Aug 03 2008 Magic (West Coast)

[sylnbry]

Hi Everyone! I'm so excited, I can't focus on anything but the cruise. I'm still here at work and just have a few more hours before VACATION OFFICIALLY STARTS!

I checked the weather and it looks to be super HOT at the ports. I read the live cruise report from this weeks cruise and he mentioned rain in Mazatlan. ' Hope it clears up a little when it is our turn. However, I don't mind the tropical showers that blow through in the afternoons; I like those as it feels like I'm totally far from dry Southern California.

I have a few more things to pack today/tomorrow and take the dogs to the kennel. We're going to try to get to the port around 10am, but I usually run late. It's only about a 45 minute drive from our home.

IceSk8tersMom: Have a great party!

 

[dleyel]

Still need to pack! The boys were supposed to get haircuts this afternoon, but after waiting for 30 minutes, I find out we weren't in the appointment book. We were being treated as walk-ins, even though I called for appts yesterday. Turns out the lady wrote us in the book for yesterday! I was not happy! So I made appts for tomorrow at 1pm. I didn't want to have to interrupt the day like that, but I didn't want to waste my time sitting there either. So we did our Walmart run and came home. So tomorrow we'll do the haircuts and pick up the dry cleaning.



Now I'm finishing up our FE gifts and door magnets. Then I guess I should start on that packing.



IceSk8tersMom, hope all is going well with the party preparations. Hope you get some sleep. I'm always up until 2am before a party.


BabyFavorite, I'm so glad you'll be on the cruise. I'm happy to hear that both your husband and your daughter are doing better.

Can't wait to meet everyone!

 

[M&C]

Pixie dust to everyone with parties and trips. You all have a safe trip.

Since we don't have to travel till Sunday, I will try to do my best to meet the goal of 50 pages!

Question for those still home: I checked my cruise page at disneycruise.com and saw the age groups back to 13-17 for the Stack. Anybody know what's going on?

See you all soon!

M&C

 

[dleyel]

M&C, I don't think they ever changed the age groups on the DCL website, at least not that I ever saw. When I registered the kids for the clubs, it still asked whether I wanted DS12 to have sign out privileges. That was after they'd already started the West Coast cruises. I'm pretty sure the age groups will be the same as we've heard all summer. Also, they didn't change the ages for the Wonder.

I'll be here until Sunday too, so I'll try to keep posting between my preparations. Still don't have a thing in a suitcase yet, but I'm about to get the suitcases out now.

 

[M&C]

Thanks dleyel! I'm glad. DD 12 will be 13 on the 22nd and I really don't want her with 17 year olds. I remember they generally let kids within a month of the age bracket to go up to the next age bracket and I didn't want that to be an issue. I did tell DD12 that there are lots of kids her age and she's pretty excited to meet them. She even wants to go to the meet, so please bring your kids (or at least have them stop by) to meet Isabella!

M&C

 

[dleyel]

M&C, I certainly don't blame you ~ there's a big difference between a 13yo girl and 17yo boy. I don't even want to think about that yet! I am definitely bringing my kids to the meet - DD6, DS9 and DS12 - well, he'll turn 12 on the 6th. DS12 is so excited about hanging out in OQ. Our stateroom is just down the hall, so I can take a peek at the goings on. Ok, now I'd better go get to those suitcases after I serve DD some ice cream.

 

[dleyel]

Ooh, we just made it to page 44

 

[dleyel]

M&C, I served the ice cream, then looked at my FE exchange list. Just saw that you are just down the hall from us. Hopefully your DD5 and my DD6 will hit it off. Mine makes friends very easily.

 

[IceSk8ersMom]

Ooh, we just made it to page 44

YES! we are on Page 44!!!!!!!











I am so tried, but oh so happy. I guess it is up to us from SoCal to try to get to 50 since many of the out of towners have left.

 

[IceSk8ersMom]

6 more pages!



2 More Days, but if you are on the east coast in 5 minutes, it will be just one more day.



And the PARTY is tomorrow.



We just returned from my parents' house. The backyard looks like a fiesta! The decorations and the arrangements all came together so well. I could not have asked for more.

We made chocolate covered Oreos with chocolate margarita glasses as the design. Actually, I did not make them. My friend did, but I wrapped each one of them.



I cannot wait to see the cake tomorrow. It is a replica of the parents' original cake. I also cannot wait to hear Clayton sing "That's All" for my parents. FYI-If you are going to DL, you may see Clayton in POD. He is the one who is friends with Tinkerbell.


Tomorrow morning I need to get up early to go to the gym to release some of this anxiety. We will meet at my parents' house at 9:30 A.M. Mom said that she'll have breakfast for us.


Sylnbry: We take your dogs to Pet Smart's Pet Hotel on Sunday morning. I get really sad dropping off my dogs, but I get over it real quickly. I am just happy the the two of them will be together in the doggie suit.

Thanks for sharing all your experiences. I enjoy reading them.

Just a final thought: The picture that I just posted as my signature was my parents' anniversary present. They thought that it was pretty cool.

 

[M&C]

M&C, I served the ice cream, then looked at my FE exchange list. Just saw that you are just down the hall from us. Hopefully your DD5 and my DD6 will hit it off. Mine makes friends very easily.

That's great! DD5 actually turns 6 on Wednesday, August 6. Does your DD6 start first grade this fall as well? I also noticed that there are several other people celebrating birthdays that day

 

[M&C]

M&C, I certainly don't blame you ~ there's a big difference between a 13yo girl and 17yo boy. I don't even want to think about that yet! I am definitely bringing my kids to the meet - DD6, DS9 and DS12 - well, he'll turn 12 on the 6th. DS12 is so excited about hanging out in OQ. Our stateroom is just down the hall, so I can take a peek at the goings on. Ok, now I'd better go get to those suitcases after I serve DD some ice cream.

Hey, your DS12 has an August 6 birthday! Should have read back....

Great day to have a baby, huh? Both my girls are August birthdays. It works well for the school schedule.

Need to start packing, but everyone's still goofing around. That's a problem when you don't have far to go. We don't really like packing....

 

[dleyel]

M&C, August 6th is also my father-in-law's birthday! His first grandchild was the best birthday present ever! I actually did not like having an August baby as I was SO hot being pregnant. I had the A/C on constantly. I was so much cooler as soon as he was out. I was much more comfortable with February and June babies. My birthday is in August too, the 29th.

Yes, DD6 (Amanda) starts first grade the day after Labor Day. I'm looking forward to having more time to myself. She was a late bird kindergartener, so I was at school 4 times a day. Due to budget cuts, they've changed all the bell times in our district so that they could fire some bus drivers and have the same ones do both elementary and middle school. So now I'll still be making 4 school trips. Elementary goes 7:50 (ugh!) to 2:15 and middle school goes 8:41 to 3:30! So not happy about the changes. Before I could just make a morning run and an afternoon run. It'll really be fun when they are in 3 different schools!
Ok, I do have some stuff in a suitcase. Better get back to work.

 

[dleyel]

M&C, just thought of something else since you are in San Diego. We love San Diego. This will be the 4th summer we've rented a house on Mission Beach. We'll be going down on the 16th for a week. My mom will be joining us. And I'm hoping my brother's family will come down for a few days. He doesn't know about work yet. I love how close the water is at Mission Beach. Just have to cross the boardwalk and then we're on the beach. We'll be going to Sea World and Legoland. We have passes to Legoland and go at least 4 times a year. My boys are crazy about Lego. I'm not so crazy about them all over the floor! This year, I thought we would also check out the Tall Ship festival. Have you ever been? I imagine the crowds are pretty crazy.

This past Sunday my mom and I took the kids to the San Diego Zoo. She has a 2 person pass and the boys have passes. DD6 gets in with my mom's free guest passes. I loved how it was overcast all day, although it was still warm. DS12 did overnight camp at the Wild Animal Park on Monday. The theme was Wild Survivor. So after the zoo, we spent the night in Escondido. Dropped him off at 8am, then headed back home. We returned to the Wild Animal Park on Tuesday. He was finished at 5pm. He was exhausted, but I didn't want to hit rush hour traffic. So we saw the bubble show, had dinner, then left about 7:30. It was pretty hot at the WAP. Thank goodness for those big fans with misters, plus I had a personal mister. I picked up more today at Walmart so we can take them on the cruise. Those ports are looking mighty hot and humid!

Ok, now I'd really better go.

 

[DL_DCA_fans]

Only for the sake of adding posts...and hopefully pages...
I actually gathered all the clothes today...and did more shopping. Will pack tomorrow...obviously. And write my first (of many) graduate papers. Luckily, this one isn't too long.

 

[DL_DCA_fans]

But my toes still aren't pretty. I may have to spend twice as much and get them done on the ship! Or do it myself...oh no!
Nancy

 

[IceSk8ersMom]

The Magic is the perfect place to celebrate your birthday. We celebrated my daughters 10th birthday on the Magic in 2005.


DLDCA Fan: Good luck with the papers. When I read that, I had some flashbacks.


Okay..it is three in the morning. I CANNOT SLEEP! I had strange dreams last night, which were all party related.


House Report: It is clean. Yesterday evening we moved everything in the entry way. All tagged and ready to go.


Last night Disneyland's fireworks appeared to be louder than usual, or maybe it is because the Magic is getting closer.

 

[FirstTimer]

Ok i'm running around like a chicken with its head cut off and I know I have no business being on this site now but just had to post..
Ok yesterday got my pedicure, I was the last one in the shop. After I was done they was like, keep the slippers time to go.
Today i gotta go back and get my nails done.
I'm still not done packing. I still gotta finish up fish extender stuff (which reminds me anyone know what page the final list of participants is on)
In hindsight I probably should've bought one off of e-bay but noooo I just knew I could make one.
Still not done packing. Why must I be a procrastinator
DB told me last night that none of DD's shoes fit and only 2 formal dresses out of the like 50 she has (no exaggeration) don't fit. Darn these kids grow fast. So it's off to the mall to get that taken care of.
On top of that I still haven't figured out how we're getting to the port once we arrive.
No sleep tonight.

 

[HeelMD]

Hello from Anaheim. Flew in Thursday and spend yesterday at Legoland which the kids loved.

 

[amanuensis]

Can't believe it's TOMORROW. We are almost all done packing. Yesterday went to Barnes & Noble to find a good book to read. Got big fat book on John Adams by David McCullough. That should last me the cruise I think. I hope to spend some time in the comfy chairs at Quiet Cove with a nice hot latte and my book.

We won't be one of the early boarders, I think we'll try to get there by 1 or 2 pm. Anyway welcome to California all you out of staters and we'll see you all board (or at least some of you)! - Jackie