December 7 2006 Wonder Sailing

[lisa702]

Well since our thread is sooooooooo short, only 3 pages or so, I thought I'd ask a question or two.

Has anyone started the actual planning of what you're gonna do while onboard or in port?

We have been to Nassau a few times and probably will just stay onboard but we will go onshore at Castaway Cay.

Have you cruised before with DCL or other cruise companies?

Wecruised with RCCL when Skye was like 1 yr old and then CCL once when she was a little older. This will be our third with DCL. We had one booked with RCCL for next year on the FOS but cancelled it because Skye would not have been on Spring Break that week and the week she would be was booked.

 

[Diznyfan68]

Hi Everyone!

This is my first post but I have been reading the WDW boards for awhile and the Cruise boards for the last two weeks. We booked the land/sea package just two weeks ago - staying at AKL !

It will be myself, DH and DS 11 - this is our first cruise and have already decided that we have to go again on a longer one!

We are flying down on Dec. 1 and spending two nights at POP before moving the AKL on the 3rd. We have been to WDW in Dec. before and plan on doing MVMCP and the Candlelight Processional package again !

We have also planned our excursions - the historic tour through Nassau and the Sting Ray adventure on Castaway Cay for DS.

Lorri

 

[jotop]

Well since our thread is sooooooooo short, only 3 pages or so, I thought I'd ask a question or two.

Has anyone started the actual planning of what you're gonna do while onboard or in port?

We have been to Nassau a few times and probably will just stay onboard but we will go onshore at Castaway Cay.

Have you cruised before with DCL or other cruise companies?

Wecruised with RCCL when Skye was like 1 yr old and then CCL once when she was a little older. This will be our third with DCL. We had one booked with RCCL for next year on the FOS but cancelled it because Skye would not have been on Spring Break that week and the week she would be was booked.

Question #1. Yes! We're staying at a WDR the night before and then we'll get up and get on the road by 10 a.m. We'll eat on board and let DD5 go swimming and we'll get to know the ship before we leave port.

I think we are going to at least let DD walk for a little while in Nassau but we plan on spending most of the day on board. And, we'll for sure go to CC all day. Never been.

Question #2. We have never been on a DCL. DH and myself have been 2x on CCL. So, this will be a change of pace for us.

We are really getting excited and I've already put things aside that I wanted to make sure we packed.

 

[TYTY]

Hi - I've had everything planned for months. We booked this trip 2 years ago while we were on the Magic, so this has been a long wait for us. Not planning for much in the Bahamas, I've been there before. Nothing great as far as I'm concerned but the people I'm going with have never been there before.

Now Castaway Cay is a different story - I can't wait to book my cabana massage

We've been on the Magic in 2004 for the Western and we have RCL booked in 8/07 for a Mediterrian cruise. I've also been on Carnival before.

Welcome Diznyfan68! OMG - I just realized you're also staying at AKL! We're checking in at AKL on 12/2. We'll have to set up somewhere to meet. My DS is 10. We already have our tickets for MVMCP.

 

[Diznyfan68]

Hi TYTY

We will definately have to set up a meet - when are you going to MVMCP? We are planning to go the night of the 4th - also we have AR for Boma the night of the 6th.

Lorri

 

[Hanover]

We are waiting on one more quote coming in from AAA, but will most likely be booking this cruise tomorrow. It would be me, dh, ds9 and ds5. We will be celebrating our 10 year annivesary and my birthday that week.
We weren't planning on cruising again until the 12/01/07 Western Magic we have booked, but decided as a family today that we would rather do a 3 day cruise this December than go to the WDW parks for 5 or 6 days. We would still do MVMCP on 12/5 and park hop 12/6 and 12/10.

We have an ADR for Boma on 12/ 6 too.


Danielle

 

[TYTY]

Hi Lorri - we are also going to MVMCP on the 4th
Haven't done anything about BOMA yet - not sure if the kids will like that.

 

[Hanover]

We booked the 12/7/06 cruise yesterday through Dreams Unlimited. We'll be in 6060.

We are doing MVMCP on December 5th and hopping between MK and Epcot on 12/6. We decided to cancel our ADR at Boma that night in favor of having more time in the park we will be in at that time. We had planned on being at AK that day but we are now rearranging our itinerary since adding the cruise.

We are really looking forward to the cruise.

 

[lisa702]

Who is sailing with kids and what are their ages?

I have DD Skye who is 7 and in the 2nd grade. She's hoping to find a friend of the same age to hang out with.

 

[Hanover]

Our oldest son, Keegan, is 9 and going into 4th grade.
Our youngest son, Brennan, is 5 and going into kindergarten.

 

[Diznyfan68]

Out DS Joseph is 11 and going into 6th grade.


Lorri

 

[Hanover]

We were excited to receive our travel kit today with the shore excursion, etc. guides. It's hard to believe we can book excursions, spa treatments, Palo, etc. on September 8th. It will be here before we know it. We booked our 5/13 cruise 14 months before going and it seemed like it took forever for the cruise! We also surprised our boys with that trip and they know about the 12/7 one so it's nice to be able to share the planning this time around.

Has anyone settled on what (if any) excursions they will be doing? We did the Blue Lagoon Dolphin Excrusion in Nassau in 2/2005 and loved it. We are deciding if we should do that one again or just stay on board most of the day in Nassau. We know the cruise is going to fly by and we want to enjoy the ship as much as possible. We were thinking of taking the boys to the pirate museum and just swimming and doing onboard activities that afternoon.

DS9 and I parasailed on our 5/13 cruise at Castaway Cay and we LOVED the experience. I would like my DH to be able to experience it (he stayed with ds5 at the beach last time), and ds9 and I would also love to do it again. DS9 and DH did the banana boats, and liked it, but decided they'd rather not do it again. We are packing all our own snorkel equipment (bought at Costco before our last cruise and worked perfect). DS5 can now snorkel and swim on his own, which he couldn't do in May, so we want him to come with us to see the underwater Mickey and other "hidden treasures" in the snorkel area.

We did Palo on our last cruise for dinner and brunch and enjoyed it tremendously. I think we are going to skip it on our 12/7 trip though so we can enjoy each of the main restaurants. We are on the wait list for main dining, but may just stay with late dining to try it out. We've done main dining on the other 2 DCL trips we've taken. We figure we can always eat a mid -afternoon snack near the pools or order from room service if we are too hungry. A lot of people seem to love late dining, so we think it would be great to try it on a 3 day. We put in a request to have APT rotation so we would be in Parrot Cay for Pirate's Night (our favorite night of the cruise) and Triton for semi-formal night. Out of a dozen or so people on our 5/13 cruise meets thread, only 1 family received their requested rotation, so I'm not counting on it. We had a great time regardless of what restaurant we ate in in May, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to make a request.

 

[Diznyfan68]

Bumping up - looks like the ship will be pretty empty!

 

[TYTY]

OMG! Hanover - we're in room 6066!

I'm sailing in room 6066 with my (DS) who is 11 and my friend is in the room next to us (connecting rooms - not sure if its 6064 or 6068) with her (DS) who will be 8.

 

[lisa702]

WE are in a SPH cabin but can't remember which one. Does anyone know what kind of temps we'll see in the Bahamas in December? Just trying to figure out what to pack. Skye is bordering on going into the next size and was thinking of picking up tank tops and shorts.

 

[Hanover]

Has anyone ever had a stateroom near the stairwells/elevators? I read a thread where posters praised the rooms as being very convenient and not noisy at night. However, I just finished reading the thread on DCL improvements and loads of people were complaining about teens hanging out at night across the stairs, kids jumping down/sliding down to the next level, that area being very noisy and so on. As of right now we are in 6060 which is smack dab in the middle of the elevator area. We asked for a category 6 starboard side and were told they were sold out but could do a category 6 GTY. Once we booked, we were assigned to 6060 which is also not starboard (I can deal with not getting starboard, just like starboard position of ship at sailaway and CC). Now I'm wondering if we should ask to be switched somewhere else midship away from the elevators.

As for weather, I haven't been that far south in December. When we went to WDW last January (we've also been to WDW in December in past years and the weather was nearly identical as Jan.) I was very comfortable in capris or pants and t-shirts and brought a windbreaker or sweatshirt for early mornings/after the sun set. I packed zip off pants for the boys that worked out perfectly. When the weather warmed up midday they zipped of f the bottom of their pants to make shorts. When we went to Nassau and CC on a 4 day Wonder trip in February 2005, it was chilly in the water at first, but easy to get used to. The air temperatures were in the mid 70's to low 80's. I'm going to be checking accuweather.com and weatherchannel.com very closely once our cruise gets closer. You can also log onto those websites and check out past year's weather for the Bahamas and Florida.

 

[Diznyfan68]

We are staying in room 5122 - well aware that we are close to the kids stuff but that was why we chose the room. I am hoping that it won't be too noisy being near the stairs. I've read on other posts that the refreshment station is just up the stairs.

We are not going to try for Palo ressie's this trip as it is so short - we are planning on booking another cruise (7 days!) while on this one for spring break 2008, which for us is the week before Easter. I am hoping that this will be an Eastern itinerary but will book regardless of which it is.

We are planning on packing light - I will probably do the last night at AKL. Because we are from the northeast, all of our summer wear will be put away long before December arrives - probably within the the next three to four weeks actually. I will be packing most of our stuff soon and putting dryer sheets in the suitcases to keep things from getting too stuffy, but will probably wash it all again before we leave!

Our plans at WDW are pretty set at this point - we are flying down the evening of the 1'st and staying at POP the first two nights. We plan on spending the first day (12/2) relaxing and shopping at Downtown Disney . There are a few things we must do on every vacation (ex. eating breakfast at IHOP) which we will probably do on Saturday. We are renting a car for our stay at WDW so we can really get a lot done in a short period of time. We've made of all of our ADR's and have our CP package and MVMCP tickets so at this point it is really just waiting for the 75 day mark for me to try to make ressie's at the spa and for the excursions.

We aren't doing any excursions in Nassua, we spoken to others who have been there and on DCL and have decided to visit the straw market, the pirate museum and maybe some other walking around on our own. We are signing up for the Stingray advernture on Castaway Cay for DS and myself - DH plans on taking the pictures of our adventure!

 

[Hanover]

Diznyfan68: Every time I went to check our boys in/out of the clubs, the surrounding areas were quiet on the 5th deck. You will love the Eastern itinerary. We especially loved St. John. We are doing a Western in Dec 07 to show our boys Key West and Cozumel, but will probably stick to Easterns from then on. We really liked the extra day at sea on the Eastern too.

We stayed at AKL in 2/2005 and loved it. The laundry room was packed though through out our stay and we ended up taking shifts among our relatives late one night past midnight before our cruise to finish it up. Hopefully that was just a bad day in which everyone decided to do their laundry!

I think we've decided to skip excursions in Nassau and go to the pirate museum and just hand out on board and enjoy the ship. At Castaway Cay, we are probably going to parasail since we enjoyed it so much in May.

I think we may book a 4 day for sometime next summer. Seems like the 4 day cruises are as cheap as the 3 days on DUT next August.

 

[jotop]

We are staying in room 5122 - well aware that we are close to the kids stuff but that was why we chose the room. I am hoping that it won't be too noisy being near the stairs. I've read on other posts that the refreshment station is just up the stairs.

We are not going to try for Palo ressie's this trip as it is so short - we are planning on booking another cruise (7 days!) while on this one for spring break 2008, which for us is the week before Easter. I am hoping that this will be an Eastern itinerary but will book regardless of which it is.

We are planning on packing light - I will probably do the last night at AKL. Because we are from the northeast, all of our summer wear will be put away long before December arrives - probably within the the next three to four weeks actually. I will be packing most of our stuff soon and putting dryer sheets in the suitcases to keep things from getting too stuffy, but will probably wash it all again before we leave!

Our plans at WDW are pretty set at this point - we are flying down the evening of the 1'st and staying at POP the first two nights. We plan on spending the first day (12/2) relaxing and shopping at Downtown Disney . There are a few things we must do on every vacation (ex. eating breakfast at IHOP) which we will probably do on Saturday. We are renting a car for our stay at WDW so we can really get a lot done in a short period of time. We've made of all of our ADR's and have our CP package and MVMCP tickets so at this point it is really just waiting for the 75 day mark for me to try to make ressie's at the spa and for the excursions.

We aren't doing any excursions in Nassua, we spoken to others who have been there and on DCL and have decided to visit the straw market, the pirate museum and maybe some other walking around on our own. We are signing up for the Stingray advernture on Castaway Cay for DS and myself - DH plans on taking the pictures of our adventure!

We're in 5126. We have a DD5 and we're also staying at POP the night before the cruise. I must go to DTD at least once a year. I love it during the holidays.

What day is everyone showing for the ressies?

 

[lisa702]

We love Deck 5! So close to the kids clubs. Really not much traffic at all. Very quiet. We are in 5520, unlesswe get a complimentary upgrade to the Walt Disney suite.