August 28, 2014- 3-Night Dream

[Ashlotte]

Welcome August 28, 2014 Dream cruisers! Please join in the conversation and add yourself to the roll call, along with any family members joining you and your kids' ages at the time of travel.

Also, please let me know if you would like to participate in a Fish Extender gift exchange. Here are some links for people who are unfamiliar with this disboard tradition. We did it last time (my kids were 5 & 3 at the time), and other than the chocolates on the pillows at night, this was my littlest one's very favorite part of the cruise!
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=33184281&postcount=2 http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1219607
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=30302583&postcount=609


Roll Call:

Ashlotte (40), DH (38), DS (11), DD (9) - FE (fish extenders)
laurasbaker, DS (18), DD (12), DD (10)- FE
JLK2001 (43), DH (43), DD(10)
CarolCPA, DD (10)
Valentine, nephew (10)
Disney Susan, DH, DS James (15), DS Adam (12) - FE
Ntrain, DH, DS (5)
MickeyBeast
Morrow0714 (Michelle -38), DH (37), DS (10), DD (8), DS (5), (DS (1) staying ashore)- FE
Belleluvswdw, DH, DD (16), DS (14), baby DD (due February!)
Mrs. M. Mouse (Allie), DH, DD (13), DD (10)
Lottie2004, DH, DS (12), DD (9)
lingra01 (45), DH (45), DD (13), DS (12) - FE
lingra01's cousins- Harry (49), Gloria (44), Gillian (9)
Maleficent is me (AnnMarie), DD (30), DGS (2)- FE
lilkooler (35), DH (32), DS (7), DD (3), DD (1)
Bexy83 (Becky), DH, DS (7), DS (5), Becky's mom (Julie)- FE
KJay, DD (13)
Nik0621
kiddisney, DH, DS (10)
kimber1, DD, DD, 5 grandkids
baileyspoppi: DH, DW
gigi1313
samayudi
rlkb74, DH, DS (8), DD (6)

Cabins: (blue rooms are participating in FE exchange)

6548, Bexy83
5048, baileyspoppi
7668, Mrs. M. Mouse
9138, Maleficent is me
9148, laurasbaker
9652, Ashlotte
10158, Disney Susan
11016, lilkooler
12504, lingra01's cousins
12506, CarolCPA
12508, Lottie2004
12512Valentine
12522, lingra01
12524, Belleluvswdw
12528, Morrow0714

Fish Extender Delivery Schedule:

Thursday, August 28:
1. Ashlotte, 9652, 4 people (2 adults, 11M, 9F)
2. lingra01, 12522, 4 people (2 adults, 13F, 12M)
3. lingra01's cousin, 12504, 3 people (2 adults, 9F)

Friday, August 29:
1. Disney susan, 10158, 4 people (2 adults, 15M, 12M)
2. Bexy83, 6548, 5 people (3 adults, 7M, 5M)
3. Maleficent is Me, 9138, 3 people (2 adults, 2M)


Saturday, August 30:
1. laurasbaker, 9148 (2 adults, 12F, 10F)

Total: adults- 15,
kids- 12 (7 boys, 5 girls)

 

[Ashlotte]

Hello everyone! Am I the only one on this cruise? I can't believe there is no existing meet thread.

We just booked this cruise to celebrate (or distract from the pain) of my turning 40 while on the cruise. Currently it will be me, DH (who won't be 40 yet and will be sure to rub it in for two years), DS (11 at the time), and DD (9 at the time). (There is also a strong possibility my sister's family may be joining us, they will have two DDs, ages 13 & 11. I'll update on that later.)

DH and I took a honeymoon cruise on Carnival in 1999 and a 10-year anniversary trip on the Magic in 2009 (Western excursion, although we ended up in Nassau as a diversion due to the breakout of the swine flu), so this is our third cruise, but second on Disney. This is our first time going on a shorter cruise (the other two were seven nights) and I am a little concerned we will be left feeling like we need more, but isn't that always what happens? Maybe this way we'll only gain five pounds each instead of ten.

Looking forward to hearing from everyone and looking forward to a magical cruise!

 

[JLK2001]

Just booked this trip. It will be our second DCL cruise. Sailed on the Fantasy Western Feb. 16, 3013. It will be myself (43), DH (43), and DD (10) when we sail. The way I look at it is, short cruise is better than no cruise!

 

[Ashlotte]

Welcome! Glad to see I won't be the only disboard member aboard. = Yes, I agree that a short cruise is better than no cruise. Plus, this way our family will have time for WDW prior, so that's a good thing, too.

 

[IrishCowboy]

I have added your thread to the cruise meet list

Have a great cruise!

 

[laurasbaker]

Finally had a day off and time to book this morning. DH feels it may be too hot in FL that time of year so just booked myself and my two girls, who I thought would be 10 and 12 (but I am pretty brain-dead right now, my sister is probably right). I'm sure my husband will be on board (pun intended) when it comes time to book flights and he realized he will be home alone while we have all the fun!

This will be our first Disney cruise, though we've cruised to Alaska three times, twice with the girls. I looooove cruising and I LOOOOOOVVEE Disney so I am beside myself with anticipation. I can't believe I will have to wait so long to get my Mickey on.

Can't wait to meet everyone!

 

[JLK2001]

Finally had a day off and time to book this morning. DH feels it may be too hot in FL that time of year so just booked myself and my two girls, who I thought would be 10 and 12 (but I am pretty brain-dead right now, my sister is probably right). I'm sure my husband will be on board (pun intended) when it comes time to book flights and he realized he will be home alone while we have all the fun!

This will be our first Disney cruise, though we've cruised to Alaska three times, twice with the girls. I looooove cruising and I LOOOOOOVVEE Disney so I am beside myself with anticipation. I can't believe I will have to wait so long to get my Mickey on.

Can't wait to meet everyone!

Welcome to the cruise! You will love it!

 

[Ashlotte]

Finally had a day off and time to book this morning. DH feels it may be too hot in FL that time of year so just booked myself and my two girls, who I thought would be 10 and 12 (but I am pretty brain-dead right now, my sister is probably right). I'm sure my husband will be on board (pun intended) when it comes time to book flights and he realized he will be home alone while we have all the fun!

This will be our first Disney cruise, though we've cruised to Alaska three times, twice with the girls. I looooove cruising and I LOOOOOOVVEE Disney so I am beside myself with anticipation. I can't believe I will have to wait so long to get my Mickey on.

Can't wait to meet everyone!

Yes, welcome aboard, Sister! I think you might be right about your kids' ages- I forgot that my spring/summer babies will have had their birthdays by sailing time and your fall/winter ones will have not. Honestly, it makes my head hurt to picture my kids being 9 & 11. Especially since they were 3 & 5 on our last cruise!

 

[JLK2001]

Still just the three of us??? We are almost at the one year to go! Doing laundry yesterday made me think that a year from now we will be packing!

 

[JLK2001]

One year to go!

 

[Ashlotte]

One more year to cruise time! My sister and I actually couldn't wait that long without Disney, so we have been at Disneyland this week celebrating my birthday (although the milestone one is next year on the cruise) and having "one last hurrah" before school starts on Tuesday. A year from today we will be in the Bahamas (and I will be 40 )! It will be fun and will go way too fast. Looking forward to it!

 

[CarolCPA]

Hi fellow cruisers! I was on the Dream last month for the 4 day cruise. Someone in our group ended up setting up a Facebook group for our cruise and that was cool. We met lots of people from the group on the ship. I previously booked another cruise in January 2014, but just received an email from DCL saying that the Wonder is being taken out of service for maintenance and they need to cancel my cruise. For my inconvenience, they are giving me 25% off another cruise, so I chose this one. DCL will also cover my airline fees to change flights. I even get the 25% discount on concierge!!!! You don't get discounts on concierge everyday. I cruised concierge 2 years ago and loved it. Last month, I didn't have a concierge room....the aft room with large balcony was awesome #9172 (Cat 5E). The ROYAL SUITE is available, but it's $5,830 for 2 people. That's a lot of money for 3 days, but that suite would be amazing Relatively not a bad price for it, but difficult to justify for 2 people when I can go for $1,300 in the smaller suite and still get concierge service. The 1 bedroom suite is $1,668 (twice as big). The big question is whether I should upgrade to the 1 bedroom or keep the cheaper room & spend money on a cabana at Castaway?!?!?!?

 

[Ashlotte]

Hi Carol! Welcome! Too bad about your original cruise date, but I am certain ours will be so much more fun. Tricky to figure out what room to book. There are so many decisions to make when cruising! I am already looking into excursions in Nassau. What did you choose to do last time you were there?

 

[CarolCPA]

I think I will like this cruise better anyway! The big discount helps! I decided to book the 1 bedroom suite on deck 12 and pass on a cabana at Castaway. The first time I cruised, I didn't leave the ship at Nassau. The last time, my daughter & I went on a walking tour with 8 people from the UK that were on our Facebook group for the cruise. Let's just say that I would not want to walk around by myself! Nassau doesn't seem very nice and I wanted to go back to the ship the whole time. The people from the UK were awesome, but got us lost! A local woman stopped us and said to not go further the way we were going because it's not safe. YIKES!!!! I talked to others who booked the Atlantis waterpark excursion. They told me that it ended up being closed down because of thunderstorms. They got to enjoy it for a half hour and paid all that money for nothing (no refund). They said that Atlantis seemed a little run down and not worth the money. It was cool to have met so many people on DIS Boards & Facebook before the cruise & we felt so popular on the ship! Hopefully, someone can figure out how to set up the same kind of group. I'm planning to stay on the ship and not bother with Nassau. There's so much to do on the ship. I recommend that you get off the ship first thing at Castaway because there aren't many people at the family beach first thing in the morning. When we got bored with it, we went back to the ship and found activities. My daughter will be 10 when we cruise and wants to spend a lot of time in the Club/Lab. I just want to relax in my big room since we've already done everything on the ship. I will probably never get a deal like this on a suite, so I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts!

 

[Valentine]

Hi everyone! Here's another joining in on the fun! Myself and my nephew who is 10 will be on the cruise.... we just did our first Disney cruise this past 4th of July and I am kicking myself that I did not book while on that one... UGH.. never again.. I will be booking onboard this time around! Excited... We are booked in a One Bedroom Concierge and would LOVE to do the FE again this trip... my nephew had a ball handing out the gifts as well as coming back to the room every night to new surprises!

 

[CarolCPA]

Welcome Concierge neighbor! My daughter will be 10, so she's looking forward to meeting your nephew! She's an ice hockey player and does well with the boys even though she's a girly girl. We probably won't do the FE because last time there would have been no room in the luggage for extra stuff.

 

[Valentine]

Welcome Concierge neighbor! My daughter will be 10, so she's looking forward to meeting your nephew! She's an ice hockey player and does well with the boys even though she's a girly girl. We probably won't do the FE because last time there would have been no room in the luggage for extra stuff.

That's Great I actually just called today and moved our room....we are now going to be in 12512...
So excited.. I am debating as to whether or not I am going to tell my nephew or not that we are doing the cruise... I may surprise him by just driving to the port from Disney... But not sure.. JoJo is equally great with boys and girls.. so I am sure they will get along That was his favorite part of the trip in July..meeting new friends!

 

[CarolCPA]

I figured you had 12512 because I noticed it disappeared from the inventory. Great choice because it's on the "bump out." Our room is right down the hall from yours on the same side. The larger balcony is awesome! We stayed in 12510 years ago. We will likely go to Disney World right before the cruise. We usually stay at Pop Century. When we go will depend on airfare. Sydney looks forward to meeting JoJo! I was thinking of renting a car and driving to the port really early. I don't want the Disney bus to take me to the port because I can't control the arrival time.

 

[Valentine]

Yes... When I booked I was assigned 12006 and wanted to be on the other side of the ship... I had read about the bump out and requested that room... tried for 12000 but the royal suites aren't booked yet for out cruise.. sooooo the cm told me that they hold that room until the royals are booked and adjoining rooms are not requested... I haven't told JoJo yet about the cruise and really may not!! Insert evil laugh! LOL! We will most likely be at Beach Club Villa's prior to the cruise and I might tell him we are just changing resorts.. which we have done many times before.. and then drive to the port LOL!! Not sure if i can keep a secret for that long!!! AND.. sometimes the planning is half the fun, even for the kids! I am definitely going to ask that we be assigned seating in the dining room with other families though, as that was JoJo's favorite part of the trip last year... meeting new friends... and I have read that concierge guests get their own table at MDR's. So.. have to remember to make that call! Sooo excited!!!

 

[Disney susan]

Hi, first post and first cruise next August. Very excited. We have done Florida a number of times and our friends convinced us to try a cruise on our holiday next year.

We are from England, just outside London. There will be 4 of us, me and Hubby and our sons - James (15) and Adam (12) - who I am sure we will not see once we are on the ship!

Would love to do a fish extender if we get one up and running and I apologise for all the questions I am going to ask!