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

[cristit14]

Kathryn, I don't know anything about the excursions you are looking at, but when we were looking at excursions, I found a couple of good threads
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1303001
and
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1302999&page=0&highlight=grand+cayman

I don't know for sure if they talk about those excursions, but they might. Do you get to book this weekend? That is exciting! We booked the Submarine in Grand Cayman and the Eco-Park in Cozumel. We can't wait!!!

 

[feinfam]

A couple of good threads
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1303001
and
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1302999&page=0&highlight=grand+cayman

Thanks, Cristi! Good hints in these threads!

Still looking for more information . Anyone else?

 

[Pinkprincessmom]

We just got John to sleep for the night. Most nights he pitches a royal fit at bed time. He will cry quite loudly until he works down to kind of talking to himself. What will we do with him on the ship? I don't want our neighbors to hate us.

 

[Kadorto]

We just got John to sleep for the night. Most nights he pitches a royal fit at bed time. He will cry quite loudly until he works down to kind of talking to himself. What will we do with him on the ship? I don't want our neighbors to hate us.

I wouldn't worry too much about your neighbors...most likely they'll be out and about on the ship. If not, I'm sure they'll understand.

 

[Kadorto]

We broke the news to my DS 2nd grade teacher last week and she was very receptive to our plans, no problems at all

However, I just talked to my youngest son's preschool teacher yesterday and I thought she was going to blow a gasket She's totally against us taking Matthew out of his pre-school class and proceeded to give me a lecture on how it could damage him. I'm not sure how to take this...but regardless, she's just going to have to get over it...

Maybe she's a Rockies fan and was taking out Wed night's loss on me

Either way...I certainly did not expect this kind of drama from her

 

[cristit14]

Wow, really for preschool. That is crazy that she got so upset.

I told two of Rachel's teachers last week at conferences and they were fine with it. I forgot to mention it to Jacob's teacher though, oh well.....

 

[cristit14]

We just got John to sleep for the night. Most nights he pitches a royal fit at bed time. He will cry quite loudly until he works down to kind of talking to himself. What will we do with him on the ship? I don't want our neighbors to hate us.

Maybe by the cruise he will be working his way out of this stage. He will probably be going to be earlier that your neighbors anyway so it should work out okay. I know when we went to hotels with the kids when they were at that stage it always worried me too.

 

[feinfam]

We just got John to sleep for the night. Most nights he pitches a royal fit at bed time. He will cry quite loudly until he works down to kind of talking to himself. What will we do with him on the ship? I don't want our neighbors to hate us.

I think that John will probably be exhausted from your busy days, and ready for sleep. I always worried about this on vacation, too, but my DD's always slept better on vacation (in a room with us where they could see us whenever they turned over) than when put to bed in their own room at home. The problem was convincing them to return to their own room once we got home!

I'm sure your neighbors are parents, too, and remember the stages. You could always pack some goody bags for them with earplugs and a cute note just to break the ice .

 

[feinfam]

... I just talked to my youngest son's preschool teacher yesterday and I thought she was going to blow a gasket ...but regardless, she's just going to have to get over it...

Wow! Love your attitude, though . Someone needs to keep things in perspective. Is she a new teacher? Or maybe she had something special planned for the kids and she thought your expertise was essential to make it a success?

DD11 has lost several days of junior high already, all connected to the memorial services and other events around my Dad's death this summer, and the homework load when she got back was pretty unbelievable. They use a software program called InClass, and you're expected to go online each day, even when ill, to find out what they covered in class that day and to complete the work. I remember that level of intensity in college, but certainly not before.

I'm actually still trying to figure out how to tell the teachers that she's going to miss a week. When we planned the vacation, the school calendar hadn't been published yet, so we just winged it based on the prior two years - but the price is SO much better Dec. 15th than the week after, we decided not to switch even after we found out. I wonder if that translates to teacher-speak? Yikes .

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

Hi All! Sorry I've been MIA. I've been reading just have been posting much. Not much going on here.

I'm sure John will do just fine on the ship, the rocking boat will probably help, as will the sun and fresh air.

I got a lot of info about excursions from the cruise critic web site. They have threads for each port. I don't know if I'll get bleeped out but their site is http://www.crusiecritic.com

A psycho preschool teacher? That is truly silly, missing preschool for a week will damage the child? I don't think so. I think she's jealous that she can't go.

DS is going to miss semester tests for his semester long classes (I think that it is just two), the semester tests for the year long classes aren't until after the break, when the semester ends in late January. I don't know how you can have a semester test when you still have almost a month to go?

We switched our pre-cruise ressie from POFQ to Coronado Springs. We had wanted a king room connected to a standard room and evidently at POFQ that isn't possible. We got a junior suite at CS, it has a queen murphy bed in one room with two doubles in the other.

DD had an orchestra fest yesterday that we went to, then we went shopping, My cruise pile is totally out of contol, as is Andy's. Every time I see something though, I think "that would be good for the cruise." My latest great find was Clorox wipes in travel size packages (in the travel size section at Target). Last time I brought a regular size canister of them. These fit in the diaper bag. Germs be gone!!!

I'm kind of starting to get worried about flying back after the cruise. What if there is a huge snowstorm in Iowa and we're stranded in FL? Should I make hotel ressies just in case (especially since it will be Christmas), we're not flying home until the 23rd, if our flight doesn't get out will we be able to find one on the 24th or Christmas? What are you others doing that have to fly back to snow/ice prone states? Are you worried or am I just freaking out for nothing?

 

[feinfam]

I'm kind of starting to get worried about flying back after the cruise. What if there is a huge snowstorm in Iowa and we're stranded in FL? Should I make hotel ressies just in case (especially since it will be Christmas), we're not flying home until the 23rd, if our flight doesn't get out will we be able to find one on the 24th or Christmas? What are you others doing that have to fly back to snow/ice prone states? Are you worried or am I just freaking out for nothing?

Stacie - good tip on the Cruise Critic website. It answered my questions, and it's so nice to dream. I found a mention on Wikipedia, too, with a great panoramic photo - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Mile_Beach,_Grand_Cayman. The photo even has cruise ships in the background, although I can't tell if one is a Disney ship. For anyone interested, 7 mile beach is NOTHING like Paradise Beach, recreation-wise.

I hear you about the flights. We couldn't get a non-stop back, and DH and I were poring over the connection city maps trying to find the one least likely to be snowbound. We came up with Nashville, and our fingers are already crossed. Between worry about weather and our 25-minute (!) layover (with plane change!) in Nashville that Southwest Airlines promises is okay, I'm just going to take some deep breaths and take things as they come.

As things go, though, I'd rather be stranded in Florida than most anywhere else. And, with Orlando being a convention city, there will be plenty of hotel rooms. Maybe not a junior suite at Disney, but something clean and safe.

I already told my family that this year, Christmas will be the day that we're able to celebrate it, whether it's on the 25th or not.

Go kiss that baby and have some tea!

 

[feinfam]

DH out of town, DD at a friend's house, I had time to read the paper!

Found this in our local paper's Travel section:

Conde Nast Traveler's 2007 Survey of Best Large Cruise Ships:
1. Celebrity’s Constellation
2. Celebrity’s Summit
3. Celebrity’s Infinity
4. Celebrity’s Millennium
5. Disney’s Disney Magic
6. Princess’ Sea Princess
7. Disney’s Disney Wonder
8. Celebrity’s Galaxy
9. Holland America’s Westerdam
10. Royal Caribbean’s Serenade of the Seas

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

That baby is starting hour number 3 of his nap, he went down around 2:00 it's now 5:00.

I have had way too much time today to I went over to the t-shirt design thread. That is a dangerous place. I had seen tie-dyed shirts with Mickey heads but now I know how to make them. I'm thinking a shirt tie dyed green with a red Mickey head for MVMCP. I had talked to our t-shirt place in town to make some shirts for us for cruise day but now I really like some of the designs that I found. We'll see.

I wouldn't mind being stranded in FL, we are flying Allegiant that only flies to Des Moines three times a week (Su/M/TH) and Cedar Rapids (90 miles away on Sa/M/W) three times a week. We don't even fly out of MCO so I don't think the other airlines would help us out. I guess the good thing is that they are direct flights, the bad thing is if the plane can't leave Iowa, there is no plane to get on.

 

[Pinkprincessmom]

Thanks everyone for the encouragement with John. I guess we'll just see how it goes. I think I will bring some earplugs for the neighbors. I don't know what's going on with him. He's waking up about every 3 hours at night. And he has rarely ever taken a 3 hour nap during the day.

If any of you get stranded because of snow, you can rent a car and come celebrate Christmas with my family. We'll be driving. We'll even let John ride with you!!

 

[yearbook50]

So we were able to apply the florida resident discount to our reservation and saved $100. We also were given our room assignment. 6087!

 

[feinfam]

I think I will bring some earplugs for the neighbors

If any of you get stranded because of snow, you can rent a car and come celebrate Christmas with my family. We'll be driving. We'll even let John ride with you!!

Hearos are my favorite brand of earplug - super comfortable and now they even have cute pink ones.

John's welcome in our car! I have baby lust every once in a while, and it's best to spend it on other children so I don't get any wild ideas...we need to be all done with that phase of our lives.



Where is everyone? Getting the Halloween costumes finalized? Come back and play!

 

[feinfam]

Wow. We just had a 5.6 earthquake an hour ago.

Strong enough to have the chandelier swinging and the wall pictures off-kilter. DD is studying plate tectonics in school, and they had just watched a video today on some of the more devastating earthquake events around the world, so she was totally ready to duck and cover. Yikes.

 

[yearbook50]

Wow. We just had a 5.6 earthquake an hour ago.

Strong enough to have the chandelier swinging and the wall pictures off-kilter. DD is studying plate tectonics in school, and they had just watched a video today on some of the more devastating earthquake events around the world, so she was totally ready to duck and cover. Yikes.

Glad you are ok!

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

Wow. We just had a 5.6 earthquake an hour ago.

Strong enough to have the chandelier swinging and the wall pictures off-kilter. DD is studying plate tectonics in school, and they had just watched a video today on some of the more devastating earthquake events around the world, so she was totally ready to duck and cover. Yikes.

Earthquakes have got to be a weird sensation. The not knowing part is what is freaky to me. We have tornadoes, but usually know when they are coming. Just to have the earth move with no warning would have me ducking too.

Last night was "Beggar's night" here. Our town only trick-or-treats on Halloween if it falls on Monday, Tuesday, or Thursday, otherwise we have Beggar's night. DD went with her friends, DS had nothing to do so he was stuck with us, then after we took him for supper he found something to do. We took Pirate Andy to a few places.

Here is a couple pics:

Don't ask me what DD's costume was she just raided our dress up box and put a bunch of things on. She called herself queen of the bat frogs, go figure, she's 12, whole different world.

 

[disneycruise05]

Glad everyone is OK, Kathryn. We actually just tested over earthquakes and the like in my geology class this morning. I'm sure we'll discuss your quake in lab this afternoon. When we lived in Washington state, we had a 4.something earthquake. Just like you said, the chandelier in the dining room swayed a bit. However, since we lived on a military base, I thought it was artillary practice at the range down the road!

Andy's pirate costume is adorable!!!