April 8th, 2012: WONDERful Mexican Riviera!

[JillsterZ]

Hello!

My name is Jill. I am married and we have a DD that will be 9 by the time we cruise. We live in Orange County, CA and it so nice not to have to fly to the cruise ship.

I just rescheduled our cruise to this week from April 15 because my daughter's spring break is April 8-15

I am glad to see some action here on this meet. I was all alone on the April 15 meet page.




This will be our 4th Disney cruise and 2nd MR one. We did the 10 day MR this past Easter and it was so nice.

Looking forward to chatting with you guys.

 

[Twinkledust]

Hello!

My name is Jill. I am married and we have a DD that will be 9 by the time we cruise. We live in Orange County, CA and it so nice not to have to fly to the cruise ship.

I just rescheduled our cruise to this week from April 15 because my daughter's spring break is April 8-15

I am glad to see some action here on this meet. I was all alone on the April 15 meet page.




This will be our 4th Disney cruise and 2nd MR one. We did the 10 day MR this past Easter and it was so nice.

Looking forward to chatting with you guys.

We re-booked from the 15th to the 8th due to school break also. Granted....my daughter is only in Pre-k.
We had friends on the 10 day cruise with you. Their daughter was not a fan of the kids clubs so they will not be going again. Funny how kids are all so different.

Cruise....why are you so far away??? I need you now!

 

[JillsterZ]

We re-booked from the 15th to the 8th due to school break also. Granted....my daughter is only in Pre-k.
We had friends on the 10 day cruise with you. Their daughter was not a fan of the kids clubs so they will not be going again. Funny how kids are all so different.

Cruise....why are you so far away??? I need you now!

My DD doesn't really like the kids club either, but will go when we need our "adult time" Other times she just hangs with us. She is such an easy kid.

Where in So Cal do you live?

 

[jetskigrl]

Hello!

My name is Jill. I am married and we have a DD that will be 9 by the time we cruise. We live in Orange County, CA and it so nice not to have to fly to the cruise ship.

I just rescheduled our cruise to this week from April 15 because my daughter's spring break is April 8-15

I am glad to see some action here on this meet. I was all alone on the April 15 meet page.




This will be our 4th Disney cruise and 2nd MR one. We did the 10 day MR this past Easter and it was so nice.

Looking forward to chatting with you guys.

Welcome to the meet thread!!!! We were originally on the April 1 cruise and moved to this one because of Spring Break also. I am actually kind of glad now because I like the idea of leaving on Easter rather than returning on Easter. This will let the kids get up and celebrate before we leave instead of coming home and then doing our Easter celebrations.

We live about 15-20 minutes from the port (depending on traffic on the surface streets, lol) and I am really looking forward to getting up that day and just driving over. I loved sailing on the Dream this past April but the flight/pre-cruise hotel/transportation issues really did add some stress to it.
And then getting off the ship at the end and just driving 15 minutes home...woo hoo!

My DS will be almost 9 (8 and 3/4s, lol) when we cruise too so maybe they will enjoying hanging out at the clubs together I am a little worried that the clubs on the Dream may have spoiled him too much though. I hope he still enjoys the clubs on the Wonder as much as he did the first time.

Are you DL AP'ers also?

 

[Twinkledust]

My DD doesn't really like the kids club either, but will go when we need our "adult time" Other times she just hangs with us. She is such an easy kid.

Where in So Cal do you live?

We had to drag our DD out of the clubs in order to get some family time in. It was crazy. Honestly, I think she would just sleep there if they gave her the chance!

We live in Mission Viejo. How about you?

 

[socababy]

Ohhh, I am so jealous (in a good way, LOL) of your upcoming trips. I would love the Hawaii cruise but I can't take my kids out of school for that long (DD is going into 8th grade and it would be too hard for her to make things up). I can't be too jealous though since DH agreed to let me book the Fantasy for 2013 (as soon as the dates are released, LOL). He isn't sure if he is going to join us or not, but the kids and I will get to go for sure

I have my dream (not the ship) trip planned out in my head. I would love to take the LA to Seattle (or Vancouver) repo B2B with an Alaska cruise and then take the Amtrak Coast Starlight back home, LOL. Great idea...but again school gets in the way for the kids. Maybe when they are older Dh and I can do that one
QUOTE]


As sson as we sailed thw MR last Feb and saw how much fun the kids had, I knew that DCL was the perfect vacation for us. My Dh passed away 2 1/2 years ago and I am not that comfortable traveling alone with the kids yet, maybe because they are so young. Disney cruising was easy! My IL's went with us last Feb and they will be with us again this cruise. Our Thanksgiving cruise was sort of last minute when the Kids Sail Free offer came out. Some friends were going to travel with us on this cruise but with the discount and Thanksgiving week working better for them missing work, they switched cruises and I added a cruise. The kids don't know about this cruise or the Thanksgiving one so it will be fun seeing their faces when we get to the ship.

I have not been away from the kids since Dh died. I know I need to take some me time but traveling alone scares me. LOL Dh and I started dating when I was 17 (he was 18), married at 24 and were always together all the time. I had only been on one vacation without him when I was 21 and it was a work related vacation. Then I find myself widowed at 31 years old. So when I heard that DCL was cruising to Hawaii, I asked my IL's if they'd watch the kids for 2 weeks. I knew they would and I know they want me to take some time for me. As much fun as I know the kids would have had on this cruise, I could not take them out of school for 2 weeks. So I asked a friend if she'd like to join me. She'll be leaving her 3 kids (same ages as mine) with her Dh and parents while we are away. So we will be doing nothing but relaxing!!

I see a lot of us are from so ca! We are also on spring break this week.

 

[jetskigrl]

As sson as we sailed thw MR last Feb and saw how much fun the kids had, I knew that DCL was the perfect vacation for us. My Dh passed away 2 1/2 years ago and I am not that comfortable traveling alone with the kids yet, maybe because they are so young. Disney cruising was easy! My IL's went with us last Feb and they will be with us again this cruise. Our Thanksgiving cruise was sort of last minute when the Kids Sail Free offer came out. Some friends were going to travel with us on this cruise but with the discount and Thanksgiving week working better for them missing work, they switched cruises and I added a cruise. The kids don't know about this cruise or the Thanksgiving one so it will be fun seeing their faces when we get to the ship.

I have not been away from the kids since Dh died. I know I need to take some me time but traveling alone scares me. LOL Dh and I started dating when I was 17 (he was 18), married at 24 and were always together all the time. I had only been on one vacation without him when I was 21 and it was a work related vacation. Then I find myself widowed at 31 years old. So when I heard that DCL was cruising to Hawaii, I asked my IL's if they'd watch the kids for 2 weeks. I knew they would and I know they want me to take some time for me. As much fun as I know the kids would have had on this cruise, I could not take them out of school for 2 weeks. So I asked a friend if she'd like to join me. She'll be leaving her 3 kids (same ages as mine) with her Dh and parents while we are away. So we will be doing nothing but relaxing!!

I see a lot of us are from so ca! We are also on spring break this week.

That is wonderful that you will be getting that time to relax with your friend. And you IL's sound like great people I'm so sorry to hear of the loss of your DH...that must be so hard.

I agree that DCL is a great vacation with little ones, especially when traveling alone with them. My DH was anti-cruising so I booked our Dream B2B cruises with just me, my Mom and the kids (I also didn't want to go cross-country without another adult and I loved my kids having that special time with their grandma). But now that I have done it once, I think I'll be OK if just me and the kids go alone when we go on the Fantasy (if DH decides not to go). It helps that my dd is a lot older too so she will be more of a companion than someone that I need to care for when we cruise in 2013.

Luckily DH enjoyed our 2-night cruise to nowhere on the Wonder and that is how I convinced him to go with us on the MR in April, LOL. But he wants to see how that one goes before committing to joining us on the next one.

 

[Twinkledust]

I'm sorry for your loss SoCa Baby, my heart goes out to you. I hope that you have a nice time on your cruise to Hawaii and get to relax. You certainly deserve it.

 

[JillsterZ]

So Ca Baby,

I am sorry to hear of your loss. I bet your kids will be excited when they find out about the cruises.

 

[JillsterZ]

Hey we all live in So Cal. Maybe we can meet up next year before our cruise?

 

[jetskigrl]

Hey we all live in So Cal. Maybe we can meet up next year before our cruise?

That would be really nice!!!

Just by chance, I found out that another family that was going on our Dream cruise (April 2011) was also going to be at WDW when we were last summer (Aug 2010). We got to chatting and found out that we had also booked the fireworks dessert party for the same night (talk about Small World, LOL).

We met up with the family that evening at the Dessert Party and together we enjoyed MK until after 2:00 am (it was a night with extended hours).

My kids didn't know about the cruise at that time (since it was going to be a surprise for Christmas) so they had no idea that they would be seeing this family again when we got on the Dream.

Opps, long story...but yes, I would love to meet everyone before the cruise How far is everyone from DLR? Would that be a good central meeting spot (maybe Downtown Disney)?

 

[Twinkledust]

So excited that our AP's will be good again starting on Sunday!
We will be going early for a couple of hours and I can't wait! Goofy's new ride at DCA opened up this summer and I really want to go on it (although it just looks like a re-working of Mullholand Madness). Has anyone here been on it? And yes, I'm making my DD go on with me!

 

[jetskigrl]

So excited that our AP's will be good again starting on Sunday!
We will be going early for a couple of hours and I can't wait! Goofy's new ride at DCA opened up this summer and I really want to go on it (although it just looks like a re-working of Mullholand Madness). Has anyone here been on it? And yes, I'm making my DD go on with me!

Cool - we are passholders too. Yep, we just rode the new version of it a few weeks ago (same ride, new theme). But my kids and I just love that ride, LOL. I'm glad they didn't change the ride itself. We also got to try the new Little Mermaid ride. It was pretty cute.

We have two nights booked at the DLH for Labor Day and the Tuesday afterwards. We don't stay on property often (because we are local) but it is going to be a last hurrah of summer before the kids go back to school. I'm looking forward to trying out the Monorail slides and I'm hoping for a really quiet day in the parks on that Tuesday.

And I think we might go to the D23 Expo on Sunday (if I can still by tickets). I hadn't really thought about it but the kids saw it on the news this morning and really wanted to go.

 

[Twinkledust]

Cool - we are passholders too. Yep, we just rode the new version of it a few weeks ago (same ride, new theme). But my kids and I just love that ride, LOL. I'm glad they didn't change the ride itself. We also got to try the new Little Mermaid ride. It was pretty cute.

We have two nights booked at the DLH for Labor Day and the Tuesday afterwards. We don't stay on property often (because we are local) but it is going to be a last hurrah of summer before the kids go back to school. I'm looking forward to trying out the Monorail slides and I'm hoping for a really quiet day in the parks on that Tuesday.

And I think we might go to the D23 Expo on Sunday (if I can still by tickets). I hadn't really thought about it but the kids saw it on the news this morning and really wanted to go.

We have yet to actually stay on property but have been thinking about doing it for my DD's upcoming b-day. Quite a few of her friends/families are passholders as well; and her b-day is on Dec. 1st....so I was thinking to have everyone join us for a full day of b-day/holiday celebrating.
What do you think? Good idea or not?
Oh, and what are monorail slides?

Thanks for the infor on the new Goofy ride. DD never got to go on MM as she was too short...but not anymore!

 

[jetskigrl]

We have yet to actually stay on property but have been thinking about doing it for my DD's upcoming b-day. Quite a few of her friends/families are passholders as well; and her b-day is on Dec. 1st....so I was thinking to have everyone join us for a full day of b-day/holiday celebrating.
What do you think? Good idea or not?
Oh, and what are monorail slides?

Thanks for the infor on the new Goofy ride. DD never got to go on MM as she was too short...but not anymore!

That is usually the only time we stay on property too (when we are celebrating a birthday, etc). Both of my kids have decided to forgo a birthday party (or two) in the past to stay at DL instead. It is really nice because if you tell them you are celebrating something, they will usually have balloons, signed pictures, birthday buttons, etc when you check in.

You could also book the Birthday Party at the Plaza Inn. We haven't tried that ourselves but it always looks like fun when we walk by and they are having it.

The Monorail slides is the new waterslide area they just added at the DLH. The main pool is still under constructions but the water slides and a smaller pool are complete now.

 

[Twinkledust]

That is usually the only time we stay on property too (when we are celebrating a birthday, etc). Both of my kids have decided to forgo a birthday party (or two) in the past to stay at DL instead. It is really nice because if you tell them you are celebrating something, they will usually have balloons, signed pictures, birthday buttons, etc when you check in.

You could also book the Birthday Party at the Plaza Inn. We haven't tried that ourselves but it always looks like fun when we walk by and they are having it.

The Monorail slides is the new waterslide area they just added at the DLH. The main pool is still under constructions but the water slides and a smaller pool are complete now.

Thanks for all of the info! I will really have to look into the b-day thing as I know she would love it! The problem will be her understanding of staying at Disney OR a birthday party.

Can't wait to hit DL tomorrow!!!

 

[Twinkledust]

So, we've been back twice already!
DD loves Goofy's sky school and has pronounced herself a "coaster kid".
DCA looks so different with the Golden Gate gone.

 

[jetskigrl]

We are heading there on Saturday and then again on Labor Day for our 2-night stay. I'm so glad that your DD liked Goofy's Sky School.

Yeah, it is so torn up over there. My DS loves trains and always stopped in the toy shop just to see the little train. We went there on our last visit just to get another picture of him with it in case it doesn't come back. And then after we returned I read where they were removing the entire train (the real engine and the store fronts). DS loves that engine and is going to be heartbroken when he finds out it is gone. I wish I would have known about that one and I would have gotten one last picture of him next to it Oh well, at least we have a ton of pictures of him from before.

I am very excited to be heading back to DLR on Saturday to see our new brick. The kids don't know we bought one so I'm going to try and surprise them.

 

[Twinkledust]

We are heading there on Saturday and then again on Labor Day for our 2-night stay. I'm so glad that your DD liked Goofy's Sky School.

Yeah, it is so torn up over there. My DS loves trains and always stopped in the toy shop just to see the little train. We went there on our last visit just to get another picture of him with it in case it doesn't come back. And then after we returned I read where they were removing the entire train (the real engine and the store fronts). DS loves that engine and is going to be heartbroken when he finds out it is gone. I wish I would have known about that one and I would have gotten one last picture of him next to it Oh well, at least we have a ton of pictures of him from before.

I am very excited to be heading back to DLR on Saturday to see our new brick. The kids don't know we bought one so I'm going to try and surprise them.

Sounds like Saturday is going to be a fun day for you! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that your all able to stay cool in the heat! On the bright side, maybe the heat will keep the crowds away? And I'm sorry to hear about your son and the loss of "his train".

 

[jetskigrl]

Sounds like Saturday is going to be a fun day for you! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that your all able to stay cool in the heat! On the bright side, maybe the heat will keep the crowds away? And I'm sorry to hear about your son and the loss of "his train".

Luckily he took the news about the train pretty well (he actually surprised me). He was happy to hear that it went to a train museum.

The crowds were actually pretty light (for a Saturday). Found some rides to be almost a walk on, even in the afternoon (Tower of Terror and Pirates). We had our fastpasses collected in the morning and just hit the water rides mid-day, then changed into dry clothes and enjoyed the evening.

For the first time during summer hours (8 am to midnight), we actually stayed the entire day. We were on Main Street when they opened and on the last ride for Jungle Cruise when they were closing for the night. Of course, we are all completely exhausted today, LOL.

The weather was beautiful so we took the chance to wait at the hub for fireworks and weren't disappointed. My favorite part of the summer fireworks is seeing Dumbo fly so I was so glad that we camped out for it