Dec 5, 2009 -- now traveling to Tortola

[NHdisneylover]

Tower--sorry I can't tell you much about Fort Wilderness cabins--never stayed there. We have been to the restort several times just to visit though and we always enjoy the atmosphere. It is fun to roast marshmellows and have s'mores at the communotiy camp fire It sounds like otehrs gave you some good advice--I hope you did book, what fun

Well, winter weather has setteld back in Germany with a vengenceIt is cold (temps hovering right around freezing) with plenty of wind and rain to boot. Bad timing as Marika's class trip is next week. Her (male) teacehr and I are the only two adults going and there are 10 kids. We will be gone M-F and be spending (supposedly PLEASE dear teacher relent and change plans PLEASE) nearly all of Tues-Thurs out of doors. I am taking my computer but no one is sure if we will haev net access or not so I amy not be back posting until next weekend (assuming my finger do not freeze off and then I will never be able to post again!)

So, everyone have a good week and I hope you are warmer than we are.

 

[Tower]

Well, the recession affecting the economy of most countries has hit Canada as well.

Sorry to say, we had to cancel our cruise.

As you know, we were all very excited about this cruise. It was booked more than a year ago and now it's getting close.

Damn!

Goodbye.

 

[Tower]

April Fool!!!!!

Can't wait, can't wait, Can't wait!!!!

 

[carmie3377]

Well, the recession affecting the economy of most countries has hit Canada as well.

Sorry to say, we had to cancel our cruise.

As you know, we were all very excited about this cruise. It was booked more than a year ago and now it's getting close.

Damn!

Goodbye.

April Fool!!!!!

Can't wait, can't wait, Can't wait!!!!

Okay, I was believing you for a few seconds! Glad to hear your still on board.

Just over 8 months and we'll all be making our way to Florida. I'm just about done with my fish extender and am looking forward to getting something set up on here about an exchange.

 

[Tower]

Okay, I was believing you for a few seconds! Glad to hear your still on board.

Just over 8 months and we'll all be making our way to Florida. I'm just about done with my fish extender and am looking forward to getting something set up on here about an exchange.

Booked our flight to Orlando for the Thursday before, no flight home yet as we're planning on Airtran and their schedule for December is not out yet. Want to be there now! With the warm summer approaching, I hope that sun will be enough to keep me at bay until December.

 

[carmie3377]

Booked our flight to Orlando for the Thursday before, no flight home yet as we're planning on Airtran and their schedule for December is not out yet. Want to be there now! With the warm summer approaching, I hope that sun will be enough to keep me at bay until December.

We're flying Southwest and their Dec. schedule won't be out for awhile. Right now, they're only booking through Aug 14. I think they only release 3 months at a time. Hopefully I'm wrong and the schedule will be out soon. I'm just hoping for a late Friday flight since hubby can not take off Friday. Right now, their latest flight out of Houston Hobby is 7:30 and that would be cutting it close for us. DH did inform work that he would like to catch a flight that night but he's starting a new program in July and it's hard to push too hard to get something you want with new bosses. We could take a different airline but that would mean higher fares and a trip to Houston International, something I would like to avoid. Hobby is so convenient because it is small and only 20 minutes from my house.

Just a warning about Airtran. They change flight times quite often. I had booked MIL on Airtran nonstop out of DFW for our Sept 08 trip to correspond with our SWA flights. I had us arriving and departing MCO within minutes of each other. A couple of months before our trip, I was checking to see if the price had decreased and noticed that her flights were totally eliminated. They put her on flights with layovers in Atlanta that were way off from ours. Her departure out of MCO was changed from 7PM to about 2PM (which could be a big problem for you!) Anyway, I asked them why we weren't notified and they said that there was a big chance that they would change again so they wait until just a few days before flying to notify customers of any changes. We took a refund and booked with AA. I have read on the transportation board of similar things happening quite often with Airtran. I know their prices are good and a lot of people love them but just wanted to give you the warning in case you didn't know. I would hate for you to book a departure the same day as arriving at port and your flight time be changed to some time that is impossible or difficult.

 

[Tower]

Thanks Carmie! I did not realize that about them.

We haven't booked yet, I'm also checking Jetblue and SW, but neither have schedules yet into December. Jetblue and Airtran have the luggage program with Disney, SW does not so that's why I'm leaning away from SW.

That may change pending prices when they are posted. I'm buying 6 one-way tickets home so I want a good deal.

One nice thing is that we dock back in the Cape on a Saturday that if Airtran changes anything on us, we have a day's flexibility on it before returning home.

 

[carmie3377]

Thanks Carmie! I did not realize that about them.

We haven't booked yet, I'm also checking Jetblue and SW, but neither have schedules yet into December. Jetblue and Airtran have the luggage program with Disney, SW does not so that's why I'm leaning away from SW.

Yeah, that's the one thing I don't like about SWA. However, since their rates are as cheap or cheaper than any other airline (for us anyway) plus NO checked bag fees, we save a small fortune flying on SWA.

That may change pending prices when they are posted. I'm buying 6 one-way tickets home so I want a good deal.

Oh, I understand - I'm always looking out for the best deal. I'm glad we only have to buy 4 tickets.

Good luck deciding. Dec can't get here soon enough!

 

[mrstbalt]

We just booked our air through travelocity. The lowest from Chicago non stop was $187, but flight times were not going to work. We got it for $208 from ORD (O'Hare). We are almost there, just have to book hotel at the Dolphin and we are done!

 

[Tower]

We just booked our air through travelocity. The lowest from Chicago non stop was $187, but flight times were not going to work. We got it for $208 from ORD (O'Hare). We are almost there, just have to book hotel at the Dolphin and we are done!

Have you been to the Dolphin before? How quick of a ride is it to the Magic Kingdom? They told me that we would need 2 rooms for our party size of 6

 

[Tower]

Question for the experienced DCL cruisers.

The Cruise Line website talks about Lumieres as a nice place to eat. Based upon what I've read, there is no extra charge to eat there, but is it another adults only eatery like Palo? Or can kids eat in there too? We would like at least one semi-formal family dinner while on the cruise.

 

[Inkmahm]

Question for the experienced DCL cruisers.

The Cruise Line website talks about Lumieres as a nice place to eat. Based upon what I've read, there is no extra charge to eat there, but is it another adults only eatery like Palo? Or can kids eat in there too? We would like at least one semi-formal family dinner while on the cruise.

It's one of the restaurants on the rotation so you'll be eating there. I think it is the equivalent to Triton's on the Magic.

 

[mrstbalt]

Have you been to the Dolphin before? How quick of a ride is it to the Magic Kingdom? They told me that we would need 2 rooms for our party size of 6

We have not been to the Dophin before but they do have a special when you book one room you can get another for $99. My mom can get an AARP rate and there is a special rate starting on the 13th of $149 not including the $10 resort fee. Not sure about the time it takes to get to MK.

 

[PirateMaiden]

Waiting to book our airfare. We normally fly Airtran out of Newport News but I am looking at maybe taking SWA out of Norfolk this time because of flight times and not having to pay for baggage. I just don't know how I can possibly sqeeze everything into one bag and a carry-on each and with SWA at least I can have the two checked bags- FREE! I'm getting stressed- I hate waiting!

 

[NHdisneylover]

Hi everyone. I am jealous of all of you who have the option of flying Southwest (my favourite airline). I miss my cheap flights to the cruise

So, lots of planning talk while I was gone (yeah). I love when we start getting close enoguth to do lots of planning.

TOWER--There are three "rotational" restruants on the ship. These are:
Parrot Cay (casual, tropical atmosphere)
Animator's Pallatte (goes from black and white to color--very Disney)
Luimere's (more formal, themed off of Beauty and the Beast--lovely)

Everyone will be schedueld to eat in each of the above at least twice and one of htem three times 9for the seven nigths). No, you cannot find out which ones on which nights until you check in on the sail day (meaning you cannot plan for sure which you will "miss" to dine at Palos if you choose to do so).

Each local has one menu specific to that restruarunt which you will have on one of your visits to that one. In addition there will be four theme nigths when all menus on all 3 palces are the same. One of these is pirate nignt and you are encouraged to dress like a pirate (and many guests do--we do). One is the captain's gala (to Marika and Dave this means LOBSTER night), etc.

Our family loves the more formal feel of Lumiere's and we always dress a bit nicer to dine there (though many don't--we also "dress" for dinner every night on board so we are kind of odd that way).

Okay, since no one else posted any thing along these lines, and I really did enjoy getting to know a little bit more about all of you (via favourite characters) here is another Question of the Week:

What do you all do for a living???

Me--Well, I was the young adult librarian at our local, small town library. I lvoed it. It was 20 hours a week of hanging out with books, book lovers and teens. The ideal job for me. I had to leave that to come to Germany. I cannot have a working visa here until we have stayed 3 years so for the time being I am a "corporate wife"

Dave--He is an engineer with a variety of specialties in the tooling and plstics and rubber fields. He and a Japanese coworker is develoing and implementing the world wide training for his company on LEAN systems.

So, how about the rest of you? How do you spend your days????

 

[Tower]

Question of the Week:What do you all do for a living???

So, how about the rest of you? How do you spend your days????

Hmmm, well, unlike all those dating sites where one can say they are astro-physicist millionaires with 3 mansion, I guess I'll say the truth.
I am a Professional Engineer here in Canada. I specialize in the structural analysis, design and inspection of cellular 'towers'. Hence my screen name. I'm self-employed with it, but it does keep me very busy even with a home office where some days it's difficult to get family time (Hence this cruise that I'll still bring my laptop to)

I'm blessed to have enough income coming in to provide for the whole family so Christine stays home with the kids and looks after the more important things in our household. She can't wait to get a break from all the cooking and cleaning that she tirelessly does every day.

My mom, who is coming along, at 75 is retired and spends her day playing bridge. Any other bridge players out there to challenge her?

 

[carmie3377]

Question of the Week:

What do you all do for a living???

So, how about the rest of you? How do you spend your days????

Me - I'm a stay at home mom. I spend my days doing what all SAHMs do - running the kids to and from, cleaning, cooking, paying bills, budgeting (so we can afford these vacations!), ect. I will also be homeschooling DD next year. I also like to do paper crafts such as card making, scrapbooking, ect. When I was working (when DH was in med school) I worked at a bank doing accounts, loans, mortgages, ect. I have considered many times to go back to work until he is finished with fellowship, but with his hectic schedule, working overnight on 30 hour shifts every 4-5 nights with only 1 day off a week, we feel it's best for the children that I stay home.

DH (Jarrod) - He's in his final year of pediatric residency. He'll start a cardiology fellowship in July and in 3 years he'll be a pediatric cardiologist. I'm finally beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel - a very loooooooong tunnel. He's been in school for what seems like forever. Went back after we'd been married 3 years, got bachelors, PhD, MD, almost done with residency and then fellowship in the near future. I told him he better not decide to do further training. Anyway, residents/fellows don't earn a large amount, hence all the budgeting for these vacations. He works a lot of hours (70-80+) and really looks forward to our vacations. He plans on leaving his cell phone off the entire time, leaving the pager at home, and just enjoying himself with the family.

 

[George Rada]

Hi everyone,

It's George. We are back in town and back up on the forum.

Great question Hadely!!!!!!!!!!!! I recently retired from the Metropolitan Police Department, District of Columbia at the rank of Detective. I went on the job after I was discharged from the Army and started my career off by walking footbeat's in the worst part of DC. About a year later I was moved up to a patrol car and later spent time with a motorcycle unit before going back to a patrol car (I got sick off riding motorcycles in the winter). Eventually I achieved my goal of being promoted to Detective and worked with the fraud unit (my happiest days on the job) and finished my career at the narcotics branch working money laundering and asset forfieture cases. Currently I am Mr Mom, who drives to and from school, to and from soccer practise, cooks, cleans, shops and all the other Mr Mom jobs. I am looking to start a new career soon, because I think George & Sean are winning the Mr Mom war.

Kath (DW) is a personnel manager with the Department of the Navy, Naval Air Station Patuxent River, MD. Whatever the Navy puts in the air gets tested there first, from bolts used in airframes to aircrew equipment and everthing in between. Her father was a career Naval Officer and she was actually born at NAS Pax River. We were married there at the base chapel and had our reception at the officer's club. Her family did a few oversea's tours, but they pretty much grew up right near the base she works at.

 

[Tower]

Ok

got another question for all of you.

It's a minor one, but when we went to the Magic Kingdom and various resorts for meals on our meal plan, my son got his usual 'chicken nuggets'. Here in Canada a lot of people enjoy their nuggets/chicken fingers with plum sauce. My son was disappointed to find out that most places did not have plum sauce at all

So, my question for the experienced cruisers is, will the ship have plum sauce, or at the least honey for the nuggets or should we bring our own?

I know, silly question, but worth a try. It won't make or break the cruise.

 

[Inkmahm]

Question of the Week:

What do you all do for a living???

Me- I"m a CPA but work in industry, not public accounting. I'm a VP-Finance. DH is early retired.