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

[SanDeeKath]

Katherine I meant in your carry-on. To swim the first day while we are waiting for our luggage to be delivered to our room.

Right now here in Vegas its cold and windy it will be a nice change from cold and windy.

Oh good, LOL! I thought you weren't planning on swimming all week!

Yes, it's extremely cold and windy here too in San Diego! I think we are lucky to get to 62 or 63 during the day and it's in the 40s tonight. Brrrrrr. Definitely too cold to swim. As a matter of fact, I think we are going to have a seriously COOOOOLD sail away!

How is everyone's packing going??? We are still just tackling the "to do list" such as calling the credit card companies, phone companies, dog sitter, etc. I really need to focus and actually start throwing clothes into suitcases!!!

Kath

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

Katherine, I'm mostly packed. DH had to leave on a trip for work Wednesday do he took his suitcase and the liquor bag. The kids and I each have a suitcase...one garment bag...and 2 small bags for the FE's. I think other than toiletries we are packed!! I had to go buy DD a couple swimsuits today! I made her try on the ones from summer and they didn't fit! That's what happens to 14 year old girls, I guess. Lucky for me Target was selling some.

Finally off to bed- its been super windy here and the power has been off and on. Packing by flashlight was funny! Hair appointment and pedicures in the morning. Then the last packing to do and we'll leave for the Doubletree!

My DH Stew and I will be in blue Donald Duck t-shirts at the port. I'm short with shoulder length brown hair. My dd has long blonde hair and my DS is short for 11, with longer blond hair as well, and glasses.

Sooooooo excited!! I literally can't sleep !

Christine

 

[LovesToRun]

Hey everyone!

Great news for us! Our flight was oversold, so we gave up our seats & got bumped to a later flight.... And the airline gave us $1200 in free airline tickets good for 1 year! So we just got free airfare for our next flight! Woo Hoo!!

So we are just flying down 2 hrs later.... Pretty good to make $1200 for a 2 hr wait.

Kathy

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

Hey everyone!

Great news for us! Our flight was oversold, so we gave up our seats & got bumped to a later flight.... And the airline gave us $1200 in free airline tickets good for 1 year! So we just got free airfare for our next flight! Woo Hoo!!

So we are just flying down 2 hrs later.... Pretty good to make $1200 for a 2 hr wait.

Kathy

That's awesome! We got bumped a couple years ago flying back from WDW/first DCL cruise. We got $1600 which paid for our Florida flights the next year! Although we had to wait overnight, which was a pain with no clothes. Delta didn't give us enough to cover all the food either. But in the end it was worth it!

You're lucky it was such a short wait! What a good start to your trip to get that kind of a bump.

Christine

 

[SanDeeKath]

Hi all.

Guess where we will be in 24 hours?!?!? YUP, in our cabins!

Packing like crazy here. DH decided to go to Walmart and get a waterproof camera as a last minute Christmas gift to himself. So, now we really should be all set. I think he got this cool little Kodak for $150. I hope it works well. Honestly, it doesn't look too water resistant to me, with all these buttons in the front. But what do I know? Walmart said they'd take it back if it leaks! Kath

 

[DisneyDadHere]

Decided to leave tomorrow morning instead of today to save bout 200 bucks on hotel etc. Saw on here people FLY in on sunday, thot mayb ill drive in. Driving from central California. Hope the fog isn't to crazy. Save travels to all traveling early tomorrow!

 

[LovesToRun]

We made it! So when the airline bumped us, they had to put us on a flight to Orange County Airport (we were supposed to fly to Long Beach). So we made it fine to Orange County, and now we are in a Shuttle Express to Long Beach airport because our luggage went on our original Long Beach flight. Hoping out bags made it!!! Alaska Airlines said they'd lock the bags in a secure area.

So, this trip is turning into a Planes trains & automobiles adventure....except substitute the trains for boats! :-D

But for $1200 in free airfare, its worth the hassle (assuming our bags ARE at Long Beach airport....if not, our formal night will be a sweats & jeans night! )

oh, and when we walked outside w/ the AK Air agent so she could pay for our shuttle, I said, "it's so warm here!" She looked at me like I was from Mars....she said it's cold. LOL! But it was 33 degrees when we left Seattle, so this IS warm here! :-D

Kathy

 

[Dchachos]

We finally made it to Long Beach! We have had some little bumps along the road. I let mymsister talk me into parking at the wrong place at the airport so we had to lug all our thing on a very long walk.

Jetblues printers weren't working so they couldn't print any luggage tags. Going through the security I decided to have a nose bleed and the TSA lady wanted to call for medical, it wasn't that bad. I was like I am not missing my flight over a silly bloody nose.

We get to the Crowne Plaza and go to our room and as soon as I open the door there is this big man standing on the other side. I screamed he looked ready to punch me. After profusely apologizing I went to the front desk and asked for a room that wasn't already taken.

All is well and we send out for some Italian food now just hanging out. BTW this hotel has rotten TV selection. Can't wait for the morning.

Dianne

 

[SanDeeKath]

I asked for a room that wasn't already taken.
Dianne

WOW! This just had me laughing! So glad you finally made it! We ar still packing. AGH.

 

[Dreemfinder]

Ron Schneider here, alias Dreamfinder from D23's May Destination D Event and EPCOT '82-'87. Because of a few Santa gigs I'll still be sporting my Santa beard on the cruise, so come up and say 'Hi!' (providing you've been a good girl or boy). I'll see you at the meets!

Ron

 

[jalismoore]

We finally made it to Long Beach! We have had some little bumps along the road. I let mymsister talk me into parking at the wrong place at the airport so we had to lug all our thing on a very long walk.

Jetblues printers weren't working so they couldn't print any luggage tags. Going through the security I decided to have a nose bleed and the TSA lady wanted to call for medical, it wasn't that bad. I was like I am not missing my flight over a silly bloody nose.

We get to the Crowne Plaza and go to our room and as soon as I open the door there is this big man standing on the other side. I screamed he looked ready to punch me. After profusely apologizing I went to the front desk and asked for a room that wasn't already taken.

All is well and we send out for some Italian food now just hanging out. BTW this hotel has rotten TV selection. Can't wait for the morning.

Dianne

oh no Dianne..were you given room 923..that might have been my husband..he was just walking out from bath room when you walked in..lol...im up now deciding what time to go to breakfast..we will be in our grey mickey with christmas lights shirts take care..

Alis

 

[jalismoore]

just saw our ship come into port..I'm so excited..see you all soon

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

Us too!!! So exciting to see her pull into port. I can't wait! Only The Teenager is still asleep. The rest of us have been up awhile, too excited!

 

[Dchachos]

oh no Dianne..were you given room 923..that might have been my husband..he was just walking out from bath room when you walked in..lol...im up now deciding what time to go to breakfast..we will be in our grey mickey with christmas lights shirts take care..

Alis

Alis YES. That is so funny . Of all the rooms. We got yours by mstake lmao. I thought for sure I was going to get clocked in the face. We are thinking about breakfast in the restaurant downstairs. We will be down at about 8:45. We will have on with shirts with red ones under.

Dianne

 

[Dchachos]

just saw our ship come into port..I'm so excited..see you all soon

We can see it from our other room 910 the boys keep looking for it. Now I know to tell them to stop.
Dianne

 

[LovesToRun]

Hi all!

We got our luggage from Long Beach airport just fine yesterday! Yay!

We are also at the Crowne Plaza....but didn't have the surprise of walking in on.some man! LOL!!!! We are on 5th floor....524. Can't see ship from our room, tho, so glad to read it IS there!!!

We will go to breakfast probably around 10am.... We are getting a late start this AM.

Oh, and long story short.....great news, my Mother-in-Law is coming on the cruise now!!! We are sooooo happy. Great grandma perked up & doctors say she should be fine so my MIL felt good about leaving great grandma & coming now. So hoping we can rebook her shore excursions on ship....she is ok if there is no space. Just glad she will be with us on cruise.

Ok! See you all at port or on the ship @ 3:00!!

Kathy

 

[Dchachos]

we are sitting here in Long Beach Airport waiting for our flight back home. This was by far the best vacation EVER and meeting all of you made it that much better. Thank you for all the wonderful FE gifts and great conversation.

Dianne

 

[Double Trouble]

Hi Everyone! We just wanted to say how much we enjoyed meeting all of you (although I think I may have missed a few) and cruising together. We're trying to hold on to the cruise "high" as long as possible, although the long drive back to Vegas in crazy holiday traffic and the fact that I'm only 3 loads into 6 piles of dirty laundry are both putting a bit of a damper on my spirit. At least the weather is nice (although not as nice as Mexico ).

Special thanks again to Christine for getting the whole FE plan organized. You are awesome!

We appreciate all the great FE gifts...thank you everyone! Also, thanks for all the great insight everyone provided on the boards before we left and along the way. I learn something new every time.

So as one cruise fades away, it's time to start looking ahead to our next! Making final payment tomorrow for our Spring Break Wonder trip, and anxiously waiting to see what DCL is doing with the Wonder and Magic from December 2012 forward. If anyone hears any good rumors, please pass them on! I'm trying to generate some positive vibes for a Panama Canal cruise next Xmas (since they cancelled our MR cruise). We hope to see some of you aboard in the future!

Take Care!

 

[SanDeeKath]

We are home too! We only had a 2h drive down to San Diego in spectacular weather so we can't complain. We were walking through our door by noon, greeting our lovable puppies!

We too had an amazing week on board and it was very nice to meet you all. Sorry I missed the initial meeting (dad went to ER with chest pain just as we boarded). But all was well and the rest of the cruise was fabulous! We are starting to unpack slowly and I am truly exhausted from a week of partying and eating.

Katherine

 

[NarrabeenSteph]

I´m sitting in our hotel room in San Francisco, eating the DCL pralines and I´m wondering, if the hotel is moving
The traffic was horrible out of LA, but we made it to SF just before 9pm.

We had the time of our life!(just as in the music video they did on the debarkation channel ) It was nice to see the faces behind those usernames and to get to know a few of you.

We will return to LA for NYE and will stay at the Disneyland Resort until our final leg to Germany starts Jan 6, 2012. If anyone wants to catch up in the holiday madness at the parks, feel free to send me a message

Steph