Disney Wonder Jan 23, 2011

[disneydad123]

Hi Cari and Denver

We hope we are in your FE group, we already have things picked out- I love internet shopping!!

My girls can't wait to say hi to Denver (they know he will be working), and we want to know what kinds of treats he likes and what would be fun gifts for him--chew toys, treats, bandanas, etc.
Thanks!

--Emily

 

[disneydad123]

Hey everyone! OK, I know I've done a lot of posting today so this is the last one. But...I've found out where and how we can get an awesome logo
(like the one I posted earlier today) for ourselves! I'm working on it. It may take a couple of weeks, but that gives us a week or so to figure out our name! These are my newest thoughts:

Characters of Wonder
Mickey's Mariachi Mates
Minnie's Mariachi Mates
Caballero's Castaways

As an example, the Oct. 2nd group came up with "Mickey's Mexican Mousekateers" (or however you spell that). I can't think of anything with Mexican in it, can anyone else? I kind of like the mariachi mates one. What does everyone thi

We should figure this out soon to finalize a logo!

Have a good night, and a wonder-ful monday!

Is Donald just the Alaskan Mascot or is he for all the Wonder's west coast cruises?
So I was thinking:

Donald's Mexican Amigo's or
Mickey's Mexican Matey's/or Amigo's

 

[ryanmcin]

Not cruise related, but we have a lot of So. Cal. people on here so I figured someone would be interested. The first of the new next-generation Disney Stores just opened in Montebello and it looks amazing! Here is a link with some pictures and a video:

http://www.disunplugged.com/2010/06/28/next-generation-disney-store-helps-shoppers-with-imagination/

 

[Kidlette]

Is Donald just the Alaskan Mascot or is he for all the Wonder's west coast cruises?
So I was thinking:

Donald's Mexican Amigo's or
Mickey's Mexican Matey's/or Amigo's

I'm afraid I'm not sure what you mean. Donald is on the back of the wonder (there are figurines of him and his nephews painting the ship). So, I would say he's the Wonder's "mascot". Also, the reason Donald is on that person's logo is because they chose that. I have seen other logos with mariachi mickey and Minnie, a Mexican daisy, etc. I hope that answers the question!

Everyone: As a side note, another name possibility could be "Siesta at Sea" or something like that. Everyone so-far has different ideas of what our name should be. Should we gather together all of the ideas and then have a vote? Let me know what you think!

Everyone: Another side note (while I'm thinking about it). I know this is a ways off, and I might even forget by the time the cruise comes around, but does anyone have really good camera equipment and enjoy taking photos? If so, would you mind doing me a favor while we're on the ship?!?!? The favor being: I LOVE Dale Chihuly's work but can never get very good pictures. The pics I have from our last cruise on the Wonder are really bad. Can someone with skill and good camera equipment take a bunch of pictures and email them to me after the cruise please?!?!?

 

[denversees4me]

Disneydad Your soooo sweet ! Yes Denver says you should be in our group LOL Anyone can drop off Denver goodies though if they would like even if we wind up splitting groups

I dont know if any of you caught it but my friends and their kids and their guiide dog Hamlett will also be joining us so there will be 2 dogs on board. Amber is more strict with Hamlett though as far as petting and such because he is a younger greener dog ... not green in color LOL green is a term we use when a dog is new to the work field he also likes treats toys etc and they will be in the FE as well -
Things both dogs like ( petedge.com ) since you internet shop LOL
Hollow Steralized bones lrg size
Nylabones lrg size
Treats of ANY kind ( I think last cruise Denver got like 5 bags of puperonis LOL )

restrictions
no
Rawhide bones or flips
No pig ears
no cow hooves
No greenies
No edible things that are made with rawhide

Rawhide swells in dogs intestines and can cause major damage over time and greenies have been linked with deaths in dogs from choking !!! YIKES !

COMPRESSED RAWHIDE is ok

Thanks for asking your too sweet



ok as far as a cruise name on my last cruise we had a page we could go to to vote - dont know how it was done but eveyone voted for their fave and we set a cut off date and when the votes were in we announced it ! People that joined later just didnt get to vote for a name
what do you all think
Jessica YOUR KILLING ME WITH THE SUSPENSE OF A MEETING SPOT !!!!! what do you hear maybe we could also add meeting spot to the voting place as well and see if people would be willing to pay or not if needed then go from there
just ideas !!!

Im sooooo excited ! when is 120 days prior does anyone know the date that some of us can start booking stuff also if you sailed 3 times is it 90 or 120 days prior ?

 

[Kidlette]

Hi, I'm Tonya. We just booked the Jan. 23 cruise too! I can't wait. This will be our 2nd cruise. We went on the Double Dip in Sept 2008. Did any of you happen to go on that one too?

We did the fish extenders and had so much fun. My kids couldn't wait to check out what they got. Lots of fun for them.. and me! We have 2 boys that will be 8 and 12. We are going to tell them about the cruise for Christmas.

Anybody else have good ideas on ideas for Christmas? My friend did a poem scavenger hunt thing a couple years ago. The kids loved it.Took them to their next clue until they found out what the big present was.

WELCOME Tonya! We are so happy to have you and your family joining us!

Can you please send me your details? (Names, ages, cabin number, dining time, etc). Also, you say you like FE's, does that mean you are joining in on them?!?

What is the double dip cruise, I've never heard of that!?!?! Whatever it is, it sounds like FUN! You'll have to tell us all about it!

Once I get all of your info I will add you to our lists!

-jessica

 

[Kidlette]

Cari: You're too silly! I'm sorry it's so suspenseful! We can 100% just say, "hey, lets all meet in this location at this date/time" and it's FREE, no problem! Most other DISboard groups seem to meet in the Prommenade Lounge at 3:00PM on the day of boarding. We could do this if we wanted to, but I figured it didn't hurt to ask Disney about the private reception or whatever. If it's little to no money, then it would be an amazing experience! Heck, if it was a few dollars a person it would be worth it for me! I have asked them for pricing and info on the following:
1. Private reception with desserts/snacks/drinks and no entertainment
2. Private reception with desserts/snacks/drinks and a private bingo session
3. A private movie showing inside the Buena Vista Theater

I have also asked for pricing on having the following things included:

1. Character or two for a private character photo session
2. Captain at our reception
3. Private group photo session during reception
4. Reception invitations waiting for every family in their cabin upon boarding the cruise

Like I said, we can 100% meet for free, I just thought it wouldn't hurt to find out about this! Heck, with 100+ people, even if it's $1,000 we would only have to pay $10 each for a private party! We'll see what they say, and who knows - maybe no one else would think this is worth it, but I think it's worth looking into!! When I get the info back from Disney I will let everyone know!

As a side note - Ryan and I have already looked into the capacity sizes of all the lounges/meeting places - so where we meet if we just pick a place and meet for free, will have to be carefully chosen. As it stands we are at 81 cruisers plus Tonya's family (but I don't know how many of them there are). Assuming they are a family of 4, we are already at 85 people! With that said, these are the room capacities:

Cadillac Lounge 66
Promenade Lounge 104
Diversions 120
Wave Bands HUGE - does not list a capacity

If we end up with 120 or less and we do arrange something through Disney, I think Diversions is the best option. It's the room with booths, tables, and board games - that way the adults can talk and mingle and maybe some kids could play games together!

Everyone: I have read posts and PM's with people asking if we are going to split up the FE list into smaller groups. So, I have created a little survey so we can get a general consensus and go from there. If you would, please take this survey and let me know when you've done it. Once I get this info we can have a better idea of where everyone stands on the subject! P.S. It appears to be confidential, so I won't know who voted how! http://FreeOnlineSurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?sid=10wrwvec56jvtnt778615

 

[googles111]

WELCOME Tonya! We are so happy to have you and your family joining us!

Can you please send me your details? (Names, ages, cabin number, dining time, etc). Also, you say you like FE's, does that mean you are joining in on them?!?

What is the double dip cruise, I've never heard of that!?!?! Whatever it is, it sounds like FUN! You'll have to tell us all about it!

Once I get all of your info I will add you to our lists!

-jessica

Hi Jessica. I have 2 boys ages 12 and 8. We are at the later dinner 8pm I think it was.We don't have a cabin number yet. Prob will be the 2nd floor. It's cat. 9. Not sure when we will get a room #. Does anybody know how that works? We booked through Small World.

The double dip was when we went to Castaway Cay 2 times. Lots of fun! How many people are doing FE? Last time, there were a lot of people. Are you doing more then one list? Just wondering how all that works.

 

[googles111]

Hi Leland, thanks for the idea! The only problem I see with that is this: I would have to do my homework in the port instead of shore excursions. I would rather do my homework while lounging by the pool on a sea day! I wonder if you can get some kind of international internet thing through a provider and not go through the cruise line or ports at all. Do you know if that's possible?!?

Oh no, I feel for you. I was in an online class on our last cruise and it sucked!! I was so stressed. I was having connection problems with the internet cafe... and I also didn't want to take my test. I was having to much fun.. lol

 

[denversees4me]

ok took my survey LOL jessica I also forgot all of us are late dining and ambers dis board name is sgmama she hasnt posted yet but thats who she is they are on late dinner too

 

[denversees4me]

Ha Ha Ha I had a dream lastnight you could buy fast passes online for WOC wouldnt that be nice ? I wish !
Going to Disneyland tomorrow and going to go see Alladin . Friends I am going with dont want to hassle WOC so I wont be going to see that. I think they have some kind of fireworks show for the 4th but not positive , know we are going to watch that as well .

 

[COWGIRL1]

Ryan, when Iwent on our first Disney cruise, I was enrolled in school, online. I spoke to my teachers as soon as the classes started and let them know I would not have access to a computer. I was alble to turn in all assignments early and take a test early. I also let my group members in my small groups know as well. It turned out OK. Good luck!!

Does anyone know how old you have to be to do the zip line? So, did they take away pirate night altogether? Does anyon know whn they are going to post the excursions?

Kim

 

[airtime247]

Does anyone know how old you have to be to do the zip line? So, did they take away pirate night altogether? Does anyon know whn they are going to post the excursions?

Kim

According to the company's website, you have to be 6 years old. I don't know if booking through Disney may require kids to be older. I don't know about when Disney is going to post the excursions but we can book them in 119 days. Hopefully they won't wait until the last minute to give us plenty of time to decide what to book.

-steve

 

[Kidlette]

Ryan, when Iwent on our first Disney cruise, I was enrolled in school, online. I spoke to my teachers as soon as the classes started and let them know I would not have access to a computer. I was alble to turn in all assignments early and take a test early. I also let my group members in my small groups know as well. It turned out OK. Good luck!!

Does anyone know how old you have to be to do the zip line? So, did they take away pirate night altogether? Does anyon know whn they are going to post the excursions?

Kim

Hi Kim

I am the one in school, not Ryan I will see what I can do, but the problem is that I will be missing 1 night in the first week of school and the second week of school! EEKK!

I was about to answer your zip line and excursion questions, but it looks like Steve beat me to it! About the excursions, I asked Disney and they said they don't expect it to be released sooner than 120 days prior to sailing; however, we are welcome to look online as often as we want just in case. Take it as you will, but in 119 days we can book them!

 

[ryanmcin]

Im sooooo excited ! when is 120 days prior does anyone know the date that some of us can start booking stuff also if you sailed 3 times is it 90 or 120 days prior ?

There are 4 different booking windows depending on how many cruises you have done:

120 days prior - 10+ cruises
105 days prior - 5-9 cruises
90 days prior - 1-4 cruises
75 days prior - no cruises

Does anyon know whn they are going to post the excursions?

The excursion list would have to be released in 87 days for the platinum level people to book their excursions at the start of their 120 window, so the last week of September is the deadline for Disney to have the excursions sorted out.

 

[so_oregon]

Karen-If I didn't mention it before, we were supposed to be on the WBTA but had to cancel. I am so jealous, you will have to give me a mini report when you return.


Sue

Sue you so funny....I am not ON the WBTA cruise; I was snooping on their cruise meet thread...lol. I wish tho....

internet the zip drive is a good idea. I have tried to work online onboard and the connection is slower than molasses. Takes at least five minutes of your time to get fully logged on (at least to my office). and very very slow. Better than nothing, but very slow. You need to be begging those profs as they will not be thrilled with the second week out....

I like the Mickey's Mexican Mates....

And we might need to be splitting up so that the FE doesn't become so overwhelming...85 particpants? or 85 folks on our meet/greet list? I did two FE's groups on the last cruise (we had a cut-off date and then a second cut-off date and made a second group...2nd group was very small and I didn't want the kids to be left out. That was a total of 35+ cabins and took 2 hours to go round and find all....which is a big chunk of vacation time.

I love the reception idea!!!!

 

[ryanmcin]

I found scans of a complete navigator from the 2008 Mexican Rivera cruise. They were all individual files which were a pain to flip though so I put them together into a single PDF. If anyone is interested you can find it here:
http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=...TYtMDZiYS00OTMzLTk4MTgtNDZiYzRjNjg4NGU5&hl=en

Warning: The file is big (60 MB). I tried create some versions with a smaller file size, but the text quality became poor.

It's hard to say what will be the same and what will be different, but it is interesting to look at anyway. The schedule was a little different since we are doing the ports in reverse order so the seadays are flipped.

 

[Kidlette]

Sue you so funny....I am not ON the WBTA cruise; I was snooping on their cruise meet thread...lol. I wish tho....

internet the zip drive is a good idea. I have tried to work online onboard and the connection is slower than molasses. Takes at least five minutes of your time to get fully logged on (at least to my office). and very very slow. Better than nothing, but very slow. You need to be begging those profs as they will not be thrilled with the second week out....

I like the Mickey's Mexican Mates....

And we might need to be splitting up so that the FE doesn't become so overwhelming...85 particpants? or 85 folks on our meet/greet list? I did two FE's groups on the last cruise (we had a cut-off date and then a second cut-off date and made a second group...2nd group was very small and I didn't want the kids to be left out. That was a total of 35+ cabins and took 2 hours to go round and find all....which is a big chunk of vacation time.

I love the reception idea!!!!

Hi Karen,

I know - I'm going to have to BEG BEG BEG! If they won't accept me missing class I don't know what I will do. If they drop me there's nothing I can do about it - but - I can't cancel my cruise even if I wanted to! One or two semesters ago my mother-in-laws husband died on the first night of English class. Can you believe that the professor almost dropped me?!?!? I had to beg her. She finally gave in, but the fact that I had to beg at all was ridiculous! Thanks for the heads up on the internet connection, too. I think it will depend on the class days/times and whether or not any of them are available online. It would be good if they were online because then it wouldn't matter, I could do it at my leisure as long as it was completed at the end of the week. Unfortunately, I think next semester I need classes which are only offered on campus!

About FE's, I think part of what people might not be thinking about is that you don't have to buy for 85 people. Yes we have 85 people, but there are only 18 cabins. If we bought gifts per cabin then it wouldn't be that bad. The thing with that is buying "per cabin" gifts leaves out all of the little kiddies getting individual gifts. With that said, it looks like we will be splitting the list. Of those who have taken the survey, most people want to split with the option to also by for others whom they feel they have a connection with, etc. (if not in their "group"). I don't think we need to split it just yet though, it's really too early. For all we know another 20 people could join - or people could have to cancel or change dates too. I don't know if everyone would agree or not, but I think I will do the actual splitting of the list around the 120 day mark. The one question I will have when it comes to splitting the list is going to be regarding people like yourself who have multiple cabins in your group. Would you guys want to have each other as your group, or not have each other as your group? Like I said, I will cross that bridge when I do the actual split. Does that all sound good to everyone?

 

[so_oregon]

I think you took charge and you remain in charge and you get to decide how it goes....because no one has demoted you and said THEY are in charge!!! lol...so you are stuck with the job and we like it that way!!

okay, another idea for internet/if you bought a sim card or overseas data plan, that would work for mexico if you got reception. The thing you would hav eto worry about is that the ship's reception might "take over" your phone on sea days and then you still get extra charges. I had a sprint phone on a Hawaii/Fanning Island (Republic of Kiribati) cruise and I had coverage nearly all the way to Fanning Island....I thought through sprint. Turns out my call (thank goodness there were only a few of them) jumped on the ship's network not sprint and I got an extra $125 charge....three months LATER. So, I think you are stuck with ship internet, zip drive, use the ship computer center so you are not dealing with wireless issues and jump on/off the internet as need be and use the sea days to do homework. Otherwise, internet cafe or sim card/overseas plan on port days.

 

[Kidlette]

I think you took charge and you remain in charge and you get to decide how it goes....because no one has demoted you and said THEY are in charge!!! lol...so you are stuck with the job and we like it that way!!

okay, another idea for internet/if you bought a sim card or overseas data plan, that would work for mexico if you got reception. The thing you would hav eto worry about is that the ship's reception might "take over" your phone on sea days and then you still get extra charges. I had a sprint phone on a Hawaii/Fanning Island (Republic of Kiribati) cruise and I had coverage nearly all the way to Fanning Island....I thought through sprint. Turns out my call (thank goodness there were only a few of them) jumped on the ship's network not sprint and I got an extra $125 charge....three months LATER. So, I think you are stuck with ship internet, zip drive, use the ship computer center so you are not dealing with wireless issues and jump on/off the internet as need be and use the sea days to do homework. Otherwise, internet cafe or sim card/overseas plan on port days.

I'm glad you like it that way! I try to be as democratic as possible. I know I'm the unofficial "leader" of the group, but I don't want to just make decisions and force them on everyone - I want everyone to have a voice and opinion. After all, this is OUR vacation, not my vacation! That is why groups will be split - so far 77% of the group wants it, so that's what's going to happen! I think a lot of it is that I don't have kids, so I probably have a bit more time than most people on the board. Well, I won't come August (5 classes and working full time!), but I don't have anyone to worry about except myself and Ryan. Plus - I love all of the creative stuff with the little website and everything! I think it's fun! I'm working on a logo right now

I think what I will have to do is just gather together the week's assignments, print-out any information I need from the computer, and that way I spend as little time online as possible. If I have to be online for a while I will buy the cruise internet package thing, if I can get away with just needing to upload completed work, then I will pay by minute because it would be cheaper in the end. I don't think I will mess with all of the sim card/data plan options. If I was a business person or needed to be online like 1/2 the day everyday then maybe - but hopefully for my purposes it won't be too bad just using the cruise ship computers for quick uploads. Thanks for the info!!