April 23, 2005 Western

[Stimpy]

We also were shocked with the price for the 4 of us. We considered having the baby sit on our lap but figured since it was going to be a full plane we would need the room. We always buy her a seat but thought the prices were so high we need to save money this time. We just got back from WDW on Wednesday and it was about $400 for 4 seats roundtrip! In the end we decided to get her the seat. DH will just have to work some more OT

With 2 young kids, we had to get direct flights. We're leaving on the Friday 4:50pm flight and the only flight we could get home was Monday 10am.

 

[Yankee914]

Hi All -

Sillys- we live in Mount Sinai, right next door to you.
Stimpy - I tried to get that 4:50 flight on Friday - already sold out the first day. The best non-stop flight I could get was the 1:30 flight. Well, I had to get coverage for my last three classes. I have three other teachers lined up to do me a favor that day. I guess we'll be getting to the Radisson before dinner. It will give us time to unwind. Plan is to get up early and be at the port by 10 or 10:30. Last time we cruised, we were the first ones in the terminal. It was so cool! It allowed us to make all our ressies and then relax for the rest of the cruise. When we left the ship, we were one of the last ones off -- I am going to stretch every cent out of this trip that I can!

 

[jnc1970]

I may be a little behind, but I just found this thread and it is nice to see some of you who will be on the ship with us. This is our first cruise of any kind and I have been reading the DIS boards for about six months now to try to get up to speed on the finer details.
We are a family of four from the Atlanta, GA. area-- Me, my wife and our DS-11 and DD-8. We will be staying at Ron Jons Resort for a few days before the cruise. Anyway, I just wanted to jump in and say "Hi!" to everyone else. We are so excited about this vacation, I hope our level of enjoyment reaches our high expectations.

 

[sillysmom]

Hey JNC welcome, this is our second cruise, we went on the eastern last April, my DD is 9 maybe they can get together and hang out a bit in the club. My DD LOVED the club, she was there last year from 9:30 every night until 1 in the morning when they closed. Then we would pick her up and she would order room service EVERY NIGHT, chicken tenders and a mickey ice cream pop. It was very cool. You are going to have an UNBELIEVABLE time. If you have any questions, or if your DD would like to maybe chat with my DD and ask some questions let me know. Again Welcome.

 

[Stimpy]

Welcome to Ontario Kim and JNC1970!!


Looks like it's going to be a full ship! It's exciting to know there will be so many Dis'ers on board. I'll be constantly looking over my shoulder and wondering.......

 

[jnc1970]

Hello to all of our fellow cruisers! We have decided on an excursion for Grand Cayman but are having difficulty with Cozumel. Are any of you doing excursions in Cozumel? Maybe a better question would be...Has anyone gone to Chankanaab or one of the Beaches?( Playa Sol or Mr. Sanchos) If so, what would you recommend for Cozumel. We are thinking about a taxi on our own to do whatever we choose, just for convenience, and also so we can go play minigolf, shop and eat on our own time frame. Any help would be great.

 

[Yankee914]

We did Playa Sol on our last cruise in August '03. It was fun, there are lots of water toys, etc. They also had hobie cats and a swimming pool. Lunch was included. However, it was very crowded with other cruise ship passengers. Our friends went on the catamaran sail/snorkle and loved it. That is what we are going to do this time.

 

[bakmmo]

Let bump us up. I can't believe what everyone ended up paying on Southwest; I just can't wait that long to book my airfare even for convenience. I paid under $200 pp for 4 out of JFK. Even with paying to park at the lot it is only $85. Total for 4 is $875.
They also had lots of choices of times to leave all non stop.

 

[sillysmom]

Thats sounds like a great price Backmo, but I would rather pay extra to get a direct flight out of Macarthur. It cost me $820 for the three of us, I got a choice of flights so that we will be there early. I can get a ride to the airport because its close to my house. We went out of Laguardia last cruise and it su**ed. We let Disney to the air, and we had to leave our house at 3 am to catch our flight, then we had to switch planes in Baltimore, and a 3 hour ride took someone around 5 hours. But if your arrangements are good for you AWESOME!!!!! Can't wait to meet everyone on board. We will have to arrange a DIS meet. Lets all start thinking about it.

 

[Stimpy]

OK, now that Christmas is over, I can start stressing about the cruise now

Hope everyone had a great holiday and a happy New Year's!

 

[Stimpy]

Bump....we fell to page 3

 

[sillysmom]

Hey JNC, please PM me with your email address again, I accidently erased it, and Gina wants to respond back to your DD. Anyway to everyone else. I found out that unlike last year when I cruised and you had to pay 60 days before, and excursions 30 days before, it is now 90 days before with full payment that you can book your excursions. You must pay in full by 60 days but if you want to do the excursions as soon as you can you can do it January 23, by paying in full. So needless to say, we are pouring over the list. In Key West I would like to take a short tour and then I want to go to the Ripleys Believe It or Not Museum, my DD would love that. In Grand Cayman, I think I want to do that tour with the butterfly farm, but not for sure. I think we may stay on the boat in Cozumel, because its our Anniversary, and I'm getting the REAS package and I think we're going to get our massages that day and eat dinner at PALO as well, I also think that the four stops, and four days of getting up early is too much. Last year when we went on the Eastern, I had to wake my DD up every day. I want to at least sleep late a couple of days, and I'm figuring, that the boat will be empty if we stay on and we can hang out, but we'll see, if I look through the excursions again and I see something thats not an all day affair, maybe we'll do it. I want to do the parasailing this time on CC. My hubby and DD did it last cruise and they loved it. I'm starting to get really excited, I feel different from last cruise because I know what I "HAVE TO" do, and what I can skip, also knowing where everything on the boat is, is a big help. I'm still trying to get the room we had last year. When we rebooked (more than a year before the upcoming cruise) our room was already taken, so we had to book the room next door, BUT WE WANT THE SAME ROOM. So if the people happen to cancel, they have a note on our reservation that we want that room. We'll see what happens. Anyway, hope to start seeing some more posts here now that the holidays are over. Talk to you all soon, Linda

 

[Yankee914]

We want to do the Fury Catamaran Sail in Cozumel. That is really the only excursion. We are going to do our own thing in Key West and Grand Cayman because we saw the Stingrays last time. My kids want to do the parasailing on Castaway Cay and the Banana Boats too. Do you think these will be booked if we want until the 60 days?

 

[sillysmom]

yankee, I am not sure about the other excursions, but the parasailing, do not wait to book it if you can, you can pick your time and everything. When we got off on CC last cruise, there was a line of about 50 people who thought that they could book that day, NO GOOD. It was booked solid.

 

[cruisin']

This will be our first cruise ever! I am soooo excited! Cruisin with our two boys, ages 9 and 11. Sounds like a lot of girls going to be on board,any other boys out there?

 

[dcbrown]

It has been a while since I have posted......the board has a whole new look!! Hope I can figure it out! Busy w/Christmas and a non Disney trip to Punta Cana....I do not know why we think we can travel to other places that are not Disney sponsered....brand new resort....not ready to open and accomodate the masses....what a disaster!! Any way, finally got air for cruise from South West out of Philly...SillysMom, haven't checked the posts...did you wind up going w/SW? They opened thier schedule to coordinate with the buying of holiday gifts!! Anyway, still looking for girls to correspond w/my own 17 and 12 yo.....I know there are some out there!!

DCBrown

 

[sillysmom]

Hey DC, welcome back. Yes, I did get the airfare with Southwest. But of course, after checking every morning for about 2 months, that day again no change. For some strange reason, I decided to check again in the afternoon, when lo and behold, the dates had changed. It was now early afternoon, so of course some of the flights were already booked. I booked a 7:30 flight out of Islip/Macarthur Airport, and a return for Saturday late afternoon. I believe the total was $820. I thought it was kinda high, but still not as much as I believe I would have paid had Disney did my air again. I also got an unbelievable price for this cruise to begin with. I rebooked on board, and got a category nine for 3 for only $2700, plus a $200 room credit. I think that price was great! Anyway, if you read a couple of posts up, you will see that we can now book our excursions 90 days ahead (January 23), as long as we pay in full, so we will be looking over the excursions again this weekend. Hope to chat with you ALL soon, Linda

 

[dcbrown]

We wound up w/flts out of PHL ........8PM on Fr nite and 3PM return on Sat afternoon. our total was about $1000 for the 4 of us....not too bad....I wish I had gotten on Spirit out of AC before it got too high. I am not too concerned about the excursions. We have been to all of these places before and really enjoy the empty boat...my kids are older than yours....if we do anything it will probobly be in Mexico......shopping sounds good to me,
although that is not on the list!

DCBrown

 

[Jillie]

So glad to see more activity on our thread. Is everyone getting excited? I always feel like once the holidays are done the time will fly until our cruise.
We plan on just wandering in Key West...check out the shops and maybe a bar ot two In Grand Cayman we just plan on taking a cab to 7 Mile Beach for the day and relaxing. Cozumel will probably see us heading to Paradise Beach and Castaway Cay i think we will do the Jet Ski Tour and my dd's want to parasail and banana boat ride.

 

[Stimpy]

Seems like everyone is getting a little more excited! We're still up in the air about excursions.

Key West we're doing on our own. DS-5 1/2 wants to go to Margaritaville...he's a "parakeet", Daddy created a monster LOL

We're thinking of doing the submarine tour in Grand Cayman with DS but have to make sure my parents are going to watch DD since she's too young (turning 1 yr on 4/20)

Cozumel we're still not sure about because of the kids ages. We really don't like the idea of spending the whole day on the beach. Castaway Cay is enough for us. (Hey, we live 5 minutes from the beach )

Since the cheapest flight we could get home was on Monday morning, we have 2 extra days in Orlando. We were thinking of US/IOA but after paying for cruise the idea of paying even more for tickets there and hotel is a little hard to take. We already have AP's for WDW so we'll probably have to go there LOL