August 29th, 2009--Eastern Magic...Let's Get it Started!

[MakingScrapbooks]

Sorry about your cold, Jan - I've been wondering why you didn't check in earlier! I had a wonderful Palo brunch with you . . . I am guessing that you didn't book one of those Med cruises that were on sale ?

Oh yes, the brunch was a highlight of my trip!! Thank you!

I didn't book the Med. cruise yet, because I need to talk to hubby. We ended up upgrading our park tickets to annual passes, so that was a big expense at the end of the trip. I am excited to be a first time AP'er!!

Also, I learned that some of the Med. cruises have kids sail free too!! I'm tossing the idea back and forth between one of those or one of the short ones next. I'll decide before those offers are over!

 

[TVEPFOX]

 

[TVEPFOX]

 

[bellelinus]

Oh yes, the brunch was a highlight of my trip!! Thank you!

I didn't book the Med. cruise yet, because I need to talk to hubby. We ended up upgrading our park tickets to annual passes, so that was a big expense at the end of the trip. I am excited to be a first time AP'er!!

Also, I learned that some of the Med. cruises have kids sail free too!! I'm tossing the idea back and forth between one of those or one of the short ones next. I'll decide before those offers are over!

The Med with kids sail free!!!! Book it! Let me know what you decide . . .

 

[gottolovedisney]

Oh yes, the brunch was a highlight of my trip!! Thank you!

I didn't book the Med. cruise yet, because I need to talk to hubby. We ended up upgrading our park tickets to annual passes, so that was a big expense at the end of the trip. I am excited to be a first time AP'er!!

Also, I learned that some of the Med. cruises have kids sail free too!! I'm tossing the idea back and forth between one of those or one of the short ones next. I'll decide before those offers are over! [/QUOTE

Med cruises with Kids for free?!?! Do you know the dates for these?? Do share!

 

[bellelinus]

Oh yes, the brunch was a highlight of my trip!! Thank you!

I didn't book the Med. cruise yet, because I need to talk to hubby. We ended up upgrading our park tickets to annual passes, so that was a big expense at the end of the trip. I am excited to be a first time AP'er!!

Also, I learned that some of the Med. cruises have kids sail free too!! I'm tossing the idea back and forth between one of those or one of the short ones next. I'll decide before those offers are over! [/QUOTE

Med cruises with Kids for free?!?! Do you know the dates for these?? Do share!

I think they are the ones in April and May when most kids are in school, but Jan home schools, so that would not be a problem for her. Have a look at this link:

http://www.dreamsunlimitedtravel.com/cruise/specials.htm#17free

 

[MakingScrapbooks]

Oh yes, the brunch was a highlight of my trip!! Thank you!

I didn't book the Med. cruise yet, because I need to talk to hubby. We ended up upgrading our park tickets to annual passes, so that was a big expense at the end of the trip. I am excited to be a first time AP'er!!

Also, I learned that some of the Med. cruises have kids sail free too!! I'm tossing the idea back and forth between one of those or one of the short ones next. I'll decide before those offers are over! [/QUOTE

Med cruises with Kids for free?!?! Do you know the dates for these?? Do share!

It is dates from April 24-May 26, 2010!! It's posted on the Disney TA website. Not sure how advertised it is as compared to the shorter sailings offer. I'm going to price it tonight and see what damage I can do!

 

[TVEPFOX]

Big E got his new tattoo today, he wanted you to see it. He'll add full color in 3 weeks. The sparrow will be red, the compas only points north to the thing you want the most, the map matches the one from pirate night, the pearls hanging from the hat will be black and grey, the gem on the hat is a blue diamond my suggestion (I branded him my man). On the brim of the hat he put a hidden mickey. I found it in 3 secs!

I can official say I'm sleeping with a pirate! LOL!

 

[MakingScrapbooks]

Big E got his new tattoo today, he wanted you to see it. He'll add full color in 3 weeks. The sparrow will be red, the compas only points north to the thing you want the most, the map matches the one from pirate night, the pearls hanging from the hat will be black and grey, the gem on the hat is a blue diamond my suggestion (I branded him my man). On the brim of the hat he put a hidden mickey. I found it in 3 secs!

I can official say I'm sleeping with a pirate! LOL!

WOW!!! It looks amazing!!!!!!

 

[Mojodisney]

Big E got his new tattoo today, he wanted you to see it. He'll add full color in 3 weeks. The sparrow will be red, the compas only points north to the thing you want the most, the map matches the one from pirate night, the pearls hanging from the hat will be black and grey, the gem on the hat is a blue diamond my suggestion (I branded him my man). On the brim of the hat he put a hidden mickey. I found it in 3 secs!

I can official say I'm sleeping with a pirate! LOL!


Woohoo!!! Where did he put it?

 

[Mojodisney]

Okay, so we are home and I have started peeling. Not too bad, but just a reminder of the great time on the beaches and in the sun!!! Need it since we got some serious rain after we got home and I'm missing the sun and humidity

 

[TVEPFOX]

Big E got his new tattoo today, he wanted you to see it. He'll add full color in 3 weeks. The sparrow will be red, the compas only points north to the thing you want the most, the map matches the one from pirate night, the pearls hanging from the hat will be black and grey, the gem on the hat is a blue diamond my suggestion (I branded him my man). On the brim of the hat he put a hidden mickey. I found it in 3 secs!

I can official say I'm sleeping with a pirate! LOL!


Woohoo!!! Where did he put it?

Upper left arm!

Don't feel bad, I'm peeling too! I sat in the sun for 2 hours yesterday and today. Need to keep my tan going! The trees are starting to change color here! UGH!

 

[nycemschic]

Aside from the mention of a cold here and there, has anyone gotten a stomach virus? DD's first day of school was yesterday and she came home with a headache, that morphed into a full stomach issue. I have it, and, as I type, I think I'm hearing DH in the bathroom.... Uh oh. Just wondering. We could've picked it up anywhere, I know....

What exactly is included in a trip report? Do you still need someone to write one? I may be game, depending on what it entails.

Our laundromat trip is postponed indefinitely until we all feel better... now I really wish we flew instead of drove!

We were looking into the mediterranean cruise too, but there were too many issues- a) DD can miss a few days of 4th grade, but I can't missing any time from nursing school. b) the airfare, as well as the amount of DVC points needed, is prohibitive.

We are actually considering "cheating" on DCL next summer- there's a 7 day Carnival southern Caribbean that comes out of San Juan, PR, and goes to a lot of exotic ports... that, combined with the airfare, will cost roughly the same as a 5-day two stops at CC cruise on DCL, not counting the airfare or driving expenses to Fla, (a task I'm not sure we're gonna undertake again) We've been on DCL 5 times, and never any other cruise line, so I wonder if I should expect the same stuff minus the mouse or what... Has anyone ever been on Carnival? Any comparisons out there?

I hope all is well with everyone and that you are assimilating nicely back into your regularly scheduled lives....

 

[TVEPFOX]

Aside from the mention of a cold here and there, has anyone gotten a stomach virus? DD's first day of school was yesterday and she came home with a headache, that morphed into a full stomach issue. I have it, and, as I type, I think I'm hearing DH in the bathroom.... Uh oh. Just wondering. We could've picked it up anywhere, I know....

What exactly is included in a trip report? Do you still need someone to write one? I may be game, depending on what it entails.

We were looking into the mediterranean cruise too, but there were too many issues- a) DD can miss a few days of 4th grade, but I can't missing any time from nursing school. b) the airfare, as well as the amount of DVC points needed, is prohibitive.

We are actually considering "cheating" on DCL next summer- there's a 7 day Carnival southern Caribbean that comes out of San Juan, PR, and goes to a lot of exotic ports... that, combined with the airfare, will cost roughly the same as a 5-day two stops at CC cruise on DCL, not counting the airfare or driving expenses to Fla, (a task I'm not sure we're gonna undertake again) We've been on DCL 5 times, and never any other cruise line, so I wonder if I should expect the same stuff minus the mouse or what... Has anyone ever been on Carnival? Any comparisons out there?

I hope all is well with everyone and that you are assimilating nicely back into your regularly scheduled lives....

Don't know of any stomach bugs! Sorry to hear DD is sick. DH has a sore throat.

A trip report is usually written by one person detailing their family's experience. Check around the threads you'll find plenty!

The Med does not work for our family either. The kids are in school during most of the sailings and the price is nutts! Cat 12's are gone. Airfare is out of sight! You can go with another line for much less if your heart is set on the Med.

We're jumping ship next year and I'll make no bones about it. I think DCL made a huge mistake with the schedule and prices for 2010. Hello, we are in a recession so lets send the boat to Europe which most families cant' afford, brilliant move DCL! Why do you think DCL is discounting the cruises so heavily, kids sail free, $600 OBC, etc, they're not selling.

DCL wants $5600 for a 5 day DD to the Bahamas (Nassau, really? again) in Aug for a cat 6. RCCL wants $3400 for the same room, 7 days and toss in Puerto Rico. Hands down we're going back to RCCL. We've sailed RCCL and Carnival pre kid and enjoyed both lines. Carnival has a reputation as a party barge, just look at the passengers who "fall" off the ship! IMHO the Carnival ships are tacky, but affordable we've stayed in the Presidential Suite for a song. RCCL's interior is designed well and there are plenty of things for kids to do. On RCCL we can afford a junior suite. After a week in WDW DD won't miss the mouse boat for one year. We think the food on RCCL is better than DCL. DH and I were less than impressed with the food and dinning room staff on this cruise. We thought the service slipped last cruise, but this one was even worse. C'mon, we were at late dinner and didn't get served until after nine o'clock, what's with that??? You heard Brent tell the early seating to get there on time.

Yes, we've sailed with Mickey more than the average passenger, but the shows don't change, the big menu changes for this year were awful and the crew is undertrained. Don't get me wrong, we enjoyed ourselves, but it's not the same Disney Magic it used to be.

We've been with Mickey for 7 years, guess we got the itch (kind of like my first marriage LOL) to find something new. We'll be back just like everyone else when the new ships come out in 2011.

 

[justhat]

We were on a RCCL cruise 2 weeks before this one and we had the opposite feelings as you, TVEPFOX. We have never been impressed by any ship's food, but found RCCL's to be worse than Disney's. We were in a jr. suite on the Freedom, which is about the same size as our Cat 4 on last week's cruise, but with a different layout. I can't say I liked one over the other as they both had perks, but I will say the ability to sleep 5 in the Cat 4 vs 2 in the jr suite was a big plus.

What we did like was RCCL's amenities, as Disney is definitely lacking in that area on this older, smaller ships. The ice rink, mini golf, huge water play area, etc. were great. My daughter was 6 months too young for the rock wall, but she would have loved that, and if I had older kids I am sure they'd love the FlowRider too.

Disney's service won hands down over RCCL though, as there were several fights aboard our RCCL cruise that were effectively the result of poor planning on RCCL's part. Like charging $20 for each beach towel. Someone tried to steal one of ours because they lost one of theirs on CocoCay. At the ice carving demo there was no order or ropes and kids kept grabbing pieces of ice despite being asked to stay back, then when the guy was done, they ran up and broke the ice carving before my kids could even see the finished product. And for the free skate we attended, the opened 17 minutes late, which caused an angry mob to start yelling at my [old] mother, who was visibly not going to skate, cause they thought she was cutting the line when she walked to the door to look in the windows and see if anyone was around. It was insane, they literally pushed her, holding my 3yo son, out of the way when the man finally opened the door. And like I said, she wasn't even going to skate! Nor was the 3yo! Just my 5yo who was patiently waiting her spot in line. And for our sailing they move the 3-5yo group from their usual room to the 9-12yo room, which was basically an empty space, no play structure. So my kids were pretty upset about that, as sign up had been in the regular room and they liked the play area. Not to mention having to take them out for blocks of time during the day, which was not always convenient.

Those kind of things I have never seen happen on DCL and I attribute it to their intense order and structure. We'd still go back on RCCL, but not till the kids are much older and can enjoy more of the older kid stuff cause at this age I think Disney still corners the market. That and the fact that they take 12 week old cruisers, while the other lines have a 6 month age minimum. So we're doing a Baltic on DCL next year since we'll have a new baby in January and they're the only line that not only will take our 5 month old, but also has the Reef as a babysitting option.

 

[Az Pirates]

I've got a cold, but I blame mine on the guy across the aisle on the airplane. He was coughing and sneezing the entire flight. Yuk!

We've sailed on Carnival, but I don't know that our experience is a fair representation of how things are now, especially for families. We sailed pre-kids, and over spring break no less. Party cruise was definitely a fair representation of what we experienced... but that's what we were looking for.

I remember the evening shows on Carnival being much more Vegas glitz style than DCL's offerings. Something to keep in mind. Now that I have a teenage DS, I'm more comfortable with him watching family friendly Disney characters than scantily clad showgirls.

As many repeat cruisers as DCL has, I find it a little surprising that they don't change up the shows more too. Our first DCL cruise was in 2005 and we saw all the same shows then as we did last week. Yes, we still enjoy them, but I'd definitely appreciate something new.

We booked a dummy date onboard, but we may or may not actually use it. I guess we'll see whether we find Friday's announcement intriguing or not.

 

[Mojodisney]

Aside from the mention of a cold here and there, has anyone gotten a stomach virus? DD's first day of school was yesterday and she came home with a headache, that morphed into a full stomach issue. I have it, and, as I type, I think I'm hearing DH in the bathroom.... Uh oh. Just wondering. We could've picked it up anywhere, I know....

What exactly is included in a trip report? Do you still need someone to write one? I may be game, depending on what it entails.

Our laundromat trip is postponed indefinitely until we all feel better... now I really wish we flew instead of drove!

We were looking into the mediterranean cruise too, but there were too many issues- a) DD can miss a few days of 4th grade, but I can't missing any time from nursing school. b) the airfare, as well as the amount of DVC points needed, is prohibitive.

We are actually considering "cheating" on DCL next summer- there's a 7 day Carnival southern Caribbean that comes out of San Juan, PR, and goes to a lot of exotic ports... that, combined with the airfare, will cost roughly the same as a 5-day two stops at CC cruise on DCL, not counting the airfare or driving expenses to Fla, (a task I'm not sure we're gonna undertake again) We've been on DCL 5 times, and never any other cruise line, so I wonder if I should expect the same stuff minus the mouse or what... Has anyone ever been on Carnival? Any comparisons out there?

I hope all is well with everyone and that you are assimilating nicely back into your regularly scheduled lives....

sorry no stomach thing here. DH has a cold from last week after a woman sneezed all over him during one of the shows.

We did Carnival pre-kid so I couldn't compare how it would go. We saw a high school group on board, senior trip, and we weren't impressed by their or their chaperones actions.

Trip report is your report about your experiences on your trip. If you do one, let us know so we can chime in I love to read other peoples TR, but am too shy and not a good writer to write my own, but happy to add my take to someone else's

DD asked DH yesterday when we get to go back on the Magic. My girl!!!

 

[luvMickey&Minnie]

Well I've unpacked and done all the laundry and ready to plan another trip.
DCL was nice but I miss the large size of the RCCL ships I've been on. I love how RCCL has so many amenities on board and I have to agree that RCCL's food is much better than DCL. We didn't have great service at dinner either TVEFOX. It took forever to get our meals and our waiter never listened to what we wanted to order. He'd just bring out a bunch of stuff that he'd recommend; not what we wanted. DH & I really didn't want to go overboard on this cruise with all the food but boy will I have to hit the gym. I think it was also all the free coke on deck 9 I don't think I've drank that much soda in that short of time..lol. DH thought that Topsiders was more like a military mess hall than an inviting place to eat (he used to be in the Air Force). I really like how they have it on RCCL with the different stations at the buffet so you just go to the station that you want instead of waiting in a huge line.
When I saw the Goofy pool, I thought it was a hot tub Do they really expect a boat with 1000 kids to fit in that tiny thing? And what's up with the Mickey pool being closed the last 2 days? We finally decided to go to the Mickey pool the last day at sea and it was closed.. ugh!
With all that being said, we did have a really good time. We really loved the shows..The hyponist was great! (the juggling comedian, not so much). We were talking about the hyponist show for days afterwards...very entertaining. I really loved all the Disney character shows as well (first time on DCL). The character dinner was awesome as well along with Pirate night and the fireworks..awesome! The way the bathroom is split worked out great. DH could get ready in one and I could get ready in the other. What a great idea! I also loved how the room was broken up into a living room and bedroom so you could pull the curtains and just have the living room seperate. We would often order All Hands on Deck late at night and eat it while watching a movie on tv.
I'd like to go on Disney again but not until they have the bigger ships ready. We wanted to go on a Med trip next year and priced them out and it looks like Carnival is about 1/4 the price of DCL to the Med and RCCL about 1/2 the price of DCL. I couldn't get over how reasonable Carnival was for stops all over Italy and the French Riveria (what a deal).
Hope to run into you all on a future cruise sometime...It was great cruising with you all

 

[jel0511]

We booked the 10 night 8/18 sailing of the Med onboard. We did consider RCCL, but we've sailed them in the past and DCL hands down is better, worth the extra money, IMO. I wanted the clubs my kids love so much so they would have a good time, also I feel comfortable if DH and I want to run off ship for an hour to see whats around to leave them onboard DCL, never got that feeling with RCCL.

 

[bellelinus]

Check out the new Castaway Club section of the DCL website! It shows every cruise you have taken, the cabin number, your level of membership, benefits, and even links to upcoming reservations -- pretty cool