August 25 2012

[eyes4mickey]

depends on the excursion of course but most DCL ones have age minimums of 5 or 10 yrs old. When you try to book online your little guy might not be eligible to be booked into it. You may be able to do those things on your own though.

For St Marten we were thinking of doing the riviera rendevouz beach day as it looks like you can purchase water sports like jetski, parasail, etc

For St Thomas, my folks, DW and 2 smaller ones will do the Maegans bay beach one while my DD12 and I will do one of the more extensive snorkeling excursions.

Thank You, the Rivera Rendevouz sounds like it would be a nice day. I still have to look at Magans bay.

 

[FJS961]

Got a pleasant surprise email from shoreside concierge letting me know they reserved cabana #3 for us

 

[sdaniel]

I haven't checked in on this thread yet, but I've been lurking . We are now paid in full for our cruise ! This will be our second Eastern caribbean with Disney and I can't wait to board the new ship! The kids are going bonkers already and we still have 121 days togo.

We've got a pretty big group going with us on this one:
Sonny (me), Jennifer (DW), DD12, DD10, DS8, DS6, DS4, DS2 (and potty trained ), Diane (my mother), and Gena (family friend, but basically our kids Godmother for lack of a better word)!

We're driving in from Texas and staying at AKL Kidani Village for five days before our cruise, so we're getting a little WDW in before we leave. Looking foward to the cruise and happy to check in on this thread!

Sonny

 

[DierFam4]

We just booked our cruise and I am so ecstatic I can't even take it! I think I'm going to drive my DH bonkers because I just ooze excitement! I think what's really killing me is that we are planning this trip as a SURPRISE for our DS 10 and DD 8, which means MUMS THE WORD around the kiddos. And just to be safe we aren't telling our family and friends until the very last minute either. So OPERATION: FANTA"C" is ON!!!!!

 

[gdulaney]

Did anybody get any ressies this morning?

Ginny

 

[gdulaney]

I haven't checked in on this thread yet, but I've been lurking . We are now paid in full for our cruise ! This will be our second Eastern caribbean with Disney and I can't wait to board the new ship! The kids are going bonkers already and we still have 121 days togo.

We've got a pretty big group going with us on this one:
Sonny (me), Jennifer (DW), DD12, DD10, DS8, DS6, DS4, DS2 (and potty trained ), Diane (my mother), and Gena (family friend, but basically our kids Godmother for lack of a better word)!

We're driving in from Texas and staying at AKL Kidani Village for five days before our cruise, so we're getting a little WDW in before we leave. Looking foward to the cruise and happy to check in on this thread!

Sonny

Congrats and welcome!!

We stayed at AKL in February.... I loved watching the animals at night using the night vision glasses. Very cool!!

Ginny

 

[Bytor01]

For first time cruiser is 75 days

Silver castaway is 90
Gold is 100 (?)
Platinum and concierge is 120 days

Gold is 105 days...

 

[dvcdisney]

Hi There!

I'm a little late for this discussion. It's myself, my husband and our 2 children (13 and 7) who will be at this cruise. This will only be our second (well technically our 3rd because we did a b2b on the Dream) cruise. So still learning.

Although I booked this cruise in Oct 2010, I have just started to look into excursions. On our previous cruise (Bahamian), we only got off at CC. We really enjoyed the Dream and didn't want to get off even between the b2b.

We are probably in the minority here, but we will not be booking Palo or Remy. I've heard it's excellent in both places, but we prefer to dine with our children. It's a great time to catch up. On our last cruise, my husband and I found it quite hilarious that we seemed "lost" when the children went to their clubs. We had so much to talk about during dinner. It felt like they were away for a week.

Anyways, if anyone has suggestions or recommendations for any of the excursion, I would love to hear them.

Thanks.

 

[My4PhillyGirls]

Hi There!

I'm a little late for this discussion. It's myself, my husband and our 2 children (13 and 7) who will be at this cruise. This will only be our second (well technically our 3rd because we did a b2b on the Dream) cruise. So still learning.

Although I booked this cruise in Oct 2010, I have just started to look into excursions. On our previous cruise (Bahamian), we only got off at CC. We really enjoyed the Dream and didn't want to get off even between the b2b.

We are probably in the minority here, but we will not be booking Palo or Remy. I've heard it's excellent in both places, but we prefer to dine with our children. It's a great time to catch up. On our last cruise, my husband and I found it quite hilarious that we seemed "lost" when the children went to their clubs. We had so much to talk about during dinner. It felt like they were away for a week.

Anyways, if anyone has suggestions or recommendations for any of the excursion, I would love to hear them.

Thanks.

We don't do Palo for dinner for the same reasons

But I love the brunch

I didn't do the Palo brunch last summer (5 Night DD Dream) and I didn't feel like I missed anything, but with three sea days why not indulge

 

[FJS961]

Welcome new comers!!

I was able to book a cabana. By 6am this morning they were almost all sold out, geez!

I booked Palo brunch and Remy dinner. I treasure a couple of nice adult time meals sans kids.

I'm undecided on other port excursions

 

[krisgils33]

I love going to the club to pick up my daughter and have her say "umm...can you come back later?". not that i want to spend time away from her, but that she's having a good time!

we pretty much try to do the beaches when we dock. on CC, we've done the stingrays and the jet ski's. we're planning on the jet ski's again this time.

Hi There!

I'm a little late for this discussion. It's myself, my husband and our 2 children (13 and 7) who will be at this cruise. This will only be our second (well technically our 3rd because we did a b2b on the Dream) cruise. So still learning.

Although I booked this cruise in Oct 2010, I have just started to look into excursions. On our previous cruise (Bahamian), we only got off at CC. We really enjoyed the Dream and didn't want to get off even between the b2b.

We are probably in the minority here, but we will not be booking Palo or Remy. I've heard it's excellent in both places, but we prefer to dine with our children. It's a great time to catch up. On our last cruise, my husband and I found it quite hilarious that we seemed "lost" when the children went to their clubs. We had so much to talk about during dinner. It felt like they were away for a week.

Anyways, if anyone has suggestions or recommendations for any of the excursion, I would love to hear them.

Thanks.

 

[Chrisd12]

We just booked our cruise and I am so ecstatic I can't even take it! I think I'm going to drive my DH bonkers because I just ooze excitement! I think what's really killing me is that we are planning this trip as a SURPRISE for our DS 10 and DD 8, which means MUMS THE WORD around the kiddos. And just to be safe we aren't telling our family and friends until the very last minute either. So OPERATION: FANTA"C" is ON!!!!!

Welcome......it was almost like I wrote the post myself. Our ds will be 10 and dd almost 8 at cruise time. We haven't told them either, And the Disney channel keeps showing clips of their favorite show characters on the Fantasy.....it is driving my son crazy. He wants to go soooo bad. Can't wait to meet all of you. Don't want to rush the summer....but I can't wait for 8/25

 

[My4PhillyGirls]

Good Morning Everyone!!!

Just 17 weeks and counting

 

[dvcdisney]

We don't do Palo for dinner for the same reasons

But I love the brunch

I didn't do the Palo brunch last summer (5 Night DD Dream) and I didn't feel like I missed anything, but with three sea days why not indulge

I think eventually we'll book Palo or Remy, but I'm sure it won't be until my children are "adults" who would join us.

I have heard more recommendations for the brunch. It does sound great.

 

[dvcdisney]

I love going to the club to pick up my daughter and have her say "umm...can you come back later?". not that i want to spend time away from her, but that she's having a good time!

we pretty much try to do the beaches when we dock. on CC, we've done the stingrays and the jet ski's. we're planning on the jet ski's again this time.

I do like the idea that my children are excited to go to the clubs, especially when I see some children being "forced" to go so the parents can have some alone time. I figured if they would rather stay with us, I'm great with that, we'll go and have fun as a family. But, they always want to go to the clubs. So, we do try to make sure that we dine together.

 

[Trinity524]

YAY for 17 weeks!!! Is it time to pack yet???

 

[FJS961]

We dine as a family every day with the exception of our date nights, no different from the cruise.

There are plenty of food options on deck for the kids. Another option with our earlier seating we did once was this: as my wife got ready for our adult dinner, I took the kids to the MDR and their fav choices were brought out very quickly. Yet another option for a suite is to have the kids dinner delivered to the room.

 

[Patricia1]

I haven't checked in on this thread yet, but I've been lurking . We are now paid in full for our cruise ! This will be our second Eastern caribbean with Disney and I can't wait to board the new ship! The kids are going bonkers already and we still have 121 days togo.

We've got a pretty big group going with us on this one:
Sonny (me), Jennifer (DW), DD12, DD10, DS8, DS6, DS4, DS2 (and potty trained ), Diane (my mother), and Gena (family friend, but basically our kids Godmother for lack of a better word)!

We're driving in from Texas and staying at AKL Kidani Village for five days before our cruise, so we're getting a little WDW in before we leave. Looking foward to the cruise and happy to check in on this thread!

Sonny

We're staying at AKL prior as well. It's one of our favorites!!!

 

[My4PhillyGirls]

We dine as a family every day with the exception of our date nights, no different from the cruise.

There are plenty of food options on deck for the kids. Another option with our earlier seating we did once was this: as my wife got ready for our adult dinner, I took the kids to the MDR and their fav choices were brought out very quickly. Yet another option for a suite is to have the kids dinner delivered to the room.

Everyone is on vacation and there is no right or wrong way to enjoy it

There are so many options for dinner and the truth be said, my family doesn't always eat a full dinner every night

Where else can you eat five times in a day and still eat dinner

 

[DierFam4]

Welcome......it was almost like I wrote the post myself. Our ds will be 10 and dd almost 8 at cruise time. We haven't told them either, And the Disney channel keeps showing clips of their favorite show characters on the Fantasy.....it is driving my son crazy. He wants to go soooo bad. Can't wait to meet all of you. Don't want to rush the summer....but I can't wait for 8/25

hahaha- that's so cool! Thank you for your greeting!

Have you been on a Disney cruise before? We took the kids on EPIC last year but this is our second DCL... our first was 8 years ago and sadly our kids don't really remember any of it. So this time it will be different because the memories from this trip will hopefully stay with our kids forever! I'm definitely going to try to decorate our cabin door as a surprise for them, and am thinking about getting involved in the FE group too! (I have till the end of May to decide...) My husband is concerned about "over-planning" our cruise, but we have a whole week so I really want to take advantage of all the 'inside secrets' to make this one really amazing! (That's just how I roll- LOL) Have you decided to do any of the extra things other families talk about on this site?