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

[yearbook50]

Welcome to our group!

 

[4jamaka]

Thank you. I am looking forward to the trip.

 

[Pinkprincessmom]

Welcome 4jamaka. For our first cruise, DD was 5. She had a blast. Loved the Mickey slide. This will be our first cruise with a baby, so I'm a bit nervous. We thought about leaving him with my parents, but I just can't. With my husband's parents going with us, I think that between 4 adults, everyone can still do most of what they want. He'll be 9 months for the cruise. Don't know where he'll be able to crawl around.

Anybody know if I can take him to Flounders and stay just to let him crawl around some?

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

Hey all--
Welcome to the DIS boards 4Jamaka!!! Andy will be thrilled to have another little one to play with. In March, Flounder's had "open" time where we could have just gone and played, it was some of the hours that they weren't open. As far as what to expect with a toddler, we'll learn together, Andy will have just turned 1. I know from past cruises that toddlers love to go up and down the hallways and push elevator buttons. They also can play in one of the ears of the Mickey pool, but can't go in the regular pools. The "cribs" on the ship are pack n plays or you can request a bed rail (the sofa converts to a bed that is pretty close to the floor) and your 6-year old will LOVE the bunk bed that comes out of the ceiling. You can also request a diaper genie for your stateroom. You can order cold items for breakfast from room service (cereal, milk, doughnuts) that way the little ones have something to munch on right away when they get up while you try to make yourself presentable enough to stumble up to the buffet.

Susan--I can't believe how big your DS is getting!!!! Andy still only has his bottom two teeth, but is still constantly chewing.

The big news here is that DD wants to be homeschooled this fall. We live in a community that has an excellent school system, but there are a lot of homeschoolers. Our neighborhood has 5 families and we know another 10 or so from swim team. I had ordered some catalogs and was looking for when DS got to be preschool age and early elementary. DD saw them and started talking to her friends and has decided that she wants to try it. DH and I are still on the fence. I think we could make it work, and if we don't try it we'll never know and always wonder "what if". I have spent many a spare moment in the last two weeks browsing curriculum and borrowing things from my neighbors. I'm standing on the cliff's edge but am not quite ready to jump off yet, school starts here on Aug 23rd so we need to be deciding soon.

Hope everyone has a great day!!!

 

[4jamaka]

Thank you so very much for your reply. I just wanted to see if there was anything for the toddlers to do....I know everything is geared for 3 and up, what I really wanted to know is will a two year old have fun as well. I know it is going to be hard for him to see his sister doing stuff and he cannot do them. He tries to do everything she does.......so I am always right behind him....if she plays on the big kids play gym...that is where he wants to play as well. He will not play on the small kid gym. I kid you not he even tries to swing on the big kids monkey bar, I am right there but he is so happy trying to do the big kid stuff. If she eats with a fork .....he wants a fork as well, if she gets two cookie and I give him one.....he points to his sister and tell me two cookie mommy.

So I guess I am going to have a hard time entertaining him while my daughter do the big kid stuff....well I guess hubbie an I can rotate. Maybe we should have done the cruise when he is older....but this was something my DH promised my daughter he will do with her when he gets back from Iraq....seeing that he missed two of her birthdays......so we had no choice but to keep our promise. I am looking forward to it. I just want to make sure they both will have fun.

Thanks.

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

They'll both have a lot of fun. He will enjoy the shows, the characters, and the dance parties. There are lots of family things too like crafts, and stuff that all of you will be able to do. He can visit your daughter's club as well as long as you accompany him. There is no shortage of things for him to do, and for you to do as a family.

Please pass on to your DH our thanks for his service. You guys have made a lot of sacrafices for our freedom and we appreciate it.

 

[4jamaka]

Oh thank you....it was hard but we did it. I am not looking forward for him to go again next April.....my heart is broken thinking about my son just getting to know his dad and to have him turn around and go again. I do not think I can bear it. I do not know how I am going to do it again this time with a toddler, a 9 year old, a full time job and no family help. I had to deal with my daughter crying everyday for two years now I am going to have to deal with two kids crying...oh I do not think I have the strentgth to do it. Gosh, I do not know how I am going to deal with it.

I have to say my boss was wonderful....the best boss a gal could have in times like this.....he never said a harsh word to me when the baby was sick and I had to take 10 days off and then when the baby got better my daughter caught what he had and I had to take a couple more days off ....he told me to take as much time off to take care of the kids.....I had to tell him that my DH is heading over there again and he said we will deal with it....do not worry....I am not going to fire you. Going to work kept me sane, I could not think, sleep, the kids....work was my sanity. I am sorry for venting.....but my heart is so heavy and I fear we wont be so lucky the next time to have him home whole.

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

We will listen to your venting any time, that's what great about these boards, you can tell us anything and we don't judge you (DIS people were the first ones to know we were expecting, even before my family!). Your family definately deserves this vacation and I'm glad you guys are going and will have great memories forever.

I can't imagine my husband being gone for an extended period of time, especially in such a dangerous environment. I don't want to get gushy but hopefully prayers and faith will be able to carry you through when you don't have the strength, I know you'll have our prayers.

It looks like I turned your daughter into a 6-year old instead of a 9-year old, sorry. You'll be able to take your son to the Oceaneer's Club (3-8year olds) for their activities, they have things he might enjoy like making cookies, dancing with Snow White, dressing up, etc. Your daughter might enjoy some of them too. The kids can visit the other clubs, as long as your with them.

 

[lunsusie]

Happy Sunday, Everyone! We sail 5 months from today!

 

[cristit14]

Happy Sunday, Everyone! We sail 5 months from today!

WOW!!!! It is coming up quickly! I will send the dates with DH tomorrow so he can see if he can get the time off. I hope so. If he does get the time off we are thinking about upgrading to a verandah.

 

[kcwildcat]

Hello everyone,

It's been a while since I've been on the boards. Summer seems to be flying by. Laura will start back to school on Aug. 22nd. The public schools start the week before on the 13th. We didn't do much for the 4th. June 30 is quarter close and being an accountant I pretty much have to work the first few days of the quarter. I was able to take a couple of days off the next week and we went to the lake for a long weekend.

Got a call a little while ago from my Dad. He had his year checkup down at MD Anderson in Houston. He got good results back. He'll have to have test run again in Jan. but can do those in Springfield and won't have to go back to Houston till next July.

I talked to our disney travel agent today, Midwest had changed our flight back in the spring from a direct to having a layover. We were going to have to leave an hour earlier on Sunday and with the layover we were going to land almost two hours later. DH and I had just decided yesterday to just change our flight to a direct flight earlier in the day. Called the TA and she called me back to let me know that as of today Midwest had gone back to an evening direct flight.

Were heading straight to the Magic Kingdom after we get off the ship and plan to stay till it closes. I called Disney dining today just out of curiosity and was able to book a late lunch (2:45) at Cinderella's Royal Table. We going to keep it a surprise for our princess.

Hope all is well with everyone

 

[yearbook50]

Heads up everyone,

I noticed this week the current price of the cruise went down on the Disney site and saved my friends and I about 200 dollars
I'm not sure if it was just my cat (12) or others but still something to check out!

 

[unixadm]

Well, I know I started the thread, but unfortunately, it looks like we won't be going this year

First, as I mentioned in a post a few months ago, the school changed the winter break for this year....in previous years it was the last 2 weeks of December...this year it is the last week of December, 1st week of January.

That would mean that my son who is going into 1st grade would have 5 unexcused absences (and that is if we have him go to school on Friday, then get right on the road for the drive down to Port Canaveral late Friday night)

Here in Georgia, they are VERY strict about unexcused absences. A friend of my wife took her son out for 10 days because her mother was sick and they had to go out of the country....she ended up getting a summons and having to go to court! We could get away with it for the 5 days (or maybe 6 days), but he would not be able to have any other unexcused absences for the year.

We decided that it would send a bad message to my 6 1/2 YO that it was ok to pull him out of school for a vacation.....later he might rationalize blowing off school for other things. We are trying to instill a good mindset for school in our kids and the cruise might reverse that.

Second, we had also booked SSR DVC from the 26th-1st (and on waitlist for the 1st-2nd).....and looking at the cost of the cruise, spending money on the cruise, and spending money for the week after Christmas, along with the cost of Christmas gifts we need to get, we realized that it was going to cost us much more than we initially anticipated.

We decided to go to Universal Studios while at SSR instead of WDW.....showed our kids the website, rides, etc and they got all excited about that and were totally fine with not going on the cruise.

So, we get to save some money, I save a week's vacation, we don't need to pull my son from school, and we still have a good time in Florida.

Sorry I won't be meeting any of you this time....have a good time and have a drink for me!

 

[Pinkprincessmom]

unixadmin: Sorry you won't be joining us. Thanks for getting the meet started for us. Maybe we'll meet you on the high seas one day. I'll have a drink of coke for you. Enjoy your week at SSR and Universal.

Life with a baby has turned out to be much busier than I expected. I thought it would be a breeze having a 7 year old and a baby. It's more like a thunderstorm, not quite a hurricane though.

Is anyone doing door magnets? I'd like to do something, but am not the creative one in the family. Anybody have any ideas? Should we give our group some kind of name?

Crisit: I saw a comment from you on the HP book. I know we cannot discuss the plot, but did you enjoy it? Did many things surprise you? I'm very sad the story is over. I really enjoyed the series.

 

[yearbook50]

Is anyone doing door magnets? I'd like to do something, but am not the creative one in the family. Anybody have any ideas? Should we give our group some kind of name?

I have some Disney Print Shop Software that I'm thinking of using to make a door magnet. I'm going to play around sometime this week to see what I can come up with. Its worked really well with me for wedding craft stuff so hopefully it will work well for this.


unixadm: Sorry you won't be joining us but I understand the reasonings why. My parents stopped taking me out of school for vacation in 1st grade also because school was more important.

 

[cristit14]

Hi everyone!! Brad got the okay to take the week off for the cruise. Now, I can start getting excited again! You will see me on here a lot more since I know we are going for sure.

Unixadmin, sorry you won't be joining us this year. I understand though. We are taking the kids out for the cruise, but I think this will be the last time. Rachel will be in Middle school after this year and I think it will get entirely too hard. When I booked this one, I was thinking that they would get out of school on the Wed of the cruise so they would only miss 4 days, but according to the schedule they are going all the way up to Friday. Oh well, they will have all break to get their make up work finished.

I have used Disney Magic artist studio to make my magnets in the past. I just print off on regular paper and use the magnet tape on the back.

Susan, PM me and we can discuss the book. I am working on re-reading it right now since I went so fast the first time. I am sad it is over too.

 

[yearbook50]

Hi everyone!! Brad got the okay to take the week off for the cruise. Now, I can start getting excited again! You will see me on here a lot more since I know we are going for sure.

Thats great!

 

[yearbook50]

I started thinking about our door magnet.

Here's one I've come up with:



All because of a really bad joke of getting drunk with Goofy...

(I promise you, we will behave, at least during the day or when there are children around)

 

[Kadorto]

Hmmmm..not so sure if it’s a good omen that our thread starter is bailing out. Our 2nd grader will also miss 6 days of school but we feel the educational opportunities that he'll receive on the cruise will outweigh anything he might miss. Anthropology, oceanography, geography, science, and more all disguised as a family vacation. Then again maybe that's just the excuse we're using..either way we're looking forward to it.

On another note...Has anyone been keeping a list on who'll be there?

 

[cristit14]

Then again maybe that's just the excuse we're using..either way we're looking forward to it.

On another note...Has anyone been keeping a list on who'll be there?

Sounds like a good excuse to me.
I don't remember seeing you on this thread before. Did I just miss it or is this your first posting here? Either way, Welcome! Stacie (DutchGirlScout) has a website started for this cruise. She has a list of who is going. I am not sure if it is still up to date or not though. I think it is probably pretty close though.