December 17, 2006 4-Night Wonder Cruise

[TammyAlphabet]

Hey CJH! Welcome to our cruise group! DD means Darling Daughter or Disney Daughter or D*** Daughter whatever the context might mean.

A group of 14! Wow! You guys are going to have a blast.

This will be my first cruise although I already have another booked for December 2007, the seven night. I guess I am expecting to enjoy it. If I hate cruising, I can just cancel the seven nighter. But, since I love WDW and Disney, I don't think that is going to happen!

I hope we see more posts from you in the future! See you later.

 

[Scotch]

Hi everyone,

I just booked this cruise for DH, DS (2) and me. I'm still KICKING myself for not booking a cruise onboard our 12/05 Magic cruise and taking advantage of the discount and onboard credit offer! DH and I went back and forth at that time and we ultimately passed thinking we won't be cruising for awhile since we were hoping we'd have a #2 child by the end of this year and we didn't know what it would be like to travel with two little ones. Well, no success there yet so DH said to go ahead and plan for another cruise this December. (So I'm a bit bummed but excited at the same time.) I really wanted a 7 night cruise again since we've only cruised on 7 night cruises in the past -- 4 nights just seem too short! But a longer cruise near the holidays at this point just costs way more $$ than we could spare. A 4 night cruise is better than no cruise, right? I'm adding some nights at BCV post cruise, and I'm so looking forward to returning to that gorgeous resort.

 

[TammyAlphabet]

Welcome Scotch! I am happy to see that you have joined us. For this cruise, the price was good, I thought, especially since it was close to the holidays. I do think that the four night will be short compared to the seven night though. we are combining a couple of days before and after the cruise to WDW so it will be all good in the end. See you guys later.

Tammy

 

[CJH1102]

Hey Tammy, Thanks for the welcome and the explaination of the DD etc. Yes, 14 sounds like a lot. We have a magical gathering starting with 8 days in the park and then we'll do the 4 night cruise. All family. Hopefully we'll see you there.

 

[TammyAlphabet]

I think as the time grows near, we can get a cruise meet together. We will be staying at the BWV for the pre-cruise visit and the VWL for the post cruise visit to the World. I love my Christmas trips and I can't believe that I am not going for Christmas in 2007. Actually, I have a cruise planned for Christmas 2007 on the Magic.

 

[Fins1113]

I just found this website and I am so excited to meet some other people who will be on the same cruise as us We have about 9 family members going to celebrate my mom's 60th birthday. My DH and I have a DD who will be 6 at the time of the cruise and our DS is 8. My brother and sister-in-law have a son (my nephew) who is 4. So it will be alot of fun.

This is our second Disney cruise....we went a few years ago to celebrate my dad's 60th birthday.

I look forward to getting to know everyone over the next 6 months.....I can' wait

Take care,

Jess

 

[TammyAlphabet]

Welcome Fin! Glad to see you are aboard. I think the problem with this cruise is that we don't have a funny name like the Blabbermouths or the Cruisetoberfest or something like that. We should come up with a catchy name!

 

[CJH1102]

Hello Fins and Scotch, glad to hear of more people going on this criuse. It's going to hard waiting for the time to run out. We are actually leaving on the 9th to stay 8 days at WDW before we head to the cruise ship. I've done more planning for this trip than any other trip ever. I can't wait. I think I'm more excited than the kids.

 

[CJH1102]

I got my Castaway Cay membership pack yesterday! Woo-hoo! It came faster than I expected, and I went ahead and fwd'd it to our TA.

Hello, What is the Castaway Cay membership pack? How can I get one?

 

[TammyAlphabet]

I think it is given to those who have cruised DCL before and it tells the perks and so forth of repeat cruisers. This will be my first cruise but I have another one scheduled for December 2007 because I am confident that I will love it. (And I wanted to lock in a good price before they go up as they always do) Ha Ha.

 

[Stinasmom]

Hey out there!
Didn't mean to stay away so long...
Started a new job of sorts a month or so ago and didn't realize how consuming it would be for this stay-at-home mom. (I am now also teaching Jazzercise classes!)
Anyway--"HELLO!" to CJH, Fins, and Scotch!
Happy to have you aboard!
I am so looking forward to this trip! We are not traveling much this summer so our December venture is it for now. We are going to go to Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure for the week prior to the cruise. I love WDW but the DH get's "Disneyed out" ( is there such a thing???) So I looked into the alternatives. I think our kids are old enough to really get something out of US/IOA and we saved BEAUCOUP bucks on their tickets over WDW prices.
We will be second time sailors on DCL so will have those "Castaway Club" perks---whatever they may be! That should be nice. Our other cruise only took us from LA to Mexico, however. NOWHERE near CC! That I am really looking forward to! Better weather would be nice too.
So there, I suspect if you go back and read through this thread you will find all kinds of info on me and the family. We tried to get some friends and family to join us on this trip but were unsuccessful. This is one reason why I look forward to meeting DIS Friends!

Marcy

 

[CJH1102]

Thanks Tammy for answering my question about the Castaway Club.

 

[degrapevine]

Hi, all!
We just booked the 12/17/2006 4 Night Wonder Cruise this past week!
Our plans were to cruise sometime in the coming year, since DS12 will cost the full adult fare after his 13th birthday, but DU had such a great deal on this cruise that we took the plunge a little early!
We are a family of 5 - DH (David, 40), Me (Rose, 36), DS12 (Eric), DS8 (Patrick), and DD6 (Gina).
This will be our first cruise together as a family (DH and I went on a NCL cruise for our honeymoon 17+ years ago) and we are so excited!
As you can see from my siggy, we go to WDW a lot, but are newbies on the DCL, so I'm sure I'll be asking lots of questions in the coming months!
Since we booked kind of late, we were assigned to the late seating, but I think with the ages of our kids, it'll work out okay.
They're kind of used to staying up late on non-school nights.
I'm looking forward to meeting lots of DIS-ers on the cruise!
Talk to you later,
Rose

 

[TammyAlphabet]

Hey Rose!! Welcome to the cruise! There hasn't been alot of activity on this board lately, but I think it will pick up when we get closer, a little more than five months to go!! Woo Hoo!!! I will need a cruise by then.

Tammy

 

[SplashMountainManiac]

Hey everybody. We just booked this cruise. This will be our second cruise on the Wonder and we can't wait. I am 16 (boy) and will be going with both my parents. Can't wait to see you there.

 

[TammyAlphabet]

Welcome SplashMountain! My son will be 15 by the time of the cruise. I am not sure that he is excited because he has never been on a cruise. What are some of the things that he can look forward to?

 

[Pumba's Dad]

Just found this thread. So I thought I'd introduce me and the family.

First of all, Pumba is my Dog and he snorts and eats bugs too. Luckily we named him that as a puppy, cause the name fit.

Anyway, this will be our second Disney Cruise and 6th overall. We'll be staying a few days before at AKL and then boarding the ship. Family consists of me, wife, ds(12), and dd(10). Pumba can't come..

Hope to see you all soon.

 

[TammyAlphabet]

Hi Pumba's Dad! Glad you are joining our group! I am happy to see that our group is growing. Too bad that Pumba can't go. Come back and visit when you get a chance. This will be my first cruise so I only know what to expect from posts on these boards. If you have advice for novice cruisers, I would love to hear it.

Tammy

 

[Pumba's Dad]

Thanks for the welcome to the boards.

We've been on several cruises and this will be our second Disney cruise. If you have a question about the cruise, I can try to answer. There's a lot we do to prepare for the cruises, like doing some homework before we go. Go online and check out what excursions you would like to do. When you board the ship turn in your excursion request as they fill up quickly. Especially the dolphin encounters. We did this one year and it was awesome.

Additionally, if you have kids, try to start setting aside clothes for them. It's kind of hard to find bathing suits in December unless you live in florida or california...

You can post your question and I'll try to help or point you in another direction.

And yes, pumba and simba and rosie, get to go on vacation too to see their friends.

Again, thanks for the welcome and hope to see everyone on board.

Ramon Santiago

 

[SplashMountainManiac]

Hey Tammy Alphabet. I am sitting here with a teen navigator in my hands and hope I can help answer your questions about what your son can do on the ship. Aloft, the teen club, is a really cool place. It sits in the forward funnel on deck 11 and is decorated like a New York loft. There is a smoothie bar, where you can also get soda (which is free). There are several tv screens which show music videos, board games, chess, two computers for accessing the internet(15 cents a minute) and playing free games, and some music listening stations. The first scheduled activity on any cruise is the 411. It takes place at 10:30 on the first night. Up until 10:30 is time to just hang out. At the 411 you meet the teen counselors, get the basic ground rules for the club, and then learn about the activities for the week. After that you sign up for Gotcha, a game where you attempt to eliminate other teens through different methods to gain points for yourself. It's really fun. Other activities throughout the cruise include: arcade night (free arcade games), several trivia games (movies, sports, music, etc.), board game challanges, a boys versus girls battle (friendly of course), organized basketball and volleyball games, scavenger hunts throughout the ship(one uses cameras to document certain spots on the ship, another has everyone race around the ship finding facts (such as how many steps between decks 1 and 11, which we had to count individually), and another where you use a video camera to complete the hunt), karaoke, movie night , several dance parties , a pool party, teen's only time in the fitness center, filming our own movies, and teen only activities on Castaway Cay. There is also a private teen beach on Castaway Cay, as well as two teen only excursions, a banana boat ride, and "Wildside." Aside from teen's only activities there are a lot of other things. There is a big movie theatre with first run movies , swimming, a jogging track, free unlimited food (one of my favorite parts), an arcade, a basketball court, a field hockey/ volleyball court, a great late night dessert buffet, ping pong, shuffleboard, foosball, and the list goes on. On the four night cruise, there is a comedy show the first night, which is great, and on the second night is Hercules, which may sound kind of silly for a teenager but it is hilarious. I would definitely recommend those two shows. All the teens that I met were having just as much fun as I was. Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any more questions.