August 27, 2006 4 night Wonder

[bellelinus]

All three girls and I have pirate costumes to wear on pirate night! We will be totally over the top, but how many opportunities do you get to play dress up in public when you are an adult?

 

[MrsScooby]

We just watched the DCL dvd and everyone in my family was picking their dinner from the menus

I don't remember what I had last time .
I'm thinking I have to take pictures this time .
My DH is already rolling his eyes , but even he had fun looking at the food pictures on the thread they had on the cruise board .

 

[bellelinus]

Update -- hit my 75 day mark this morning and did not get up at 3 AM! Instead, I got up at 5:30 and was able to reserve everything I wanted (excursion for my 14 year old, cabana massage on CC for me, hot stone massage during the day at sea for me, reserved the kids club for my other two). There were quite a few choices of times for the massages, which pleasantly surprised me.

Because you were wondering, Laurie, I checked availability for Palo (even though I'm not going this time) and a couple could have made reservations for any of our nights on the cruise. I know that we are cruising at a less busy time, but at least for our cruise it didn't seem necessary to get up so early to book. I browsed the excursions and spa treatments, and there seemed to be lots available.

 

[MrsScooby]

Hey good to know you got everything you wanted
Takes alot of stress out of the planning. I guess since we are going during hurricane season and there don't seem to be alot of DIS people on our cruise that it wasn't necessary to get up at 3:00 am
Now I'm worried that our reservation for Palo is too early. We have the Dolphin swim booked the morning we are in Nassau (10 am) and a 6:30 Palo. I hate eating dinner late, so I'm not sure what to do. I may try to push it back a half hour when I get on the ship, maybe.

Hot stone massage Those are nice !!

 

[S.S.Oceanlover]

Hey good to know you got everything you wanted
Takes alot of stress out of the planning. I guess since we are going during hurricane season and there don't seem to be alot of DIS people on our cruise that it wasn't necessary to get up at 3:00 am
Now I'm worried that our reservation for Palo is too early. We have the Dolphin swim booked the morning we are in Nassau (10 am) and a 6:30 Palo. I hate eating dinner late, so I'm not sure what to do. I may try to push it back a half hour when I get on the ship, maybe.

Hot stone massage Those are nice !!

we only wanted the dolphin encounter and got shut out! Now we don't know what to do. Oh well leaving for a cruise in a couple hours with a visit in nassau. Maybe we can find something interesting when we visit this time.

Bill

 

[MrsScooby]

Sorry you didn't get that Dolphin Encounter Bill . I heard that was a real hard one to get. Maybe if you check back (on the DCL website) there might be some cancelations. If not, try getting on a waitlist soon after boarding.
We did the Atlantis tour when we went last time. We had fun

Let us know how your "first" cruise goes when you come back !

Laurie

 

[MrsScooby]

Hey Bill,
Are you back from your cruise yet ??
Let us know how it went !!!

Laurie

 

[S.S.Oceanlover]

Laurie,
Just back tonight. Cruise was good. The Wonder was docked next to us while we were in Nassau. We had a long day getting home. Couldn't get off the ship until almost noon due to bomb scare and when we finally got to airport flight was delayed about 2 hours due to lightning storms.

We can probably get the Dolphin Encounter booked if we book on our own but my wife is afraid of doing it without the guys going with the girls. The guys were headed to Breezes for the day.

Bill

 

[MrsScooby]

Hi Bill,
We have check in time for the dolphin swim at 10 am. Your wife and company are welcome to come with us (not that we really know where we're going either )
When your family did the encounter, how long did it take ? Trying to figure out what time we'll make it back to the ship

Laurie

 

[MrsScooby]

Bomb scare and lightning storms ! What a way to end a trip, Bill.

Let's hope the next one is smooth sailing

 

[S.S.Oceanlover]

This upcoming trip has me more concerned since it's in the prime time of the hurricanes. I have cruise about 3 times before in this time period and have gotten lucky. Let's hope that my luck holds out.

Last time we did the Dolphin Encounter it took about 4 hours total with the travel time included.

Are you doing the Dolphin Encounter with Disney? If not just go off the ship and head for the taxi stand. Let them know that you need to go to the ferry terminal. Was $4pp last year. At the ferry terminal which is in between the bridges about a mile or so up the street.
You check in at the Dolphin Encounter window with your confirmation.
Then you wait until the ferry starts boarding.

Hopefully it'll be the same this year as last and the ferry will drop you off right at the ships pier.

Thanks for the offer to travel with you guys but my wife doesn't have to check in until 1pm. They plan on going to the straw market first then the terminal.

We'll be hopping on the jitney heading to Cable beach and breezes.

Bill

 

[MrsScooby]

We booked the Dolphin Swim directly with the company. If we need to cancel we have to give 48 hours notice (I'm assuming we'll know if hurricanes are threatening by then)
Otherwise, I'm not too worried about hurricanes. I figure DCL is an old hand at dealing with them by now and if it gets bad ... we have trip insurance!
Also, DCL has been really good in the past about compensating for lost time due to hurricane weather. Still, hoping our luck holds out
(We were at WDW between the first and second hurricane in August 2004.)

Laurie

 

[Hobbitmomma]

Hubby and I are cruising with our son (7) and daughter (5). We'll be in WDW for three days prior so we will be shuttling directly to the port from there. Our kids have never been to Disney and we are surprising them. In fact, we once we are in WDW, we aren't going to tell them about the cruise either! We have early dinner seating and Palo reservations on night 3. We can hardly wait!

 

[bellelinus]

Welcome! I surprised my girls with a trip to WDW two summers ago and they have never forgotten it. I can't imagine what they would say if surprised by a cruise (but they've known about this one for a year now). Our cruise will be here before we know it . . .

 

[S.S.Oceanlover]

I'm clueless about this dinner stuff. You already have dinner reservations at Palo? Do you also know your dinner rotation? If so how do you find out.

Still (impatiently) waiting for cabin assignment!!

Bill

 

[bellelinus]

Hi Bill -- I don't think you know your dining rotation until you get your cards at the terminal. However, you should already know if you have the early or late seating. If you want to eat at Palo, you have to make special reservations and pay a small surcharge. Otherwise, just show up at your assigned restaurant at your assigned time and enjoy! I'm glad your previous cruise was good, despite a few problems. How was the Hyatt?

 

[MrsScooby]

Welcome Hobbitmomma !!
What a cool surprise for your kids
Do you have any excursions planned too ?
I think we all have early seating. I think they stagger the early times (5:45, 6:00, 6:15- something like that) Bellelinus is right, we won't find out the exact time until we check in.

I've heard it is possible to get additional dinners in Palo by being put on a wait list at guest services
(So Bill if you don't get that reservation now online, you can try again when you board)

I'm already starting my box of cruise stuff to bring (sun screen, waterproof camera, over the door shoe holder, etc.) We're under two months now

Looking forward to the POC movie this weekend
Walmart has some POC movie t-shirts in the boys department too.

Laurie

 

[bellelinus]

We already have tickets for the first POC - Dead Man's Chest show at the theatre near us this Friday (9 AM -- luckily I'm off work) -- we can't wait either. Seeing the movie will get us into the mood for our evening as pirates on the cruise . . .

 

[S.S.Oceanlover]

We already have tickets for the first POC - Dead Man's Chest show at the theatre near us this Friday (9 AM -- luckily I'm off work) -- we can't wait either. Seeing the movie will get us into the mood for our evening as pirates on the cruise . . .

I'm just an average Joe and don't like a lot of fuss so the Hyatt was more than I am used to. Way too fancy for me. The place was spectacular. What a pool, had a lake , golf course, horse stables and horses. Champagne at check in.

I'm used to Residence INN, Amerisuites, etc. I know it must sound funny.

It's ashame I can't put the Disney page on speed dial since I check it every day to see if we were assigned yet!

Got our confimation back from the Dolphin Encounter today.

We still have a lot of stuff still in suitcases from the last trip.

Bill

 

[Hobbitmomma]

Hey, thanks for the "welcome!" We have booked some excursions. We are doing the dolphin encounter in Nassau and snorkling in CC. My husband booked parasailing for himself and wants me to do it too. I haven't decided yet. I don't think we can do it together because we can't leave the kids obviously. We also already made reservations for the restaurants that we want to try in WDW. Yes, I'm also starting to gather stuff for the cruise. The "what to pack" info on this site has been really helpful. My husband and I are fairly busting with excitement to see how the kids react when they figure out where they are going!