December 2,2006...Anyone want to join us?

[mom x4 grandma x4]

How.dy everyone,
Well we are back and I'm already having Disney Withdrawals! It isnt much fun, guess I need another Disney fix!
We had an awesome time.
The only rain we had was at the port just about 10 minutes before the deck party was to begin. So it was held in the atrium. It was good, but after having been to the regular deck party the indoor one was a little disappointing. But they did a good job under the circumstances.
WE had great friendly people to eat with. 2 families of 3 each, so there was 8 of us. Our servers were really good too. The food was awesome as usual.
At Nassau we didnt do any excursions since we have been there several times, but we did enjoy just walking around and shopping some at the straw market. Castaway cay was hot and cloudy too. The seas were rought so they had to cancel the parasailing, deep sea fishing, glass bottom boat, and the outer snokeling tour. Everything else went on as usual. We walked to the farthest part of the island and back just in time for lunch to be served. Then back on the ship to have the entire adult pool and hot tubs to ourselves.
Our favorite part of the trip was the duo of Don and Tommie who played all our favorites for us . We had seen them before on other cruises and they remembered us which was a great surprize for us. They played all our favorites and introduced us to other entertainers on board. They brought us on stage and let us use their cam corder to record them and they took it and recorded us on the tape which was so special for us. So by the end of the cruise all the bands on board knew us and would stop and talk with us and introduce us to the audience as their friends. We really felt like a part of a family instead of just a guest on board.
IT WAS JUST AWESOME!!!

mom x4,grandma x4
Kathy

 

[krdisneybound]

Hi Kelli:

well, I am back from my Hawaii trip of two weeks. How awesome. Had a super duper time with my son and his family. Now I am ready for my surgery on 10/19 after all my travelling all summer. It has been great and loads of fun.

Think of you often

 

[krdisneybound]

Kathy

Know you had a great time. I love to do things like that on the spur of the moment. There are some very good prices out there right now for 3 and 4 day cruises. If it were not for my upcoming surgery, I would be doing another one also. But I have to stop somewhere. LOL

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Krdisneybound,
2 weeks in Hawaii sounds awesome!
Time is passing quickly towards our cruise too.
Are you going to make a door sign for your room. I'm going to, although I'm not too creative. But it is fun to try.
Let us know how your doing!

Blowing lots of Pixie dust your way for a speedy recovery,
Kathy

 

[krdisneybound]

Door sign?? OH YES - we all have to have some door signs/magnets. That way we will know where each other are - but as we get closer, we'll be chatting more and find out more about each other.

When I get home from the hospital, and during recovery, I'll be making and creating some signs/magnets and I'll post them so if anyone wants to copy them, they certainly can do so. It'll be lots of fun making new ones

 

[princessdaisy]

Hello from Sunny San Diego My family & I will also be on Dec 2nd 06 cruise. Rebooked on our April 05 Eastern and was thinking of switching to Feb 07 but when the rates came out we decided to stick with Dec date!

Looking forward to seeing the ship decorated for the holidays!

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Howdy Princessdaisy,
I'm glad to have another family join our cruise. I'm sure as the cruise gets closer we will have a lot of people join us.
Is this your first DCL cruise?
We will be traveling as a couple on this cruise, no kids or grandkids, but that could always change in months to come.
Looking forward to getting to know you and your family over the next few months.
mom x4,grandma x4
Kathy

 

[Tink&SquirtsMom]

Hey Everyone... Looks like we'll be joining you.

It'll be me, dh, ds who'll be 4 and dd who'll be 6.

Dh and I were going to wait for 2007 but just decided to make the leap and go for Dec 2. 2006 (so it's held and I'll be officially booking as soon as business hours hit tomorrow). I cannot wait. And I am so excited that there are other Diser's onboard. Our first cruise (4 night Wonder this past summer) we were the only ones. We'll be at Disneyland the first weekend of Dec this year, so we'll hit the 365 day mark for the cruise in a fun way. I'm a Christmas baby and big time Disney fan and have never seen Disney decked out for Christmas time. Now I'll get to see DL in its Christmas glory this year, and WDW and the Magic next year!! Thats cause for some dancing.

Now to figure out which excursions will be best for my 4yo. Seems most of the cool water ones are for ages 5 and up, but ds LOVES to snorkel. So I'll have to figure something out.

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Welcome Tink&squirtsmom,
It is great to have another family with us. As the time gets closer I know more will join. We are a middle age couple traveling by ourselves this trip, but we do have 4 kids and 4 grandkids.
We have done 8 DCL cruises and live by WDW and go there almost every weekend, unless we are on a cruise or ill. When the time gets closer remember to ask me and I can give you some great tips for the best use of your time to get the most rides in the least amount of time. I can also tell you where some special Christmas displays in hotels are that are worth taking the time to go and see. If your interested.
Looking forward to getting to know you over the next few months and meeting you on the cruise.
mom 4,grandma x4
kathy

 

[princessdaisy]

Hello again

Kathy: Thank you so much for the warm welcome! We are looking forward to meeting our Dis friends! Can't wait to see all the holiday decorations!

Tink&Squirtsmom: My son will be 4 1/2 at the time of the cruise and we are also looking to do a few excursions (water) with him but looks like we will have to do an outside excursion from Disney because he will not be 5yrs. I think I heard someone on the boards mention Caption Nautica?? will look into it. Will also be traveling with hubby & dd, 14yr.

Stephanie

 

[Tink&SquirtsMom]

Thanks for the welcome!! We are now officially booked!! No room number yet but I requested deck 2 aft (Cat 9), since we were so happy there on our Wonder cruise. TA was working on my specific room # requests (no noisy ones please), so I should find out soon hopefully.

Kathy, I would love to get tips from you for WDW as it gets closer. I've been going to DL annually since I was about 3, but this past summer was our first trip to the World. We were there 10 days in the summer and acomplished a ton with help from TourGuideMike but still have so many things on our list we didn't get to do. I'm really excited to see the Osborne lights at MGM (is that right?). DH and I saw them on some travel special and were blown away.

Stephanie, My ds's bday is in July so he'll be right around 4 1/2 too. I saw someone just mention Captain Marvins in Grand Cayman. So I found them thru Yahoo! and I liked the sound of their combo, stingray city/barrier reef snorkel and turtle farm tour. They seemed to have good prices and allowed for 4yo to snorkel. I'll have to look more into them. But I'm glad to see we have some options. I'll have to look at Captain Nautica too. So far I haven't found anything for Cozumel but I guess thats the one good thing about having over a year to plan.

Rachel

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Rachel,
If you want to send me a PM with your address I will pick up WDW brochures to send you. The times will change by the time you get here, but the maps will be accurate so you can map out your strategy ahead of time and learn where things are. That will save you a lot of time. I will try to get any infomation on this years Osborne family display and send to you too, so you'll know about it ahead of time.
If the special you saw on TV was more than a couple of years old, it wont look anything like what you saw. It was awesome!! But they tore down all the houses on residential street to make room for the new Stunt show spectacular car show. It is still over 5 million lights but they cram it into a small area and it's not like strolling through all the houses like it use to be. Still worth seeing, but not like it use to be. Just thought I would warn you.
I will tell you some tips as time goes by and let you know about the best holiday displays they have. I will see if there is anything new this year too.
mom x4,grandma x4
Kathy

 

[princessdaisy]

Kathy: Wow, that sounds great! We will have to visit DW after the cruise to check out the resorts all decorated for the holidays. We have been to DW beginning of Jan and only got to see AKL's Christmas tree...that was awesome but they had taken down the gingerbread house at GF and other decorations. Will be nice to be able to see those in 06!

Rachel : We LOVE CAT 9 rooms! Especially, on deck 2 with the one big porthole This is actually, our 4th cruise. We did the October 1998 when my dd was only 6 (she's now 13), Jan, 04 Western, ds was only 2, then April 16 Eastern where my dd turned 13 on Castaway Cay . We didn't do any excursions with ds but hope to be able to this time around. He LOVES the water! LOL! All those we cruised in CAT 9 & loved it.

This time I secretly have a cat 6 booked and my dd is gonna when she opens that stateroom door! everytime she would say "ah I wish we had a verandah" It's a secret!! don't tell...heheheh!

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Princessdaisy,
your very sneaky with your reservations. Keep your camera handy to get a picture of you dd when she opens the door.
I agree with her I love a verandah!!! I'm spoiled, I've had them on 7 of our cruises and again on this one. The port hole view is nice too, we have done that once too.
I too love the gingerbread house in GF too. It smells so good!! YUMMY!!!
Have you seen the gingerbread carousel at Yacht and Beach Club? That is really neat too.
Have a good weekend, we are watching Wilma and are grateful we are in the central part of the state so it wont hit us. Last year we got direct hits 3 out of 4 hurricanes!!
mom x4,grandma x4
Kathy

 

[princessdaisy]

Yep, I am a bit of a sneak, eh? heheh! my hubby doesn't even know about it. He thinks we are in Cat 9 as usual This will probably be the last Disney cruise for us for a while since dd will be heading for high school in a few years and it is getting a bit costly flying all the way to FL & cruise prices seem to be rising...sigh...so that we would go ALL OUT

Thanks for the camera idea! I will have to sneak inbefore her and snap the shot maybe the verandah will keep her in the cabin for a while as once we board she is off and about! she loves having the freedom to come & go to the movies, swim, snack but she is always responsible and leaves us messages as to where she is at and always had dinner w/us. Ahhhh, to be young again

Looking forward to the Castaway Cay gift...a bag this time? cool! We have two towels, so bag will be a nice change.

Kathy, keep safe! and we will be praying the hurricane fizzes out or something. Glad to hear your family will be safe! oh, and no we have not seen the carousel at the Yacht Club but bet it is beautiful! My lil boy loves the Y&B club swimming pool!

Stephanie

 

[Tink&SquirtsMom]

Stephanie, How fun that you are surprising her. What a cool mom you are!! She is going to be in Heaven. I would love a verandah room. Maybe someday when its just me and dh on a romantic getaway or when the kids are old enough to truly appreciate it, like your dd, I'll make the splurge. My dd also had her bday (her 5th) at Castaway Cay. Isn't that funny.

Kathy, that would be great Thank you!!! Thanks for the warning about the lights. Its to bad they changed them. Dh loves that car/stunt show though, so I guess he can't mind too much... I myself am more of a Philharmagic girl. I'm so happy I'm getting back out to the WOrld if only to see the Philharmagic attraction one (or ten) more times before coming back to Philharmagic-less DL. They really have to bring that attraction to this coast. At least we have Turtle Talk now though. Crush picked my dd out of the audience and that was one of the big highlights from the WDW/Wonder trip. She still can't talk about it without cracking up (he was showing her how fast he could swim and crashed into the screen and to a 5yo that was the funniest thing EVER).

Rachel

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Rachel,
I cant believe Philharmagic is your favorite !!! It is my favorite attraction too! I think I have seen it a dozen times and never get tired of it, now that the tourist season has slowed down I will get to see it again. It was very crowded over the summer. They do have fast passes for it, so that helps with the crowds. About a month ago we were there and in the gift shop they had a new Donald Duck zip up hooded sweat shirt I bought. I just says Donald across the front, but it has a fantastic picture of a Mad Donald on the back and he feels furry. I love it, not the price, but I splurged and got it anyway. I love Donald and Goofy. About 2/3 of my clothes have one or the other on them. It's terrible but I dont have many regular clothes anymore, they are all Disney themed. But here it fits in ok.
We are off to the Kennedy Space Center to take my mother in law there on her visit this month. Hope we dont get rained on too badly with Wilma sending her clouds and rain here today.
Kathy

 

[Tink&SquirtsMom]

Your sweatshirt sounds cute. In the shop right outside Philharmagic they had a zip up sweatshirt I wanted with a mad Donald in the upper corner on the front and said "crabby yet loveable." I kept looking at it but couldn't decide and when we went back to get it a few days later, of course it was gone. I have very few Disney clothes, except my Disney Cruise Tshirt that I wear as often as I can get away with because it makes me smile. But ds's suitcase got lost by the airline on the way to WDW. So we had to replace his entire wardrobe (our vacation was over 2 weeks, so we had packed everything... play clothes, costumes, dress up clothes for the cruise, etc) with stuff we found at Disney World and on the Wonder. Of course he looked cute there but its kind of funny back home when every single day he's wearing all Disney World gear from head to toe, even his nicer outfit includes a Disney Cruise polo. We get alot of "you guys must REALLY like Disney" comments from parents of other kids in his preschool class. His suitcase was just returned to us THIS past Mon (after being gone almost 3 months).

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Rachel,
I did the same thing, I was looking at the same Donald "Crabby "sweatshirt and waited too long to buy and it was gone. We must have similiar tastes. That is why I bought my new sweatshirt the first time I saw it, I was afraid it would disappear like the one last year.
Glad to hear your suitcase finally arrived.

We had a good day at Kennedy space center today. It was hot, cloudy, but never rained, although we saw thunder and lightening but we didnt get rained on.
Mom in law had a good time and even got a couple of souvenirs to take back to Oregon.
Time to put my feet up for a few minutes and take it easy.
We got two door signs done for our next cruise. HOORAY!!!
Kathy

 

[princessdaisy]

Hi gang

Hope everyone is well and keeping healthy! Seems like the flu is starting to go around over here but so far so good for my brood.

Kathy, sounds like you & family had a great time! How is the weather? We where just there in Sept. for a week at Disney with the free dining plan. Had a great time but boy, was it hot! whew! didn't bother the kids though. We had planned on checking out the Kennedy Space Center last cruise but ran out of time...maybe this next time around I would love to do some door signs for the cruise, too. Would love to see yours if you don't mind sharing

Rachel, Oh my gosh, I can't believe they lost your luggage? wow! but sounds like you guys made the best of it...great attitude! I bet your son looked just adorable with his Disney wardrobe I would love to see the Wonder ship. I bet its beautiful...maybe someday

Does anyone have early seating for dinner? we always do early dinner (kinda doesn't make sense since we are from Cali. and 3 hour diff. but we always do ) Disney always seems to sit us with a table for 4 so we haven't had any dinner mates last few cruises.