Disney Dream - June 9, 2013 - 4 night

[yearbooksharon]

We have booked our first Disney cruise although we are Disney veterans. My DH and DD (age 8 at time of cruise) can't wait for the adventure including trying the fish extenders.

 

[IrishCowboy]

I have added your thread to the cruise meet list

Have a great cruise!

 

[BetsyRNBSN]

We have just transferred to this cruise from a west coast cruise! Can't wait!
Betsy in IN

 

[RunnerMomO]

We just booked and talked friends into joining. Our kids had so much fun with FE on our Alaska cruise last year. Looking forward to this again!

 

[yearbooksharon]

This is our first Disney cruise, but we are hoping to join a FE group. I think the big and little kids in our group would have a blast.

 

[RunnerMomO]

Wonderful! So what ages do we have do far? My two DS will be 7 and 11. Our friends In the cabin next to us I believe have a DD 12 yrs old and two DS - 8 and 10? I guess I should figure that out! Can't wait for next summer.

 

[yearbooksharon]

My DD is 8. She will be a few months short of nine. We are keeping the cruise a suprise until late spring, but she says that if she won the lottery she would go on a Disney cruise. She won the papa and grandma lottery because they are making sure we all get to go. We will have six adults and one child (not that we will ever see the kiddo since she will want to be off playing).

 

[BetsyRNBSN]

This thread has been very quiet lately and we are at about the 6 month mark. Wondering what others are thinking of for excursions! Happy New Year!
Betsy in IN

 

[RunnerMomO]

I hope we get more cruisers on our board here soon. My kids would like to do the fish extenders again and we are trying to figure out what fun craft or project we can do. I think as far as excursions, we will likely skip any in Nassau unless we decide to take a snorkel trip. Will this be other's first time to Nassau or on a Disney cruise? We like to snorkel in Castaway Cay most and you can even bring your own gear so you don't have to pay for it there...they just require you to use a best they have available.

I am most looking forward to making some dining reservations hopefully for DH and my wedding anniversary on board!

 

[yearbooksharon]

We just booked the land portion of our trip and now I'm ready to focus in on the cruise part once again. Count us in on a fish extender group if anyone is starting one. (This is our first cruise so I have no idea how they get started or how you "officially" sign up for one.) I'm getting lots of ideas and will hopefully find the time to make them happen.

We are thinking of snorkeling out of the Bahamas, but haven't made any decisions. I heard the snorkeling on Castaway Cay isn't the best for beginners. Is this accurate?

Need to get crafty in a hurry.

 

[yearbooksharon]

We've made it to 2013, the same year as the cruise. We've been planning for so long that I almost can't believe all the numbers are the same. Here's to a quick five months (a little over).

 

[RunnerMomO]

We just booked the land portion of our trip and now I'm ready to focus in on the cruise part once again. Count us in on a fish extender group if anyone is starting one. (This is our first cruise so I have no idea how they get started or how you "officially" sign up for one.) I'm getting lots of ideas and will hopefully find the time to make them happen.

We are thinking of snorkeling out of the Bahamas, but haven't made any decisions. I heard the snorkeling on Castaway Cay isn't the best for beginners. Is this accurate?

Need to get crafty in a hurry.

My DS who was 9 or so on last cruise snorkeled on cast away cay and loved it. You are snorkeling right off the beach and can go out and explore to see Mickey statue underwater and so much more. You do need to be venturing a bit further out to see a lot of the neat stuff. But I think it was fine for beginners, we usually do it without fins and just wear masks or goggles.

 

[yearbooksharon]

We have some basic equipment from snorkeling in Hawaii, but I was wondering if it was worth the room to pack the stuff. I'm happy to hear about no fins because that takes up the most room. Do you recommend taking your own snorkeling gear or picking some up on CC?

 

[RunnerMomO]

We have some basic equipment from snorkeling in Hawaii, but I was wondering if it was worth the room to pack the stuff. I'm happy to hear about no fins because that takes up the most room. Do you recommend taking your own snorkeling gear or picking some up on CC?

For me, it was worth the space in the suite case just to save a little money. My family didn't always snorkel at same time, so we would take turns going out with the kids, and my 7 yr old was happy using his goggles. You definitely can get by without flippers in my opinion as some of the other snorkelers create such a big splash and stir up the sand!

 

[yearbooksharon]

I noticed that you were most likely skipping an excursion in Nassau. Have you don't something fun there in the past or just decided to skip it because it's all been done? Just curious as we begin to plan excursions.

 

[RunnerMomO]

I noticed that you were most likely skipping an excursion in Nassau. Have you don't something fun there in the past or just decided to skip it because it's all been done? Just curious as we begin to plan excursions.

To be honest, there are parts of Nassau that just aren't that nice. I guess we have been to Nassau now probably about 5 times over the past 15 years. We have done the city tour before by van, my DH and DS did snorkeling there and the coral was a bit washed out, another time we did the Yellow Bird Party boat and I got a ton of tiny jelly fish stings. I think the one excursion that we enjoyed was the Atlantis one where you get a shuttle there and then can walk around and explore the aquariums (didn't do the excursion that included beach or pool access). Its pricey, but we did enjoy it.

These days, we will generally get off the ship and buy some Rum cake maybe and or pick up some rum. But you also have lots of locals trying to get you to come get your hair braided, come take a ride in their bike cart etc. And in the famous straw market, most of the merchandise is not locally made, but made in China.

I think Disney is trying to ensure they offer top rated excursions so there may be some new ones I am not aware of. Just my thoughts...I love my time on Castaway Cay much more and with all that is going on on the Dream, it might be nice to get some less crowded pool / water coaster time in port.

 

[yearbooksharon]

You are echoing what we were thinking. My husband has been to Nassau, but my step daughter and I haven't. I want to put feet down on the island and look around, but we were thinking about sticking close to the ship and enjoying less crowds.

I've begun looking around at Fish Extenders and now I'm wondering how these things normally get started. I'm hoping someone takes the lead here, but do we have to officially "declare" we want to be involved? I purchased a few supplies today, but didn't really know how large the groups normally get.

Whatever happens with that, I'm in for a fish extender, but I'm no way qualified to get this thing started since this is my first Disney cruise. I'm just lurking on the boards and figuring things out.

 

[RunnerMomO]

Fish Extender participants

Well will give it a shot to start organizing. Based in what I saw in other threads, let's collect the following: disboard ID, cabin #, # and sex of adult occupants and #, sex and age of child occupants. So here goes.


DISboard ID. Cabin. Adults. Children
RunnerMomO. 7630. 2 (M, F). 2 boys (ages 7, 11)

Please reply to those thread and I will start to keep a running tally. Can't wait!

 

[yearbooksharon]

DISboard ID. Cabin. Adults. Children

yearbooksharon. 9049. 2 (MF). Daughter age 8

I'll start a spreadsheet with the information just in case. I'm the queen of the spreadsheet.

Thanks for biting the bullet with me. I'm pretty darn excited even if I don't know what I'm doing.

 

[yearbooksharon]

I got too excited. I'm such a list maker I said I would bust out the spreadsheet. I'm more than happy to let you keep the list. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help.

How large were the fish extender groups on your previous cruises? This one seems a bit quiet.