April 22, 2013 5-night out of Miami

[5forDis]

I am so glad to hear there is another "tween" girl on the cruise! My DD (12) has been worried it was going to be all littles because of the KSF promotion.

My tween girl will also be on the cruise (she's 11&1/2). Last cruise she was in the Oceaneer/Lab Clubs and had fun with her younger sister (age 8 for this cruise) but my older DD felt like there was no one her age to hang out with. She is excited to check out the Edge this cruise and meet other kids her age. My son is 13 so he will also be in The Edge.
This trip is a surprise for the kids...they have no clue.
So, it is me, hubby, my son (13), daughter (11), daughter (8).
We have 2nd seating for dining. We had it last time & it worked out very well.
People do dress up for pirates night. My husband & I didn't but if you have the stuff, go for it. The kids dressed up & we have great pictures.

 

[5forDis]

My youngest daughter is eight...not cool, winky face

 

[my3lilonkeyz]

Oh this is good to hear cause Mickey thought she was gonna be alone in her age range. She's so excited to meet other kids her age and just overall have a good time. Especially since this is our first cruise and her being excited about it is making me more comfortable leaving the kids in clubs.

 

[5forDis]

Our kids don't know about this cruise, but they will be excited the morning they find out .

We went on the Dream last year and they all loved it more than the Disney Parks (we go to the parks at least once a year). My son was in the Edge at that time (he was 12) and I worried about him being able to sign himself in/out but he had a lot of fun & made some new friends. My daughters had fun in the Oceaneer/Lab but like I said my older daughter was 10 at that time and did a lot of 'helping' with younger children. She was like a celebrity at the pool or dining. Little girls would run to her and yell her name, waving excitedly. She liked that, but it isn't exactly what we had hoped for ---a mini babysitter. My little one was 7 when we cruised and she had a blast. She is a bit shy and can get nervous, but she loved her time in the clubs. We had to drag her out.

Grand Cayman: we are doing the Rum Point excursion
Cozumel: ??? I just cancelled the Fury Catamaran and Snorkel. I guess you end up with only 1 hour of beach time so we might just take a cab to one of the beach clubs. My husband is nervous about not getting transported by Disney, but lots of people do this & have great experiences. We shall see. There wasn't any excursion that grabbed me.

3 nights on the Dream was much too short (we wanted to experiment and see how we liked the cruise)...I am so looking forward to 5 nights & more interesting ports.

 

[christinalynne]

yes! very worried ;( Our travel agent who is a friend of ours said it may be possible for our little girl to go to the kids club since she is potty trained, but I'm not sure...I'm a terrible worry wart with her, but my son is very outgoing and gets along with anyone. We will have to get them together, I won't be so worried

Aw! Our little lady is not potty trained yet. We are trying but I know she's not ready. I hope it works out for your littles to be together!!!

 

[garbinda]

So excited! My DH and I are taking our 3 year old DD on our first DCL cruise. DH and I have been on other cruises (before we met) but this is DD first vacation out of state! As of right now, she's going in the nursery as she's still not potty trained. I hope that changes by the time we sail so she gets to experience more. Massage and Palo dinner & brunch are booked! We plan on going to the beach both ports but really don't want to pay the excursion costs. What is everyone else doing in regards to beach trips?

 

[Jenny522]

Blizzard coming my way. (and 5forDis... you too???) *sigh* How many days til our cruise??

Update on our plans so far: Flying into Miami the day before and staying at The Beacon Hotel in South Beach. Only ting I've booked so far is the Fury Catamaran excursion -- I'm not a snorkeler and neither is my 13 year old son but my 15 year old daughter and husband do. I understand you only get about an hour beach time but we're trying to compromise and figured we'd beach it at GC. I think I'm leaning toward Rum Point for GC. We've accrued quite a bit of Disney Dollars with our credit card so we'll be booking excursions through Disney.

This is our first 5-night... there's a semi-formal night? My daughter is looking forward to getting a new dress if there is!!

 

[Docmom]

Blizzard coming my way. (and 5forDis... you too???) *sigh* How many days til our cruise??

Update on our plans so far: Flying into Miami the day before and staying at The Beacon Hotel in South Beach. Only ting I've booked so far is the Fury Catamaran excursion -- I'm not a snorkeler and neither is my 13 year old son but my 15 year old daughter and husband do. I understand you only get about an hour beach time but we're trying to compromise and figured we'd beach it at GC. I think I'm leaning toward Rum Point for GC. We've accrued quite a bit of Disney Dollars with our credit card so we'll be booking excursions through Disney.

This is our first 5-night... there's a semi-formal night? My daughter is looking forward to getting a new dress if there is!!

My understanding is there is a semi-formal night and that some dress up and others don't. We're planning on dressing up for some of the dinners. Found a cool black and white striped skirt at Target today that I'm planning on using as part of a pirate costume.

We're in Naples, FL so doing some of the other excursions rather than the beaches - dolphins in GC and rays in Cozumel. The rays one has some snorkeling involved and I've heard the snorkeling is great in Cozumel. DD10 is a good swimmer but not DD8 so we're staying away from the deeper water snorkeling.

Stay warm all you folks getting the blizzard!

 

[5forDis]

Yes, currently in the blizzard & wishing we were in the Carribean.

Grand Cayman has a tour we wanted to do (not through Disney) that included Rum Point, but also snorkeling at the barrier reef, stingray sandbar, & star fish beach. I thought the website said $100 per person but when we emailed about booking it, they said we'd have to charter the boat ($800---versus $500 I was expecting). It had something to do with the time of our cruise in GC.

I am going to continue looking for a tour that can include rum point + sting rays (& the kids would love starfish beach) for Grand Cayman.

Garbinda-it looks like independently going to the beach is easy in Cozumel (cab to Paradise Beach). Beaches in Grand Cayman are accessible by public bus transportation or cab. It looks easy enough if you are interested in 7 Mile Beach.

 

[Rudolph4]

We are flying down on Sunday and staying at the Intercontinental. Depending on the time of our arrival, we may go tour the Everglades.

As for ports, I think in GC we are going to shop and then enjoy the boat while its quiet - my DH and I did that last cruise and liked that a lot. For Cozumel there is a chocolate factory that does a one hour tour where you get to make chocolate. It's inexpensive and sounds interesting so we may do that. Otherwise it's beach time. Probably Paradise Beach. We were thinking of an all-inclusive beach, but wonder when you've already paid for meals on the ship why you would pay to eat elsewhere?

We booked spa treatments (our splurge) but no Palo. There doesn't seem to be a good night to miss the MDR when we are only on 5 nights.

For those of you with DDs between 11-13, would any of them be interested in an email pen-pal before we sail? I thought it would be fun if some of the girls got to know each other. My DS is so go with the flow, he'll do fine but my DD wishes the Tweens had a cruise meet board!

What are everyone else's plans? Does anyone want to do a Dis meet? Or an FE?

Jen

 

[Weberra]

This will be my first cruise and I am very excited! I will be cruising with my 4 yr old son Aiden and my mom.
We don't have plans in GC but we are doing the sting rays in Cozumel.
Any tips for a first time cruiser?

Becca

 

[5forDis]

For those of you with DDs between 11-13, would any of them be interested in an email pen-pal before we sail? I thought it would be fun if some of the girls got to know each other. My DS is so go with the flow, he'll do fine but my DD wishes the Tweens had a cruise meet board!

What are everyone else's plans? Does anyone want to do a Dis meet? Or an FE?

Jen

Hi Jen-

I know my DD would love to email with other kids going on the cruise, but since she won't know about the cruise until the morning of...she can't do it .

The FE sounds fun, but I have to think about whether or not I can get myself that organized while secretly packing for the kids.

I know other Cruise Meets have set up private groups so specific info isn't on the open, public internet, but I'm not sure how to do that. I have heard of Facebook private groups. Does anyone know??

What does everyone else think about FE?

 

[Docmom]

We'd like to do the FE also but are newbies to Disney cruising so no idea how we all get organized!!!!

 

[christinalynne]

We would also love to participate in a meet and FE! But I am also another newbie.

 

[my3lilonkeyz]

For those of you with DDs between 11-13, would any of them be interested in an email pen-pal before we sail? I thought it would be fun if some of the girls got to know each other. My DS is so go with the flow, he'll do fine but my DD wishes the Tweens had a cruise meet board!

What are everyone else's plans? Does anyone want to do a Dis meet? Or an FE?

Jen

Mickey would LOVE that!!! I cannot remember her email off hand but she will be home in a couple hours and I will get it then Shes gonna be SUPEr excited!

 

[my3lilonkeyz]

We would love to do FE but we too are newbies, however I get the idea and think it would be fun esp. for the kids!

 

[Rudolph4]

Well, we are Disney cruise newbies too, but if you all don't mind me figuring it out as I go, I would be willing to put together our FE. It just sounds too fun NOT to do . Let me know if that sounds good or if someone else has already planned on doing this.

Jen

 

[Docmom]

Well, we are Disney cruise newbies too, but if you all don't mind me figuring it out as I go, I would be willing to put together our FE. It just sounds too fun NOT to do . Let me know if that sounds good or if someone else has already planned on doing this.

Jen

Fine with me! I saw on another thread for a meet they had an Excel type spreadsheet with people's names and ages. Have no clue how they uploaded that though! LOL! I've also seen people mention a private FB page. Let me know if you need any help . Gloria

 

[Goguan]

This will be our first cruise too. I will be cruising with my DH and two boys(6 and 4 yr old).

 

[my3lilonkeyz]

I may be new to this all but will gladly help in any way possible...this is right up my alley. I think my kids would get a huge thrill out of it! We can set up a FB page and have those involved just post to that or one person who wants to do this have everybody message them their names and ages and stuff on here. I know I personally still don't have my room number just that I will be in a 4b cabin but I am sure others have theirs already so that of course ould be needed.