Disney Wonder Mexican Riviera - December 4th 2011

[chasshan]

Yeah!!! So excited! We made our final payment yesterday and decided to tell the kids the big surprise last night. My husband was afraid he was going to slip and give it away.

So, last night we were celebrating Carlee's 4th B.D. And when you are turning 4 and your siblings are 11, 13, 14, 18, and 22......let's just say, they will do just about anything for her!

I had the dining area all decorated with Disney Princess partyware, ballons, presents etc.; this was just our family. When her oldest brother saw the decor, he came up with an idea, and I couldn't believe they all did it! All of her brothers and sister dressed up for her party, as a surprise. They all knew she was going to wear her new Jasmine costume to her party. My adult aged sons have lots of costumes from when they used to dance (not so long ago) and they were always the prince or woodsman or king in the annual ballet. So they all came to the table in their tunics, tights, vests, capes etc. My older daughter put on one of her pretty jazz (dress) costumes which easily passed for a disney princess.
It was great and Carlee was so tickled!

So, meanwhile, I had arranged for a characther call and told all the older kids that it was happening, BUT, told them it was a "Happy Birthday" call from Ariel for Carlee's B.D.

The call came during dinner, and I put it on speaker and told everyone to be quiet and listen. WOW!! The reaction was pricelss! First disbelief, then speechless, then extremely extatic!
When we told them they would have 3 days at Disneyland first, that really hyped them up!

We videoed the whole thing. One of these days I'll try to put it on u-tube, where I've watched many "surprise we are going on a disney cruise clips".

Hope you enjoyed the story! It was very special. I can't wait to get online tomorrow night and start making reservations for Palo and Port adventures. The kids are having such fun picking out 2 adventures each, and my youngest son Cameron, 11, keeps coming to me and thanking me, again, for planning this trip.

Oh, and I explained to them all this morning about the FE exchange, something they've never heard of, and they love the idea and say they will help me.....which I will appreciate.

Shanna

77 days!!

 

[chasshan]

Oooops! I just looked at Kristi's post from 2 days ago and her countdown said 78 days. I guess I counted wrong.

That means:

76 days!!


Shanna

 

[goofymom68]

Yeah!!! So excited! We made our final payment yesterday and decided to tell the kids the big surprise last night. My husband was afraid he was going to slip and give it away.

So, last night we were celebrating Carlee's 4th B.D. And when you are turning 4 and your siblings are 11, 13, 14, 18, and 22......let's just say, they will do just about anything for her!

I had the dining area all decorated with Disney Princess partyware, ballons, presents etc.; this was just our family. When her oldest brother saw the decor, he came up with an idea, and I couldn't believe they all did it! All of her brothers and sister dressed up for her party, as a surprise. They all knew she was going to wear her new Jasmine costume to her party. My adult aged sons have lots of costumes from when they used to dance (not so long ago) and they were always the prince or woodsman or king in the annual ballet. So they all came to the table in their tunics, tights, vests, capes etc. My older daughter put on one of her pretty jazz (dress) costumes which easily passed for a disney princess.
It was great and Carlee was so tickled!

So, meanwhile, I had arranged for a characther call and told all the older kids that it was happening, BUT, told them it was a "Happy Birthday" call from Ariel for Carlee's B.D.

The call came during dinner, and I put it on speaker and told everyone to be quiet and listen. WOW!! The reaction was pricelss! First disbelief, then speechless, then extremely extatic!
When we told them they would have 3 days at Disneyland first, that really hyped them up!

We videoed the whole thing. One of these days I'll try to put it on u-tube, where I've watched many "surprise we are going on a disney cruise clips".

Hope you enjoyed the story! It was very special. I can't wait to get online tomorrow night and start making reservations for Palo and Port adventures. The kids are having such fun picking out 2 adventures each, and my youngest son Cameron, 11, keeps coming to me and thanking me, again, for planning this trip.

Oh, and I explained to them all this morning about the FE exchange, something they've never heard of, and they love the idea and say they will help me.....which I will appreciate.

Shanna

77 days!!

Thanks for sharing the story. What a wonderful memory for all of you. I would definitely watch it on you tube.

 

[hamm1207]

Yeah!!! So excited! We made our final payment yesterday and decided to tell the kids the big surprise last night. My husband was afraid he was going to slip and give it away.

So, last night we were celebrating Carlee's 4th B.D. And when you are turning 4 and your siblings are 11, 13, 14, 18, and 22......let's just say, they will do just about anything for her!

I had the dining area all decorated with Disney Princess partyware, ballons, presents etc.; this was just our family. When her oldest brother saw the decor, he came up with an idea, and I couldn't believe they all did it! All of her brothers and sister dressed up for her party, as a surprise. They all knew she was going to wear her new Jasmine costume to her party. My adult aged sons have lots of costumes from when they used to dance (not so long ago) and they were always the prince or woodsman or king in the annual ballet. So they all came to the table in their tunics, tights, vests, capes etc. My older daughter put on one of her pretty jazz (dress) costumes which easily passed for a disney princess.
It was great and Carlee was so tickled!

So, meanwhile, I had arranged for a characther call and told all the older kids that it was happening, BUT, told them it was a "Happy Birthday" call from Ariel for Carlee's B.D.

The call came during dinner, and I put it on speaker and told everyone to be quiet and listen. WOW!! The reaction was pricelss! First disbelief, then speechless, then extremely extatic!
When we told them they would have 3 days at Disneyland first, that really hyped them up!

We videoed the whole thing. One of these days I'll try to put it on u-tube, where I've watched many "surprise we are going on a disney cruise clips".

Hope you enjoyed the story! It was very special. I can't wait to get online tomorrow night and start making reservations for Palo and Port adventures. The kids are having such fun picking out 2 adventures each, and my youngest son Cameron, 11, keeps coming to me and thanking me, again, for planning this trip.

Oh, and I explained to them all this morning about the FE exchange, something they've never heard of, and they love the idea and say they will help me.....which I will appreciate.

Shanna

77 days!!

Thank you for sharing your surprise!! What a wonderful surprise for your entire family!

 

[hamm1207]

Checked in....check!
Pre cruise hotel booked....check!
Cruise transfers to port booked...check!
Port adventures booked...check!
FE gifts completed...not quite a check
Time to start packing...almost!!!

76 days until we set sail!!!!!!

 

[netsirkx2]

Here is my roll call info.

Names: Brian, Kristen, Sophia(5) Kaila(3) (and my inlaws)
Cabin 7060
Dining Time: Main seating
Home Town: Gig Harbor, WA
Pre Cruise Hotel: unsure, Hyatt Garden Grove most likely. Or whatever I get on Priceline.

Thanks! Kristen
Too crazy busy to do the FE Sorry!

 

[chasshan]

I'm glad you enjoyed the story.

Wow! This online booking is hard work and things were filling up quickly in between my reservations. I was able to get Palo dinner and brunch, but the High Tea was full. I'm sure we can live without that. Does everybody have the reservations they want? I guess now I'll check the FE list/number and start deciding what we will give. We don't have an actual FE yet. I will either buy on Ebay or Etsy, or, maybe try to make ours.
Time is really going to start flying by now!

Shanna

 

[netsirkx2]

Great news! The Wonder is in dry dock up in Victoria! She will be nice and refurbished hopefully for our cruise! (whatever "refurbished" means!)

 

[Liat]

Well I booked my youngest into the day care and us into Palo's yesterday. Managed to snag brunch, tea and a dinner for us, so that made me happy.

I have my kiddos all registered for the lab and I'm really hoping that they will let my dd into it with her big brother. She'll be two days shy of her third birthday the last day of the trip, but she is fully potty trained so we are hopeful.

We aren't doing any excursions so no stress about that. All I have to do now is figure out transportation from DL to the hotel near the port, and of course book the hotel near the port.

 

[chasshan]

Yeah! I was able to get the High Tea afterall for Palo. They must have released more spots or something. The only trouble we had was booking a table for 4 for Brunch. We were able to get 2 tables for 2,for the same day and time, so maybe they can work it out once we board?

I just completed our on-line check-in too, and the website said............

72 days till we sail!




Time to get busy with FE gifts.
Shanna

 

[Yazlow]

72 days till we sail!

 

[cryssi]

Ack. Time to start upping the workouts. Lol. Also FE...must start thinking about those.

 

[hamm1207]

Here is my roll call info.

Names: Brian, Kristen, Sophia(5) Kaila(3) (and my inlaws)
Cabin 7060
Dining Time: Main seating
Home Town: Gig Harbor, WA
Pre Cruise Hotel: unsure, Hyatt Garden Grove most likely. Or whatever I get on Priceline.

Thanks! Kristen
Too crazy busy to do the FE Sorry!

Thank you! I finally got around to adding it to the Roll Call. Our computer has been down, and we finally got our new one up and running. I was using the ipad, but I find it difficult to type lots of info on the thing.

 

[hamm1207]

Not to steal the thunder from yazlow, but.....

70 days until we set sail!!!!

We are all checked in and port adventures are officially booked! We will be doing the cooking class in PV and the horse back riding in Cabo. We were going to do the Canopy Adventure in Cabo as well, but decided to buy season tickets for our local hockey team instead! Gotta have something to do during the long, dark winter days here in Alaska.

 

[chasshan]

Hi, Just thinking about Fe gifts and how many items to make/buy.
In reading other threads about FE, it is usually suggested to do just one gift per couple/stateroom, with an additional individual gift for each child.

In some cases, where appropriate, maybe even just 1 gift per stateroom, for example, a door magnet that would be a singular gift for the whole family.

I assume there is freedom and flexibility to do what we choose, but wanted to check in about this since we've never done this before. I don't want to dissapoint any kiddos, who may be expecting "X" amount of gifts.

Any thoughts on this?

One more thing, in looking at the spreadsheet for the FE, some birthdays or other celebrations have specific dates and others do not. I'm fine with that, but wanted to mention, that if the specific date falls within our cruise I would enjoy dropping off a special card or gift on that specific day, if possible.
Especially for a child, to make that day even more special. Just wanted to put that out there in case anyone wants to include their actual birthdate(s).

Thanks,
Shanna

 

[cryssi]

I made a stateroom gift and gave the kids each something. I'll probably do the same this time. I'm excited that we can drive to the port so I dont have to worry about packing fe gifts in my suitcase and getting on a plane. Lol

 

[Yazlow]

Hi, Just thinking about Fe gifts and how many items to make/buy.
In reading other threads about FE, it is usually suggested to do just one gift per couple/stateroom, with an additional individual gift for each child.

I too would like to know what the "norm" is... if there is one.

Do we vote as a group? Do we each decide on our own?

Anyone? Bueller? (j/k on that one)

And, in case anyone wasn't aware... 67 days left!!!

 

[hamm1207]

It's completely and totally up to you. It's an individual decision on how you handle the FE. Our first time around I did something for everyone, and the past two times I have just done something for the family. This time, with it being smaller, I may do one thing for each family, then something for people celebrating things (such as kids celebrating birthdays). As I said, it's completely up to you and your family's decision on what and how much you give. Many people base their decision on how many cabins and/or how many people there are FE list. No stressing folks! Just have fun!

 

[cryssi]

Yeah, there will be a wide range of types of gifts. It's all about what you want/can do. . It's supposed to be fun! I guess I won't be able to start my gifts until after DS's b day next month.

 

[Hokeysmoke]

Hello everyone! I hope there's still space on the list for us. I've been lurking for a while but now that we're paid up we've finally decided to see if we could join in on the fun. I think we'd really like to do the FE.

Names: Bob, Amy, Nicholas, Melissa
Cabin # GTY
Number of adults: 2 (Bob and Amy)
Number/ages/gender of children: 2, Melissa (F-6), Nicholas (M-4)
Special celebrations: nothing other than the Cruise
Any medical concerns or other important notes: none

Roll call list info:

Dining Time: Main
Home Town: Salem, OR
Pre Cruise Hotel: Marriott LAX


(Hoping we're not too late!)