**Disney Fantasy June 30th, 2012- EASTERN**

[PRINCESS VIJA]

The cruise is the same time as DD's camp and she refuses to miss it so we are backing out of the cruise for the 30th. I am bummed about missing the fantasy and not meeting everyone.

Kate

Oh, so sorry to hear that. we will miss you!

 

[QBNQT]

We will be joining you on the cruise and I was wondering if anyone is going to do a fish extender?

 

[DisneyMom70]

Hi QBNQT and Welcome.

Yes we are doing a FE. I think we have about 8-10 families signed up so far.

DCLholic-Mom is handling the list.

"If there is anyone else who wants to join the group, please email me at retykemom@att.net "

 

[DCLaholic-mom]

Hi guys! I need a little help. My computer crashed and I am currently in need of the CURRENT FE list. Could someone please email it to me? I would very much appreciate it.

Kelley
retykemom@att.net

 

[DCLaholic-mom]

Thank lbcrosby!!! You're MAGICal!!

 

[lbcrosby]

You are welcome. Glad I could help.

Well, I just found out that I will have to tell my son earlier than expected. His boy scout group is planning a trip to a boy scout camp on Catalina Island next summer and guess which week they picked? I am hoping he would rather go on a Disney cruise instead of a boy scout trip. The major thing in our favor is that we are going to be taking the Fantasy with the cool slide. He has mentioned that before.

We will see.

 

[DCLaholic-mom]

Catalina is beautiful. You can't talk to the adult leaders planning the trip and see if they can move it back one week so that he can go? Our Troop just had their planning meeting last week and they make it very clear that dates are subject to change. I would try that.

I am sorry I have been out of it. It has been a long summer. I worked a second job to help pay for our cruise and then straight back into teaching as the new school year approached with a bang - And now the computer issues. Go figure. In the meantime, I notice that Disney Cruise Line is teasing us all on Facebook. That is ok though because it is just making me want the ship to come out of hiding even faster!! I wonder why they havent posted anything on her lately. Come on Fantasy!!!!!

 

[DisMom1981]

We are taking our first Disney vacation as a family of 4 on this cruise and I am so excited! My husband and I are bringing my son who will be 3 at the time of cruise and my daughter who will have just turned 1 at the time of the cruise! I've only been on one Disney Cruise- Disney Wonder/Eastern and it was before I was even married. Husband has not experienced the wonder of DCL yet. Here is my stroller question. Does DCL rent strollers? Do people use them on the ships? What about on excursions? Thanks!!!

 

[DCLaholic-mom]

Hi DisMom1981,

Welcome aboard!!! You guys are going to have a blast. Your children are going to be very well taken care of in the kids clubs and nursery so do not be afraid of leaving them once in a while. As far as strollers, I do NOT believe they rent, but there is plenty of walking space that you could bring your own for the ship and excursions. I have honestly seen very few strollers on the ship itself. I would not bring the double wide kind, but if the seats are one in front of the other that would work. I hope my observations helped. Your TA would be able to find out for sure.

 

[DisMom1981]

Hi DisMom1981,

Welcome aboard!!! You guys are going to have a blast. Your children are going to be very well taken care of in the kids clubs and nursery so do not be afraid of leaving them once in a while. As far as strollers, I do NOT believe they rent, but there is plenty of walking space that you could bring your own for the ship and excursions. I have honestly seen very few strollers on the ship itself. I would not bring the double wide kind, but if the seats are one in front of the other that would work. I hope my observations helped. Your TA would be able to find out for sure.

Thank you! Haven't seen anything on the DCL website so I figured I'd ask here, but I will find out for sure. I'm guessing we will need a single stroller for the one year old. Planning on Orlando Stroller Rentals for our stay in WDW after the cruise!!!!!

 

[lbcrosby]

My DH and I have been to Catalina before on a cruise for our honeymoon. I believe the scouts go on the other side of the island but I am sure it is just as beautiful. I don't think changing the dates will be an option. The troop he attends has about 100 scouts and they plan far in advance. I will see but am not optimistic. To be honest I won't be disappointed if he doesn't attend as the cost for the week is almost the same cost as his portion of the cruise. I am hoping he would rather take the cruise than his trip with his troop.

 

[DisMom1981]

Hi all- Just heard from Orlando Stroller Rentals.....you can take their rented stroller on the cruise! I love this option because then we can have the same stroller for the whole trip (cruise and WDW).

 

[lbcrosby]

Well I told our DS last night. He came up to me after scouts and was whining that he really wanted to go to Catalina. I told him the reason that he could not go was that we were taking a Disney Cruise that same week. This funny grin came on his face and I realized that I shouldn't have worried that he would rather do Catalina than the cruise. I told him I was afraid he may have outgrown the Disney Cruise Line. He told me "are you kidding me. I think I wouldn't outgrow it even if I was 70 years old." Needless to say he is thrilled. He was asking us if we were taking the Dream and when I told him that we were taking the Fantasy he questioned if they still had the aquaduck. Shows what is important to him.

Now I can plan with him.

 

[DCLaholic-mom]

How old is your son? I am taking my son on the cruise because I told each of my kids that I would take them each on a one week vacation of their choice (within reason of course) as my high school graduation gift to them. He chose the Disney cruise point blank. There were not even any other options thrown out.

Anyway, my son is also in a large troop. He is currently a Life scout, but has finished his Eagle project. He just has one merit badge to finish and then he is on his way. He has been to Philmont in New Mexico 5 times. I would say if you can handle it, definetaly send your son because it is a once in a lifetime thing for most. My son passed up Sea Base in Florida this summer to go BACK to Philmont.

OK. Now my question. For those of you doing WDW before or after the cruise, do you do it on your own or do you plan it thru a travel agent? What is the cheapest way to do and see WDW? I am from CA. so I grew up at Disneyland. Just about lived there. I have also been on the Disney cruise before, but have NEVER been to WDW.

 

[lbcrosby]

Our son is 12. We will consider Philmont as I am sure our son will enjoy that almost more than Catalina as water activities are not his favorite.

We will actually be going to Universal Studios ahead of time. We did Disney World and Sea World the last time we went and we space out our activities to see different things each time we go. We will be using AAA as we were told we may be able to get discounts if we book through them. When we went to Disney World before it was the package through Disney and they don't do that anymore so unfortunately I cannot help you there. But, I think I used AAA before as well. One thing we did which was a lot of fun was stayed Wednesday night in the concierge level at the Animal kingdom so that we could do the sunrise safari on Thursday morning. This was only offered if you stayed concierge. This was one of our favorite things we did while there. Anyway, just a thought.

 

[DisneyMom70]

We are planning to stay at WDW before (that may be up in the air now). I did the majority of the planning, but we are tentatively using AAA as our TA. They have a good ticket deal (Hoppers, WP & more) for about 500 less than Disney as well as some other discounts. We may have to switch our accommodations though, so I may just do it myself. As we potentially have a big budget change, we are now looking at renting a DVC place or even staying off site if we still want to do the parks. Off-site seems to be the cheapest way, but it's not my favorite. I really value the EMH especially in the mornings, so that is a hard perk to give up.

Hydroguy has a really good thread on WDW for the DL veteran. I found it to be really helpful on things that we want to see that aren't at DL.

 

[cheryllarsen]

Can't wait till our cruise!

 

[Jessica_of_FL]

Can't wait till our cruise!

I am with you on that!

 

[Paragd911]

We are coming too! DW (Joy), DD (Marissa 15), DS (Ryan 13) DDog(Bingo) & I (Mark)

This will be are 14th cruise on Disney (Bingo's 3rd)

 

[lbcrosby]

Welcome to the cruise. Our DS is excited that there are more boys that are his age that will be on the ship. It is funny to be thinking about a warm tropical cruise when today we experienced our first snow of the season.