Christmas cruise 2010

[ShastaDog]

Hi everybody! My daughter and I will be coming on this cruise. She will be 14 a couple of days before we set sail. We went on a 3 night last year for her birthday and loved it, so definitely want to go for a longer cruise this time. We enjoyed the Fish Extender exchange and decorating last time, so definitely would be up for that this time around as well. We were the only ones on our hall that decorated our door, but we looked good!

Looking forward to cruising with all of you!

 

[amystevekai&bump]

Amy, I am beginning to think that this is a personal thread for just you and me HAHAHA!! Or maybe it's just that you and I are good at gabbing???


What kind of activities should we plan for this cruise? On our last Christmas cruise, we had entirely TOO MUCH!! Our DIS group went way overboard and it became overwhelming and exhausting, so I suggest just a few things. We did an ornament exchange, a treasure hunt, a dolphin excursion, FE gifts, a secret santa gift exchange, etc...you get the "overwhelming" feeling already, right? I am all for a few Christmas type activities, but just a few

Have a great weekend!!
Shannon

Yes I am very good at talking about anything Disney related!!

I agree that we shouldn't plan too much - it needs to be enjoyable and not become a chore!! I would love to do the FE exchange and the secret santa gift exchange - after all it IS Christmas!! What does everyone else think?

I'm popping up to say hello quickly. I'm Lee, Steve's wife. We're on this cruise with our daughters--Alice and Mia. I hope to post more, once I figure out what all these acronyms stand for (I think I've got WDW so far ... )

I'm starting to investigate some of the excursions. Alice's birthday is while we're on the boat, so I'm trying to find one that might work for a birthday gift.

Other than that, I am just excited about going on a cruise--this is our first one!!

Anyway, talk soon.

Lee

Lee - glad you could join us!!

Hi everybody! My daughter and I will be coming on this cruise. She will be 14 a couple of days before we set sail. We went on a 3 night last year for her birthday and loved it, so definitely want to go for a longer cruise this time. We enjoyed the Fish Extender exchange and decorating last time, so definitely would be up for that this time around as well. We were the only ones on our hall that decorated our door, but we looked good!

Looking forward to cruising with all of you!

And again, to you as well - I'm so glad there are more people joining our little group - although please don't take MY castaway cay cabana will you - hopefully there are plenty for all of us!!!

 

[ShannonR]

Good morning!! I hope everyone is having a great weekend so far! I just got from a very long night at the hospital and I am ready for bed. I have been sick for the past 3 days with a cold and I have absolutely no voice.

Now that you bring up the cabanas at Castaway Cay, does anyone know how much the cost is for one?? They look SO NEAT, but I wonder if the price is going to be unreasonable???

Shannon

 

[artman]

We just purchased our flights. We will be staying at the Boardwalk from Dec 19-23.
What is everyone doing about transportation to the port. Last time we rented a car at MCO used it at WDW and returned it at the port, then did a one day rental on the way home. That worked really well for us, I think we will do the same this year.

Here is a photo of us (Artie, Claudia and Owen) so you can have faces for the names, please excuse the sunglasses.

 

[ShastaDog]

Other countries must sell their airline tickets earlier than here in the states. We can't buy them this far out; have to wait until 6 months.

We rented a car last time as well, used it at WDW for the couple of days we were there before the cruise, and then drove it out to the port. We used the Disney bus to the airport on the return. Since we are doing the longer cruise this time, we will probably not go to the park before we go and will just take the Disney bus from the airport. We may go up to JAX to visit with friends after, so may rent a car for that.

And don't worry about us in the Castaway Cay cabanas. I will be on the grown-ups only beach! I found that even on the three day, by that point I needed a little "away from children" time!

 

[ShannonR]

Good morning everyone!! Just got home from an eventful night of delivering babies

Jennifer: how are you trying to book your flights because we live in Texas and we were able to book our flights on 2/3/10 through either travelocity (which we chose) or expedia.

We are experiencing a cold front here in Texas. How is the weather everywhere else?? One of my friends just got back from a 7 day carnival cruise to Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel. She said the warmest it got was 65 degrees...YUCK

Shannon

 

[ljcrochet]

I'm waiting for southwest to realease their December flights. No clue when that will be. I'm justing hoping that the airfare is not that much more then normal since it is a holiday week. I know DH priced out tickets for our June trip and said it now $1300. I think that more than we paid for the 5 tickets to go on the last cruise and that one included MIL.

 

[amystevekai&bump]

Hi everyone

We are still chilly here in the UK!!! - I am hoping for some good weather on this cruise as it doesn't sound promising in Orlando based on this Christmas' weather - so Mexico was my sunbathing day - so 65 degrees just won't work fo me!!

The last two cruises we have driven as I wanted to be there right at 10am, but they were both the short 3 and 4 day ones - so every second counted!! This time we are going to try out the DCL bus from AKV, just to see how it goes and then we are toying with the idea of surprising the boys with a limo to take us back to Hard Rock Hotel after the cruise!

I think the Cabanas at CC are going to be expensive, so I don't expect we will be able to afford it - but as we will be on the family beach all day with the boys I thought it would be nice to have a special base for the day - as I am not a great lover of sand, so thought I could sit in there and read a book

 

[leevil]

Snowing here in Ajax (just outside of Toronto) ... Nasty wind too. I shouldn't complain as we've had less snow here than usual. Watching the Olympics--I think that we'll all be going through withdrawal soon!!

My family is driving down to Florida. We do it in the summer generally; this will be our first time driving down there in the winter! Hopefully there won't be too much snow! We'll arrive the night before the cruise leaves--Steve knows which hotel we're staying at, but the name escapes me. We're heading to Daytona Beach after the cruise for New Year's.

We'll just be on the beach at CC. I'm seriously considering parasailing as I've never done it before. My husband would be shocked!!

I have lots of planning to do for this, but so little time (work, kids dance classes, etc.). I want to research the excursions as I know the kids will want to try at least a couple of them.

I'm so looking forward to this!!

Lee

 

[ShannonR]

Good evening everyone!! I just finished 8 VERY BUSY nights of delivering babies and have the next 6 days off.....HOORAY!!!

We have taken the DCL bus from the Hyatt the past two cruises because we went to WDW after cruise #2, but this time around we are staying at POR prior to the cruise, so we have decided on taking a limo to the port and the DCL on the way back to the airport.

DH didn't want to take the chance of waiting for SW to come out with their prices in case they ended up being more expensive than the price we got straight through travelocity, so we bought them as soon as they came out.

It is finally back in the 70's here and the sun came back out today....Thank God!!

Have a great night!!
Shannon

 

[ShannonR]

Good morning!! I hope everyone is having a great weekend so far

Has anyone given any thoughts to activities we should plan? I am more than willing to participate in one or two activities. On my last Christmas cruise, we did SO much it became overwhelming and time consuming. Some of the activities we did were: Secret Santa gift exchange on Christmas Eve, FE gift exchanges throughout the entire week, ornament exchange, dolphin excursion in cozumel, and meet and greet with matching t-shirts and pictures. They were ALL fun, but took a lot of time away from family time especially since we had such a large DIS group. Do any of these things sound fun to anyone? Or maybe something completely different????

I already have my decorations from last Christmas cruiseso that is an expense I won't have. We had them shipped to the stateroom prior to the cruise and it worked out really well. I love Christmas and we had our two rooms VERY decorated!!! Our DD5 was 4 at the time and had no problem knowing Santa wasn't visiting us on the ship, but instead had left presents for her at home!

I know there are other people going to WDW before and after the trip. Where is everybody staying? We are limited to which resort we can stay at because we have 5 in our family and unless we are willing to get two rooms (which we are not because it gets way too expensive) we don't have many choices. We stay at Port Orleans Riverside which is a very nice resort. My favorite is Caribbean Beach but we would have to get two rooms.

We are also hoping to get tickets to MVMCP...last time we went it ended the 19th so we missed it and I am afraid we will miss it again this time. The dates don't come out until spring so I just have to wait That is NOT one of my strong points..waiting. I want to make all my reservations now!!! Dining, excursions, MVMCP, etc...

Hope to talk to everyone soon!!
Shannon

 

[Three at Sea]

hi there, we booked for the Christmas 2010 7-day cruise last week! We are very excited - we've been to WDW many times but this will be our first Disney Cruise.


Can anyone tell me, what is the 'fishextender exchange'??

 

[MorganR]

Hi im Morgan..ShannonR's daughter....I was just posting because i would love to talk to some of the kids going on this cruise that are my age...i am 16 and will be 17 on the cruise....:

 

[pendare]

Hi we will be on the Christmas Cruise I can't wait this will be our first cruise every. It will be my husband and my two teenage sons.

 

[pendare]

 

[pendare]

Hi my name is Penny I have two sons Nolan (17) Logan (15). We will be on the Dec 23 wonder cruise.

 

[pendare]

I need help I am new to dis boards and not quite sure how to do reply to a certain people. I have read several things I would like to reply to but can't figure out how to reply to that comment.

 

[pendare]

Hello,

This will be our very first cruise

Since the cruise ends on Dec 30 think we will book into one of the resorts for a few day's and spend New Years there...

Has anyone been to Disney at New Years... are there good parties?

Anyway I'll sure to be back and post more...

We were at Disney for New Years Eve 2008/2009 and Hollywood was open till 3am if you were staying on poperty. They gave out hats, squeakers at motors,cameras,action and they had a really good firework display.

 

[ShannonR]

Hi Penny and Welcome!!! My name is Shannon and it sounds like our kids will be the same age on this cruise. My daughter will be 17 and my son will be 14 so they just might have a few things in common, like how to stay away from their parents hahahaha!!

It is nice and warm down here in the south of Texas!! It's in the 80's every day now, Thank God! I was not liking the 60 degree weather at all! I know all you northerners are saying to yourself "I would kill for 60 degrees right now"....... Sorry!!

I ordered my DCL photo books yesterday and plan to order our Disney logo t-shirts within the next couple of days. I like to get as much done early so I have plenty of time to scramble for the things I missed!

I hope everyone has a great Easter!! This will be the first Easter I have not had to work in years!!! I am excited

Shannon

 

[ShannonR]

Hi everybody!! I hope everyone is getting ready for Easter!!!

I got our Disney t-shirts in the mail today!!! I only ask my family to wear matching t-shirts on one day and one day only......embarkation day (although they grumble about it, ALOT hahahaha). I have also ordered my DCL photo books and I am just waiting for them to come in the mail. I keep vacation journals and I am pretty much sticking to the same timeline as the last two cruises so.....so far so good (can you tell I am Type A)

How is everyone else doing with their trip planning?? I know it still seems so far away, but believe me, it WILL be here before you know it.....YAY!!!

Right now we are planning and preparing for junior prom. My 16 y.o. DD is going with a group of friends (thank God she doesn't have a boyfriend!!) and they have all these grandiose ideas of what they are going to do for prom! I love how teenagers have absolutely no concept of money hahahaha.....it must grow on trees, right?

Well, off to another night of delivering babies, babies, babies!!

Shannon