August 30th 2009 - 4 night Wonder

[love2pugs]

Hello everyone.

I have a question. My DH and I have the second seating for dinner. I noticed that the stage shows start around 6:15 pm. Do we dress for dinner and go see the show or will we have time to dress after the show? I do not remember how long the shows last (our first cruise was in 2004).
_______________
Tracy

 

[Young Pooh]

Hi Tracy

I'm not sure as this will be our first cruise. I'm sure Harry or someone else will know - hopefully they will be along shortly.

Sue

 

[love2pugs]

Hi Tracy

I'm not sure as this will be our first cruise. I'm sure Harry or someone else will know - hopefully they will be along shortly.

Sue

Hi Sue,

Thank you. I keep going back and reading some of the trip reports and can't find my answer! Have a nice day!
__________
Tracy

 

[silmarg]

Hello everyone.

I have a question. My DH and I have the second seating for dinner. I noticed that the stage shows start around 6:15 pm. Do we dress for dinner and go see the show or will we have time to dress after the show? I do not remember how long the shows last (our first cruise was in 2004).
_______________
Tracy

While I normally do 1st seating for dinner. Basically the way it works, is from dinner you go directly to the show. Those in second seating do the opposite.

So yes you should be dressed for dinner when you go to the show.

While you will have a few minutes between the show and dinner, you wont have enough time to change (unless you are really fast or dont care if you will be really late)

 

[hmansure]

Hello everyone.

I have a question. My DH and I have the second seating for dinner. I noticed that the stage shows start around 6:15 pm. Do we dress for dinner and go see the show or will we have time to dress after the show? I do not remember how long the shows last (our first cruise was in 2004).
_______________
Tracy

While you may have time between the end of the show and dinner - why rush around?! I would get dressed before the show and then you can move at a leisurely pace before dinner.

We usually have 1st seating... we can then often be found in autograph lines before the show!!

 

[love2pugs]

Thank you all for the answers. Have a nice day!
_____________
Tracy

 

[debsters41]

Hello, checking in again!

I have changed my plans for the night before the cruise, so no 'night before cruise fruity drink by the sea with other dissers' for me

But, I found a great deal for the night before at a place in orlando, enough of a good deal that with the money we save we can park at the port and avoid the whole "shuttle" scene, which my husband and daughter weren't too keen on in the first place.

We have main dining, but I was wondering of the repeat cruisers which seating do you prefer and why? I just want to know if maybe we should switch to later dining, since I don't have smaller children.

Thanks!

 

[hmansure]

We have main dining, but I was wondering of the repeat cruisers which seating do you prefer and why? I just want to know if maybe we should switch to later dining, since I don't have smaller children.

I think it comes down to your personal preferences. We have done both the early and late seating in the past and each has it's positive & negatives. If I had to choose - I would say that early seating is our preference. We aren't overly fond of eating a big dinner after 8PM is basically the main reason. We like to eat dinner and then hit the evening show. We then can go on and do other evening activities.

As far as kids are concerned - obviously there are more younger children at the early seating. There are plenty of kids around for the late seating though. I've read where some people are looking to avoid the little ones, but on this cruise that's just not going to happen! When we had the late seating our youngest at that time was 3. He only fell asleep at dinner one night!!

 

[Carys]

We decided to go for maining dining too for 3 reasons:

1. the late seating seemed a little late for dinner
2. we wanted to be able to sit and digest dinner while watching the shows afterward
3. pirate night - I've seen a few reports of people who had the later seating and then were too full to enjoy the dessert buffet.

Not sure how it will work out since it's our first cruise but the logic seems sound to us

 

[happyj]

Hi all
with the £ doing better against the $ today we have paid off the cruise on our nation wide card .It is a gamble but so is life .

With the dining we thought we had booked to go late but reservation tells us main seating .We do not know which we would like as we are newbbies.

 

[Young Pooh]

We are on the main dinner also - I don't think Evie would last until late seating and would end up having an early dinner somewhere else.

Janet, I have also been watching the $/£ rate avidly - still hopeful that it will go back up to $1.50 to the £ but I doubt it. I think I will have to base the cost of the cruise on $1.40 to £ and budget accordingly.

Debs, what are your final plans - where will you be staying?

 

[silmarg]

We are main diners as well...

for the same reasons noted above.

The big plus for late dining is the ability to tour ports of call for more of the day. There were some days on our repo cruise that I wished we did have late dining.

 

[happyj]

The only port of call we will be having is Nassau and from what I read on the Dis we are better off staying on the Wonder . I am happy with that although we might have a morning visit to Atlantis .

 

[silmarg]

The only port of call we will be having is Nassau and from what I read on the Dis we are better off staying on the Wonder . I am happy with that although we might have a morning visit to Atlantis .

We are gonna probably rent a day room at the Comfort Suites in Nassau which give you full access to the Atlantis facilities (which are awesome).

But when I was on the Magic, I would loved to have seem more of Aruba, Cabo San Lucas and Cartagena. They were fabulous ports of call.

 

[debsters41]

Debs, what are your final plans - where will you be staying?

final plans? I doubt my plans are final as of yet. As a matter of fact, I just made a change again a couple of days ago! I can tell you my plans as they stand now....

a week in orlando off property, the week before the cruise at pop century, the night before the cruise at fairfield inn and suites in the mariott village in orlando and three nights after the cruise in the Hilton Cocoa Beach. I am not so sure about the last one, because the reviews on trip advisor are not stellar... but we shall see.

I will pay off the cruise next month, I just put discovery cove on the card this month

 

[happyj]

I just love all the planning!

 

[Young Pooh]

I just love all the planning!

Me too.

I have got everything sorted now except what we will do each day and where we will eat.

The accomodation (SSR) and flights (VA) are booked and need to be paid at the end of June, the cruise needs paying just before. The car hire (Dollar) and travel insurance (Tesco) are sorted and paid for. We got a good deal on the car hire through VA as they were offering double or triple confused3) flying club miles and were coming out cheaper than everyone else such as US Rentacar etc. We went for a full size and will be picking it up from the Regal Sun Resort the day before the cruise and keeping it until we fly back.

We have booked Magical Express for the pick up from the airport - we haven't used this before but one of the people I rented my DVC points to used it last week and said it was very good. They were through immigration in 10 minutes (must be a world record) and the bus journey to BWV only took 40 minutes and that was with 3 other stops.

All I have left to do now is book the Radisson at Manchester for the night before the flight and arrange airport parking and then get MNSSHP tickets when they are released and 1 day Seaworld tickets.

Then the fun bit starts. I need to get a rough plan sorted of what we will be doing each day so that I can decide on restaurants. I think we will be having a couple of meals offsite so if anyone has any favourites then let me know.

 

[debsters41]

I think we will be having a couple of meals offsite so if anyone has any favourites then let me know.

me too! me too!

 

[hmansure]

me too! me too!

After eating all that food on the cruise I don't think we'll want to eat anymore.... awww, who am I kidding?! We rarely wander off-site to eat so I don't have any recommendations.... We don't have our sights set on anything big for this trip either... well, DS(9) "has" to eat at T-Rex so that's on the list, but that's about it right now. With the change from 180 to 90 days for ADRs we're not in planning mode yet here...

 

[happyj]

Hi planners
We have resorts (BCV BLT) and flights VA sorted.
We are hiring car through dollar ,got a very good rate 3 weeks ago .
Have decided to take on DDP so have the pleasure of deceiding where and when .We will be doing some 2 credit restaurants.
Also will be buying MNSSHP.May 1st
Will need to book Palos.
We also need annual passes as we always arrange to get 2 holidays in one year .This year 23 August next 23 July (already planning )
Not going to seaworld as going on the cruise and will miss the manetee ride .
Not going to Universal either .
But they will be in next years plans.
Oh I love it all