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

[yearbook50]

Hi All,

We are joining you on the Dec 15 cruise. We booked with another family
18 months ago and are starting to get really excited about the trip. We have 7 in our group-- 4 adults and 3 kids (2 boys- age 8, girl- age 6). We are big Disney fanatics but this is our first cruise. We'll also be attending MVMCP the night before we leave.

Sharon

Welcome!

 

[cristit14]

How is everyone doing today? Just popping in. I am really starting to look forward to this trip!!!!

 

[poohkinandpiglet]

I'm reading about and planning our excursions since it's almost time to book. We're going on our own in Key West too. I've looked at several electric car rental sites but we haven't decided for sure.

Kadorto--Glad to hear about another 8 year boy. Connor and John are looking forward to it. My six year old daughter, Hannah, is a little bummed that she won't be in the lab with the boys but I'm sure she'll be right at home after the first five minutes.

Any adults wearing pirate costumes? I'm trying to convince DH that it's a must!

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

DD and I were looking at pirate costumes online today. We found lots of sewing patterns for nice ones, so I think I'm going to pull out the sewing machine and whip us up some (more like I'll start now, hopefully I'll be done by December ). Most of the costumes we saw for the teen girls were low cut shirts, and short skirts, and some of the adult ones were just not appropriate for a family cruise. I don't know if I can get DH to wear a "pirate" shirt or not.

 

[cristit14]

I will be in a wench costume and DH will be in a makeshift pirate costume. DS will be dressed up for sure and I think that DD wants to do a costume too, but I am not sure about her.

 

[cristit14]

Here is a picture from pirate night on our last cruise. These are a bunch of the diser's that we met with onboard.

 

[poohkinandpiglet]

The last time we went to MNSVSHP I dressed up as Cruella, the kids were dalmations and DH was a dogcatcher with a big net. He was a great sport about it so I'm sure it'll be easy to talk him into a pirate costume.

 

[cristit14]

The last time we went to MNSVSHP I dressed up as Cruella, the kids were dalmations and DH was a dogcatcher with a big net. He was a great sport about it so I'm sure it'll be easy to talk him into a pirate costume.

That sounds cute! Rachel wants to be Cruella for Halloween this year. It should be fun.

 

[Pinkprincessmom]

Hi everyone. We're still here. I cannot believe it is less than 90 days away

Welcome poohkinandpiglet. I have a 7 year old DD and I know there is another 6 year old girl going.

We're all going to wear pirate costumes. It will be something simple. We didn't do it for the first cruise and I felt like a party pooper.

DD is tracked out of school so DH took today off. We went shopping. Sears has the Lands End summer stuff on sale. We got some cruise attire. I got some water shoes too.

I'm getting so excited!!

 

[cristit14]

Maybe I should go to Sears. I never buy clothes there for some reason. I guess because the only thing I associate them with is tools.

 

[feinfam]

Wow - so many posts since the last time I logged in!

Stacie, it's so great that you decided to homeschool. I hope that it's going well for you. I love that you said that it was nice getting to know your DD and have her around; I just love this age (my DD is 11), they are halfway between child and teen - still brimming with hope and enthusiasm.
AND:
Thanks for updating the brunch reservations! I'm excited! And for updating the website. You're great for offering to do this for everyone.
AND MORE:
The Christmas stocking idea sounds fabulous. We'd definitely like to be in on this. So many possibilities from where we live...hard to pick.

Christi, what a great idea for a group photo on Pirate night. I think I need a red wig...

To everyone staying at WDW and going to MVMCP - wow, we're jealous. Maybe next time. I'd also love to see it decorated for Halloween - we saw DL last year in October, and it was great.

Melissa, we're staying at the Country Inn & Suites the night before the cruise. Coming in from the opposite coast, it's just a killer to get to FL. We've opted to just drive in to the Cape so we can wake up and play the next morning. There's just never enough pool time for my DD.

To Sharon of Poohkinandpiglet - welcome!

To Kardoto and disneycruise05 - congrats on the diving certification - how exciting to be able to practice on this trip!



And to all:

The meets sound like a great idea. We've done them with people through Cruise Critic before, and they've been fun. Those groups definitely aren't as chatty as these, though. My DH cruised by my computer as I was typing this and said, "At this rate, you're going to know these people better than we know the neighbors!" to which I replied, "Isn't that great?" (and we adore our neighbors).

My family is definitely dressing up for pirate night. I'm not the crafty type, so I ordered costumes online and they'll do double duty for Halloween this year. DH doesn't know yet, but I'm hoping if I'm enthusiastic enough, he'll go through with it (and DD can help persuade)...

Reservations:
Key West - we're on our own. We were thinking scooters instead of an electric car - wheeee!! We'll do the Hemingway House (going to get DD to read something by him with me before we leave), key lime pie at Blond Giraffe, drink in the sunset in Mallory Square, and maybe go to the Lighthouse Museum.

Grand Cayman - we're on our own again. Maybe 7-mile beach, and we'll shop for some rum cakes to substitute for fruitcake at the holidays this year. Yum.

Cozumel - DH going to Tulum Ruins; DD and I to Dolphin Discovery at 9:45am. Hopefully, DD and I will have time to hit Paradise Beach after, as she saw their website and is REALLY excited about the floating iceberg and the other water activities. Anyone know if this would work?

Castaway Cay - stingrays at 10am! Thought it would be tamer here than on Grand Cayman.

Other than that we're going to Palo for brunch on Monday (see you there!) and dinner on Tuesday at 8pm (we'll see some of you there!). I'm crossing my fingers for APLAPLA late seating. Anyone know if it's hard to get?

Wow - I can't believe it's so close.

TTYL -
Kathryn

 

[poohkinandpiglet]

For those who have done the stingray excursion--- is the Castaway Cay stingray excursion similar to the Grand Cayman one? Are there major differences? Which one would you do and why? Thanks

Sharon

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

Hello All!

It is a gorgeous weekend here, temps in the 70s and it rained last night so not so humid. DD spent the night at a friend's in the city (one of the five that moved away over the summer). DH, Andy, and I dropped her off last night and got the fabric for the pirate outfits (after going out for supper of course ) Andy and I went to get her this afternoon.

It is 5:00pm here and he's slept for one hour today. He is CRANKY! He is starting to stand up on whatever he can reach, his favorite place is by the fireplace hearth because it's nice and low, we have the childproof stuff on the edges but it still scares me. He is just starting to crawl, he will go a coupe scoots but then he gets on his feet and kind of walks like a monkey. Not sure what you call that besides silly.

Susan--Glad your still around. How long is DD out of school for? Hopefully you guys can take advantage of the nice weather. We had a church family night at the park the other night and Andy loved swinging, he cried when we took him out to go home.

I like Sears because they carry some of the Land's End stuff and if you have Land's End Catalog returns, you can take them to Sears. They also have lots of Pooh stuff for Andy.

 

[cristit14]

Hi everyone! How is everyone doing? Stacie, glad to hear about your nice weather. It is pretty here today too, but still hot about 88. I just got back from taking DD and a friend up to the place where they will be doing Outdoor Lab this year. It is up in the mountains about 45-60 minutes from here. They will go up with their class on a Monday and come back on a Friday. They were having an open house today. Once we got off of the main road the one going to the camp was TERRIBLE. I have been on a lot of dirt roads in my day, but never one this bad. It was like driving on a washboard all the way up there.

Last night DH and I had a Dis meet with Kadorto (aka Michael and Vicki). They were in town for Vicki's work and we met up downtown last night for dinner and drinks. We had a really good time. They are probably sleeping now. We finished up with them around 11pm and they had to leave for the airport at 3am this morning. My inlaws will probably never watch the kids again. We didn't make it home until midnight. Apparently, the lightrail doesn't run as often coming home that late at night.

 

[Kadorto]

For those who have done the stingray excursion--- is the Castaway Cay stingray excursion similar to the Grand Cayman one? Are there major differences? Which one would you do and why? Thanks

Sharon

I don't know about the differences but we're signed up for the excursion on Castaway Cay...so far from what I've read it sounds like it'll be perfect for us

 

[Kadorto]

Hi everyone! How is everyone doing? Stacie, glad to hear about your nice weather. It is pretty here today too, but still hot about 88. I just got back from taking DD and a friend up to the place where they will be doing Outdoor Lab this year. It is up in the mountains about 45-60 minutes from here. They will go up with their class on a Monday and come back on a Friday. They were having an open house today. Once we got off of the main road the one going to the camp was TERRIBLE. I have been on a lot of dirt roads in my day, but never one this bad. It was like driving on a washboard all the way up there.

Last night DH and I had a Dis meet with Kadorto (aka Michael and Vicki). They were in town for Vicki's work and we met up downtown last night for dinner and drinks. We had a really good time. They are probably sleeping now. We finished up with them around 11pm and they had to leave for the airport at 3am this morning. My inlaws will probably never watch the kids again. We didn't make it home until midnight. Apparently, the lightrail doesn't run as often coming home that late at night.

3am came early but we're very glad to be back home with our boys. Speaking of inlaws, we're in the same boat as my MIL was fairly frazzeled by the time we returned, after a week with the boys I was a bit concerned but she's still in one piece so that's good

We had a great time in Denver and it was really nice meeting up with Cristit14and Brad. As you can probably guess...the main discussion topic of the night was the big party in December.

Now...if we could only get the Irish to win a game before then

 

[cristit14]

I like Sears because they carry some of the Land's End stuff and if you have Land's End Catalog returns, you can take them to Sears. They also have lots of Pooh stuff for Andy.

Okay, so I stopped by Sears and got a tshirt and some Lime green flip flops for myself. I spent a whopping $9.30 on them. I may go back and get some more flip flops. I thought they were 12 something, but she rang them up at 6.

 

[poohkinandpiglet]

A dining question for all experienced cruisers---

How do I decide which night to book Palo? I noticed some of you are choosing Tuesday. Why Tuesday over another night?

I know that Pirate Night is Wed and there are other special things later in the week. I'm trying to decide between Monday or Tuesday and not sure what to base my decision on?

Sharon

 

[disneycruise05]

Sharon, I'm by no means an expert, but the reason I believe alot of us are booking on Tuesday is that the first 3 nights (Saturday, Sunday, Monday) we go through our regular dining rotation. Since we don't know what our rotation will be (either APLAPLA, PLAPLAP, or LAPLAPL....I think that's right) we're playing it safe so we can experience all the restaurants. I know one major factor for me was that I don't want to miss the show in Animator's Palate. It's only shown on our first round through the restaurant (so, it's only shown on the first 3 days). Pirate Night is on Wednesday, so we don't want to miss that either. After that, it was just trying to figure out what menu we would miss the least. For us, it was the Master Chef's Menu on Tuesday.

So...since you're looking at Monday and Tuesday, I would vote for Tuesday if you can get a seating. If not, still book when you can and you can always try to change it when you get on board the ship.

For the experienced cruisers....does this sound correct?

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

Sharon, I'm by no means an expert, but the reason I believe alot of us are booking on Tuesday is that the first 3 nights (Saturday, Sunday, Monday) we go through our regular dining rotation. Since we don't know what our rotation will be (either APLAPLA, PLAPLAP, or LAPLAPL....I think that's right) we're playing it safe so we can experience all the restaurants. I know one major factor for me was that I don't want to miss the show in Animator's Palate. It's only shown on our first round through the restaurant (so, it's only shown on the first 3 days). Pirate Night is on Wednesday, so we don't want to miss that either. After that, it was just trying to figure out what menu we would miss the least. For us, it was the Master Chef's Menu on Tuesday.

So...since you're looking at Monday and Tuesday, I would vote for Tuesday if you can get a seating. If not, still book when you can and you can always try to change it when you get on board the ship.

For the experienced cruisers....does this sound correct?

Ditto, another factor was that we have a Palo brunch on Monday and doing Palo twice in one day would be enough to make me . Last time after the brunch we still weren't hungry at supper, and we had late seating.