December 03, 2005 Western Magic?

[Disneyrus]

Ok Hannomom... Here goes with a few of them....

We have the late dinner seating and I'm not sure the kids will make it from lunch to dinner.
Can you bring packaged snack food with you when you board?
What the best and least expensive food options on the ship for a late afternoon snack? Are any included in your original fare?

I'm concerned about costs because I have no concept on what the final bill will look like at the end of 7-days? I've heard horror stories of people owing more than the cost of the cruise. Do people have a price range of what all the EXTRA's will cost? (Room service gratuity, etc.) High end & low end. I'll like to be prepaired mentally?

Thank you!

 

[macphrsn]

Welcome!

I also have a DD6 and this will be a first cruise for the 3 of us.

 

[Hannosmom]

Ok Hannomom... Here goes with a few of them....

We have the late dinner seating and I'm not sure the kids will make it from lunch to dinner.
Can you bring packaged snack food with you when you board?
What the best and least expensive food options on the ship for a late afternoon snack? Are any included in your original fare?

I'm concerned about costs because I have no concept on what the final bill will look like at the end of 7-days? I've heard horror stories of people owing more than the cost of the cruise. Do people have a price range of what all the EXTRA's will cost? (Room service gratuity, etc.) High end & low end. I'll like to be prepaired mentally?

Thank you!

Don't worry about bringing snacks, there is always a place to get free food on the ship, anytime you want it. Ice cream, cookies, burgers, tacos, chicken strips, french fries, fruit, pizza, and thats just on deck 9. You can also order room service 24 hrs a day, and its free too. (just remember to tip the servers who bring the food)

Extra's---the only one you really need to budget for is the gratuities, the rest is optional. Depends on what you like to do. Extras, besides gratuities, include; excursions, spa, photos from the ships photograpers, internet, Palo, tips for bartenders, specialty drinks from the bars or room service, tips for excursion tour operators, and tips for the port baggage handlers.

I would recommend buying the PassPorter's Field Guide to Disney Cruise Line, by Jennifer and Dave Marx. It is comprehensive and fun, too. You can get it at a book store or order it at www.passporter.com.

Hope I could help

 

[MajorWoody]

Hello,

Add Jeanne & I to the list of cruisers on this cruise. We booked it last december while onboard the Wonder. We have the late dining, and this will be my 3rd, and Jeanne's 2nd Disney Cruise.

We have already booked the romantic escape package, and also booked a few spa treatments and a Palo dinner.




Take care,

Bill

 

[NJ Cruisers]

Welcome MajorWoody (Bill and Jeanne)!! Have you decided what you'll be doing at each port?

Welcome Disneyrus - GREAT to have another 6 year old on board. We have quite a few this cruise. We'll start pen paling (I'm sure that isn't a word) pretty soon. And, we love answering questions so keep them coming!!

Our biggest on board expense (besides the gratuities) is the bar bill ... But Disney is great about letting you bring your own liquor, wine, beer on board. If you take wine to dinner you have to pay a corkage fee. We generally don't do excursions from the Cruise ship. We either book on our own, just grab a cab to beach or tour or something like that. But, like Hannosmom, we'd book through Disney for an all day excursion or one that would cut it close getting back to the ship.

And .. I'd also recommend the Passporter book. It was wonderful. After 3 Disney cruises I still look at mine sometimes. It's out of date, but still fun.

Diane

 

[cjsmom97]

We're getting excited!! Got up early Monday and got things booked for the cruise. Wasn't able to book a brunch reservation, though. How likely is it that we'll be able to book a brunch once on board?

Cathleen

Got your email. Sent you a response.

So, how early is 'early on Monday'? Guess the reservations went pretty quick from what I hear. Like Linda said, they may hold some spots for booking onboard. I would make that the first stop once onboard. Don't wait too long in case there are only a few. The other thing you can do if you is to ask them to call you if one opens up. People do cancel and they would rather fill the spot than let it go empty.

Hope that helps.

 

[Disneyrus]

Thank you for all the information about additional costs. Sounds like most things are included. The alcohol question was the next one on my lists so you beat me to it! If I packed some in my luggage I was afaid they would pull me aside as if I'm a boozer!

 

[NJ Cruisers]

Disneyrus - not sure if you know ... there are refrigerators in the room. Some people say they aren't cold enough but we didn't have any trouble keeping our beer cold - and I like cold cold beer. Just make sure you carry glass bottles in your carry on - don't pack them. In fact, we carry all our booze in our carry on (rolling type) because if something breaks it will be all over my stuff and whoever has suitcases near mine. Don't want that to happen!!

Mad Science - we had the party for my DS6 yesterday. It was outside and we had GREAT weather. It was actually cool - the humidity from the day before was gone and it didn't rain!! He said (3 times) it was "the best birthday party ever". So I guess hiring Mad Science was a good idea. I thought it started slow (card trick for 5-6 year olds didn't impress them) and was slow at some points during the hour but the kids were thrilled with the dry ice part (extra $35 - well worth it), creating slime (their favorite I think)and flying paper/foam airplanes. I'm glad I did it and I'll do it again.

Now - just 2 more parties for him. School (cupcakes & goodie bags) and the family party - both next Friday. Then I can concentrate on the cruise!!

Diane (and Rick and Matt)

 

[Popovich]

Welcome Disneyrus, Bill and Jeanne and Cindy (and any other newbies I missed) I'm so glad to see more 6 & 8 year olds. My kids are ready for pen pals. Last year the families and kids we pen paled with made the difference between a good trip and a great trip .

We went on our first DCL trip last November and loved it so much we rebooked on board for this Dec. Our group consists of DH Greg (41), Me (40), DD Nicole (8), and DS Matt (6). Greg's parents George and Dolores have an adjoining room and are fun travel partners. They also went with us last year.

The best packing tips we got were: clear over the door shoe holders to save space, we brought some of our own alcohol on board. We have a piece of luggage that will hold 6 bottles of wine or spirits and we check it at the airport just like our other bags. The sea wrist bands worked great for sea sickness. As Linda and Diane mentioned, the Passporter Guide was a great resource. Bring a pirate costume if the kids like to dress up. Pirate night was a blast and DS loved wearing his costume.

We'll be at Beach Club Villas (BCV) on 11/29 and will be going to the Christmas Party on Thursday 12/1. We're also doing the Magical Fireworks Voyage with Capt Hook and Peter Pan on 12/2. We'd be happy to meet up with anyone before the cruise.

Diane, I'm glad Matt's party was a success. We don't have Mad Science in Cleveland, I wish we did!!!

Sorry I haven't posted in a couple weeks. With Nicole breaking her arm, the start of soccer and indoor baseball for Matt and getting into the hang of homework again, I've not been with it. Last weekend we went to Milwaukee with 15 other couples on Friday and came home Monday. We had a bus take us to Green Bay for the Browns vs. Packers game. It was a fun weekend, but the planning for that also kept me off the computer. I'm glad to be back to our routine.

Jeanna, Do you have 4 of us down for brunch on Sunday? We are interested in going if there's room. I'd like the kids to go the the clubs for a little while on the first day so they can meet some friends. We'll take them to Key West for a little while after brunch.

I'm a beginner scrapbooker and hope to work on my last years book before we leave this year LOL!!!!

Welcome to our new cruisers!!!

Gailyn

 

[MajorWoody]

Hello again,

Thanks for the welcomes.

We'll also be doing the MVMCP on 12/1, and most likely Epcot for Illuminations on 12/2.

We're doing a spilt week before the cruise, I'll be driving down to AKL from NY with my youngest daughter , arriving Sun 11/27. She'll stay through Thurs, then fly back to NY on the plane, while Jeanne will fly down Thurs, and stay till Saturday, when we then head out to Port Canaveral. Due to her work schedule, that's all she could get off.

After the cruise we'll drive back up to NY.

We added on the romantic escape at sea package, and it seems like a pretty good deal as packages go.

Hope to see you soon.

take care,

Bill ( who is going down for a quick 4 night refresher trip to WDW this Thursday!)

 

[cjsmom97]

Jeanna, Do you have 4 of us down for brunch on Sunday? We are interested in going if there's room. I'd like the kids to go the the clubs for a little while on the first day so they can meet some friends. We'll take them to Key West for a little while after brunch.

Gailyn,

I only have 2 spots left for Brunch. Since I didn't hear back from anyone for a while about the spots I had open, I went on down the list and invited others. If you would like the last 2 spots, that would be great, but I understand if you don't want to go without your parents. From what I hear, the Palo reservations were pretty hard to come by this cruise. Guess they need to expand Palo, too! Either way, let me know your decision. I do have one more family I was going to contact tomorrow to see if they would like to go. I would hate to see us have empty seats.

Talk to you soon!! Hope this helps!

Jeanna

 

[mustanggirl]

Hi to everyone, I haven't posted in a while. Still taking the cruise in a group, just minus DH. He has to work so myself and DD10 Emily will share a cabin with my Mom and MIL. Also have friends next door, with a 4 year old. It would be great for them to have friends prior to boarding. If anyone has a child that they could e-mail please let us know.


Susie

 

[CJLKIM]

Okay....this past week another loss of 1-1/2 pounds

We realized that we made a math error last week so the corrected totals to date (at the 10 week mark) is 14 pounds and 16-1/4 inches.

Hope everyone is having a great week!!

 

[Hannosmom]

Okay....this past week another loss of 1-1/2 pounds

We realized that we made a math error last week so the corrected totals to date (at the 10 week mark) is 14 pounds and 16-1/4 inches.

Hope everyone is having a great week!!

Oh Jeannnnnnnaaaaaa......she's beating you. (Ducking for cover now)

 

[CJLKIM]

Oh Jeannnnnnnaaaaaa......she's beating you. (Ducking for cover now)

Thanks Linda Glad somebody said it (couldn't toot my own horn you know)

 

[macphrsn]

How many more days until our cruise?

Are you doing your Christmas shopping before or after?

 

[CJLKIM]

According to my calendar....today marks 65 days until we set sail....64 until Jeff and I head to Florida.

We're starting Christmas shopping this weekend but not sure how much we'll get done. Our goal is to have everything bought and wrapped before leaving so that when we get home we can go get the tree, decorate it and then sit back and relax. No Christmas Eve shopping this year!!

 

[NJ Cruisers]

Christmas shopping??? It's only September (well, almost October)!!! I am SOOOOOO bad. I don't wait until Christmas Eve (that's for DH) but I'm always still shopping the week before Christmas. We used to take the week after Thansksgiving for vacation and I always promise myself I'll finish before we leave. It NEVER happened.

BUT this year we're going a week later so I MUST be finished before we leave or I will be really stressed when we get home. So I'm counting on you guys to BUG each other to get it done. Of course, if you are like my sister-in-law you've had everything wrapped since July.

How about decorating? Are you doing it before we go? I will this year because i finally broke down and got an artificial tree. Last year we got home around the 9th and I was rushing to decorate and it wasn't any fun. This year I'll do it the day after Thanksgiving (because NO WAY am I going shopping that day).

Diane

 

[NJ Cruisers]

Do we have anyone here from Florida? If so, I hope you'll give us some good weather reports when we get closer to cruise time. Last year it was really nice when we sailed (last week in November). But the same week the year before was very very cold. We had on jeans, sweatshirts and jackets. I guess you never know, but its fun to get weather reports on here.

Diane

 

[cjsmom97]

Diane & Gailyn -

The question is.... Champagne or Sparkling Cider?

Gailyn - I need to know about Brunch. I have the other family waiting in the wings. They may make spa reservations if they can't get in on brunch. Let me know as soon as you can.

Same thing for the bottle.... the sooner the better.... Thanks!!