Disney Wonder Jan 23, 2011

[SueTGGR]

OK, I sent off our picture. We will see if it works.

Steve, the little ones change so quickly, don't worry too much. My oldest is 22 and I still worry about him. But I have found that they feed off our worrying. Maybe this time all 3 of you will be relaxed and it will all be "smooth sailing"

Welcome to our little group Ayumi I will keep my fingers crossed for you to finalize everything. BTW, we are driving to Cupertino tomorrow! My son is playing youth volleyball and we will be up there for a game. Small world!

OK I have a question for all of you....How many times a day/week/month have you been checking the DCL website for them to release the excursions?
Personally I have been looking about every other week. How about you???

Off to CostCo!
Later,
Sue

 

[airtime247]

I haven't been checking DCL's site for excursions very much...I figure I'll be able to hear all of your screams from here! I have been looking into which excursions we may want to and have been checking CruiseCritic's Mexican Riviera boards at http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=203

There appears to be a really fun dolphin swim called Cabo Adventures which is walking distance from the pier. It is supposed to be really nice and new. It is pretty steep and we are trying to save money but I've always wanted to do one. We will probably skip it until Emma is a little older and can appreciate it more but I'd love to try it.

In PV, Amy really wants to do zip lines. I can't figure out why she trusts zipping down a cable high off the ground in Mexico but she won't ride a non-Disney roller coaster in the U.S. because she thinks they are unsafe?!?

I read the best zip line in PV is supposed to be a place called Los Veranos. I'll need to research it more and find out if we can go one at a time while the other person watches Emma.

We have only been to PV once and we just wandered around and shopped a little. We have been to Mazatlan twice but both times only took a cab to the Golden Zone which is the primary shopping area. It was pretty fun mingling with the locals. Mazatlan felt the most authentic to us but was still a bit touristy. We are ready to try something new here but I don't know what yet. I must say though that I LOVED riding around in the little taxis which are open-air and like jumbo golf carts. As we jammed around town, I felt like we were competing on the Amazing Race. I felt like yelling at the cab driver, "Can't you drive any faster? We're in a race!!!"

We have been to Cabo twice as well. The first time we just wandered around and ate at Sammy Hagar's Cabo Wabo Cantina which was fun. I'm a fan of his music so I really wanted to go there. It was actually the first time I'd ever tried coconut shrimp and I've been completely hooked since. I'm not sure I've had it better than there. Maybe it was just the great dipping sauce.

The second time we went to Cabo was a snorkeling excursion through Disney. It was in May and the water was VERY cold and murky. We wouldn't do it again. Maybe there are better spots. I heard from a co-worker the snorkeling was better in PV.

What types of excursions is everyone else considering? Has anyone done things in these three ports before?

-steve

 

[airtime247]

Sue - I forgot to add I think I may have figured out a way to sucker (I mean encourage) Emma into the Oceaneer Club on the ship. Her only experience there was last May just before she started preschool and she wasn't used to being around large groups of kids. "Kids Club" became a very bad word in her vocabulary and she has always shied away when we talked about taking her to one somewhere.

She is still pretty clingy in new groups but LOVES her preschool so I told her that this Mickey boat we are going on is special because they have their very own preschool with lots of fun teachers and kids to play with. And this preschool even has Disney characters visiting them.

Hopefully this does the trick. She seems pretty excited but I'm a little worried we will walk in the first night for family night and she'll look around and say, "Hey, wait a minute...."

Wish us luck!

-steve

 

[Kidlette]

Ryan - Doh, how could I forget Monsters Inc replaced that horrible Superstar Limo? I'm glad I got to see it the year it opened but glad am they made the change. I guess I had Millionaire on the brain because I'm still bitter Idol replaced it in WDW. We still haven't seen Idol so I can't "judge" it. The desire to go see it just hasn't been there yet.

I don't even know what Monsters Inc. or Superstar Limo were! Can someone fill me in??

I had forgotten about the late dining deal for kids. Hmmmmmmm, I think we'll need a family meeting on the bleachers while Emma practices her Little Mermaid skills at the pool tonight!

We always intend to stay in port later than we actually do. We've been to these ports before so I can't see us staying out past 2 or 3pm unless we have an excursion that keeps us later.

I'm actually surprised to hear about all of this! I was always told that Disney requires you to take your kid to dinner, that you can leave them there all day and all evening after dinner, but that family dinner was enforced. I guess that shows what I know! Since we don't have kids, we've never had to worry about this. I'm curious to know more though - how does this work?

I wonder when Disney will give us the lineup of which shows are on which nights. That will help with planning how late to stay in port if we had late dining. I used to also like to request the rotation that best fits formal and tropical/pirate nights but I don't know how soon before our cruise that will be released either.

I'll keep you posted on what the boss and I decide! All this rain and cold we are having up here is making me think it's winter. Is it January yet?

-steve

I've also not heard of requesting any specific rotation. What do you mean by the rotation that best fits formal and tropical/pirate nights?? Please explain?!?!??

 

[Kidlette]

OK, I found a picture of the 3 of us just before we got off the cruise Jan 08. It is funny, it seems like either I am taking the picture or Jeff is. Alec is in ALL of them it seems.
Now how do you want me to get it to you for our cast of characters?
Can't we have a little bit of Summer before we get to January?? I thought California always had sun?

Later,
Sue

Hi Sue! I'm sorry I didn't see this sooner, I haven't checked the DISBoards in a few days I did get your email though, and I posted your picture the same day! Did you get my email back to you letting you know it was done?? Hopefully you did! Don't forget - if you find more pictures feel free to shoot them to me in an email and I will post more, it's not a problem at all! In fact, it's super fun!

LOL, CA almost always has sun! I personally prefer the winter and I generally hate hot weather, so I like it when it's cold!

 

[Kidlette]

Hi Everyone,

If everything goes well, we will be joining you in Jan.

I just went to my TA's site for the first time in 2 month and found this cruise. "I" just could not resist not making a reservation. I have not told my DH that I have holded a spot yet. We will see how it goes.

We are family of 4 (w/DS9 & DD6) traveling from Cupertino, CA (near San Jose). This will be our very first Wonder cruise (3rd DCL cruise).


Ayumi

Hi Ayumac!

We REALLY hope you join us for this cruise! What do you think it will take to talk your husband into it? I think you can do it! Here...how about a cheer to pep you up for the talk! Go Ayumi Go Go Ayumi go Go Ayumi go Hopefully that will help!

If nothing else, you can remind him that you only have to pay your deposit now, and if anything changes you don't have to pay in full until, October(??) If something goes wrong, you can also get your deposit money back until that time! Just tell him you don't want it to sell out or go up in price, so holding it with a deposit for now is good...then you can spend the next few months warming him up to it!

Also, in case you haven't seen it yet - our little group here has started our own website. It's just a fun little page with info about the cruise, pictures, etc. If you'd like, feel free to take a look: http://sites.google.com/site/wonderjan23/ If you and your husband decide to take this cruise we can add all of your info to our little site! We will also be doing fish extenders, so if you go on this cruise start thinking about whether or not you want to participate in that!

We truly hope you join us!

Jessica

 

[Kidlette]

Welcome Ayumi! I hope everything works out with your cruise. Good luck!

Sue - Go to our site http://sites.google.com/site/wonderjan23/ and you will see a link on the left that says Contact Jessica. It has her email address. We are the same way with pictures. It's always Emma and Mom or Emma and Dad.

Amy and I talked about dining yesterday. We are leaning toward doing the late dining now as it sounds like a great deal to have them pick her up and take her to the Lab. We are a little (okay, very) skeptical about how she will do in there because of how it went on our last cruise in May. She got really spooked by a little boy her second time in there and didn't want to go back.

We had to stay with her each time we dropped her off and would usually get paged within an hour or so after dropping her off. The counselors said she never left their side. She has gotten better since then but is still clingy in these kinds of situations at home.

We got called out of Palo during our brunch and had to cancel our dinner there as well as wine tasting because by about day 4, she didn't want to go back at all.

I wish the Oceaneer Lab on the Wonder looked different than on the Magic so she hopefully doesn't associate it with her past experience but I'm always shocked at what she remembers.

So, if we switch, we are just hoping it doesn't backfire. It would be so nice to have a nice relaxing dinner every night while she is having a blast with her new friends but that might be wishful thinking on our part. We will have to think about it some more but it does sound really appealing.

-steve

Hi Steve!

Just a thought, but with a big group of friends here now, can't one of us help with this Emma situation?? I know that I would be willing to! If Emma is going to meet us in September and she likes us, then she'll already know us when the cruise starts. If you have a reservation at Palo or something Ryan and I (or someone from this board with kids) can take her to the swimming pool/slide or something while you have dinner. This way she's not uncomfortable with a "stranger" and she could be off having fun with us! If it's too cold for swimming, there's always other things. A board game in the lounge (chutes and ladders or something), a movie , an ice cream adventure, walking around the ship dropping off secret "from Emma only" FE gifts to the cabins...whatever! Or, who knows, maybe your devious little kids club plan will work! (Oh, by the way, that is so funny!) Then again, we are still strangers so you and Amy might not be comfortable with that. What would be even better is if a bunch more people joined us and some of them had 4 year old little girls too, then they could be friends and just hang out together! Either way, I just wanted to let you know that if you and Amy want a romantic dinner night, I'm happy to oblige. (Well, I have to make sure it's OK with Ryan first, but I don't see why not. I'm sure he'll read this and give his 2 cents anyway )

Also, Ryan and I have never been to Palo. We were going to go, but then we didn't for some reason (I can't remember). If all of the adults with kids from our group get their kids to play together in the lab one night, maybe all of us can make one giant Palo reservations - adults night out at Palo! That would be fun too!

 

[Kidlette]

OK I have a question for all of you....How many times a day/week/month have you been checking the DCL website for them to release the excursions?
Personally I have been looking about every other week. How about you???

Off to CostCo!
Later,
Sue

Personally - not very much. I've glanced at it a couple of times, but even Disney's website says to check back for excursions 120 days before the sailing. Disney probably doesn't even have the contracts with the tour vendors yet. Generally speaking, Disney waits until the last minute for all of these kinds of things! A lot of times, their room rates for the new year aren't even released until September or so the year before! That means people traveling in January (unless they go through the sports line for the marathon), people traveling in January can't even book a room until September! Seeing as how this will be the first Mexico sailing so they don't have to have contracts made until 90 days prior (when we can pre-book them), I sincerely doubt they even have the contracts completed yet. As of today there are 155 days until we can book our excursions. I would say don't even try looking until another 75 - 100 days has passed - we should be able to see them around September (or the end of September).

...then again....it is always fun to have a reason to go to the Disney Cruise Line website!

 

[Kidlette]

I haven't been checking DCL's site for excursions very much...I figure I'll be able to hear all of your screams from here! I have been looking into which excursions we may want to and have been checking CruiseCritic's Mexican Riviera boards at http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=203

There appears to be a really fun dolphin swim called Cabo Adventures which is walking distance from the pier. It is supposed to be really nice and new. It is pretty steep and we are trying to save money but I've always wanted to do one. We will probably skip it until Emma is a little older and can appreciate it more but I'd love to try it.

In PV, Amy really wants to do zip lines. I can't figure out why she trusts zipping down a cable high off the ground in Mexico but she won't ride a non-Disney roller coaster in the U.S. because she thinks they are unsafe?!?

I read the best zip line in PV is supposed to be a place called Los Veranos. I'll need to research it more and find out if we can go one at a time while the other person watches Emma.

We have only been to PV once and we just wandered around and shopped a little. We have been to Mazatlan twice but both times only took a cab to the Golden Zone which is the primary shopping area. It was pretty fun mingling with the locals. Mazatlan felt the most authentic to us but was still a bit touristy. We are ready to try something new here but I don't know what yet. I must say though that I LOVED riding around in the little taxis which are open-air and like jumbo golf carts. As we jammed around town, I felt like we were competing on the Amazing Race. I felt like yelling at the cab driver, "Can't you drive any faster? We're in a race!!!"

We have been to Cabo twice as well. The first time we just wandered around and ate at Sammy Hagar's Cabo Wabo Cantina which was fun. I'm a fan of his music so I really wanted to go there. It was actually the first time I'd ever tried coconut shrimp and I've been completely hooked since. I'm not sure I've had it better than there. Maybe it was just the great dipping sauce.

The second time we went to Cabo was a snorkeling excursion through Disney. It was in May and the water was VERY cold and murky. We wouldn't do it again. Maybe there are better spots. I heard from a co-worker the snorkeling was better in PV.

What types of excursions is everyone else considering? Has anyone done things in these three ports before?

-steve

Oh my goodness - Amy is so brave! I could/would NEVER do a zip line! Ryan would love to do one, but he doesn't because I wouldn't want to go. Maybe he and Amy (and who ever else wants to do one) could do a zip line together! The rest of us can take all of the kids on a fun excursion I have ALWAYS wanted to do the dolphin thing too (and the sea lion one), but Ryan doesn't, so we haven't. Depending on how things go though, it's probably too expensive for us for this trip anyway. Then again, I am planning to win a $400 onboard credit at the DVC party on board! WooHooo! (I won a $100 one on our 3 night cruise) If we win that, then maybe I will DEFINITELY do it!

As far as the excursions we want to do...
I have always wanted to do a horseback riding one (we had horses when I was a kid, but it's been about 20 years since I've been on one). My problem has always been my weight. 2 or 3 years ago I weighed 274 (I'm only 5' tall), so I was always past the weight limit of 250. In the last 2 years I've gotten down to 230 (still trying to get below that), but I read somewhere that the ranches in Mexico have weight limits of 200, not 250. This means that I would still be above the weight limit I'll have to see the details when Disney releases their excursions. Other than that, I don't know. We like to snorkel, but generally snorkeling in Mexico is said to not be very good. Plus - it will be FREEZING in January! Ryan doesn't actually care about getting off in ports. He would just prefer to stay on the ship and do fun things there! I like to at least get off and see what it's like (besides, my sea legs aren't very good, so finding land is nice). Realistically, we will probably get off the ship in all 3 ports, even if only for a short time. Chances are we will only do excursions in 1 or 2 ports, and not all 3. What those excursions will be, we have no idea! Unless anyone wants to combine excursion experiences We could go in groups, 1 group with kids (less adventurous but fun activities), and 1 group adventurous (zip lines, etc). That cold be a very good idea!

Now, if money, weight, and time were not an issue these would be my choices:

PVR: dolphin or sea lion ecounter/swim
SJD: horseback ride on the beach
MZT: something cultural

I would do ATV's and Jeep excursions, but something about driving in a foreign country makes me uncomfortable. I would also do whale watching, but I've done it before so I don't really have to do it again. Besides, we will be on a ship for 7 days - I can stand on deck and look for whales for FREE, Ruins can be interesting, but unfortunately there aren't any ruin excursions usually from this coast (they are all closer to Cancun, so you get those on that port). Chitchen Itza would be cool to see!

 

[Kidlette]

Sue - I forgot to add I think I may have figured out a way to sucker (I mean encourage) Emma into the Oceaneer Club on the ship. Her only experience there was last May just before she started preschool and she wasn't used to being around large groups of kids. "Kids Club" became a very bad word in her vocabulary and she has always shied away when we talked about taking her to one somewhere.

She is still pretty clingy in new groups but LOVES her preschool so I told her that this Mickey boat we are going on is special because they have their very own preschool with lots of fun teachers and kids to play with. And this preschool even has Disney characters visiting them.

Hopefully this does the trick. She seems pretty excited but I'm a little worried we will walk in the first night for family night and she'll look around and say, "Hey, wait a minute...."

Wish us luck!

-steve

OMG that is so funny! Since I know we'll be friends for a long time, I'm totally going to keep a copy of this post and show it to her when she turns 15 or something

 

[ayumac]

Thank you so much for the warm welcomes. I wish I could join you, but it seems like we are taking DCL's shortest cruise two days before.

So sorry for trespassing!!!!

Have a wonderful DCL cruise in Mexico. I really loved the one before and we are going again in Dec, 2011.

Cheers,
Ayumi

 

[Kidlette]

Thank you so much for the warm welcomes. I wish I could join you, but it seems like we are taking DCL's shortest cruise two days before.

So sorry for trespassing!!!!

Have a wonderful DCL cruise in Mexico. I really loved the one before and we are going again in Dec, 2011.

Cheers,
Ayumi

My husband (Ryan) and I are on the 2night and this 7 night back-to-back, so we will be on that sailing with you! There is a string on DISboards for it, but I've backed away a little bit because it's out of control. It's over 80 pages long! Maybe we'll bump into each other on that cruise! If you want, my personal email address can be found on the little website I made for this sailing. If you'd like to keep in touch, feel free to get my email address from there and we can chat!

We're sorry you won't be able to join us on this sailing. But, at least you get to go somewhere! Woops...I mean "nowhere"

 

[ayumac]

Thank you Jessica, you are so sweet.

So that is how you make BB work. Now I know Disney's intention. They wanted to have people to add this short cruise to your cruise. How fun that will be. I hope you & your husband enjoy your longer cruise.

There is a string on DISboards for it, but I've backed away a little bit because it's out of control. It's over 80 pages long!

I can imagine. I just made a reservation and the ship is already almost full. I finally found the famous "NOWHERE" thread just now and dropped a line.

I will talk with you again on "NOWHERE" thread then.

Ayumi

 

[SueTGGR]

I have been checking out the cruise critic board, it is almost as good as the DIS boards.
I found quite a few people saying great things about the Los Veranos zip line tour. http://www.puertovallartatours.net/las-juntas-y-veranos-canopy-tour.htm & there is a video link to see what it is like. I'm not sure Alec will want to go but Jeff & I are excited. The only downfall is the 45 min- 1 hr ride to the place. We shall see. $67 each, we will have to see what else we want to do in PV.
Steve- you have the right idea, go with what Emma is comfortable with. Finding the right angle to approach things is a sign of a great parent. Alec is so leery of change, even at 10 years old! I'm sure she will be fine. When we went on the Magic, Alec's favorite memory is when they had a PJ party with Goofy! He was in heaven. Make sure you take a pillow case with you and give it to guest services. They give it back with autographs, from what I understand. Alec only wanted the one with Goofy from the PJ party. He still has it!
Jessica - let me know if you decide on horseback riding. Jeff is still on the fence about going but Alec & I are so excited. I told Jeff he will be missing out on his son's best memory. He loves horses but has only ridden ponies so far.
The more I read, I think snorkeling will not be a thing to do this cruise. But we are going to look at jet skiis. We rented some at Clear Lake this last Summer and Alec was in heaven. Well except when we got stuck in the yucky stuff. Clear Lake was not my choice (my side of the family picked it as a minor family reunion) but we made the best of it with the jet skiis and a boat rental. Anyway, I am reading it is pretty easy to rent in Cabo. I will keep reading though.
OH, I also read about a place called "Tony's at the beach" in Mazatlan? Something about a lobster and shrimp feast. I will continue to research that one! If you haven't figured it out I am a planner to the end!
Off to spend a little time with Jeff before we hit the sack and start the week all over again. One more week closer, everybody.
Later,
Sue

 

[airtime247]

I don't even know what Monsters Inc. or Superstar Limo were! Can someone fill me in??

Superstar Limo was a dark ride in DCA in the Hollywood Pictures Backlot area behind MuppetVision and to the left of Aladdin. It was right by where they take the Disney Rewards Visa pictures if you know where that is. I rate it an 8.5/10 on the cheesy scale. It was pretty bad but I only saw it once and it was in 2000 or 2001 so I don't remember it that well. It wasn't around too long. I'm sure there is some YouTube footage out there somewhere.

Monsters, Inc. is the ride that replaced it. It may be the same track layout and same cars as I remember the screens on the left. Monsters, Inc. is a huge improvement and IMO one of the most underrated dark rides ala Roger Rabbit's CarToon Spin.

I'm actually surprised to hear about all of this! I was always told that Disney requires you to take your kid to dinner, that you can leave them there all day and all evening after dinner, but that family dinner was enforced. I guess that shows what I know! Since we don't have kids, we've never had to worry about this. I'm curious to know more though - how does this work?

That is how it used to be. I read about the change and then forgot about it. It's my understanding you take the little villains to dinner with you and they feed them right away. Then at 9pm, the counselors (aka heroes) come in to the restaurant and check all the kids in and whisk them away to the Oceaneer Club/Lab so the parents can enjoy the rest of their meals happily ever after. On the last cruise I saw portable computer equipment they had so they could check kids in from anywhere on the ship and not just at the Club.

I've also not heard of requesting any specific rotation. What do you mean by the rotation that best fits formal and tropical/pirate nights?? Please explain?!?!??

We learned about this little trick before our first Disney cruise. We read that formal night was a certain night, I believe the third night and tropical night was the fifth night if I remember correctly. We knew that the rotations were APLAPLA, PLAPLAP, or LAPLAPL where A is Animator's Palate, P is Parrot Cay and L is Lumiere's. We wanted to have the APL rotation because the nights lined up to give us formal night in Lumiere's and tropical night would be in Parrot Cay. I think Disney has since changed the Western rotation. I think the Eastern still uses this rotation but the nights aren't the same.

It doesn't really matter which restaurant you have which night as the themes are still great but it seemed a little odd to picture Parrot Cay filled with tuxedos and the fancier Lumiere's looking like a Jimmy Buffett concert. I think we had Animator's Palate for tropical night last time and it was still fine. I care a lot less now than I used to.

Another thing we would do is the restaurant we would have three times is one of the nights we would book Palo so we got one meal at Palo and two each at the main three restaurants. So in our APLAPLA rotation, we had Palo dinner our second A.

Jessica - Thanks for your offer to watch Emma. We had a reunion on a Royal Carribean ship with our DCL tablemates when Emma was 18 months old. Three of our friends watched her one night while we went to the nice adults-only restaurant. We had an amazing experience and I think it was really eye-opening for them too as they don't have kids. They took Emma to the buffet for dinner and let her take them up and down the elevators which is all she wanted to do. I think they slept better that night than she did as she really wore them out!

I didn't think about whale watching here. I've only done this once and it was on an Alaskan cruise. It might have been the most amazing excursion we've ever done. I wonder if they have any guarantees with any companies here. On the one we did, they had a guarantee that you got your money back if you didn't see any whales. They said that in the 18 years they have been doing tours, they have never had to give a refund. We literally saw at least 30 whales, many of which jumped out of the water less than a few hundred feet from us. It was unbelievable. I'll have to start checking reviews...

-steve

 

[airtime247]

Sue - I love it! It's nice to see all the people on here doing their homework...only ours is a little more fun than math! (sorry Jessica, I couldn't resist)

I spent a bit of time on the Los Veranos site this morning. It looks like there is plenty to do with Emma like look at the animals, feed the monkeys, and maybe swim in the river if it's not too cold. I emailed them to ask if we could have one person explore with her while the other did the canopy tour and then we would switch off. Hopefully time permits. It said the excursion lasted about 4.5 hours from the time they picked you up and dropped you off. With a 45min-1hr each way drive, the tour shouldn't last more than 1.5 hours or so. With all the pickup and drop off times they do, it looks like time shouldn't be a huge concern. Hopefully I'll get their reply quickly.

Thanks for the tip about the pillow case. We will have to do that. Emma loves her autographs. She often chooses a stack of autograph books from past trips as her bedtime story.

Was the Goofy PJ party in the Oceaneer Club or Lab? How old was Alec? Emma would love that if we can actually get her in there. No matter how much we talked up appearances by Snow White, Cinderella and Belle, she still didn't want to be left in there without us. Since the Wonder only has a preschool (wink-wink), maybe she will be okay since she knows parents can't go to preschool.

Hey, at Clear Lake you were about halfway to my house. You should have stopped by for lunch. Of course I wouldn't have known you at the time and would have given you a strange look when you showed up at my doorstep, but it's the thought that would have counted.

Yeah, Clear Lake is not my first choice either. I camped and boated there a lot growing up. There is nothing clear about that lake I tell ya. We have had better experiences at Lake Sonoma, Lake Mendocino, and Russian River. Let me know if you ever need any advice about any place north of Santa Rosa.

I didn't hear about a lobster and shrimp feast. I may have to abandon my seafood-hating family and spend the day with you. I'll be sure to bring my elastic, loose fitting clothes and an empty backpack to load up for a later snack. It's okay, you can pretend not to know me...my family does it all the time.

Jessica - I read great things about Randi's Happy Horses in Mazatlan. Check out http://randishappyhorses.com/ I'm allergic to pretty much any animal so I'll be sitting this one out. (I practically have to take Benedryl and wash my hands after a character meal with Pluto )

-steve

 

[Tigger1313]

Sue - I love it! It's nice to see all the people on here doing their homework...only ours is a little more fun than math! (sorry Jessica, I couldn't resist)

I spent a bit of time on the Los Veranos site this morning. It looks like there is plenty to do with Emma like look at the animals, feed the monkeys, and maybe swim in the river if it's not too cold. I emailed them to ask if we could have one person explore with her while the other did the canopy tour and then we would switch off. Hopefully time permits. It said the excursion lasted about 4.5 hours from the time they picked you up and dropped you off. With a 45min-1hr each way drive, the tour shouldn't last more than 1.5 hours or so. With all the pickup and drop off times they do, it looks like time shouldn't be a huge concern. Hopefully I'll get their reply quickly.

Thanks for the tip about the pillow case. We will have to do that. Emma loves her autographs. She often chooses a stack of autograph books from past trips as her bedtime story.

Was the Goofy PJ party in the Oceaneer Club or Lab? How old was Alec? Emma would love that if we can actually get her in there. No matter how much we talked up appearances by Snow White, Cinderella and Belle, she still didn't want to be left in there without us. Since the Wonder only has a preschool (wink-wink), maybe she will be okay since she knows parents can't go to preschool.

Hey, at Clear Lake you were about halfway to my house. You should have stopped by for lunch. Of course I wouldn't have known you at the time and would have given you a strange look when you showed up at my doorstep, but it's the thought that would have counted.

Yeah, Clear Lake is not my first choice either. I camped and boated there a lot growing up. There is nothing clear about that lake I tell ya. We have had better experiences at Lake Sonoma, Lake Mendocino, and Russian River. Let me know if you ever need any advice about any place north of Santa Rosa.

I didn't hear about a lobster and shrimp feast. I may have to abandon my seafood-hating family and spend the day with you. I'll be sure to bring my elastic, loose fitting clothes and an empty backpack to load up for a later snack. It's okay, you can pretend not to know me...my family does it all the time.

Jessica - I read great things about Randi's Happy Horses in Mazatlan. Check out http://randishappyhorses.com/ I'm allergic to pretty much any animal so I'll be sitting this one out. (I practically have to take Benedryl and wash my hands after a character meal with Pluto )

-steve

So I went on Randi's Happy Horses web site and saw this quote "Due to the bouncing on a Horse ladys are encourged to wear supporting under garments. " That made me laugh out loud.

Jessica
Most of the horses riding web sites I have seen have the weight limit any where between 225 - 250. I think you would be fine in Mexico. My problem is getting up on the horse. I just can't seem to get my leg up over the horses rear end. Dave said to me the other day, why don't you ladies go horse back riding and us guys will go fishing? That is one thing he really wants to do.

Do you guys worry about using a outside provider? I know they will hold the ship if you are late, but only if you are on a Disney excursion. I was on a whale watching site last night and it looks like they will be back in time but should we take that chance?

 

[SueTGGR]

When we went on the Magic in 2008, Alec was 8 almost 9. They let him bounce back & forth between the two as he is great with being around little ones & he has 2 brothers that are 10+ years older so he is good with older kids, too. I am thinking it was the older kids group that had the PJ party but I remember all ages being in there when we picked him up. At that time, they seemed to have overlapping activities. I don't know if it has changed. Maybe do a search on the DIS boards for recent Wonder Navigators and see what some of the activities might be. I'm sure they will still do a lot of the same stuff.
Yea, Clear Lake...I lived in Santa Rosa for about 10 years and we always made jokes about Clear Lake. Sorry if I stepped on any toes here. I typically tell it like I see it. I prefer Lake Tahoe as lakes go. But I am an ocean person to the core. Russian River is a blast especially since I can go to Korbel and then drive along it's banks to get to Bodega Bay!

So here is my preliminary schedule:
PV - I really want to try Los Veranos but I don't know if a dolphin encounter will grab me instead.
Mazatlan - Randi's Happy Horses (I almost have Jeff convinced), then after that see about finding Tony's at the Beach. BTW, on the cruise critic board where I was reading about it, had a picture of a young girl sitting in front of the "feast" and they said 4 of them ate it! Plus, it sounds like it is much better than the restaurant the horseback riding drops you off at.
Cabo - In my notes, I have Jet Ski's & Sammy Hagar's place Cabo Wabo but I also read about a brand new Dolphin Center, too. I am frustrated by the fact that the place I want to do the most is the one we leave early. Not sure I want to be drinking at Sammy's around Noon
I am sure I will change my mind a few times but isn't that a woman's prerogative?
We are seriously thinking about moving to the late seating. Maybe if we were all doing the late seating that we could sit together? We are going to be bringing a few bottles of wine with us and we would share. It was great last time, Jeff likes red wine & I do not. Our table mate shared with Jeff and the next night we shared our Chardonnay. Worked out great!
Monster's Inc...I have been on that ride sooooooo many times. Alec loves it. That along with Buzz Lightyear and Toy Story Mania are all must do's when we go. We are going for our annual Father's Day vacation and I am wondering if it will be worth the battle to see World of Color. We may just wait for January. But then I want to go in October to do the Trick or Treat Party, too. We shall see if we have enough DVC points.
Off to work....Later,
Sue

 

[airtime247]

So I went on Randi's Happy Horses web site and saw this quote "Due to the bouncing on a Horse ladys are encourged to wear supporting under garments. " That made me laugh out loud.

That is too funny. I wonder if the waiver they make you sign says Randi's Happy Horses can not be held liable for any black eyes incurred during the tour.

Do you guys worry about using a outside provider? I know they will hold the ship if you are late, but only if you are on a Disney excursion. I was on a whale watching site last night and it looks like they will be back in time but should we take that chance?

We were very cautious about it at first. I wouldn't do one without 1) having read positive reviews about it on CruiseCritic or Disboards and 2) making sure we had plenty of time to make it back to the ship. A lot of the outside excursions we do are either walking distance to the pier or a short taxi ride. As cabs are pretty plentiful, we have never had a problem catching one within a few minutes of when we wanted to leave. I might be a little more worried it if was a tour bus that took us into the boonies where return transportation would be iffy should it break down.

We usually like to be back on the ship by 3 or 4pm anyway to get ready for dinner and shows and, except for Cabo, that should be more than enough time to get back before the ship leaves.

The piece of mind in taking a ship's excursion is very comforting as we still sometimes take them. We just have to weigh it versus the cost of going outside. The outside providers are almost always much cheaper and allow for more freedom of choice.

When we went on the Magic in 2008, Alec was 8 almost 9. They let him bounce back & forth between the two as he is great with being around little ones & he has 2 brothers that are 10+ years older so he is good with older kids, too. I am thinking it was the older kids group that had the PJ party but I remember all ages being in there when we picked him up. At that time, they seemed to have overlapping activities. I don't know if it has changed.

We just sailed last May and there was some overlapping. I'll have to search but I used to check out a site that had updated Navigators.

Yea, Clear Lake...I lived in Santa Rosa for about 10 years and we always made jokes about Clear Lake. Sorry if I stepped on any toes here. I typically tell it like I see it. I prefer Lake Tahoe as lakes go. But I am an ocean person to the core. Russian River is a blast especially since I can go to Korbel and then drive along it's banks to get to Bodega Bay!

10 years? You definitely know the area a lot better than I do then. No toes stepped on here. I never had an attachment to Clear Lake. We had family in the area so it was more a place of convenience. There is definitely no comparison to the beauty of Lake Tahoe. I've never been in the water there as it's always too cold to swim and too warm to ski when we are there. The weather is always just perfect for my wife to gamble though. Strange, eh?

Do you ever make it north to Humboldt, Del Norte or Trinity counties? There are some beautiful recreational opportunites up here.

So here is my preliminary schedule:
PV - I really want to try Los Veranos but I don't know if a dolphin encounter will grab me instead.

I read the place in Cabo is newer but PV is nice too. The dolphin encounter in PV is a little cheaper but it's a wash as you have to take a cab there whereas you can walk to the one in Cabo.

Mazatlan - Randi's Happy Horses (I almost have Jeff convinced), then after that see about finding Tony's at the Beach. BTW, on the cruise critic board where I was reading about it, had a picture of a young girl sitting in front of the "feast" and they said 4 of them ate it! Plus, it sounds like it is much better than the restaurant the horseback riding drops you off at.
Cabo - In my notes, I have Jet Ski's & Sammy Hagar's place Cabo Wabo but I also read about a brand new Dolphin Center, too. I am frustrated by the fact that the place I want to do the most is the one we leave early. Not sure I want to be drinking at Sammy's around Noon

It sounds like you have some great tentative plans. Regarding drinking at Sammy's at noon, just set your alarm for 3am that morning. Voila, noon will feel like happy hour! I have a feeling there will be a lot of people staggering in to dinner that night with messed up hair and wrinkled clothes. The restaurants for breakfast the next morning will be pretty empty as I imagine there will be a lot of hung over people not wanting to leave their cabins.

I am sure I will change my mind a few times but isn't that a woman's prerogative?
We are seriously thinking about moving to the late seating. Maybe if we were all doing the late seating that we could sit together? We are going to be bringing a few bottles of wine with us and we would share. It was great last time, Jeff likes red wine & I do not. Our table mate shared with Jeff and the next night we shared our Chardonnay. Worked out great!

We can definitely check with Disney. I believe their largest table size is 10 and they only have a few of those. When I spoke to the dining coordinator, she explained it to me that they have zones they try to keep people in. Each zone has three tables of 8, 6, and 4 seats. These are usually close together as they share the same wait staff. The staff also oversees other zones but they split them up as I think the assistant servers have more tables. The time we linked 70 people, we rarely had the same people next to us at tables although I remember our Table 9 (party of 8) was right next to Table 12 (another party of 8) in at least two of the three restaurants. Like Dory, my memory isn't my strongest attribute. We were close enough to them to chat at dinner and became good friends with them too. Of course, this was five years ago and on the Magic so I don't know how the tables on the Wonder match up.

We are definitely willing and excited to link dining with as many people as are interested. Amy and I would love to share wine. We aren't big wine drinkers although we love doing wine tasting. One glass a day would be more than enough for us. We never bring our own wine since we usually fly to cruises but since we are driving to this one, we can bring some local wine too.

I'm a tightwad and always have a hard time justifying paying a corkage fee that is more expensive than the wine I'm used to drinking! How do you cork boxed wine anyway?

Monster's Inc...I have been on that ride sooooooo many times. Alec loves it. That along with Buzz Lightyear and Toy Story Mania are all must do's when we go. We are going for our annual Father's Day vacation and I am wondering if it will be worth the battle to see World of Color. We may just wait for January. But then I want to go in October to do the Trick or Treat Party, too. We shall see if we have enough DVC points.
Off to work....Later,
Sue

Emma loves those rides too. Toy Story is one of her very favorites. I just wish the lines weren't so bad. We never get more than one ride in in a day. Emma and I always ride together and compete. I keep telling her I'm going to beat her but then let her think she wins every time. I always say to her, "You're doing down!" She looks up at me with her 3D glasses on and snaps back, "No, you're going down. I'm going up!" Gotta love a four year old!

-steve

 

[mrosen]

This is an active group for this cruise as I've read through this thread. I've been considering a Mexican Riveria cruise (was looking at June 30th one or early Feb one). I see this one is active already and hoping since I'm trying to decide if doing this cruise in winter is a good thing for us.

This would be our 2nd Disney cruise if we do this, just did the Med cruise in April for 11 nights. We did book a Caribbean cruise in spring 2011 but wondering about this one even you are all on given how active the group here is already.

Is Jan/Feb a good time to go? I've read some mixed reviews on the weather temps and even temp of water. I want it to be warm enough that we can wear shorts and our kids could use the pools on deck 9. Anyone know if this might be a concern? What about seas - are the waters sailing in pacific and along coast by these Mexican ports pretty smooth in Jan/Feb timeframe?