Disney Magic, 26 Oct 2014, 5 Night Western Caribbean

[CatDenver]

This is our 4th Disney cruise, 2nd time on the Magic. Love the classic ships, have not been on the Fantasy, but was on the Dream in September, and although beautiful, spent too much time trying to get from one place to another onboard. Will be traveling with my DD 38 and DN 44.

Have organized FE before, but would be happy to set up and manage the sign up and final list if someone else wants to coordinate. Lots of things we can plan, and Halloween will be fun. Did a stateroom crawl on our last cruise, and one of our group was in the Walt, so it was amazing experience to get to see. Was on the Wonder in 2010 for Halloween and had a blast trick or treating around the ship with my GD who was 7. Have also done Roaming Gnome and have the graphic if anyone wants to organize.

Look forward to sailing with all.
Margaret

It's funny you mention that about the Dream. When I was looking at the last week of October, which is fall break for our kids, we had our choice of the Magic or the Fantasy. I didn't like the ports for the Western Caribbean and my husband didn't want to go on a bigger ship. Our first cruise was a few weeks ago on the Wonder, which we loved! We're hooked. We had a very active group and so I was involved in FE, Trick or Treat, Roaming Gnome, and I think that's it. In fact, we had two Roaming Gnomes moving about. I'm debating if I want to do FE this time around. It was a lot of fun but it was a lot of work. If I do it, I'm starting now and probably keeping it to a main stateroom gift versus trying to do any individual gifts.

 

[CatDenver]

Just saw the post from the person who started the thread and it appears they are no longer sailing on this cruise. I will contact the Dis Moderator to see how one of us can take over the admin if the person who started is no longer interested or involved.

Great idea!

 

[maggie_sam]

It's funny you mention that about the Dream. When I was looking at the last week of October, which is fall break for our kids, we had our choice of the Magic or the Fantasy. I didn't like the ports for the Western Caribbean and my husband didn't want to go on a bigger ship. Our first cruise was a few weeks ago on the Wonder, which we loved! We're hooked. We had a very active group and so I was involved in FE, Trick or Treat, Roaming Gnome, and I think that's it. In fact, we had two Roaming Gnomes moving about. I'm debating if I want to do FE this time around. It was a lot of fun but it was a lot of work. If I do it, I'm starting now and probably keeping it to a main stateroom gift versus trying to do any individual gifts.

The Wonder was our first cruise also and for Halloween!

I organized FE on our last cruise, and similar to you have been debating with myself whether to do this time. My daughter is disabled, and she loves FE and coming back to the room and finding all the gifts. And I enjoy doing, especially for the children. But on the 4 night and the big ship, it was a lot of time away from activities. Given this time we have 3 sea days, a lot less pressure to fit all the deliveries in.

We have also done Roaming Gnome, ladies brunch at Palo's, Pink Champagne Girls, cabin crawl, meet and greets. So much fun!

 

[CatDenver]

The Wonder was our first cruise also and for Halloween! I organized FE on our last cruise, and similar to you have been debating with myself whether to do this time. My daughter is disabled, and she loves FE and coming back to the room and finding all the gifts. And I enjoy doing, especially for the children. But on the 4 night and the big ship, it was a lot of time away from activities. Given this time we have 3 sea days, a lot less pressure to fit all the deliveries in. We have also done Roaming Gnome, ladies brunch at Palo's, Pink Champagne Girls, cabin crawl, meet and greets. So much fun!

How large were the FE groups you were in? We had 25 in a group and 5 groups. I'd be more comfortable in a group of 15 or 20.

What's the Pink Champagne girls? There were other activities in our group as well. We had a cabin crawl but because I was hosting our cabin I missed out on seeing the other cabins. I would have liked to have seen some others since it was our first cruise. I hope we can do one on this cruise!

 

[peterpan47]

Have organized FE before, but would be happy to set up and manage the sign up and final list if someone else wants to coordinate. Lots of things we can plan, and Halloween will be fun. Did a stateroom crawl on our last cruise, and one of our group was in the Walt, so it was amazing experience to get to see. Was on the Wonder in 2010 for Halloween and had a blast trick or treating around the ship with my GD who was 7. Have also done Roaming Gnome and have the graphic if anyone wants to organize.

Look forward to sailing with all.
Margaret

Hi Maggie,
If you set up and manage the FE, please put us on it! If you need my information again, I'll send it

Mary

 

[peterpan47]

Hi Maggie and Shoshie,

Shoshie, we sailed together on the May 21, 2012 Alaska cruise. It's nice to "see" you again

Maggie, here we are again. Hopefully this cruise will actually happen!

To everyone,
We booked this cruise today when we were notified that our Oct. 21, 2014 five night Bahamas cruise on the Magic had been chartered and was no longer available. We are Mary (peterpan47) and my daughter Christy (Satarma). It was disappointing to not be able to take our B2B repos cruise from San Juan to PC and then from PC to the Bahamas on the Magic. We had never done a B2B before and were looking forward to doing that very much. However, now that we have had to change, we are now looking forward to this cruise instead.

I have a question, though. Can anyone tell me when the changes were made in the itinerary of this cruise from a 5 night. I wonder if it had anything to do with the change in our cruise. I thought it odd that when I booked today, two secret veranda rooms were still available. I grabbed one of them, but again, thought it very strange that any were available, much less two.

Anyway, we are definitely interested in participating in a FE. We have had great fun participating in that activity on three cruises.

Mary

 

[peterpan47]

Hi all!
We just got off the Fantasy and while onboard we realized how much more we enjoyed the classic ships. So we booked for the magic and plan to go to the parks a few days prior.

Me - Shoshana
DH - Adam
DD - Danielle (20 months at time of cruise)

Can someone send the link to the FB group?

Thanks!

Shoshie,
Christy and I agree with you! We have been on the Dream once (for the inaugural) on the Fantasy last May, and on the Wonder three times (once with you and we have decided we also like the Wonder better than either the Fantasy or the Dream. We haven't been on the Magic yet, and are looking very forward to being on the Magic, specifically, but also on one of the smaller ships again. The FEs that we have participated in were much more fun on the smaller ships. I'm not sure why, but it may have something to do with the size of the ship. Anyway, we are very excited about finally sailing on the Magic.

We plan to go to the parks for a couple of days too. We thought it would be fun to go to the Halloween night on Friday (hopefully they have them on Friday in Florida == they did in California this year) at MK and then to another park on Sat. before the cruise.

 

[CatDenver]

Shoshie, Christy and I agree with you! We have been on the Dream once (for the inaugural) on the Fantasy last May, and on the Wonder three times (once with you and we have decided we also like the Wonder better than either the Fantasy or the Dream. We haven't been on the Magic yet, and are looking very forward to being on the Magic, specifically, but also on one of the smaller ships again. The FEs that we have participated in were much more fun on the smaller ships. I'm not sure why, but it may have something to do with the size of the ship. Anyway, we are very excited about finally sailing on the Magic. We plan to go to the parks for a couple of days too. We thought it would be fun to go to the Halloween night on Friday (hopefully they have them on Friday in Florida == they did in California this year) at MK and then to another park on Sat. before the cruise.

PeterPan47, sorry to hear about what happened to your cruise. I'm thankful it didn't happen to this one because our only other option would have been a 7 night Western Caribbean on the Fantasy or to postpone several months out.

We're also looking into doing a few days at the parks. I've been to WDW a couple times but my husband and the kiddos haven't.

I think it's so great that you all have crossed paths before. That's just incredible! We're cruising rookies and this will only be our second one. I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone!

 

[peterpan47]

PeterPan47, sorry to hear about what happened to your cruise. I'm thankful it didn't happen to this one because our only other option would have been a 7 night Western Caribbean on the Fantasy or to postpone several months out.

Hi Catherine,
From the looks of the first couple of postings, this cruise didn't start out in its current form. When I looked at the opening day pricing threads, I couldn't even find this one listed. I wonder when they first listed it and how many times it has changed itineraries.

I wondered, since there were so few posts here, whether everyone had migrated to FB, but the person who said she started a FB page didn't give a link and it looked like others did and couldn't find it. I sent her a PM to see if she is still booked on this cruise. I actually prefer Disboards to FB, but I'll follow wherever this group decides to communicate.

We started on Disney on the Wonder before the other two ships were built, but didn't reach Gold until last May on the Fantasy. We have sailed on RCI and Princess, one time each but really enjoy the Disney cruises. We were on the Golden Princess a couple of weeks ago for a three night cruise from LA to Ensenada. It is aggravating to us that Disney doesn't really do anything from the West Coast except Alaska, and we wanted to try out Princess.

Despite how aggravated I get at DCL, I have to admit that we really love the Disney cruises. We haven't been on the Magic before and are looking forward to sailing on the only Disney ship we haven't sailed on yet. Like I said to Shoshie. we gave both the larger ships a try before we realized that we really like the smaller classic ships better.

Regardless of where we chat, FB or Disboards, getting to know everyone before the cruise is great. Talking to everyone before we go makes the anticipation and the wait a lot of fun.

Mary

 

[Shoshie]

Hi Mary! Glad we are all sailing again!
I say we give the moderator another week to let one of us edit the title and the link on the roll call- if not, we should close down this one and start a new one - and put that in the roll call.

Has no idea this was a five-day at one point...

The FB thread is Disney magic 7 night Eastern (10/26/14)

 

[CatDenver]

Hi Mary! Glad we are all sailing again! I say we give the moderator another week to let one of us edit the title and the link on the roll call- if not, we should close down this one and start a new one - and put that in the roll call. Has no idea this was a five-day at one point... The FB thread is Disney magic 7 night Eastern (10/26/14)

Hi Shoshie,
I haven't been able to find the FB group. Do you have a link you could PM?

I think your plan to give the moderator a week will work. It would be easy enough to setup another group of we need to. I'm also fine with doing most of our communication here. FB worked for my last cruise because we had 180 people in the group. I'd heard that was unusual so if we all want to stay here on the DIS that works for me.

Cheers,
Catherine

 

[Shoshie]

Hi everyone!
Please join:
https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/405419866229580/

 

[peterpan47]

Hi Mary! Glad we are all sailing again!
I say we give the moderator another week to let one of us edit the title and the link on the roll call- if not, we should close down this one and start a new one - and put that in the roll call.

Has no idea this was a five-day at one point...

The FB thread is Disney magic 7 night Eastern (10/26/14)

That sounds like a good idea. This cruise does seem to have had several reincarnations. When I looked at my Castaway Club page, this cruise was listed twice, once said it was a 7 night that departed from Port Canaveral and the other said it was a seven night that departed from Miami. The itinerary on the inside was right, but the listing wasn't. According to the beginning posts, it looks like it may also have been scheduled to originate in Miami as well as from San Juan and now PC. After the cancellation of our first cruise with so little in the way conciliatory offer, if they mess with this one again, I think i'll be just a little perturbed!

 

[Shoshie]

They better not touch a thing I'm hoping that they are focusing on 2015 so they won't readjust 2014.....

 

[peterpan47]

They better not touch a thing I'm hoping that they are focusing on 2015 so they won't readjust 2014.....

I sometimes read too much into things, but I wonder about some of the things that happened with this cruise and the other one that they sold for a charter to someone. This cruise seemed to turn into a PC cruise about mid summer. Somewhere around that time, my other cruise (the one they cancelled) for some unknown reason nearly doubled in price over night. Although there will never be any way to know this, I have a sneaking suspicion that they actually fiddled around with this cruise to give people on the cruise they were going to cancel a reasonably close place to go if and when they decided to finalize the charter deal. They also could have doubled the price just so no one else would book it. It was very odd that none of the cruises surrounding the 10/21 cruise (the one that was cancelled) made any dramatic changes in price, but ours sure did..really it doubled overnight.

Oh well. That one is gone and I am looking very forward to this one. We still have the 3-day repo cruise from San Juan booked (that was to be the first part of our B2B) and are looking into the very very slim possibility of being able to take a week off between that weekend 3 day cruise and this one so we can still take them both. If we can do that, we will rent a car and drive down the keys, which we have wanted to do for awhile, and come back in time to go to a Halloween night at MK and then leave on the 10/26 cruise. That's almost pie in the sky with Christy's schedule, and I seriously doubt if she will be able to take that much time off, but we're going to explore it before we cancel the repo cruise. I did book us for 10/24-10/25 at the All Star Movies resort. I'll watch prices to see if they go down, but with the Halloween stuff going on that week, they may not and the price wasn't hideous yet

I requested approval on the FB group, just FYI.

 

[maggie_sam]

How large were the FE groups you were in? We had 25 in a group and 5 groups. I'd be more comfortable in a group of 15 or 20.

What's the Pink Champagne girls? There were other activities in our group as well. We had a cabin crawl but because I was hosting our cabin I mis tosed out on seeing the other cabins. I would have liked to have seen some others since it was our first cruise. I hope we can do one on this cruise!

I actually setup the sign up form for a friend who was on the cruise, and she asked me to monitor when she went on Med Cruise. So, I wasn't originally even on the sailing, but things worked out that I was able to join them.

Originally there was no limit established, or cutoff, but people really wanted to know, so it was decided 25 cabins or by a cutoff date, whichever came first. As soon as the first FE group closed, a bunch of people wanted to join, so the second group was started with the same parameters, and reached the cutoff date before the cabin limit (I think the 2nd group was 18 cabins). Same thing happened, and so the 3rd group started about 10 days before sail date, and had 8 cabins.

I would recommend keeping small 10-15 cabins in a group and starting a new group when the agreed on limit is reached.

Pink Champagne Girls: Although originally just for the 'Girls' men were invited to attend the one I was involved in. Pink boas, pink clothing and tiaras highly encouraged for the ladies. Men were asked to wear something pink, and pretty funny to see some of the attire. Really just a fun hour meeting new friends and having a drink together. I think at the original Pink Champagne Girls they ordered champagne, we all just bought drinks at the bar.

 

[maggie_sam]

Hi everyone!
Please join:
https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/405419866229580/

Thanks so much for posting! I joined and just setup the FE sign-up, the links are pinned on the FB group page. I will put in a separate post here until the admin can put in the first post, and will bump to keep it at the top.

 

[maggie_sam]

Hi Maggie,
If you set up and manage the FE, please put us on it! If you need my information again, I'll send it

Mary

Hi Mary,
I transferred your information over to the new FE, but don't have your stateroom #, you can message me if you don't want to post and I will add it. Maggie

 

[maggie_sam]

Here is the link to the FE sign-up Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1sHgj6zeE-durjEA0D9jDLTCsbn1LdLhBxZ4cKBDsYRk/viewform

If you wish to see who has signed-up, you can view the spreadsheet here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmOc1sq-7G-SdGxMeFF1VWdraVJqZEdXQ3hYZFk3Vmc&usp=sharing

 

[CatDenver]

I actually setup the sign up form for a friend who was on the cruise, and she asked me to monitor when she went on Med Cruise. So, I wasn't originally even on the sailing, but things worked out that I was able to join them. Originally there was no limit established, or cutoff, but people really wanted to know, so it was decided 25 cabins or by a cutoff date, whichever came first. As soon as the first FE group closed, a bunch of people wanted to join, so the second group was started with the same parameters, and reached the cutoff date before the cabin limit (I think the 2nd group was 18 cabins). Same thing happened, and so the 3rd group started about 10 days before sail date, and had 8 cabins. I would recommend keeping small 10-15 cabins in a group and starting a new group when the agreed on limit is reached. Pink Champagne Girls: Although originally just for the 'Girls' men were invited to attend the one I was involved in. Pink boas, pink clothing and tiaras highly encouraged for the ladies. Men were asked to wear something pink, and pretty funny to see some of the attire. Really just a fun hour meeting new friends and having a drink together. I think at the original Pink Champagne Girls they ordered champagne, we all just bought drinks at the bar.

I love the sign up form! Much easier to collect information than how we did it on our last cruise. I'll go ahead and sign up. When I made all the gifts for our last one I didn't factor in transporting it and ended up using a suitcase and a half. Wow, was that a lesson learned! I like your idea of 10-15 cabins.

Love the Pink Champagne Girls idea! How fun!