought i had posted directions once on our thread and now i can't find it! if you go to the technical forum (off main DISboards page) there are directions under FAQ or they can help you if you're still having trouble. I had lots of trouble unti i realized i couldn't link to my computer! i know some of you are head-slapping yourself right now on my behalf; but now I upload to the photos area of the DIS information site, or photobucket. Once you have your photo uploaded on a website, right click on the photo and copy the properties to insert between the

brackets.

Snowy, Hudson and anyone and everyone else joining us!! I have an excel spreadsheet for our group, if you'd like to be a part of it please PM me the following and i'll email it to you:

username, homestate, Family (real) names with kid ages, friday night accomodations, transportation, deck/stateroom, main or late dining and email. of course omit any information you are not comfortable sharing, and if you'd rather I not include your email publicly just let me know.

I'll include a listing of our DIS meets on the spreadsheet too

Val -- i'd stay at the airport myself but my kids crash out, though everyone may be hyped up after the plane ride? you know your kids best. there are those who bid on hotwire for a Hyatt room, check the main cruise board for their bidding tips.

ok here's my car rental question -- which agency is most conveneient to shuttle back to port? we can't remember where we rented from last time but Preston said he passed every other rental site on the way there and was like, why didn't i rent from there? LOL right now i have FL tours booked, but we may go rental if there is significant price difference. we like the car service though, hassle-free!

snowy - it's my understanding too that DCL will let kids go down in age group, but not up. you can take him on embarktion day and hang out a little with him during the open hours, maybe that would help? and yes -- we'll meet up at the terminal too. we have a couple boys ages 6-7 in our little happy lime green family. PM me your family info and when i resend the spreadsheet you'll have their emails, then maybe the boys can email a little to make friends? at least enough to help him feel comfortable to give it a try? i think one trip there and he'll be hooked how fun to have a Contemporary stay pre-cruise!!

 

[curlybop]

Maybe a visual of adding photos will help.

I also set mine up at Photobucket. Set up an account, and find the photo(s) you want to use. Here's what it looks like:

Click on Browse (at the Photobucket site) as shown in the box below, and find the photo you want on your computer.

Then click upload, or add more if you have more than one picture.

When it's done, it will appear like this:

Right click the top bar as show, and copy. Now, come over to the Disboards, and create your message.

See the little yellow box second from the right? Click it, and this will pop up:

Now, right click, and paste the info you just copied from Photobucket in that box, and click OK. It should look like this when it's uploaded:

Done! Then proceed typing away.

Hope this helps a bit!

 

[bryantyme]

Bryan Me, Monica DD 12, Edna DW,Alex DS 13

 

[bryantyme]

Thanks for all the suggestions.
It wouldn't work till I got at least 10 posts.
I was doing it correctly all along.......lol

We cant wait.

 

[Corryn]

Hi Everyone
Gosh, it feels like forever since I last posted.
I just breezed through the thread and I was so happy to see the family photos!!!
I feel like I know who I'm talking to now, you know?
I know my DH and the girls will be glad to see faces, too;
this way we'll all be a little more familiar with everyone while on the ship....

I didn't get to read all the threads - I just got home from school and I have a test to study for, but, of course, I NEEDED to get on the DIS and now I have to watch my TVoed episode of CSI before getting to bed....
I'll catch up with the new posts on the weekend...
CurlyBop, what a wonderful photo tutorial!
Now I hope to see more photos!

 

[curlybop]

I booked our airfare this morning. Finally!! Now I can breathe easier, and quit checking twice a day. The flight I really wanted dropped a LOT this morning so I grabbed it. Now I can start checking rental cars vs. a car service, and get that taken care of since I know the flight numbers. NOW it all seems even more real. Finally getting a great price on a flight has just made my entire day. Doesn't take much does it?

If anyone has used a car service before, please tell me about it. We might rent a car on Friday, since we'll arrive around noon and have the entire evening to goof off in Orlando. I think when we leave the ship & head to the airport, I will get a car service though, just to make it easier all around. Thanks for any info!

 

[ctc917]

Hello again everyone, my family and I are on the April 21st cruise too. We have a 13yr DS and a 3 yr DS too. I was wondering if any of the teens on this list have signed up for the Wild Side at Castaway Cay? We signed up our son and I was just looking to see if anyone else we might meet up with signed their teens up too...Also I noticed that just about all the excursions on Grand Cayman are gone from the list of avaiable excursions so Im taking it that they are all booked, am I correct? Just wondering if thats the case does anyone know why Grand Cayman excursions are so popular?

I am so glad I got up at 3am to book our excursions. Also at the same time I ended up booking a Palo reservation, I ended up with the first night by defalt really I went into the listing to check on how to book it and by the time I figured it out everything was taken but the first night so I booked it, but now I wondering if it will be hard to do a dinner at Palo the first night, has anyone done this before? Should I try to switch it when I get on board and to do that how early should I be there at the port?

Thanks

ctc917

 

[Cyndibear]

Hi Everyone!!

YUCK---It just started snowing here again. We are supposed to have snow/sleet/freezing rain again!!

I just changed our Cozumel excursion from the Tulum ruins to the Jeep Exploration. After reading some reports about the Tulum ruins we didn't feel like traveling for 4+ hrs to only spend 2 1/2 hrs at the ruins. The Jeep sounds like fun.

Cyndi