EARLY CHECK IN: December 15th, 2007 - Seven night Western - 12/15/07

[unixadm]

My wife and DD (5 now) will be joining you as well. We haven't told our daughter yet either. We went on a 4 day cruise in September of 2005 and she keeps asking when we are going back. She also insists that our next cruise has to be a 7-day!!

Well, at least we have lots of time to save up for the cruise. I can't wait to see the ship all decorated for Christmas.

GREAT....You DD5 should be DD7, then right? Our DS5 will be DS7.....they will be in the same Oceaneer's Club Group. Actually, our DS3 will be 5 at the time so they will both be in the same play group.

It's funny....I never even thought about Christmas decorations.....that's even more to look forward to!

 

[TammyAlphabet]

It will be me, my DS16 and DD9. Our first seven night cruise. We are excited too!

I wish I was on the DVC Member cruise, but since I am a teacher, I can never do that one. Maybe one day they will have a seven night member cruise right smack dab in the middle of June!!

I haven't told the kids about the cruise or the four day we have scheduled for this December. I never tell them anything. On our last WDW trip, I kept it a secret until we almost arrived at the hotel where we were staying the night before. They didn't believe that we were going. Now everytime they see a suitcase, they get suspicious....

My DH is not going on any of the cruises or trips to Disney that we take. I know that he doesn't really get "into" everything disney like I do. And, I believe in the state of Florida and in California, that is legal grounds for divorce, but I am not a lawyer. But I am going to go and that is not going to stop me from having a good time.

Only 21 more months to do!!!!

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

Welcome TammyAlphabet!! Wow, you guys have a lot of trips planned, do you live near WDW? My DS14 will be glad to know there will be at least one teen boy on board. This will be our second 7-day, we have one planned for this Dec. We went on a Land/Sea last December.

I don't know if I can keep a secret, we'll see!

 

[TammyAlphabet]

Welcome TammyAlphabet!! Wow, you guys have a lot of trips planned, do you live near WDW? My DS14 will be glad to know there will be at least one teen boy on board. This will be our second 7-day, we have one planned for this Dec. We went on a Land/Sea last December.

I don't know if I can keep a secret, we'll see!

Thanks for the welcome. I don't live too near disney (Southern Illinois) but, in December last year, I bought annual passes, we are DVC members, and I am going to squeeze every drop out of those AP's. I am borrowing points from 2007 points to get these trips in one year, to use up the AP's, and won't have anymore coming until 9/08. But I think an addon might be in my future. When you have ap's and DVC, each additional trip on the AP's is pretty inexpensive really..... But we won't be going back to Disney after this year until this 12/15/07 cruise. I want to do the entire christmas vacation at DVC after the cruise. Then back to the old grind....

My son will be 16 and he is pretty into video games and I hear they have PS2 and other video games on board. He like anime cartoons and Magic the Gathering. Well, in 21 months, who knows, he toss it all in favor of girls!!!

I did pretty good keeping the secret last year, so lets see how it goes. They know about the graduation trip (Flower and Garden and Star Wars Weekend trips) but the rest is a secret (at least from them).

We are heading out of town for a few days to visit relatives. I will catch up with you guys when I get back!!

 

[cristit14]

Welcome, Tammy..That is a lot of trips.... We have a WDW trip planned for this August...yes, August (I need a melting smilie). Where is southern Illinois do you live? My grandmother lives in western Kentucky and when we drive to visit her we do a short stretch of highway through southern Illinois. My DS will be 9 when we go in 07 and DD will be 12.

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

Cristi--I hadn't done the math on your counter. August?!? Oh well, you'll be at WDW. You'll have to ear your Mickey Bars quickly!!

We've thought about APs but we're doing it backwards the 2006 trip we get to WDW on Dec 6th and for the 2007 trip it won't be at least until the 10th. The APs run 365 days right? Not from Dec 2006 to Dec 2007. Does that even make sense?

 

[cristit14]

We went to WDW in July once and said Never again. Well, my parents wanted all of us, them and my brother and family to do a big family vacation. We originally had early June picked, but then my brother said that they were going to be having a big inspection on base right around that time so there was no way he would be able to take leave. So, that left August since we were trying to do it when the kids were all out of school. They are using a time share down there so we have two separate units. When we went in December we bought a 7 day pass with no expiration date so we are all set on our tickets cause I know we won't do more than 5 days at the parks. I am hoping that we can try to get to the parks as close to opening as possible, then leave around 1 or so and head back to the condo and the pool for the afternoon and then go back to the parks in the evening. Of course with 9 or 10 people who knows what will actually happen. It is actually my parents 40th anniversary the day after we get there and they have decided to renew their vows while we are there. DD is going to be maid of honor, DS will be ring bearer and DNephew will be best man. It should be lots of fun!

I am not sure how the AP work. Depending on how many days you are going in might be just as good to buy a multi-day pass and get the no exp option.

on another subject.... how did your cookie sales go? I am getting ready to turn in my check to council on Tuesday at our leader meeting. This was my first year being troop cookie director in addition to leader. I prefer being just the leader, but I couldn't get any parents to step up this year. My co-leader is Unit cookie director so I didn't want to ask her.

 

[unixadm]

Yes, the AP's expire 1 year from the 1st day of use. We got ours on May 5th 2005, and they expire May 5th 2006. We've gotten our use out of them, though. 7 days in May, 7 days in September, a single day on January 28th after our 7 night cruise, and 6 days this April.

If you don't expect to be down again within a year, you might be better with 10 day non-expiring passes.

We've been to WDW in July and August, before the kids, and I don't think we will do that again. The only good thing in August was that it rained every day around 3pm. Everyone with kids left the park. The rain would only last an hour or so, and when it stopped, we were able to get on rides with no lines!!


In 3 weeks, we will be down there. Can't wait!!

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

Cristi--

Our cookie sale went well. We lost a lot of girls this year, we had 5 move, and with 5th grade there are more things to choose from. Last year we had 33 4th grade girls. We're down to 24 registered this year and combined 4th and 5th together (only 4 4th graders). They sold this morning outside our local coffee shop and sold 107 boxes in four hours. Not bad. With booth sales we add up the total sold from all the booth sales and divide it by the total hours worked by all shifts, then award the credit on a per hour basis to the girls that worked. Our council pays camp credit to the girls based on boxes sold. It is a good way to make camp more affordable.

I didn't realize you were a GS leader. For your daughter's junior troop? Finding volunteers stinks. I'm also the Service Unit manager and I have three troops that are struggling to get good leadership. I won't be very popular after our year-end ceremony, I'm pretty much going to say, "the 1st, 3rd, and Jr. High troops will no longer be meeting if noone steps up to lead them". I'd rather only have 50 Girl Scouts served well by the program than 100 who aren't getting anything out of it. Are your girls bridging up to Studio 2B or staying Juniors? Ours are staying, I like the Studio 2B material but it seems really expensive to buy the books and charms each time you want to do something. There are mumblings that it will undergo another revision soon.

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

Yes, the AP's expire 1 year from the 1st day of use.

If you don't expect to be down again within a year, you might be better with 10 day non-expiring passes.

In 3 weeks, we will be down there. Can't wait!!

Thanks for the info. Yeah, I think non-expiring is the way to go, just don't know how many days. We'll only need three for the trip this year and probably three for 2007 but the Dutch (frugal) part of me says buy the 10-day now because prices go up every year, the checkbook says only buy the six-day.

 

[cristit14]

Stacie, yes I am a leader for my daughters troop. We are 4th grade juniors this year. We only started the year with 9 girls and we just lost one. She did the cookie sale, but won't be doing any more meetings since they moved across town and don't like the drive. She will still do some activities with us til the end of the year though. We did booth sales last Sunday and the Sunday before that at a local grocery store. The first Sunday we sold 159 boxes in our 3 hours and last weekend we did 138 during the same time. This was our first year doing booth sales and they were great! We had really good weather though. Apparently, our council's average is 80-90 boxes a sale, but our area usually averages around 120 boxes.

Wow, Service Unit Manager too. We have someone from council right now as our SUM because nobody will step up. They keep asking me too, but I don't think I want too. I did step up and take over the bank account for the service unit and I am always on different committees, but I don't want the whole thing. I think it would be too hard on top of my job too.

 

[Pinkprincessmom]

Hi. I'm the wife to pinkprincessdad. We are so excited about the cruise. Thankfully we have a trip to WDW this April. DH had a business trip in Orlando, so we're making a vacation of it.

Unixadm ~ yes, our dd will be 7 for the cruise. On our 4 day cruise, she only spent one day in the Oceanear's Club. She had a wonderful time though. We got off the boat in Nassau and she wouldn't come with us. I'm sure she'll spend more time there on the 7 day cruise. We'll have to let them meet. Maybe they can email closer to time for the cruise.

Our in-laws are going with us too. GMA will celebrate her b-day on the cruise. I'm looking forward to the cake!!

I look forward to getting to know all of you over the next 21 months!!

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

Wow, Service Unit Manager too. We have someone from council right now as our SUM because nobody will step up. They keep asking me too, but I don't think I want too. I did step up and take over the bank account for the service unit and I am always on different committees, but I don't want the whole thing. I think it would be too hard on top of my job too.

SU Manager isn't really that big of deal here. We only have one troop for each grade level. Our town, Pella, is only 11,000 people. Our biggest problem is keeping a field director. We've had four in the last five years I've been involved. Our council is located in Des Moines and the field directors are required to have office hours in Des Moines but have to attend SU meetings all over the council, which can mean 1 1/2-2 hour drives, that's a lot to ask of someone who has a family.

I'm sure we'd do well at a booth sale on a Sunday morning, but it would be frowned upon here. Not only is Pella small but it has like 15 churches. People are pretty conservative. None of our stores are open on Sunday except Wal-Mart (don't get me started), one grocery store, and gas stations. There is even an unspoken rule against mowing your yard on Sunday. Even though a lot of people grocery shop after church it wouldn't be good to ask girls to sell on Sunday. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad my town has morals and values, it just seems extreme sometimes.

Man my posts get long, sorry.

 

[cristit14]

Hi. I'm the wife to pinkprincessdad. We are so excited about the cruise. Thankfully we have a trip to WDW this April. DH had a business trip in Orlando, so we're making a vacation of it.

Unixadm ~ yes, our dd will be 7 for the cruise. On our 4 day cruise, she only spent one day in the Oceanear's Club. She had a wonderful time though. We got off the boat in Nassau and she wouldn't come with us. I'm sure she'll spend more time there on the 7 day cruise. We'll have to let them meet. Maybe they can email closer to time for the cruise.

Our in-laws are going with us too. GMA will celebrate her b-day on the cruise. I'm looking forward to the cake!!

I look forward to getting to know all of you over the next 21 months!!

Welcome! The cake is pretty good, but the ship on top is really good! I had a birthday cake on our first night onboard last December. The only thing was I had just ordered dessert and they brought out dessert and the cake on top of it. I was stuffed when I got done. Even after sharing the cake, we still left some on the table.

I am looking forward to getting to know everyone too! We are already on page three and how many months do we have left, Unixadm?

Okay, Unixadm, I just typed your name and it dawned on me... you must be in computers right?

 

[cristit14]

Stacie.. I could probably handle SUM for that size.... I am here in Denver and our Service Unit alone has something like 25 troops. And we have lots of Service Units in our Council. It sounds like your town is pretty conservative. Sometimes I think it would be nice to be in a smaller town like that and then I remember that I used to live in a smaller town like that. I did like the Sunday afternoon booth sales, we did seem to get everyone shopping after church. Saturday sales are probably really good, but our girls have so many other activities on Saturdays that I thought Sunday would work better.

Sorry, my posts get long too......

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

Well, yesterday was spring, today is not. We topped out close to 70 yesterday and my DH got a sunburn while finishing a fence that we put up for our naughty dog. Today is overcast and rainy, the high was 46 and that was about 8:30 this morning.

My DH and I both were born and raised in Pella. We were always going to leave and live somewhere else. Then we got married and had kids and we decided it wasn't so bad. Plus, I think my grandma would have killed me if we moved away. All of our family is in the area which is nice.

PinkPrincessMom-what day is GMA's birthday? DH's is on Dec 6, that's the day we leave for FL for our cruise this year.

 

[cristit14]

It isn't spring here today either. It is 31 right now and has been lightly snowing all afternoon. I am thinking soup sounds good for dinner tonight.

It looks like we have quite a few December b'days in this bunch. Mine is on the 10th.

 

[Pinkprincessmom]

Definitely Spring-like here. Wearing capries and sandals.

GMA's b-day is Dec. 17.

 

[TammyAlphabet]

Christi, I am living in Carbondale, Illinois. Maybe you drive close by on I-64? That would be a little north of Carbondale. But that road runs from St. Louis to Louisville, Ky. So I am guessing a little.

I admire you guys who are girl scouts leaders, my daughter is a girl scout and I am hoping to start getting much more involved once I graduate from school this May. So at least our girls will have that in common.

I am in Northeast Arkansas right now, on a job interview for two days. Ughh!! It is nice to meet new people but I have a crick in my neck because I am so stessed out.

I am guessing that Unixadm is a unix administrator??? That is cool. I am in information technology too, but I am an academic type. I teach accounting information systems and hope to become a full time instructor this fall somewhere, which is why I have to interview.

I am so glad to be meeting up with all you guys, I think it will make the cruise so much more fun to "know" at least a couple of people.

Wish me luck!!

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

Tammy--Good luck with the interview. It sounds like you have a lot going on right now. I admire you for going to school as an adult. I graduated from Central College (a four-year liberal arts college) last May with a degree in Information Systems. I was one of five non-traditional students. I had started out as an accounting major, then took my first accounting class (financial, not managerial), I changed my major really quickly.

I'm glad to have found the boards too. Our last cruise was a three-day on the Wonder, it was fun but I think it will be a lot more fun knowing people, and definately more fun for the kids.