Christmas/Holiday 2011 on the Wonder: 8 night Mexican Riviera 12/18/2011

[SanDeeKath]

Our bags are packed and we are heading to DL in the morning and then off to the Wonder on Sunday! We are so excited to be sailing on the Wonder for Halloween!! After we get back it will be full Christmas Cruise planning mode! Keep those Secret Mickey sign ups coming!!!

Awesome! Have a great time and let us know how your week went when you come home!

Katherine

 

[Brooklyn]

Will do!

Awesome! Have a great time and let us know how your week went when you come home!

Katherine

 

[Dchachos]

Our bags are packed and we are heading to DL in the morning and then off to the Wonder on Sunday! We are so excited to be sailing on the Wonder for Halloween!! After we get back it will be full Christmas Cruise planning mode! Keep those Secret Mickey sign ups coming!!!

Wow I am green with envy! Have a spooktacular time! can't wait to hear all about your trip. It's almost like you will be doing a recognisance mission for our group.

 

[Dchachos]

Since I am new to cruising and to this forum, Can somebody shed some insight on the ME that will be taking place on the Mexican Riviera Holiday Cruise..I read a post from Brooklyn that had the form, but cannot find the "rules and regulations" so to speak..Sorry for asking but I am new as new can be. And as I said on my first post, would like to meet new people and future friends/crusing buddies for my DS13 and DD10(getting use the jargon lol) Thanks again in advance...

First of all WELCOME ! I am assuming you are referring to the Fish Extender. There really are no serious rules. I posted this on thread #351 for another newbie:
"I also new to this and new to cruising so a I will do my best to explain it:
There are fish shaped clips outside each cabin door. People who are participating in the fish extender exchange hang an extender from their fish. There is a pocket for each person in your extender. Each day of the cruise those who signed up will get a gift a trinket in their pocket. We have agreed that we will only give one day of the cruise. On some cruises they leave something everyday. Last time I looked we had about 55 people signed up.

If you look back on this thread you can see how to sign up."

I am pretty new to all this too, it is pretty easy to pick up on after a few days. Reading older posts helped me out a lot and I am a trip report addict. I started one last night and got tired and had to go to bed. I can't wait until I put the kids to bed to get back to it. For now I am on pumpkin carving duty. lets hope I survive with all my fingers in tact.

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

Aaahhhh... counting down, counting down! Report cards are finished and this week I have parent conferences all week. THEN it will finally feel like fall and ready to cruise!

My brother in law, and my BFF and her family will all be coming out to stay with us Thanksgiving week. Full house over here! That also means 3 days at Disneyland! Woot woot! Neither of those have seen DLR in all her Christmas beauty so that should be great. Looking forward to 3 nights there, but not to the Thanksgiving week crowds...but hey we're lucky to be able to go to DL at all, right!

I'm starting to work on the FE gifts, and thinking about Secret Mickey too. This is going to be so fun!

Now to quit procrastinating and go work on cleaning the guest room...

 

[SanDeeKath]

Aaahhhh... counting down, counting down! Report cards are finished and this week I have parent conferences all week. THEN it will finally feel like fall and ready to cruise!

My brother in law, and my BFF and her family will all be coming out to stay with us Thanksgiving week. Full house over here! That also means 3 days at Disneyland! Woot woot! Neither of those have seen DLR in all her Christmas beauty so that should be great. Looking forward to 3 nights there, but not to the Thanksgiving week crowds...but hey we're lucky to be able to go to DL at all, right!

I'm starting to work on the FE gifts, and thinking about Secret Mickey too. This is going to be so fun!

Now to quit procrastinating and go work on cleaning the guest room...

Sounds IDENTICAL to our schedule (minus the report cards since I am not a teacher ). TGiving is at our house this year which means extended family here. Then on Fri nite we all head up to the Grand Californian (we own DVC points there) and spending a long weekend up at DL with the family in our 2br Villa! Then I will be in full end-of-the-year panic mode with presents to buy, 6 birthdays to take care of, end of the year accounting and taxes, and, oh yeah, THE CRUISE!

I ordered my holiday cards for the year already! That's a huge thing off my to do list since we had to go get portraits professionally done to make that happen! YAAAY.

Katherine

 

[betsy918]

Finishing up report cards, 8 days of parent conferences, 3 nights at the Grand Californian with 4 days in the parks over Veteran's Day weekend, Thanksgiving (at my mother-in-laws, so relatively stress free for me,) stuff FE bags, pack, find a dog sitter, arrange for Santa to put a few things under our tree for when we return...I'm sure there's more, but who cares!! Seven weeks from today we'll be in our cabin on the Wonder at this time!! Woo Hoo!!!

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

Sounds IDENTICAL to our schedule (minus the report cards since I am not a teacher ). TGiving is at our house this year which means extended family here. Then on Fri nite we all head up to the Grand Californian (we own DVC points there) and spending a long weekend up at DL with the family in our 2br Villa! Then I will be in full end-of-the-year panic mode with presents to buy, 6 birthdays to take care of, end of the year accounting and taxes, and, oh yeah, THE CRUISE!

I ordered my holiday cards for the year already! That's a huge thing off my to do list since we had to go get portraits professionally done to make that happen! YAAAY.

Katherine

How awesome to stay in a 2bedroom at VGC over the holiday weekend!

I wanted to stay at the Grand Cal T-week, but my BIL had a fit over the cost. LOL!! Since BIL is not going along with my plan, no GCH for me this time. My DH has put me on "points restriction" - strict NO USING our DVC points - saving them for Aulani, spring break 2013 (we'll still be in our 2012 UY). Aggghhhhh I don't know if I can take it to wait that long! I admit I have gotten utterly spoiled using DVC and now to have to pay to stay at DLR, ugh. I'm sure we'll plan a trip for the end of the school year.

Thanks for reminding me about holiday cards- YIKES add that to my to-do list! I make a calendar of the kids all year for the family. So I need to get working on that pretty quick here and get those ordered. I totally forgot about that, so thank you Katherine!!! Not to mention the Christmas cards. The week before the cruise, both kids have band concerts and final exams... for the two weeks before that, DD is in the high school play so there's a bunch of shows. DS has one more karate tournament the same weekend as the play opening, LOL.

I'm tired already and will be MORE than ready for a glass of wine on that verandah!!!!!

Christine

 

[SanDeeKath]

Wow, Christine, good luck to you! Doesn't the end of the year sort of make you crazy sometimes? This is one of the main reasons I booked this cruise 2 years ago! Because I was going absolutely NUTS dealing with the holiday stuff (and all the family demands). Sooo, we decided to just pack up and leave. So glad we did! Because here we are, only 40some days away from it!

Speaking of needing a drink...

...does anyone know how much wine we can bring on board for our trip? What is the alcohol policy. We've never brought wine on before but we've always had some sort of concierge lounge access in the past with free alcohol so we've never felt like needing to bring some. Thing time I would like to bring a few (dozen) bottles along. KIDDING. But about 4 or 5 would be nice!

Katherine

 

[designertravels]

Has anyone had a magnet disigned for our cruise yet....that they want to share? It is always fun to notice who all we were chatting with when your going down the halls.

Jill

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

The alcohol policy on DCL is basically, if you can carry it on in your carry-on, you can bring it. Seriously. You can bring a small soft sides cooler or other bag that can fit through the airport scanner. No ice. (Have your room steward bring you a bucket of ice once you get to the room.) No alcohol in checked bags, just your day carryon.

We bring our own wine (wrapped in bubble wrap). Last cruise we brought a bottle of vodka as well as a bottle of Pre-mixed margaritas! This time since we're not traveling with friends, I think we'll bring 4 or 5 bottles of wine, and a bottle of coconut rum. We've brought beer on in the past, but found that outside of sea days by the adult pool we didn't drink much beer.

There's not much I like better than a glass of wine on my verandah before dinner!!

 

[Dchachos]

46 Days! Whoo Hoo

 

[Woodrow]

got the room assignments today. got pixy dusted from GTY(11C) to 11A. the cabins are side by side (not ajoining). Can wait

 

[SanDeeKath]

Thanks for letting us know. I think we will bring some wine and maybe 1 hard liquor bottle. Not huge drinkers but it's nice to sip the wine on the balcony, like you said!

Katherine

 

[mdlove2cruise]

Thanks everyone for the advice with my son.

Have we decided on a cut-off date for the FE's? My only concern is I would like to finalize so I can know how much luggage space I have left since I will be flying in from the east coast.

Deb

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

Thanks everyone for the advice with my son.

Have we decided on a cut-off date for the FE's? My only concern is I would like to finalize so I can know how much luggage space I have left since I will be flying in from the east coast.

Deb

Initially we had talked about 30 days ahead (Nov. 18). However, I see some value in cutting it off earlier (say Nov. 7?) because due to ALSO having to plan/buy for/pack Christmas items on the cruise, not just FE, it might get a little overwhelming. That would be 6 weeks ahead not just 4.

Deb, my DH is anxious to finalize too! He's helping out with them this year and has something to contribute to the cabin gift. I hear ya on trying to figure out luggage space.

Thoughts?

Christine

 

[betsy918]

got the room assignments today. got pixy dusted from GTY(11C) to 11A. the cabins are side by side (not ajoining). Can wait

I see one of our members received their GTY assignment. I'm still waiting for mine. Has anyone else gotten theirs? Does the cruiseline contact you, or do you have to log on to your reservation to find out?
Thanks,
Betsy

 

[Tinkerbellll]

Our cruise is NEXT month!




P.S. I vote for the November 7 FE cut-off, too!

 

[Woodrow]

I see one of our members received their GTY assignment. I'm still waiting for mine. Has anyone else gotten theirs? Does the cruiseline contact you, or do you have to log on to your reservation to find out?
Thanks,
Betsy

I had to log in to check. It was funny every other change that happened to my reservations I got an email from DCL but not this one.

 

[designertravels]

I keep buying too much stuff, cut the date off anytime. I need to seal my goodie bags.

We'll be bringing a soft sided cooler too!

We changed our booking to GTY to save some money. I never get my assignment until a couple weeks out. I keep looking though.

Jill