Diez (10) Noches Calientes en la Riviera Mexicana/17 de abril 2011 (4.17.11 Wonder!)

[padalyn]

I was reading another post and the poster was able to choose a dining rotation by requesting it through her travel agent. She had mentioned that there were rotations a, b, and c. Does anyone know what rotations we have available? If so, what are they? She had chosen a specific one so that she could be in parrot cay on pirate night and tritons for formal night. Which I beleive is day 6 and day 9.

BTW, anyone dressing up for pirate night? My husband has a jack sparrow costume and my son has a captain hook costume, so I was thinking of picking up a costume too...

I am bringing my costume...a lot of folks dress up. I would suggest bringing it if you have the weight allowance available!

The dining rotations are APL, PAL, LAP...as far as requesting one...I have never had any luck doing so. I usually wait until I am onboard and shift it then. It also depends on who I am sitting with. They will put people together, on two cruises I have switched tables due to issues. But usually I have good luck! Since I am single this cruise, I have no idea how it is going to work out.

 

[lymommy]

hee hee.. to answer my own question.. I had to call the disney CM this am about the refund so I asked them about the dining rotations.

They are as follows:
option a: APTAPTAPTA
option b: PTAPTAPTAP
option c: TAPTAPTAPT

I confirmed that formal night is night 2, pirate night night 6, and semi formal on night 9.

The CM let me request which option I wanted.

Hope this is helpful to someone.

I forgot to ask which morning was character breakfast, anyone know?

 

[padalyn]

hee hee.. to answer my own question.. I had to call the disney CM this am about the refund so I asked them about the dining rotations.

They are as follows:
option a: APTAPTAPTA
option b: PTAPTAPTAP
option c: TAPTAPTAPT

I confirmed that formal night is night 2, pirate night night 6, and semi formal on night 9.

The CM let me request which option I wanted.

Hope this is helpful to someone.

I forgot to ask which morning was character breakfast, anyone know?

great info!! Thanks...character b'fast is usually the first sea morning, but that is day 2...so no idea...maybe day 3?

 

[lymommy]

IS there an updated FE list. I got my gifts for everyone today... whoohoo... hoping I got enough!

 

[Maryh8156]

Does anyone know if/when DCL will be offering excursions on day one in Cabo, which happens to be Easter Sunday?! I'm beginning to wonder IF there will be any excursions offered at all given the day!! If anyone has information on this, i would LOVE to know!

 

[True Romance]

Happy Valentine's to all!

Not a very good day on my end. Dr took me off work this week, hoping to not go to the hospital by weeks end. Danny and his family are in mourning. His younger sister killed herself this afternoon after benge drinking. Depression and drugs don't mix.

So sorry Sandy for you and Danny. Prayers are with your family during this difficult time.

Thanks! And Happy Valentines Day to all my DIS friends! DH is in Afghanistan but managed to call a little while ago (was disconnected 3 times before we could talk) He promises he WILL be home before cruise date!

Regarding FE - anything, anytime. I'm a first timer so I'll go with the popular vote. On another DISboard, we are doing a Secret Mickey too. That sounds fun!

Susan, thank you for the sacrifices your husband and family have given to our country. Praying for a safe and on-time arrival for him.

I would love to do a secret Mickey if someone wants to head it up.

Love the idea. I suggested the same thing on a different cruise and was voted down overwhelmingly. I think the hard part is to get people commit to making delivery on a port day.

We did the Secret Mickey on the same cruise that voted down the assigned day for FE delivery and it was fun. DH's SM was our table mate (which we linked ressie because our DDs "connected" on the Disboards). One night his SM was baffled at how his SM (DH) delivered a bottle of wine to his stateroom and we had to pretend to be surprised and held back the giggles. The participants of the SM all met for lunch at Lumieres on one of the sea days for the big "reveal". BTW - the stateroom host/hostess can/will put things in the stateroom for you.

Lastly, I added info on a couple of Dis Meets to the website at Kristi's request.

Connie, thanks so much for adding my Meets. I love how you find pictures for everything.

Does anyone have a high resolution lime green Mickey head they could send me? I am going to print one out for embarkation day to post next to my spot at the port. That way people could find me easily. I thought it would be fun to wait together for all of you over anxious, to the port early people like me.

Connie, that is a funny story regarding the Secret Mickey. I would love to do that if anyone is up for organizing it.

I also will go with majority rules for either assigning FE specific delivery days (definitely not times) or giving people a 3 day window. Like Beginning: 17, 18, 19; Middle 20, 21, 22, 23; End 24, 25, 26

I will sent them tomorrow. There will be 2 sets Itinerary A & Itinerary B. I am very excited that the "Wonder Quest" appears on one of them. So I still have high hopes for our cruise.

Sandy, what is Wonder Quest? I don't think I have read about that.

BTW, anyone dressing up for pirate night? My husband has a jack sparrow costume and my son has a captain hook costume, so I was thinking of picking up a costume too...

My family is going to dress in costume The boys already have theirs and I found some on Amazon I like for myself, DH, and my DD. I would love a family portrait with Jack Sparrow.

hee hee.. to answer my own question.. I had to call the disney CM this am about the refund so I asked them about the dining rotations.

They are as follows:
option a: APTAPTAPTA
option b: PTAPTAPTAP
option c: TAPTAPTAPT

I confirmed that formal night is night 2, pirate night night 6, and semi formal on night 9.

The CM let me request which option I wanted.

Hope this is helpful to someone.

I forgot to ask which morning was character breakfast, anyone know?

Thanks so much for finding out this info.

IS there an updated FE list. I got my gifts for everyone today... whoohoo... hoping I got enough!

We have 27 staterooms currently in the FE. Giving until March 1st for the cutoff date. Will divide into 2 groups. You can choose to do about 14 staterooms or be in both groups and do all.

Here are the families I have participating. Please let me know if I am missing or need to add someone.

True Romance
AZ Pirates
Bitocas
CWO4DVC
Deseriemilburn
Fourmcds
HelenMartinez
HoppingMad
Jareds Mommy
Jweiss
LiserAnn
Loving_Life
LV Disney Fan9atic)
Lymommy
Maryh8156
Mariag481
Mjespro
Mykids2
Padalyn
Patricia1
Savin4wdw
Shellyamd
Susiesark
Sweetpea 4
Szubieta
Travelbee
Virdis

 

[Susiesark]

Secret Mickey sounds liked fun too...what are the guideline for it and are we going to do this?

I don't know too much about Secret Mickey, except that you get one person,or family, from your total FE group,to exchange 1 special gift. (like a Secret Santa) Since Connie has done this before, maybe she can tell us more and how to go about arranging it.
And I'm also curious about Wonder Quest.

 

[LiserAnn]

Bummer...just got a phone call from DCL, the Tesoro excursion in Manzanillo has been canclled, which stinks because everything else is booked!!!

 

[True Romance]

Bummer...just got a phone call from DCL, the Tesoro excursion in Manzanillo has been canclled, which stinks because everything else is booked!!!

Lisa, did they mention why? We are planning on doing Tesoro on our own. Wonder why DCL would cancel it.

I bet other options will be available while onboard. A lot of people wait until they are cruising before they book excursions.

 

[LiserAnn]

Lisa, did they mention why? We are planning on doing Tesoro on our own. Wonder why DCL would cancel it.

I bet other options will be available while onboard. A lot of people wait until they are cruising before they book excursions.

Unfortunately I was on a conference call for work so I did't speak to the gal live. I am very curious why they would cancel too! I'm going to call later in the week and see what I can find out.

 

[LV Disney Fan(atic)]

Bummer...just got a phone call from DCL, the Tesoro excursion in Manzanillo has been canclled, which stinks because everything else is booked!!!

I got the same call today about my Karmina Palace excursion! The DCL rep couldn't tell me why, just said it was cancelled. I hope DCL comes up with some new excursions for Manzanillo; there were so few to start with and now at least 2 of them are gone! I did find a few independent tour operators I'm going to check out.

 

[TNShellBelle]

hee hee.. to answer my own question.. I had to call the disney CM this am about the refund so I asked them about the dining rotations.

They are as follows:
option a: APTAPTAPTA
option b: PTAPTAPTAP
option c: TAPTAPTAPT

I confirmed that formal night is night 2, pirate night night 6, and semi formal on night 9.

The CM let me request which option I wanted.

Hope this is helpful to someone.

I forgot to ask which morning was character breakfast, anyone know?

So which rotation do we choose? I have never understood this.

 

[LV Disney Fan(atic)]

So which rotation do we choose? I have never understood this.

Depends on your preferences.

Option A (APT...) has you in Parrot Cay formal night and Triton's for Pirate Night and semi-formal night

Option B (PTA...) has you in Triton's formal night and in AP pirate night and semi-formal night.

Option C (TAP...) has you in AP on formal night and Parrot Cay on Pirate Night and semi-formal night.

I requested TAP primarily because I like having Pirate Night in Parrot Cay; AP will be nice for formal night. But it honestly doesn't matter all that much to us; we'll have fun wherever we are!

 

[LiserAnn]

I got the same call today about my Karmina Palace excursion! The DCL rep couldn't tell me why, just said it was cancelled. I hope DCL comes up with some new excursions for Manzanillo; there were so few to start with and now at least 2 of them are gone! I did find a few independent tour operators I'm going to check out.

Oh my...you guys what is going on with DCL? There's already not much to do in Manzanillo in regards to offered excursions. What's the point of going there? I heard it's an industrial port so it's like it's going to be beautiful. At least in Cabo we're tendered and it's a pretty sight! I wonder if the third beach one will be tossed out too. I think that's very odd....

 

[LiserAnn]

So which rotation do we choose? I have never understood this.

This is how I've been told that DCL tries to "occupy" these rotations:
PTA = families with older kids
APT = families with younger kids
TAP = adults

Now of course you'll see a variety of all in each but I was told they try to focus the rotations to certain groups. I have always picked the rotation based upon when formal night is and when I have Palo's dinner. For example, this cruise we have Palo's on day 3 and I wouldn't want to be on a PTA rotation because that would mean we'd miss the show in Animator's Palate (since they only do it the first rotation). So, we'll probably request TAP. We do have kids but they're well behaved so I think it will be fine for us. We'll see if DCL honors my request. I would really hate to miss Animator's...that's for sure!!!

 

[szubieta]

We personally have only done this "Quest" on other cruiselines and it's a blast. It is an "Adults Only" scavenger hunt with what's in the room already. It can get a little risque but something most will never skip again on any cruise. I can't say too much to spoil it, but do go and have fun. just wish they didn't have it on the very first night. On the Jan nav they only had a family one in the middle of the afternoon. I hope we get both.

 

[Az Pirates]

Just checked the answering machine and sure enough, we also got the excursion cancellation call today. Manzanillo was the only port we booked through DCL too. Oh well, guess we'll come up with a plan B now.

We've only requested a specific rotation once, and we didn't get the one we requested anyway. I was going to see if we could get it switched, but I never made it down to where they were doing dining changes that first day, so we just kept what we had. In the end I'm really glad we did because our serving team that cruise was the best we've ever had on DCL and obviously we never would have met them if we had switched to the rotation we thought we wanted.

 

[True Romance]

Depends on your preferences.

Option A (APT...) has you in Parrot Cay formal night and Triton's for Pirate Night and semi-formal night

Option B (PTA...) has you in Triton's formal night and in AP pirate night and semi-formal night.

Option C (TAP...) has you in AP on formal night and Parrot Cay on Pirate Night and semi-formal night.

I requested TAP primarily because I like having Pirate Night in Parrot Cay; AP will be nice for formal night. But it honestly doesn't matter all that much to us; we'll have fun wherever we are!

Here is my thoughts on this. I have small kids that cannot sit still long. They love eating and then heading to the clubs. Well, the first night the clubs are "Family time" only and the counselors are not going to watch your little ones. I would prefer to have Animators on the first night so we get the show to entertain them.

Really curious why DCL canceled those 2 resorts in Manzanillo. Wonder if we will have a problem doing them on our own. I am "friends" with the Tesoro Resort on FB and it looks beautiful and they have been quick to answer my questions.

 

[TNShellBelle]

So does DCL still offer different dining times for early and late seating? I remember that it use to be something like 5:15, 5:30 or 5:45 and 8:00, 8:15 and 8:30. We had 8:30 once when the dd was only 2 and it was sooo hard to make it through dinner.

Now is it just 2 set times? Sorry...we haven't cruised since Sept 2008. I bet it has changed.

 

[Susiesark]

This is how I've been told that DCL tries to "occupy" these rotations:
PTA = families with older kids
APT = families with younger kids
TAP = adults

Now of course you'll see a variety of all in each but I was told they try to focus the rotations to certain groups. I have always picked the rotation based upon when formal night is and when I have Palo's dinner. For example, this cruise we have Palo's on day 3 and I wouldn't want to be on a PTA rotation because that would mean we'd miss the show in Animator's Palate (since they only do it the first rotation). So, we'll probably request TAP. We do have kids but they're well behaved so I think it will be fine for us. We'll see if DCL honors my request. I would really hate to miss Animator's...that's for sure!!!

Interesting stuff. So, we can request what rotation we prefer? My DS is 19 and my DD is 6, so where do I fall? I like your theory on where you want to eat and when, do I have anyone who wants to join us for late dining, preferable TAP? I see a few of our members with similar aged young-uns. Very well behaved kiddos. DH, not so much (kidding-sorry honey)