[b]june 1, 2013 magic med 7 day[/b]

[F2superstar]

Good morning everyone. Just to let you all know that this weekend is the last chance to sign up for the Secret Mickey gift exchange as I'm going to close the list on Monday morning, so that everyone has time to sort their gifts out. Anyone that hasn't signed up and would like to, please pm me and I will add your details to the list.

Annemarie, can you confirm is it the same for the Secret Mickey as for the FE gifts, $25/£16 per stateroom. Thank you.

 

[JustAnnieNotHazel]

Annemarie, can you confirm is it the same for the Secret Mickey as for the FE gifts, $25/£16 per stateroom. Thank you.

That is the set amount for the Secret Mickey exchange, but the FE gifts are entirely up to you, there is no set amount for the Fish Extender exchange

 

[Pengwend]

Hi Everyone!

I just sent approval to our travel agent to charge us for this cruise! My husband and I have been trying to figure out which sailing we could make for this summer, and of course it ended up being the sailing closest to now!

I haven't even gotten confirmation yet, but I already booked our flights, so we better be all set... I see that FE is closed But looks like there might be a possibility of a third? group? I'd love to join in on that. We did an 11-night Med cruise with DCL for our honeymoon and LOVED it. This will actually be our 4th cruise with DCL and we've done FE every time! If we can't do that, I'd still love to do Secret Mickey, so I'll PM about that. SUPER excited. I also have all the documents from our Honeymoon cruise (Personal Navigators, port info etc.) which I could scan in over the weekend if anyone is interested. We hit some other ports which wouldn't be pertinent to this shorter cruise, but I could sort out the ones that would be overlaps.

 

[Tink2312]

Hi Everyone!

I just sent approval to our travel agent to charge us for this cruise! My husband and I have been trying to figure out which sailing we could make for this summer, and of course it ended up being the sailing closest to now!

I haven't even gotten confirmation yet, but I already booked our flights, so we better be all set... I see that FE is closed But looks like there might be a possibility of a third? group? I'd love to join in on that. We did an 11-night Med cruise with DCL for our honeymoon and LOVED it. This will actually be our 4th cruise with DCL and we've done FE every time! If we can't do that, I'd still love to do Secret Mickey, so I'll PM about that. SUPER excited. I also have all the documents from our Honeymoon cruise (Personal Navigators, port info etc.) which I could scan in over the weekend if anyone is interested. We hit some other ports which wouldn't be pertinent to this shorter cruise, but I could sort out the ones that would be overlaps.

It would be absolutely fantastic if you could scan in the navigators and port info. It's very difficult to find any on the Internet and as we've never done a DCL med cruise (or any med cruise for that matter) it would be great to know what goes on.

How lovely for you to return to the Med after your Honeymoon cruise

 

[F2superstar]

That is the set amount for the Secret Mickey exchange, but the FE gifts are entirely up to you, there is no set amount for the Fish Extender exchange

Thanks Annemarie. I think I should stop buying now lol. I hope I have room in my case for all the gifts! It's been a lot of fun and we still have the pleasure of handing them out. My mum used to say it is better to give than to receive but in this instance I am looking forward to receiving them too!! Many thanks again for organising this.

 

[valbob89]

Hi Everyone!

I just sent approval to our travel agent to charge us for this cruise! My husband and I have been trying to figure out which sailing we could make for this summer, and of course it ended up being the sailing closest to now!

I haven't even gotten confirmation yet, but I already booked our flights, so we better be all set... I see that FE is closed But looks like there might be a possibility of a third? group? I'd love to join in on that. We did an 11-night Med cruise with DCL for our honeymoon and LOVED it. This will actually be our 4th cruise with DCL and we've done FE every time! If we can't do that, I'd still love to do Secret Mickey, so I'll PM about that. SUPER excited. I also have all the documents from our Honeymoon cruise (Personal Navigators, port info etc.) which I could scan in over the weekend if anyone is interested. We hit some other ports which wouldn't be pertinent to this shorter cruise, but I could sort out the ones that would be overlaps.

Welcome - I suggest you e-mail Annemarie at cuddlykoala33@aol.com and let her know you would like your name added to the FE 3rd group. Val

 

[Evad]

I got my cruise docs today .

Congrats!!!

Nothing for us yet......

 

[Evad]

Hi Everyone!

I just sent approval to our travel agent to charge us for this cruise! My husband and I have been trying to figure out which sailing we could make for this summer, and of course it ended up being the sailing closest to now!

I haven't even gotten confirmation yet, but I already booked our flights, so we better be all set... I see that FE is closed But looks like there might be a possibility of a third? group? I'd love to join in on that. We did an 11-night Med cruise with DCL for our honeymoon and LOVED it. This will actually be our 4th cruise with DCL and we've done FE every time! If we can't do that, I'd still love to do Secret Mickey, so I'll PM about that. SUPER excited. I also have all the documents from our Honeymoon cruise (Personal Navigators, port info etc.) which I could scan in over the weekend if anyone is interested. We hit some other ports which wouldn't be pertinent to this shorter cruise, but I could sort out the ones that would be overlaps.

Welcome aboard!!!!

Would love to see the navigators!

 

[Evad]

We have an early flight and are using Barcelona Day tours for our transfer. 69 Euros for 3 of us.

Are you using them just for airport transfers??

We have a tour booked with them when we get off the ship, but airport transfers would be nice as well..... We are coming in a day early and leaving the Sunday.

 

[goofs]

Hi Everyone!

I just sent approval to our travel agent to charge us for this cruise! My husband and I have been trying to figure out which sailing we could make for this summer, and of course it ended up being the sailing closest to now!

I haven't even gotten confirmation yet, but I already booked our flights, so we better be all set... I see that FE is closed But looks like there might be a possibility of a third? group? I'd love to join in on that. We did an 11-night Med cruise with DCL for our honeymoon and LOVED it. This will actually be our 4th cruise with DCL and we've done FE every time! If we can't do that, I'd still love to do Secret Mickey, so I'll PM about that. SUPER excited. I also have all the documents from our Honeymoon cruise (Personal Navigators, port info etc.) which I could scan in over the weekend if anyone is interested. We hit some other ports which wouldn't be pertinent to this shorter cruise, but I could sort out the ones that would be overlaps.

Welcome aboard, I would like to see the navigators too

 

[valbob89]

Copied this message from the DISboard forum in case you haven't seen it:

"We've been asked to share the following letter that DCL will start delivering to guests in the coming weeks.

Thanks,
PEte


Dear Guests,

We are glad that you have joined us aboard the Disney (Choose Ship)!

As you may be aware, it is important to us to keep our facilities looking their best for all our guests. As part of our commitment to this area of focus, we ask that you do not affix anything to your stateroom door utilizing tape or any adhesive, including removable gel adhesives. We have found that these adhesives damage the finish on our stateroom doors; therefore we ask that you limit door decoration to those of the magnetic variety.

Concurrently, we ask that guests not use over-the-door hanging organizers as they have been found to scratch and/or disfigure stateroom doors and trim.

Guests found with damaged doors are assessed a $100 damage fee per incident to cover the cost of repairs.

Your attention to this matter will greatly assist us in keeping our shipboard environment looking ship-shape. Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact Guest Services, Deck 3 Mid-ship.

If interested, magnetic door decorations are available for purchase in our merchandise area. For your convenience, magnetic strips are also available at Guest Services.

We appreciate your cooperation and hope you have an enjoyable sailing.

Sincerely, "

 

[Pengwend]

Ok, I've emailed about getting in on the possible 3rd FE and Secret Mickey. I hope the 3rd FE happens because I've had 2 years to come up with ideas! I will dig up the navigators and such and scan them this weekend.

 

[Kirbo]

Hi Everyone!

I just sent approval to our travel agent to charge us for this cruise! My husband and I have been trying to figure out which sailing we could make for this summer, and of course it ended up being the sailing closest to now!

I haven't even gotten confirmation yet, but I already booked our flights, so we better be all set... I see that FE is closed But looks like there might be a possibility of a third? group? I'd love to join in on that. We did an 11-night Med cruise with DCL for our honeymoon and LOVED it. This will actually be our 4th cruise with DCL and we've done FE every time! If we can't do that, I'd still love to do Secret Mickey, so I'll PM about that. SUPER excited. I also have all the documents from our Honeymoon cruise (Personal Navigators, port info etc.) which I could scan in over the weekend if anyone is interested. We hit some other ports which wouldn't be pertinent to this shorter cruise, but I could sort out the ones that would be overlaps.

 

[valbob89]

Ok, I've emailed about getting in on the possible 3rd FE and Secret Mickey. I hope the 3rd FE happens because I've had 2 years to come up with ideas! I will dig up the navigators and such and scan them this weekend.

Maybe there will be some people who are in group 1 and/or 2 who will want to be added to 3. I just finished my FE's but could make a few more. I'll send an e-mail asking if I can be added. Could you give us the FE info: DISboard name, Stateroom #, Number of Cabins traveling together, name and relationship of adults, name and relationship of children, ages, location, favorite characters. Val

 

[lilpooh108]

Does someone have a good "To Do" list for before we all leave for this trip? We have 3 weeks of itinerary (1 week before and 1 week after) and so I want to make sure I'm not forgetting anything. So far I've:

1. Double checked passports & exp dates
2. Emailed private tour operators to re-confirm dates, times
3. Emailed hotels w/special requests
4. Double checked DCL requests, etc.
5. Ordered Euros.

I still have to book some transfers for the various cities we're going to, print out confs, put money in Tip Envelopes, and do a billion other things.

I'm hoping someone here has a list so that I can double check in case I miss something. I know us DIS'ers are super organized so I would love a list/ideas. Thanks!

 

[Arushy1]

Hi Everyone!

I just sent approval to our travel agent to charge us for this cruise! My husband and I have been trying to figure out which sailing we could make for this summer, and of course it ended up being the sailing closest to now!

I haven't even gotten confirmation yet, but I already booked our flights, so we better be all set... I see that FE is closed But looks like there might be a possibility of a third? group? I'd love to join in on that. We did an 11-night Med cruise with DCL for our honeymoon and LOVED it. This will actually be our 4th cruise with DCL and we've done FE every time! If we can't do that, I'd still love to do Secret Mickey, so I'll PM about that. SUPER excited. I also have all the documents from our Honeymoon cruise (Personal Navigators, port info etc.) which I could scan in over the weekend if anyone is interested. We hit some other ports which wouldn't be pertinent to this shorter cruise, but I could sort out the ones that would be overlaps.

Hi welcome yeah I am glad someone else is late to join the fE, if u go to page 1 on this thread there is info and a email address. Xx alisha

 

[JustAnnieNotHazel]

Ok, I've emailed about getting in on the possible 3rd FE and Secret Mickey. I hope the 3rd FE happens because I've had 2 years to come up with ideas! I will dig up the navigators and such and scan them this weekend.

I have received your email

Arushy, I have also received your email.

A few people from the other groups have volunteered to join the third group as well to add some more people to the group for you both

 

[F2superstar]

Copied this message from the DISboard forum in case you haven't seen it:

"We've been asked to share the following letter that DCL will start delivering to guests in the coming weeks.

Thanks,
PEte


Dear Guests,

We are glad that you have joined us aboard the Disney (Choose Ship)!

As you may be aware, it is important to us to keep our facilities looking their best for all our guests. As part of our commitment to this area of focus, we ask that you do not affix anything to your stateroom door utilizing tape or any adhesive, including removable gel adhesives. We have found that these adhesives damage the finish on our stateroom doors; therefore we ask that you limit door decoration to those of the magnetic variety.

Concurrently, we ask that guests not use over-the-door hanging organizers as they have been found to scratch and/or disfigure stateroom doors and trim.

Guests found with damaged doors are assessed a $100 damage fee per incident to cover the cost of repairs.

Your attention to this matter will greatly assist us in keeping our shipboard environment looking ship-shape. Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact Guest Services, Deck 3 Mid-ship.

If interested, magnetic door decorations are available for purchase in our merchandise area. For your convenience, magnetic strips are also available at Guest Services.

We appreciate your cooperation and hope you have an enjoyable sailing.

Sincerely, "

Thanks for letting us see this Val. I just ordered two of these from eBayg but have now cancelled the order.

 

[Pengwend]

Ok, I just emailed our info for the FE and Secret Mickey!

It's just my husband and myself cruising; no kids yet because we're basically still big kids! Super excited! I am in grad school and can't wait for the semester to be over so that I can focus on the cruise!

Someone mentioned ordering Euros; on our honeymoon cruise, we learned that you can do your money exchange on board. The cruise rate was actually better than we were able to get through Amex, too. The best thing is that you can buy Euros when you get on board and sell them back at the same rate before you disembark. That way, you don't lose any money because of the exchange rates!

A couple other thoughts from notes I kept after our honeymoon cruise:

1. Over-door plastic shoe organizer is handy for organizing things in your cabin and prevents small things moving around in the bathroom - with the split bathrooms, you could put one facing into one bathroom and one facing out for things like socks and underwear (there's not a lot of drawer space) It's just the two of us travelling, but I imagine space is a bigger issue for families.
2. Surge protectors! You're sure to want to plug in more things than the cabin has outlets for, so surge protectors help with that.
3. International-ise your phone. We have Verizon and were able to internationalize my iPhone for just $20 when we travelled to Japan last year. It was very helpful for being able to google maps our way around. [We didn't do this when we went on our honeymoon, didn't think of it.]
4. It's not too hard to find places with free wifi in port. WAY better than trying to get anything done on board (even if you purchase the connectivity package and go to the computer place on the ship).
5. Finally, you might check your credit card offerings. For example, ours offers automatic travel insurance, lost luggage support and credit for delays as well as waived foreign transaction fees. On our honeymoon, one of our two suitcases didn't make it to Barcelona in time. Disney was SUPER great about this and gave us toiletries, etc. They managed to work with our airline to get our luggage to us at the third port (so we were without it for 4 days I think). Anyway, had we known, our credit card company would have reimbursed us for the total cost of everything we had to purchase in the interim - clothes, mainly.
   
   That's all I can think of for now. We'll try to get those Navigators and such scanned this afternoon!

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

Ok, I just emailed our info for the FE and Secret Mickey!

It's just my husband and myself cruising; no kids yet because we're basically still big kids! Super excited! I am in grad school and can't wait for the semester to be over so that I can focus on the cruise!

Someone mentioned ordering Euros; on our honeymoon cruise, we learned that you can do your money exchange on board. The cruise rate was actually better than we were able to get through Amex, too. The best thing is that you can buy Euros when you get on board and sell them back at the same rate before you disembark. That way, you don't lose any money because of the exchange rates!

A couple other thoughts from notes I kept after our honeymoon cruise:

1. Over-door plastic shoe organizer is handy for organizing things in your cabin and prevents small things moving around in the bathroom - with the split bathrooms, you could put one facing into one bathroom and one facing out for things like socks and underwear (there's not a lot of drawer space) It's just the two of us travelling, but I imagine space is a bigger issue for families.
2. Surge protectors! You're sure to want to plug in more things than the cabin has outlets for, so surge protectors help with that.
3. International-ise your phone. We have Verizon and were able to internationalize my iPhone for just $20 when we travelled to Japan last year. It was very helpful for being able to google maps our way around. [We didn't do this when we went on our honeymoon, didn't think of it.]
4. It's not too hard to find places with free wifi in port. WAY better than trying to get anything done on board (even if you purchase the connectivity package and go to the computer place on the ship).
5. Finally, you might check your credit card offerings. For example, ours offers automatic travel insurance, lost luggage support and credit for delays as well as waived foreign transaction fees. On our honeymoon, one of our two suitcases didn't make it to Barcelona in time. Disney was SUPER great about this and gave us toiletries, etc. They managed to work with our airline to get our luggage to us at the third port (so we were without it for 4 days I think). Anyway, had we known, our credit card company would have reimbursed us for the total cost of everything we had to purchase in the interim - clothes, mainly.
   
   That's all I can think of for now. We'll try to get those Navigators and such scanned this afternoon!

A couple of comments

1. The best way for Americans to get money is an ATM card. It's a better rate then Disney is going to give. LOL! Plus to "exchange" cash you have carry it with you. NEVER carry more cash then you can afford to loose. What are you going to do when at the Barcelona airport all your cash is lost/stolen. (And it happens more then you think. Tired, jetlagged, disoriented, the VERY responsible chaperone on my Girl Scout trip lost $10,000 in travelers checks and a few hundred in cash... Yes we got the checks back, but it was royal pain! I met a woman in Paris who lost ALL her cash at the Paris Airport. Her parents had to wire her a little money and she was changing her flight to fly back basically a day after she arrived as she could not afford to "pay" for the vacation twice. She had ALL her cash for her two weeks in Paris on her....)

However, if you are going to use Traveler's Checks Disney is probably your best bet.

2. Over the door organizers have been "banned" by Disney (See note earlier in this thread)

3. Contact your bank and credit card companies before you go. Inform them where you will be and when. Otherwise your first charge is likely to get your card on "fraud" hold. Get a number to call in case of a problem (the 800 number on your card won't work)