April 8, 2006 Western Magic Cruise

[poconoboatniks]

Hi Everybody,

I'm just checking in. Dh has been watching the Magic leave PC the past couple of Saturdays on the webcam. I guess, he's getting excited. We'll be at Scoops at 3:00 pm on Saturday. You will know us by our Alien Green t-shirts. Anybody have their door sign ready? Are we going to play door tag? MY SIL and I may be interested in the wine tasting. I'll ask her and let you know if she wants to attend. I may want to subsitute a bottle of Fairy Tale Champagne for my bottle of wine. DH and I love the champagne.

Um, we'll see you at the Radisson. We arrive at MCO at 9:34 am and we're renting two cars to get to the port. Bob & I will be returning the cars after we get everybody to the port on Saturday morning. What time are you planning on getting to the port on Sat? I've read elsewhere that getting there early doesn't insure that you will board early. I can already taste the melon soup in Parrot Cay. YUM!!!

We'll be ordering baskets from Shirley. We were hoping to meet Shirley and Norm this time. Dh ordered backpacks full of snacks for the kids last year. The backpacks looked like TVs with Disney characters in the screen section and mouse ears on the corners. The ears have zips on them. DD uses hers all the time and gets comments like where did you get that. DS uses his when he sleeps over Grandma's house. We ended up taking most of the snacks home because there's so much available onboard.

Vavas, your hubby is going to be sooo surprised! He won't have to wait too long for the trip.

Judy We're in 2110 for your list of Dissers.

Pocono

 

[polly p]

Hi Everyone

We will not be at port the night before either. We are staying at AKL Thurs and Fri. A wine meet sounds great. I know I definitely want to do the wine tasting too. And I think the men are talking beer tasting or something like that.

We haven't booked ressies yet. We can book as of 1/23. We are planning on doing Key West on our own, Rum Point Beach and stingray tour at GC and the ruins and beach adventure at Coz. My neighbors are doing the same ones. She has already booked her ressies, this is their second cruise.

It would be great to meet everyone.

Lori

 

[windermerejudy]

Door sign ready? are you kidding--I'm still trying to find room in my closets for all the Christmas stuff. I found our last magnet the other day. I will just copy that one if that is okay. I think I can scan it in and change the room numbers. I may be in for a big surprise.

I don't think we will kill ourselves being first in line since it sounds like it is easier to come at a later time like noon and walk right on.

Pocono--have you ever tasted Muscat? I love that one for champagne /desert wines. Emerils restaurant turned me onto it. Apparently they serve a lot of it. The Magic has it on board just not the extremely high quality of the one at Emerils.

 

[UMTerp]

Me, the social director! You certainly don't know me!!!!

How about a first meet at scoops 3:00 on Saturday!

OK, for the wine tasting. Each couple (or 2-3 people) brings a bottle of their favorite wine (or champagne or whatever you would like to share with the group). We all meet and try each other's favorites! Very informal. Everyone could bring a short description of their selection so others could learn more if you like. I figured we can all bring cheese platters from room service or pick up stuff from Topsiders. Again, very informal. What do you guys think? Will that work? Judy - would 2:00 be OK or would you not want to be "tipsy" for your appointments?

I am still a little worried about the tender time in Grand Cayman too but I know others on DCL have done it successfully! I wasn't able to get my fax through today but I did send them an e-mail. I'll let you know if I hear anything back.

See ya later!

UMTerp

 

[Vavasmon]

UMTerp - you are already a wonderful social director.

3:00 at scoops sounds great.

I think 2pm should work for us (I want to try and do the towel folding "class" that someone mentioned at 2:45). I will bring a bottle or two from Williamsburg Winery (and the book about their history). Most likely the Act 12 Chardonnay and the Triannon Cabinert Franc. Should I bring some plastic wine glasses or do you think they will provide us with glasses?

I decided to use the Disney Excursion because of the tendering. Also the Native Way one I was interested in required a group of 8 - we are only 3 - they said usually others will enquire and they would pair us up but there were no guarentees. The time for the excursion is like 7:20 - I assume that is so we can use the first tenders.

Concering arrival at the port - we arrived at 11:30 last month - boarding group 8 and were on the ship by 12:20. Parott Cay full when we boarded but we loved eating at Beach Blanket Buffet (Topsiders on the Magic). My only concern is that I want to try and get a Palo's brunch. After much consideration I have asked my TA to waitlist us for early dinner. I hope that works out better for the kid's activites since the club eats earlier.

 

[windermerejudy]

I think you will do a great job of social director.

We will enjoy having a wine tasting before our spa ressie as we are checking out the rasul. Enough said!!!!!

Ok guys I went back to check post s on all forums for our MIA cruisers and this is what I found: lil1062----- last post Mar 2005
redterp------last post Oct 2005
melora ------last post Sept 2005

I don't know about you guys but I would assume they cancelled. What do you think? Without them we are down to 50 people in 14 cabins.

In which case that makes us 7 groups with all of our crazy family and friends. I found the greatest idea on a fun thing to wear to recognize each other once we are out of our green shirts. No hints yet but I am excited to look into it. Do I have your curiousity peaked yet? Hope so!!!!!

Anybody doing a dry erase or sticky pad for door or notes?

 

[UMTerp]

OK, it looks like 2:00PM (ship time) on the second sea day will be our wine tasting. I want to leave it for the second sea day just in case we have a change of itinerary (fingers crossed that we don't). That happened on our repo cruise and messages had to go out to everyone to change the day/time. I'll start a list soon of everyone who has expressed an interest. DCL will provide wine glasses. We got them last time once from room service and once just walked up to a bar and asked for them. I will bring a cork screw also although I've heard others mention that DCL will provide those as well. I think this will be fun!

Vavasmon - I don't blame you for going with the DCL excursion. Much more peace of mind!

Judy - I would agree that they probably cancelled. Their loss!

I've never done the dry erase or other board on the door. Only fish mail!
Do you find you use it alot? Where do you get yours?

Is everyone planning to wear lime green shirts the first day? I wonder if I could re-use ours from the repo cruise or if that would be too tacky! I might have to make a generic DCL design so that we can wear them more than once! I still have shirts I made for pirate night last time as I made those generic. We will be wearing those that night.

Have a great day!

UMTerp

 

[UMTerp]

Update - just got an e-mail from Native Way. "I recently learned that the fax line is not working. It was zapped by lightning. It will be working in the next day or so." Just in case anyone else was also trying to send a fax to them.

UMTerp

 

[MNrae]

okay...I've got to figure out what this door sign, door tag stuff is? Don't people take things off the door if it's just left there on a magnet? What do they look like? Why do you have them? Again...newbie

I spoke with the dune buggy excursion company. They said many show up late these days because of tendering so they have had to wait for many. She told me if I paid my deposit, they would wait. I'm a bit nervous but too excited to change.

I haven't paid my deposit for Native Way as of yet. Are they going to wait for us?? Again, I'm nervous!

Thanks for all of the info everyone!

 

[windermerejudy]

Why? Boy I don't know but its decorative, festive and everyone stops and stares and usually loves them. Normally it would be like a picture, your dis name, where you are from.....Don't worry about the tag magnet. There is only one. I will try to create one from the old one I have.

I bought the printable magnetic stuff today from Office Depot. Avery makes them. They are standard size and you can create them with your own pics, ...

 

[MNrae]

Judy,

Do you have pictures of what they are? Are they used to help identify your room. Do you put your kids' names on them? Don't they come right off? What stops people from taking them? I just assume anything too cute will be taken.

 

[UMTerp]

Update - got a voice mail message from Sharon. Native Way has it's fax back up again. I will try again tomorrow. Too bad I missed her call, I could have talked to her in person about our tendering concerns. I'll see what she says after I send the fax. She has been super cooperative so far!

We made door signs for our past two cruises. We did put my DIS name and last name (I think?). I did not put the kids names as I didn't want everyone to know what the kids names were in the room. Don't want someone knocking and knowing their name. Just a fun thing to do and helps you and your kids find your room - they all look exactly the same down the hall!

Talk to you soon!

UMTerp

 

[poconoboatniks]

Oh my goodness, what a talktive group today. Made our Palo ressies today. We're having Brunch on Sunday and dinner on Wednesday. I don't think we're going to book any excursions for the time being. MY in laws aren't beach or sports people and are in their 70's.We don't want them to have to fend for themselves because we're celebrating their 50th anniversary.

Anyone going to be playing Bingo? I'm going to play a couple of times. DH loves the excitement on the last day. I hope Que's replacement is good. YEAH BABY! Feel the Bingo love.

Pocono

 

[windermerejudy]

Pocono--haven't you heard the news?????DJ Pike is calling bingo and yes my mom and I will be there religiously. My husband and kids like to go towards the end. It is DCLs form of gambling for our newbies. It is very fun

MNRae --no noone wants to take a sign that has your name on it. If you put light up magnets like one of our fellow dis cruisers surprised us with they will get stolen. Our room steward caught a teenager taking them. Stuff like note pads or dry erase never seem to walk off. I got mine at Staples.

 

[Vavasmon]

Judy thanks to your info I have started thinking about door magnets - no one seemed to do this on our 4 night cruise. Virginina and I came up with some great ideas. If you want to update the list my first name is Barbara, DH's is Warren, and DD is Virginia (we called her vava when she was little and my screen name was suppost to be vavasmom but I mistyped it and I became vavasmon!). I am planning to look for lime green shirts at BJs, WalMart, and Target this weekend.

MNray there is an older thread showing lots of door magnets - I searched door magnets and it is in the title - beware you will get so many hits it isn't funny.

The excursion decison in GC is still bugging me - I emailed Native Way some additional direct questions because I still thinking I will end up with a better overall experience going that route. UMTerp - I read you input on the other thread - I agree 100% it is not about the money as much as the experience. Reading cruise critic it seems some cut the time meeting the various companies close but seem to make it - there was one writeup where the people didn't but it seemed like they were late lining up for tenders. We have 3 other ships in port on the 11th. One arrives before us and two arrive after us. Unlike Nassau it seems most of their business comes from the ships - our experience with Dolphion Encounters was that over 50% came from Atlantis and other resort guests - so hopefully they understand the tender situation.

We are a lot more talkative that the Western on the 22nd - I feel sorry for the person trying to keep that thread going.

 

[windermerejudy]

Vavasmon- thanks for the additional info.

What we have always done once when we stayed in GC and on the last western was pick up a stingray excursion right where you get off the boat. There will be people there from alll the tour companies. They really make deals then. Our baoat had few people and was $25 for adults no charge for kids for reef stop and stingray city. No rum point. That was a couple of years ago and my kids are now older. We hope to just do that again. I think they were leaving at 10:30 or 11:00. When ever it was it worked out well. I will tell you if you are trying to see Hell and the turtle farm ----they are not worth it. Long drive for a disapppointment. Spend your time in the water somewhere. It is known for its scuba and snorkeling not for its turtle farm.

Something on your door to leave messages is a good idea. It works out well when you have other family members or friends like all of us on board. For example --I could stop and write "on my way to Bingo see you there if you want to lose." or come meet us in the gooofy pool. .....

ARe we going to try and do a group photo on one of the nights? What about the deck party --which side? Which deck?

Walmart had the lime green tshirts last year. Hope they still have them.

 

[UMTerp]

Good morning everyone!

Vavasmon - You should hear from Sharon. She has been responsive to me about the fax problem. Even called me at home! Got our lime green T's at AC Moore last year. Do you get their flyer in the mail? If not, I'll post next time the T's are on sale if you like. I can't remember if they are on sale this week or not. I had a tough time finding lime green T's to fit my DD. I think I did end up getting one at Wal-Mart but it was a darker color than the rest. No big deal!

Judy - I'll look for some type of message board. That sounds like a good idea!
Forgot about the list - my name is Brenda, DH is Jim, DS is Matthew, DD is Ashlyn.

Was successful in sending a fax to Native Way this morning so I'll let you know if I hear anything back.

Have a great day!

UMTerp

 

[windermerejudy]

Thanks guys for the updated list once I get it all I will email everyone the list so we can start learning names. It helps before we get on board to know which names go with whom. Please PM or email me the following:

Full names with kids names and ages
Home state and city
Where you are staying the night before and after if you will be
Dining (early /Late)
Cabin number

Also please include other people traveling with you and all their information.

THANKS GUYS!!!!!!

 

[Vavasmon]

We are getting lost on page 2 so here is a little bump

 

[polly p]

OK, it looks like 2:00PM (ship time) on the second sea day will be our wine tasting. I want to leave it for the second sea day

I talked with my neighbor about this and she thought it sounded great. It will be nice to meet everyone.

Lori