August 30th 2009 - 4 night Wonder

[happyj]

Hi Shelley
It is nice to have someone on our thread who will have lots of information .There are bound to be quetions as time goes on .
Where are you going to stay before and after ?
Janet

 

[happyj]

Hi Shelley
I already have a question how formal are the evenings ?
I have seen pictures of guests in full length dresses and evening suits .

 

[shelleyr25]

Not formal at all and the last time we went it was Thanksgiving. DH never wore anything but khaki pants and either a polo style shirt or a short sleeved button down. I wore mostly capri sets..no skirts or dresses at all. We didnt dine at Palo's, that would be the exception.
I am not sure as to what our plans are before. We would need to head home right after...still working on all of this.
Really excited to be going again and super happy with my room 7503...right near the "secret" deck!!

 

[happyj]

What is the secre deck?

 

[shelleyr25]

It is the "secret" deck- sorry, typo
It is a deck in the front of the boat accessable only from the 7th floor. It is very quiet because most people dont know about it.

 

[debsters41]

Hello! It looks like we will be neighbors, as we are in 7509!

 

[happyj]

It's a small world after all la la la

 

[shasess]

Hello Shelly!
Welcome!

 

[silmarg]

Howdy folks!

Back from the 15 day Eastbound Repositioning cruise... it was fantastic!

It was our 2nd DCL (our 1st was a 4 day on the Wonder).

While I am going thru vacation withdrawl as we speak... I think I need to look towards my 2009 cruise to get over it.

While we are getting pressure to move to a 7 day (to be with some friendly cruisers we met on the 15 day) I think we are standing pat and going on this 4 day.

The "private deck" is on Deck 7 aft (not forward). Deck 7 forward is actually where the crew's pool is.

We did a fish extender on the 15 day with 140 participants (140 is the number of rooms participating - not the number of guests!). Needless to say there was always new stuff in the FE... and the kids loved it. Hopefully we can get a good group of FE participants for this sailing! This is sort of what my FE gift looked like (I say sort of because the ones I gave out included a stamp from Panama... but I ran out of them!):

I look forward to doing some planning for 2009 with all of you... I am thinking about staying at AKL for this trip. My older DD loves animals... and she would love it...

 

[debsters41]

The Repo cruise must have been amazing! I am glad you set me straight about the deck on 7. I knew about the aft one but I spent some time yesterday looking for the secret front one Your gift was really clever! Did you ever have any problems because of the hurricanes?

 

[skiingwife]

Hi everyone. My family and I are so excited to be planning another Disney Cruise. My husband, youngest son, and I went in October 2007 for our 20th anniversary. We loved it so much that we have to go back, but this time we are taking our 2 oldest sons too. We are:

Steve
Melissa (me)
Spencer 16 (at the time)
Alex 14
Nicholas 11

We've got 2 connecting cat 7's.

I'm planning to book a room at Comfort Suites to go to Atlantis on our Nassau Day, but also toying with the idea of just staying on board to enjoy the many activities. We went on a catamaran sail and reef snorkel last year. It was fun.

Looking forward to meeting everyone!

 

[happyj]

Welcome

 

[debsters41]

Hello! Welcome to the group! I was considering doing the whole Atlantis thing, but then I decided that since it is our first time in Nassau, we would just get off the boat and do the walking tour for an hour or so, then get back on the ship to enjoy ourselves there. We will have been two weeks in Orlando beforehand, and I expect we will have visited at least one waterpark while there.

It's nice to have some teenagers, my daughters are looking forward to Aloft and I am glad that they will be practicing their English!

 

[Young Pooh]

Hi Shelleyr25 and Skiingwife

I go away for a week and we get two new families! We have been to DLRP for a few days so will try and post a few piccies this week as I guess that most of you won't have been there.

We are also on deck 7 (7120) but aft, near to the secret deck.

Hi Sil, welcome back. How was the repo? I can't imagine doing a fish extender for a 140 families. What sort of gifts did you get? I thought that if we do one for our cruise then we should try to give gifts that are representative of our home state/country as we are quite a global group already.

We will be in WDW for a few days before and then for a week after the cruise so if anyone is interested in meeting beforehand (or after) for a pre/post cruise drink then I would be up for that.

 

[skiingwife]

Young Pooh: We were in 7120 last year. It's a great cabin. We loved the location and the room was very clean. I think we're in 6140 and 6142 in August.

 

[silmarg]

The repo was fabulous... We had no port changes due to weather (not bad considering it was 15 days during hurricane season)! Fay was doing her stuff while we were in the Pacific, Gustav was into the Gulf when we were on our way to CC (from Aruba) and Hanna was about one or two days from the Bahamas by the time we got to CC.

They did alter our course to stay away from Gustav. When going from Aruba to CC we were supposed to go between Cuba and Hispanola, but instead we went between Hispanola and Puerto Rico.

By and large the Carribean side of the cruise was smooth as silk. The Pacific side was more choppy, but I think part of it was we had some passenger miss the all aboard time in Acapulco and they had to make up for lost time to make it to the Panama Canal for our time slot. Generally speaking we were going much faster on the Pacific part than the Carribean.

As for FE gifts, many many were Pirate related, there were many small door magents (at least 15) and pens. Some folks gave out stuff related to where they were from - 2 Canadians gave out Tim Horton's coffee, a New Zealander gave some interesting postcards, etc. Among the big hits were a small rubber chicken key chain and a real working POTC pocket watch.

As for Nassau, I have done the Comfort Suites to gain access to Atlantis' facilities (and they are fabulous facilities). If it were up to me, I would be doing it again, but we have another family coming with us and I an not sure what we will be doing on Nassau day this time around...

 

[Carys]

Oh man I am just back from the world and suffering serious pixie dust withdrawl, I wish I were back! On the bright side I booked the bounceback deal with deluxe dining at Wilderness Lodge for 8 nights following the cruise. I might get there a few nights early too depending on how flights pan out, so if I'm around I'd be keen to meet up for a pre-cruise drink. I was set to go to a meet last week but slept right through it!! So hopefully my track record will improve.

Silmag - sounds like you had a great time! 15 nights would rock my socks. I'm crossing fingers we'll get a good fish extender group going too because I keep running across lots of things here in Taiwan that would be perfect.

Skiingwife- welcome aboard! Great to have another family on deck

(And thanks all for the Boos!!)

 

[Young Pooh]

Hi Carys

Glad you had a great time at the World (hard not to though ). I take it from the piccies you managed to do MNSSHP. How was it? We did it last year but it was torrential rain/thunderstorm all night and most of the activities were cancelled so we didn't really enjoy it that much. I'm hoping that there will be one on Sept 4th next year so we can try again after the cruise.

Great that you got to do the bounceback offer for next year. We will be there at the same time as you but at BCV - 4 nights before and 8 nights after the cruise. Just need to decide now wether to do normal DDP or the deluxe one. I think we will probably just do the normal one as we probably won't eat at that many signatures with having Evie with us. I think we will only do Narcoossees and Flying Fish.

 

[happyj]

Hi all
I always have withdrawal .
I have received my fabric ready to make FE for next year .so have plenty of time .
Also we went to Pirate and Princess party this year and had torrential rain all night but we donned our macks and had fun but a few things were cancelled .
Did not realise the MNSSHP will be on when we are there next year .Do you know what date it will start .
welcome new comers .

 

[debsters41]

Here's hoping and wishing that there is a MNSSHP right after the cruise. We are planning on spending a couple days in Cocoa Beach after the cruise, but I wouldn't mind driving on over to Orlando again for it! My kids have never 'lived' Halloween, they only know what I tell them. They love the idea of it, although I can't get my fourteen year old excited about dressing up .

Halloween:
Pre-cruise drink:
fish extender exchange: