Dec 5, 2009 -- now traveling to Tortola

[mommyoftwinfants]

do we have a roll call list?

Hi again everyone

 

[kaydiebug]

Hi there. We booked this cruise while onboard our April 30th cruise on the Wonder. I have been busy reading through all the posts, but have only made it to page 20. This will be our 3rd Disney Cruise, and our 2nd one on the Magic. From what I have read so far, looks like there has been a lot of introductions so I will fill you in:
We are sailing with our 3 children: Kayden 13, Gabe 8, and Saylor Ivy 3. My husband is a dentist and I am an elementary teacher. We will be doing lots of scuba diving on this trip, as we have never dove the Virgin Islands. Anybody in? Oh, and the most looked forward to food item on the cruise.....the paninis at Goofy's Galley. We're a no frills kinda family

 

[NHdisneylover]

Thanks. I'll have to have my 10 YO DD check it out.

My DS, Rio is 10. He would love to have someone else his age posting on there I will tell him to watch out for a new poster.

do we have a roll call list?

Hi again everyone

Uh, yeah I am supposed to be working on thatI got sucked up in real life evicting the darned tenants and have not gotten to the roll call/website. I can get to it in about 2-3 more weeks, OR someone else posted once they thought they could do it now that they have an idea of how it should look. If that person wants to--please jump in (I will forward the PMs I ahve to you), I won't be offended at all

Hi there. We booked this cruise while onboard our April 30th cruise on the Wonder. I have been busy reading through all the posts, but have only made it to page 20. This will be our 3rd Disney Cruise, and our 2nd one on the Magic. From what I have read so far, looks like there has been a lot of introductions so I will fill you in:
We are sailing with our 3 children: Kayden 13, Gabe 8, and Saylor Ivy 3. My husband is a dentist and I am an elementary teacher. We will be doing lots of scuba diving on this trip, as we have never dove the Virgin Islands. Anybody in? Oh, and the most looked forward to food item on the cruise.....the paninis at Goofy's Galley. We're a no frills kinda family

Hello and Welcome I'm Hadley and my DH is Dave. We will be sailing with our DD12 Marika and our DS10 Rio. It is nice to meet you. Oh, and sorry we are none of us scuba divers I am looking forward to COkes and chips so your paninis sound plenty "frill"y to me!

 

[carmie3377]

Hi there. We booked this cruise while onboard our April 30th cruise on the Wonder. I have been busy reading through all the posts, but have only made it to page 20. This will be our 3rd Disney Cruise, and our 2nd one on the Magic. From what I have read so far, looks like there has been a lot of introductions so I will fill you in:
We are sailing with our 3 children: Kayden 13, Gabe 8, and Saylor Ivy 3. My husband is a dentist and I am an elementary teacher. We will be doing lots of scuba diving on this trip, as we have never dove the Virgin Islands. Anybody in? Oh, and the most looked forward to food item on the cruise.....the paninis at Goofy's Galley. We're a no frills kinda family

Welcome aboard!

While we won't be scuba diving on this trip, we did a couple of times in Jamaica 11 years ago. We loved it. We plan on becoming certified when the kids get older.

 

[Tower]

We are sailing with our 3 children: Kayden 13, Gabe 8, and Saylor Ivy 3.

Welcome Kaydiebug! It will be great getting to know you as we move a little bit closer to our sail date.

Our older DS, Erik, will be 8 by the cruise, so he'll likely see Gabe at his various activities on board.

Saylor Ivy might see our youngest DS, though Peter will be 2 3/4 by then and I'm not sure if they will allow him in. Because he has 2 older siblings, he's more mature for his age and he'll get along well with older kids. Here's to hoping!

I had ear surgery 1.5 months ago and one constraint anymore, due to water pressure, is never to scuba. I like my improved hearing away from those blasted hearing aids, so I will be staying away from the very deep water. Snorkeling may be an option.

 

[3LVDisney]

All,
Unfortunately my group is no longer aboard this cruise as we had to postpone it for another year (to 12/4/2010) due to some medical issues. We hope you all have a wonderful trip and will be thinking of you as you cruise the seas this December.

Take Care!

-3LVDisney

 

[NHdisneylover]

All,
Unfortunately my group is no longer aboard this cruise as we had to postpone it for another year (to 12/4/2010) due to some medical issues. We hope you all have a wonderful trip and will be thinking of you as you cruise the seas this December.

Take Care!

-3LVDisney

Oh that is too bad I do hope the medical issue is easily remidied and I am glad you were at least able to book for 2010

 

[Tower]

we had to postpone it for another year (to 12/4/2010) due to some medical issues

Hey! As Hadley mentioned, I hope it's not too serious. Take care of what's most important.

Have fun next year!

 

[Tower]

Ok, so I'm thinking about another question as Hadley's obviously got some things to work out with deadbeats etc. I hope you don't mind me asking yet another question to keep this board up on people's minds and thinking ahead to December. (Hadley is so much better at this, but I miss the interaction and the board is pretty slow right now.)

So, most of us are confirmed Disney addicts so a question of where you will be:
Where will you be staying before/after this Disney cruise? Which Disney resort? Off site? How Long?
I made some reservations at the Residence Inn for 2 nights before our cruise, but now, thanks to the excited input by others, we're changing our minds to stay at a Disney resort.

We don't have any reservations yet as I'm hoping to get some kind of promotion closer to the date, but we're at either POR or Caribbean Beach Resort. We were hoping for the Cabins, but with my 75 year old mom around, it may be too much walking for her. Both POR and CBR have the DME stopping there to pick up cruisers so less maneuvering than if we stayed at a value resort.

 

[carmie3377]

Where will you be staying before/after this Disney cruise? Which Disney resort? Off site? How Long?

Great question Tower! You're doing a fine job at filling in for Hadley!

We're staying before and after. I got a PIN offer from Disney where adults eat and play at the kid's prices. And since DD is considered an adult, it saves us on tickets and the dining plan for her too! We have the offer on both stays.

Before - The kids and I are flying in on Dec 1 and checking in at Pop for 4 nights. DH will fly in on the evening of the 4th, get our rental and meet us at Pop. We'll drive over to the Port on the morning of the 5th.

After - DH will have to return to work but there is a chance he can enjoy Saturday at the parks with us. MIL will meet us and we will check into Pop again for 5 nights. We'll fly home on Dec 17th.

We don't have any reservations yet as I'm hoping to get some kind of promotion closer to the date, but we're at either POR or Caribbean Beach Resort. We were hoping for the Cabins, but with my 75 year old mom around, it may be too much walking for her. Both POR and CBR have the DME stopping there to pick up cruisers so less maneuvering than if we stayed at a value resort.

The cabins are great, especially since there will be 6 of you. They have bus stops near the loops and we had a cabin very close to our bus stop. You can see our cabin in the background as DH and DD waited for the bus.

The buses will then take you to the boats for MK or to the main bus stop for all other destinations. We have stayed at several different resorts and this was by far the closest bus stop from our room. It was bit more lengthy wait since we had to wait on 2 buses (or one bus and boat) but it was still convenient.

As far as discounts, I expect that there will be a general public discount. They've had some pretty awesome discounts almost all year, including the summer Buy4/Get 3 Free promotion. Now, the package promotions have always had a minimum stay of 3 nights and it looks like you're planning on 2 nights. Room only discounts may be available for only 2 nights. Best of luck getting a discount.

 

[hawaiian mickey]

Aloha,
We are coming in on Dec 2 an staying at the Wilderness Lodge. We are DVC members. After the cruise we are staying at Beach Club Villa for 2 days.
We plan our trip around where we are going to eat on Disney property. We are foodies by heart.

aloha,

hawaiian mickey

 

[NHdisneylover]

Hi everybody. Marika's oral surgery went very well yesterday. The tooth was not lodged as deeply in the bone as the yhad thought from looking at the x-rays. The surgery only took about 35 minutes and they had thought it would be nearly an hour. She feels pretty good and is antsy already this morning and not wanting to just lay around recovering so that is a big relief to me (I had a terrible time 12 years ago with my wisdom teeth extraction and could hardly function for a week afterwards so I was very worried she would be in such rough shape).

Tower--thanks for posting anotehr question. You come up with GREAT questions

We are flying in the week before the cruise (well that is the plan which we intend to keep--still worried about the whole taking kids out of German schools thing) on eitehr Saturday or Sunday (whenever airfare is best). From the Sunday to the Dec 5 we will be at the Animal Kindom Villas styaing with some of my best friends. They can't join us on the cruise (we met on a DCL cruise and usually sail together) but at least we get the week together at the parks first. Some other of our cruise friends are on this cruise but haven't posted in forever (Chris and Rob are you out there?????).
We are so excited to see our friends and be at the park when the holiday decorations are up (it has been a while since we did that) AND we have never stayed in a DVC villa before so that will be fun too

Tower--I love PORFQ If you prefer to stay at a value it may be worth it to yoo to look into private transportation to the port for your mom's sake. With four of us it is considerably cheaper than the DCL buses and we feel it is so much more conveneint as you can set your own pick up time and not stand around waiting. Most of the company's will stop at a grocery or liquor store for you to pick up a few items along the way if you ask. We had 6 of us last time and got a van and had plenty of room for everyone and luggage. With 6 you save a little over DCL but not a huge amount. It is more for the ease of having our own personal ride (plus, of course, you could save a bundle staying at a value instead of a moderate). WE have had the best service (by far) from Tiffany Town Car but others have liked other services as well.

 

[NHdisneylover]

We're staying before and after. I got a PIN offer from Disney where adults eat and play at the kid's prices. And since DD is considered an adult, it saves us on tickets and the dining plan for her too! We have the offer on both stays.

Oh what a fantastic pin! There will be 6 of us in our group and even Rio now qualifies as an adult in WDW (not at Disney Paris though) so that would be a very welcome price break. Good for you for snagging that

Aloha,
We are coming in on Dec 2 an staying at the Wilderness Lodge. We are DVC members. After the cruise we are staying at Beach Club Villa for 2 days.
We plan our trip around where we are going to eat on Disney property. We are foodies by heart.

aloha,

hawaiian mickey

Mmmmmm! We sometimes plan around food too. It is absolutely at the fore front of our minds (sometimes it is hard to narrow down--though we HAVE noticed some slipping in quality over the years). The first thing I emailed our friends was which places we "have" to eat at this trip (they care baout the food too but were like, uh can't we decided which hotel first). For us, this trip (we try to mix it up a bit" the must dos are Yak and Yeti (everyone but Rio is dying to go back), Teppanyaki Grill (they have changed the name but you'll know what I mean, we haven't been in a while and the kids asked to go back) and trying out Sanna. We did Artist's Point for the first time last year and LOVED it (it is officially Rio's "favourite restraurant ever") and are debating about making it a last night tradition (but it is two credits so then we get fewer meals overall). So, where are you dining this year foodies???

 

[Tower]

(though we HAVE noticed some slipping in quality over the years)

Hmm, that's what surprised me on our last trip to WDW. The coffee at the value resorts did not qualify as coffee in my opinion. I bought the free refills cup while there and don't think I got my money's worth with the type of stuff that came out of those spouts. I hope that our next resort will have better black stuff.

 

[carmie3377]

Hi everybody. Marika's oral surgery went very well yesterday. The tooth was not lodged as deeply in the bone as the yhad thought from looking at the x-rays. The surgery only took about 35 minutes and they had thought it would be nearly an hour. She feels pretty good and is antsy already this morning and not wanting to just lay around recovering so that is a big relief to me (I had a terrible time 12 years ago with my wisdom teeth extraction and could hardly function for a week afterwards so I was very worried she would be in such rough shape).

Glad to hear everything went okay! I remember getting all four of my wisdom teeth out on the same day when I was a senior in high school. I was miserable! Same as you, I couldn't function for about a week when you add the dry sockets I got from drinking out of a straw. Tell Marika to be careful about that or best yet, don't drink out of a straw for a bit.

We are flying in the week before the cruise (well that is the plan which we intend to keep--still worried about the whole taking kids out of German schools thing) on eitehr Saturday or Sunday (whenever airfare is best). From the Sunday to the Dec 5 we will be at the Animal Kindom Villas styaing with some of my best friends. They can't join us on the cruise (we met on a DCL cruise and usually sail together) but at least we get the week together at the parks first. Some other of our cruise friends are on this cruise but haven't posted in forever (Chris and Rob are you out there?????).
We are so excited to see our friends and be at the park when the holiday decorations are up (it has been a while since we did that) AND we have never stayed in a DVC villa before so that will be fun too

We loved the AKV! We stayed there last Sept/Oct. The only drawback for me was how far it is from everything, but that can have it's advantages too! It's great having a kitchen with fridge to keep drink cold, keep some breakfast things, leftovers, ect. Some people like them so they can prepare their own meals but I don't like cooking on vacation! If you have a one bedroom or bigger, you'll also have a washer and dryer. That thing is awesome on vacation! I'll probably miss that more than anything on our trip in Dec.

Oh what a fantastic pin! There will be 6 of us in our group and even Rio now qualifies as an adult in WDW (not at Disney Paris though) so that would be a very welcome price break. Good for you for snagging that

Oh, I was so happy to finally get to take advantage of a PIN. I have wanted one for so long and never got one. Then all of the sudden this year, they are flooding in. Couldn't take advantage of the first few, but happy about this one. Some people got a similar pin with FREE dining. Of course, would rather have it, but discounted is great! The kids prices for dining is very good. Since it's a value, we'll get the Quick Service dining, which I've never done. Moderates and up get regular Dining plan. I've done the regular dining before and really liked it and hope I like the quick service just as well.

 

[Inkmahm]

Aloha,
We are coming in on Dec 2 an staying at the Wilderness Lodge. We are DVC members. After the cruise we are staying at Beach Club Villa for 2 days.
We plan our trip around where we are going to eat on Disney property. We are foodies by heart.

aloha,

hawaiian mickey

Hey, you're a lot like me and my DH! We are arriving on Dec 2 and staying at the Wilderness Lodge, too. We are also DVC members. After the cruise we are stayng Sat night at Bay Lake Tower just to check it out. We'll fly home late Sunday night on the 13th because I have a busy day at work on Dec 14.

We also consider where we are eating to be a big part of all of our trips. Artist Point at VWL is a favorite.

 

[Tower]

Oh, I was so happy to finally get to take advantage of a PIN. I have wanted one for so long and never got one.

What's a PIN?

 

[carmie3377]

What's a PIN?

Disney randomly sends out these codes for discounts. They can come in the form of an email (from Disney Destinations) or postcard. They are for various types of discounts offered and each PIN is very specific and non transferable. Some that I have seen available are room only discounts, free dining, kids eat and play for free and adults eat and play at the kid's price. I'm sure there have been others. Sometimes, the same offers become general offers available to anyone but it's nice to have them early to have a better chance of getting the resort and/or dates that you want.

Some people have reported calling Disney to see if they have a PIN "attached to their name" and have been able to take advantage of a discount they didn't receive a postcard or email for. I have called before and have been told that there isn't a PIN and also that they can't check. However, there are several reports I've read on here that indeed they (the Disney call reps) can check if they are willing to try. If there is no PIN, there is nothing that they can do but some are willing to check for you.

 

[Tower]

Thanks Carmie!

Don't know if I'm on the 'mailing list' for those, but I hope I am

 

[hawaiian mickey]

aloha,
We are planning to eat at Artist Pointe on our first night. What do you recommend on their menu.
For us must places to eat is La Cellier, California Grill, Afternoon Tea at the Grand Floridian and Raglan Road....mmmmm. Getting hungry thinking about it.

aloha,
hawaiian mickey