Dec. 7, 2008 4 nite Mousefest Cruise - who's all going?

[Hanover]

You guys have been busy chatting! I need to check this thread more often because this is the first update I've had in my inbox in a couple of weeks.

We were at WDW 4/24-4/29. We stayed at Animal Kingdom Villas for 4 nights and Old Key West for 1 night. We had a great time. We went to all 4 main theme parks and Downtown Disney a couple of times.

We were on the Disney Dining Plan and mixed up old favorites with a couple of new choices. We loved Tusker House when it was a counter service and and this time tried Tusker House for breakfast and lunch now that it's a buffet. We enjoyed both of them a lot. My DH thought the lunch was one of the best buffets on property. We also tried out Hollywood and Vine's Play and Dine for lunch. That was good as well. The rest were old favorites and were also great: The Garden Grill and Liberty Tree Tavern for table service meals and Pizza Planet, Cosmic Rays, Sunshine Seasons and the food courts at AKL and Port Orleans Riverside for counter service meals.

We lucked out with several dreams from the dream team: We got dream fast passes at the Conservation Station at Animal Kingdom, dream fast passes at Hollywood Studios at One Man's Dream, dream ears in Epcot crossing the bridge from near Test Track to the Odyssey area, and were selected to open Animal Kingdom one morning. In our other 3 trips in the last year, we received fast dream fast passes once so we were very fortunate this trip.

We came back to have our DS10 have one more CT scan at Johns Hopkins to check the mass in his chest and it has now shrunk to the size of a pea with the rest of the shrinking mass forming strands of scar tissue. Much better than the bigger than a large grapefruit it was back in February. The mass can come back so he's going to be getting CT scans every few months for the forseeable future. He's now back to all normal activities which is great.

Both of our boys play baseball and it's keeping us very busy. They started the season April 19th and one of the two has had games every night of the week since.

 

[Hanover]

To answer some of the questions I've read over the last couple of pages:

We have stayed at Coronado Springs a couple of times and really liked it a lot.
Our boys loved the pool and play areas. We liked the food court and also enjoyed renting bikes and riding around the lake area. We found it to be quiet and well maintained.

We did the Blue Lagoon Dolphin Encounter in 2/2005 and loved it. We've done dolphin encounters in Cozumel and Anguilla too and thought the one in Nassau was the best. On our 3 day cruise in 12/2006 we took a taxi to Atlantis, came back and walked the straw market and did the pirate museum. We are doing a 4 day in August with a double dip to Castaway Cay and probably will not get off the ship since we'll use that day to enjoy the ship (we won't have a sea day). In December we are considering doing the Atlantis Aquadventure. I would definitely consider doing the dolphin encounter again too. The water was a tad chilly when we were there in February and they did offer short sleeve/short lenght wet suits to wear.

We did the sting ray encounter at Castaway Cay this past December and really enjoyed it. Once we got off the ship we went straight to the ray area and sat at the beach area there until it was our turn at 10:00. The beach area around there was nice and pretty empty. We had a hammock and were really close to the Grouper game pavillion. Everyone in our group (they divide it into about 4 groups of 8 people) got to feed the rays a few times. We could also snorkel in the area too. We usually bring our own snorkel gear we bought at Sam's or Costco and spend the afternoon in the snorkel lagoon.

We would be interested in doing the fish extender exchange. I bought a FE directly from someone off of Ebay. She has a lot of listings/sold items and let me choose what I wanted. I paid $30 plus $5 shipping/handling. Several other members from our August cruise have bought items off of her too and they have all turned out great. I will post a picture of it:

If anyone's interested in ordering from her, please PM me and I can give you her email address.

 

[NancyIL]

Aww. Sorry to hear you cancelled the cruise.

Thanks, Karen and others. Will there be yet another annual Jellyrolls meet during MouseFest?

Jazmine, thanks for the Alaska report and photos. My DH and I went on an Alaskan cruise last June, followed by a 9-day land trip with a rental car, and we loved it. However, Im sure it was MUCH warmer in June than in late April. I enjoyed Alaska so much that I'm returning in late July with friends - once again cruising and then doing a land trip.

 

[clarasunnyside]

HI Jazmine

Thanks for your report and the pictures. Sorry to hear that you got sick and I think you may need a "do over trip"


Hanover

thanks for the info on the Coronado Springs, I am excited.
And its great to hear that your son is better, I cannot imagine the stress you must have been going through.

 

[mkmommy]

Hanover

Sounds like you had a great trip, and I am sure it was great for your to get away. Did you like Old Key West? We were going to stay there last March but we ended up staying at Pop Century as we had some friends staying there, but I really want to stay there, it looks like a great resort to get away from all the hustle of the parks.

Glad to hear your son is doing well.

Your Fish Extender is great, I think I will make one, so I need to start looking for some great Mickey Material. I will add you to the Gift Exchange list.

Have a great weekend.

Lisa

 

[clarasunnyside]

To all the moms

Have a wonderful Mother's day

 

[Hanover]

Hey guys,

We just booked our flights for the way down to Orlando on 12/5/08. Air Tran is running a special where you can get $25 off for surbscribing to Net Escapes on their website if you book before Mother's Day. We got all 4 tickets with the taxes, etc and picked our seats ($6 each extra) for $278. We have 4 email addresses between our personal email and work email addresses so we got four $25 coupons. DH is now working on getting the return flight booked on 12/14/08.

thanks for the kind words on my son. I don't wish this experience with his tumor on anyone. Stressful and then some to say the least. I can't imagine anything worse than hearing a pediatrician say your child has lymphoma and has 2 hours to get to the hospital for chemo. Fortunately it looks like it's now benign and has responded remarkably to medication. We know how fortunate we really are and are forever grateful to our family and friends for all of the prayers.

I thought OKW was just ok. DH didn't care for it. I like the pool and dock area and the looks to the villas. I just thought the studio we stayed in was much more aged and dirty feeling than the studios we've stayed in at Animal Kingdom, the Beach Club and Wilderness Lodge. I'd stay there again, but it would't be my first choice. How did you like Pop Century? We will be staying there after our 4 day cruise in August because we got a great deal with free dining and can put the full ticket prices of our one day passes towards our annual pass renewals. We are actually going to get about $150 more and not use points than if we had paid for the dining plan while staying at AKV the same 4 days.


I did have a friend stay at SSR the same time as I was at AKV/OKW and she loved it and said everything felt so new and clean. Like I said, I'd stay at OKW again and would recommend trying it out. You never know, there could be much nicer refurbished rooms.

I'll have to find some of my pictures over the weekend from CSR and post them and also upload the ones from OKW.

 

[mkmommy]

We just stayed the night after the cruise in March, it was a great place to spend a day after a cruise. I was travelling alone with the girls and it was easy to keep track of the girls. We were going to stay at the Beach Club, but I decided that there was no way I would be able to keep track of the girls there, and since we werer leaving at 5:00 AM the price was right. Our plans were to go to DTD to spend the afternoon but the girls were having so much fun at the hotel we never left.

The room we stayed in was not that clean, if we were staying longer I would have moved.

I was impressed with the staff they were really nice. Disney service amazes me. I had bought some Webkinz clothes for the girls on line and had them deliverd to the Pop Century. Not 5 minutes after my youngest opened hers one of them went missing. One of the CM's say how upset my daughter was and spent a lot of time helping look for it. We did not find it but she gave my daughter a special pin to help her feel better. About a week after we got back a package from the Pop Century arrived, the CM had found the clothes the next day and sent them back to us.

I was able to book my flight on Air Tran, I can't believe the prices I got $44 Buf to West Palm Beach were I am spending Saturday and then return MCO to BUF for $55.


Happy Mother to all the mothers too.

Lisa

 

[Hanover]

Ok, I downloaded pictures from Coronado Springs in December 2006 and June 2007: http://s208.photobucket.com/albums/bb91/Romanoff1996/Coronado Springs Resort/

The room we had in June was huge--we were upgraded to a junior suite. The back of the doors said they could charge $800 a night for it! I got it for $164 with a AAA room only rate. When we got to the room, I couldn't get the door open and asked the mousekeeper nearby for help. She told me to try the other suite's door and we were floored/thrilled we got a suite!

 

[Hanover]

Here's 11 pictures I took when we were at OKW for one day on 4/28:
http://s208.photobucket.com/albums/bb91/Romanoff1996/Old Key West/

Unfortunately I did not take any of the pool or dockside area at OKW. I do have a lot of the pool/slide area from CSR when we were swimming, but they were on disposable waterproof cameras and need to be scanned in one of these days.

 

[mkmommy]

What a great upgrade, I am sure that you enjoyed having the extra space.

Good thing I am not bringing my girls on this cruise, I bet they would be chasing after your boys they are so cute, my youngest DD5 tells me that she chases the boys at recess.

Lisa

 

[Hanover]

What a great upgrade, I am sure that you enjoyed having the extra space.

Good thing I am not bringing my girls on this cruise, I bet they would be chasing after your boys they are so cute, my youngest DD5 tells me that she chases the boys at recess.

Lisa

We did love the extra space and were really happy we weren't paying the $800 nightly charge!

I read you and your girl's trip report. Sounds like you had an awesome cruise together! Our December cruise will be our 7th and we still haven't done everything there is to do! Always reasons to book another! I hope you do a report for the next cruise. I've been trying to talk a couple of friends into going on a "adult girls only" cruise.

 

[Hanover]

 

[mkmommy]

We did love the extra space and were really happy we weren't paying the $800 nightly charge!

I read you and your girl's trip report. Sounds like you had an awesome cruise together! Our December cruise will be our 7th and we still haven't done everything there is to do! Always reasons to book another! I hope you do a report for the next cruise. I've been trying to talk a couple of friends into going on a "adult girls only" cruise.

We did have a great time but I am feeling really guilty about taking this cruise. DD7 gave me a mothers day card today, you are a great mom because:

3) You pick up my clothes
2) You give me big hugs
1) You took me on a Disney Cruise.

At least I have a cruise planned for them for March 09 so it will not be that long of a wait for them.


Lisa

 

[Hanover]

We did have a great time but I am feeling really guilty about taking this cruise. DD7 gave me a mothers day card today, you are a great mom because:

3) You pick up my clothes
2) You give me big hugs
1) You took me on a Disney Cruise.

At least I have a cruise planned for them for March 09 so it will not be that long of a wait for them.


Lisa

Lisa,

I'm sure all parents go through the same guilty feelings. I was only going to take DS6 (last year, he's 7 now) to Star Wars Weekends for 3 days in June last year. My ds10 (11 tomorrow!) is not at all into Star Wars, where as my younger son eats, sleeps and breathes it. Of course an hour after I had booked our flights, ds10 tells me how much fun it would be, etc. and I end up booking him too and adding a day before and after. I booked POR the first 3 days weeks earlier and could not get into POR so I had to do a value the first day and CSR the last day. Then I got to thinking that POR sleeps 5 and I could ask my best friend and her son to join us 3 days. He's an even bigger Star Wars fanatic and I knew she didn't have the money for the resort but had left over tickets from a previous trip and would only need to pay her food and air fare (we got a great ding rate). It wouldn't cost a penny more to add her at POR and she'd fly in the 2nd day we were there and fly home when we went to CSR the last day. We ended up having a great time. Of course that last day when we got bumped up to a junior suite, they could have stayed too but were already at the airport by the time I checked in (there was a huge king bed and a fold down maybe queen size bed). The boys and I could fit into the king bed with plenty of room and they could have slept in the queen. I thought of taking ds7 down for a weekend again this June, but I know that I'll end up adding days, my ds11, etc and we are heading back in August so we'll just wait.


DH and I went to his cousin's wedding in Sarasota 3 years ago. We were there a day early so decided to drive to MK for the day. It was the first time we were there without kids since our honeymoon. We missed them, but it was a great experience to be able to do rides we couldn't do with both of them at the same time because of their heights (we can now ride everything together but Rock and Rollercoaster) and shows they wouldn't care for, eat foods at restaurants they don't care for, etc.

There's nothing wrong with having "me" time and I think it makes the times with the kids that much better. I really would love to go on a 3 or 4 day with some of my adult girl friends. A few of them would like to cruise but are worried their kids wouldn't like the ship, shows, meals, etc. I think it would be a perfect opportunity for them to try it out and get to see a lot of the clubs, adult shows at night, lounge out at the adult pool, Palo, Serenity Bay and get a spa treatment or 2. I know I can do most of those with the kids along, but I tend to think of them half the time I am at the spa, Palo, the adult pool and worry if they are having fun in the clubs/lab (which they always are but I still worry). My boys LOVE cruising more than the parks and love the meals, shows, dance/pirate parties, kids club/lab, etc. but I just think it would be fun to experience an adults only vacation.

 

[mkmommy]

Hanover.

Thanks for the kind words, I know it is ok to have some me time, I do it every year, but I guess because they had so much fun on the Magic that it makes it harder.

I will just make sure not to talk about it around them, and it will not be long till they get to go.

Lisa

 

[clarasunnyside]

Hope everyone has a wonderful and safe Memorial Day Weekend


We are off this weekend to Disney. Still a secret . Promise to write about the trip when I get back.


Clara

 

[Foxes Den]

Can't wait to hear about your trip this weekend!

Anynews on mousefest out yet?

 

[Donald_Quackers]

I haven't seen anything on their website yet...I'm getting antsy and it's 6 months away!

194 days, 4 hours, 46 mins, and 40 seconds as I write this.

I'm not good at figuring it out, what is the 75-day date when we can start making excursion reservations for this?

 

[Trigal]

My DP and I signed up for this cruise last summer when we were on the Magic Med cruise. Really looking forward to cruising again. I usually don't have a lot of time to read or respond on the boards due to a very busy schedule. I am a triathlete and between working and working out time is always at at a premium but was racing at the Ironman 70.3 triathlon race at Disney and was involved in a bike crash which resulted in a fracture of my collar bone . Surgery was done to repair so now am at home recuperating until the surgeon releases me to go back to work. My right arm is in a sling so having to type and do all with one hand.

This will be our 2nd 4 day cruise. Looking forward to a nice relaxing cruise.

We live in Celebration so visit Disney all the time. Love it.

Would be interested in meeting others that love Disney