Cruising The Canal May 1, 2015 (Roll Call in Post 1)

[Nielsen4]

OK, ya'll convinced me, I can fly in the night before Though it does look like fort lauderdale is cheaper to fly in to for us. Roll Call: Corey(38) Amber (36) Callie (7) Second Dining Deck 6 From Norther California.

Hi, we are from Northern California too, orangevale. I am excited to see you have a 7 DD. My daughter will be 8 on the cruise, 7 now. If you guys are anywhere near us it would be fun to get together beforehand. That way the girls would see a familiar face next May .

 

[Nielsen4]

Ok kind of random. But I was just browsing through a FE thread. Some people included gifts for Children's AMERICAN GIRL DOLLS. I know that my girls will be bringing theirs. Anyone else planning on letting their girls bring their AG Doll along? Like I said, random, but I would LOVE to include AG Doll gifts in FE gift exchange if enough people are bringing theirs

 

[WildEyed]

Ok kind of random. But I was just browsing through a FE thread. Some people included gifts for Children's AMERICAN GIRL DOLLS. I know that my girls will be bringing theirs. Anyone else planning on letting their girls bring their AG Doll along? Like I said, random, but I would LOVE to include AG Doll gifts in FE gift exchange if enough people are bringing theirs

Hmm. My daughter has a Maplelea girl which (who?) is Canadian. Same size as American Girl except, oddly, the feet. This is something I would consider. It might be a hassle to bring the doll on the flights from Canada. But maybe worth it? I don't know how many more years of doll-play are left, should make the most of it! (*sniff*). She will be ten.

 

[WildEyed]

Only one more year to wait!
...
I can't believe it's still a WHOLE YEAR to wait.

 

[mimmi]

Ok kind of random. But I was just browsing through a FE thread. Some people included gifts for Children's AMERICAN GIRL DOLLS. I know that my girls will be bringing theirs. Anyone else planning on letting their girls bring their AG Doll along? Like I said, random, but I would LOVE to include AG Doll gifts in FE gift exchange if enough people are bringing theirs

My daughter will definitely bring hers. She discovered the brand on our last cruise (as, of course, it's totally unknown in Austria) and bought a doll in Chicago last year. Now I keep facing the challenge to get my hands on gift cards for occasions like christmas, easter and birthdays , all my friends who go on business trips to the US are involved in this challenge.

I guess we will have to visit the Miami store on the day before the cruise (my husband will be delighted )

 

[mypixiedust]

Travel channel= Cabo. On now!

 

[carl850]

For those folks that track prices, you will notice an increase in the cost for staterooms over the weekend. A 6A category room increased $756, while the increase was not nearly as high in other categories. It pays to book early.

 

[csoutherl]

My daughter will definitely bring hers. She discovered the brand on our last cruise (as, of course, it's totally unknown in Austria) and bought a doll in Chicago last year. Now I keep facing the challenge to get my hands on gift cards for occasions like christmas, easter and birthdays , all my friends who go on business trips to the US are involved in this challenge.

I guess we will have to visit the Miami store on the day before the cruise (my husband will be delighted )

Yes, my daughter has brought one of "the girls" on our last few vacations, including our Magic voyage last year. I am sure she will do it again! No idea how we'd survive 2 weeks without!

 

[SeaSpray]

For those folks that track prices, you will notice an increase in the cost for staterooms over the weekend. A 6A category room increased $756, while the increase was not nearly as high in other categories. It pays to book early.

I noticed the same thing. Most of the verandah categories have gone up considerably!

 

[JanDave]

Hello!!!!!

We're joining all of you on the amazing Disney Wonder!!!

I'm Jan and my DH is Dave. I've been on 22 DCL cruises; Dave has been on 18. I just got off the Wonder last Friday.

Looking forward to getting to know all of you!

Jan

 

[shelbell77]

No American Girl doll in our cabin. But my 36 year old self brings Duffy along on cruises. And now that Shellie May has made her way to my house, she'll be on my upcoming cruises as well!

Duffy usually comes to dinner with us. Often he even gets his own chair. He's very thoughtful and orders an entree for the table to sample in addition to everyone's own dish.

 

[Lexa]

I finally made it to this thread......we were booked for the last two PC cruises and we didn;t make it, so today I moved my reservation to next year and I really hope we can go....

I recognize some names from previous cruises, specially our awesome table mates from 2013 WBPC - Brixton and her family!

We are family of 4, from Missouri...myself, DH, DS (who will be almost 11 at the time of cruise) and DD (who will be almost 10). My kids are really upset we can;t go this year, but with all that happened in last year, we really cound;t make it.

Looking forward to meet all of you...we will sign up for FE, when we are sure that we are going!

 

[4worlds1family]

Welcome!

A "FE group" is a group of people that exchange small gifts on the cruise. FE stands for "Fish Extender." Outside of each door is a small metal fish, meant as a place for Disney to stick notes or mail. People "extend" it by hanging something along the lines of a pocket organizer from it (though people have used all sorts of things, from the elaborate to the very simple). You are given a list of people (I believe the lists will be broken up into about 12 cabins for this group) and then you come up with little gifts to give out.

For our first cruise, I made Mickey Mouse pendants for the women and teenage girls, Mickey or Minnie ears for the kids, magnets, and for the men and teenage boys I bought Disney calendars/planners and movie theater candy, things like that. Some people did little baggies of candy from their hometown/country... little emergency kits... anything you can think of! It doesn't have to be fancy or expensive, but it is a lot of fun!

Thank you for this information. I'm excited to be a part of this and add to the fun of the cruise!

 

[4worlds1family]

We know we are going to do Las Caletas through Disney for Puerto Vallarta, but I am open to non-ship excursions for Cozumel and Cartagena. For both of those places, I want something that has some educational value while also being interesting for the kids. In Cozumel I'd like to see ruins, and I like the idea of learning something about the culture of Colombia.

Although we are not travelling with kids, I like both of your ideas and we are open to non-ship excursions as well

 

[wilma-bride]

So sorry I have been MIA recently. I was sick for a while after Easter and have started a new job in the last month, which is really busy so all my DISing time is being taken up by having to actually work - how rude

I am working on updating the roll call right now and will try to keep on top of it. I see the FB group has loads of new members too. Our group is growing

 

[wilma-bride]

She's my general Disney travel buddy. We have a group of friends we met on the magic in 2008 that we travel with often too. But this time its just the two of us!

Roll Call:

Shelley (36) from Connecticut
Jo (60) from Chicago
Cabin 2556
Main Dining

Welcome Shelley. We took our last cruise with people we had met on previous cruises and had a blast. We were a group of 25, which made dining interesting to say the least. But it was fabulous. It will seem strange with this next cruise just being DH and I.

OK, ya'll convinced me, I can fly in the night before Though it does look like fort lauderdale is cheaper to fly in to for us.

Roll Call:
Corey(38)
Amber (36)
Callie (7)
Second Dining
Deck 6

From Norther California.

Welcome to the group. For what it#s worth, I think you made the right decision to fly in a day early. I wouldn't want to risk missing the boat.

I have read about this forum in cruise reviews. We are booked for our first cruise! Any tips or hints are welcome.

Kim and DH Terry in 7132

Hi Kim, feel free to add some additional info, such as whether you have main or late dining and where you're from.

While I realize I am about 9 months early on this... Has anyone started looking in to the non-ship excursions? We could start a google doc or something to gauge interest to try and get some group rates that would probably beat the ships. And there are a few excursions I am reading about that aren't available via the ship.

Of course if such a thing already exists, point me to it. And if you have already been to some of these stops and there is a "must do" excursion in your opinion, we could add that to a doc as well.

I have already started looking into excursions. There are a few of the ship ones I am interested in, such as zip lining and the secret river. If there is any chance of getting a (cheaper) group rate for any of them I might be interested.

Well I will be a week from Thursday. Honestly I never do anything that involves eating off the ship. I have already paid for my meal, I don't want to pay for another one. Just my strange thinking.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

I feel the same, we always try to get back on the ship for our meals if at all possible.

For those folks that track prices, you will notice an increase in the cost for staterooms over the weekend. A 6A category room increased $756, while the increase was not nearly as high in other categories. It pays to book early.

Wow, that is some jump in prices. I'm glad we booked when we did, I was really happy with the price.

Hello!!!!!

We're joining all of you on the amazing Disney Wonder!!!

I'm Jan and my DH is Dave. I've been on 22 DCL cruises; Dave has been on 18. I just got off the Wonder last Friday.

Looking forward to getting to know all of you!

Jan

Welcome to the group - I have added you to the roll call. I f you want to let me know whether you have main or late dining and what SR (or deck) you have and where you're from, I'll add the extra info too.

I finally made it to this thread......we were booked for the last two PC cruises and we didn;t make it, so today I moved my reservation to next year and I really hope we can go....

I recognize some names from previous cruises, specially our awesome table mates from 2013 WBPC - Brixton and her family!

We are family of 4, from Missouri...myself, DH, DS (who will be almost 11 at the time of cruise) and DD (who will be almost 10). My kids are really upset we can;t go this year, but with all that happened in last year, we really cound;t make it.

Looking forward to meet all of you...we will sign up for FE, when we are sure that we are going!

Welcome to the group Lexa. I have added you to the roll call. We have also previously booked the WBPC and ended up not going but we are definitely in for this one. Hope you get to do it too.

 

[shelbell77]

Welcome Shelley. We took our last cruise with people we had met on previous cruises and had a blast. We were a group of 25, which made dining interesting to say the least. But it was fabulous. It will seem strange with this next cruise just being DH and I.

We have felt that way the one cruise we did on our own since we met them all. And in 2012 a couple of them surprised me in WDW for my birthday. Now it feels weird to be at WDW without them too! Love that we made such wonderful lasting friends, and just from getting seated together at dinner on a cruise!

If any of the cruise regulars know "Fitz" (he seems to be well known by all the crew) he was our head server back then on the Magic. We've seen him on the Dream and Fantasy since, and he'll be on Fantasy when we go back this fall. He's had the (mis)fortune of being on all our subsequent cruises together. He pretends to be annoyed by us. But we know he loves us.

 

[shelbell77]

So sorry I have been MIA recently. I was sick for a while after Easter and have started a new job in the last month, which is really busy so all my DISing time is being taken up by having to actually work - how rude

I am working on updating the roll call right now and will try to keep on top of it. I see the FB group has loads of new members too. Our group is growing

Sorry about the sick part. But YAY new job!

 

[mimmi]

OK, I'll keep looking then. I've only gone through Cartagena so far, but there is a street food tour that sounds fun to me. And it includes some history/site seeing etc I believe. It's reviewed well. Once I have more, I will post again.

We would be interested, too, especially for Cartagena and Puerto Vallarta. The street food thing sounds very interesting, we love exotic foods.

 

[Brixton]

Yay! Our tablemates have arrived! My kids are SOOOO excited to see Lexa and her family! I am excited, too, especially since we've had to cancel the last two PC Cruises!

Welcome to all who've joined the group, it's going to be a great cruise

Re: Shore Excursion Ideas...
Like Alan, I don't get off the ship. However, my DH and DDs will go to Las Caletas in PV, Las Americas in Colombia, and the ruins (on their own) in Cozumel. By the time we get to Cabo, we are sad it's almost over so we hang around the pool - usually with frosty beverages

358 days 'til Miami