Eastern Caribbean Fantasy Oct. 5, 2013

[pixiehallow]

How did you teach him that! OMG one more eye roll from DH and he will have a time out, lol. Been married for 23 years you would think he knows me better. Uggg so looking forward to the cruise, can not come fast enough and then slow down so we can be on forever.

I guess I am 1 of the lucky ones.
My DH is as much of an ubber planner as I am.
He is the one who put every last detail in his calender on the phone. Right down to the the scheduled rest stops on the drive to allow my back a chance to rest and stretch.

 

[pixiehallow]

The sign up for this FE is closed


Notice to late comers, contact Pontiuspython. She has volunteered to oversee putting something together for late comers. Her current cut off date is Sept. 5th

I will try to keep the FE at (or very Near) the top of each new page from now until we cruise for convenience.

Break down of groups: (yes, some cabins are in both groups. ..they requested to be)

Group I
pixiehallow
TamaraH
FrozenMinnie
Santam01
JulFromMD + 2
JulFromMD +3
JulFromMD +4
LadyCP
ozdisneyfan
Tiggerlily878
Deb T
Wanderluster25
2Crazygoofies
tatianasuv
Mrs Stevenson
MDennis28
DisneyFan_SD
Texas Lady
crews
Gillilma

Group II
pixiehallow
actnkidz
Mercinursi
jamelynn24
TCCDad
kmronnie3
Contrady family
Santam01
JulFromMD
JulFromMD +1
jbhatch
goofydvc
Tenn
chipmunklove
Jgamy
SinDee
Kprovax
Kprovax +1
Deb T
hng1979
jaimelynn4
Marchetti family
hmhaase
Texas lady
Southern gal
Aussiemickey
Fluffybunnyfeet
Ourfairytalelife
Carpenm3
Larrisje
dancegirl914

48 confirmed

Sub Groups have been sent out...If you are in group I, please remove MickeyFan from your list.

If you want a list of all Cabins, I will be happy to send one to you. All you have to do is ask

~Tink~

 

[pixiehallow]

I know a while back, someone offered to help me with making the cancer ribbons. However, I do not remember who that was.
If it was you, or anyone else who has the time and desire to help, can you please let me know. The more help I get, the more specific the colors can be.
At this point, I only have time to manage 2 colors. So I would be limited to a ribbon for all cancers, and a ribbon for care givers.
As always, I appreciate any help offered.
Thanks,
Tink

 

[Deb T.]

Thats exciting! I was hoping we can use the bands and Fast Pass+ though i don't have that option when i log in on line. Looks like they are still on the testing phase with the Magic Bands so you're one of the lucky ones.

Thanks! We're pretty excited! And, I just saw last night that we are actually receiving two sets of MagicBands, one set for our pre-cruise stay and a second set for our post-cruise stay! So, we decided to customize our second set with different colors than the first set. I'm assuming we'll receive a third set for our December WDW trip!

I think we might have qualified for MagicBands because I had already linked our Annual Passes, DVC reservations, and dining reservations in "My Disney Experience". Compulsive Disney Planner that I am, I've been frequently checking back in "MDE" to see if any other links had gone live yet. During one of those times, I found that FastPass+ was available to us, so I signed up for those. Then, a few days later, I found the first set of MagicBands was available to us, so I customized those. I originally thought that the same bands would be used for both parts of our October trip... until last night when the second set appeared on the "MDE" site! If it's true that they can be used for charging privileges, this will make our Food & Wine purchases much more convenient than pulling out our charge card at every kiosk! Maybe too convenient!!!

So, try logging into "My Disney Experience" and link as many things to your trip as possible! Maybe you'll get lucky, too!

 

[Deb T.]

My DH is being such a great guy... he hardly rolls his eyes any more when I mention my obsessive planning and excitement!!

How did you teach him that! OMG one more eye roll from DH and he will have a time out, lol. Been married for 23 years you would think he knows me better. Uggg so looking forward to the cruise, can not come fast enough and then slow down so we can be on forever.

I guess I am 1 of the lucky ones.
My DH is as much of an ubber planner as I am.
He is the one who put every last detail in his calender on the phone. Right down to the the scheduled rest stops on the drive to allow my back a chance to rest and stretch.

My DH definitely humors me with all my Disney planning! I'm pretty sure he wears sunglasses just to hide the fact that his eyes glaze over whenever I start telling him all about "our" plans. He just wants to know when and where to be somewhere, and leaves all the rest of the details to me. It's perfect, because planning the trip is half the fun for me!

 

[PontiusPython]

Thanks! We're pretty excited! And, I just saw last night that we are actually receiving two sets of MagicBands, one set for our pre-cruise stay and a second set for our post-cruise stay! So, we decided to customize our second set with different colors than the first set. I'm assuming we'll receive a third set for our December WDW trip!

I think we might have qualified for MagicBands because I had already linked our Annual Passes, DVC reservations, and dining reservations in "My Disney Experience".

...

So, try logging into "My Disney Experience" and link as many things to your trip as possible! Maybe you'll get lucky, too!

We'll be at WDW for a week following the cruise, too & we have access to MagicBands & FastPass+. My inside source told me that in order for FastPass+ to be available you have to have valid admission linked to your MDE account. If you don't plan on buying your tickets yet but do have your Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party tickets, link those! You won't be able to get FP+ for more than one day, but you will unlock 3 FP+s because of the admission value of that special event ticket. Unless I'm wrong there's a little catch there, though: I'm pretty sure all three of those would have to be on the same day. Not necessarily the same day that you're attending the party, but all on the same day as each other.

For the MagicBand test, it appears that they are releasing the MagicBands to people with reservations to stay on property. They're doing this by bringing in one resort at a time. From what I can gather, the DVC resorts are already in, the Contemporary is in, I *believe* the Polynesian is in, and I can confirm that Art of Animation is in.

I hope that helps everyone!

Deb: How long is your post-cruise stay?

 

[PontiusPython]

This cruise is getting so close! I'm quite excited!

Anyway, I'm still heading up the Latecomers FE but I wanted to bring up the closing date with everyone. When I originally started this, I had it set up that the closing date for joining this FE would be September 5th. This was for a couple of reasons: 1: It meant the sign ups would last exactly 1 month. 2: It put the closing date exactly 1 month out from sailing so everyone could still have a chance to finalize their gifts and get them packed (because hooooooo-boy it looks like packing is going to be an adventurous game of Tetris). 3: I didn't want to open it and then promptly close it only to find that there were people who still wanted to join and couldn't.

Since then, there have been a few questions regarding the closing date. Some folks are wanting to get all that aforementioned packing done pronto - and I can both relate and appreciate this. While I am heading up this FE, I'm not the type to rule from a pedestal. I'm just a facilitator for what the group wants. I've set up a poll (see the Yahoo Group Polls page) for closing the FE sign ups. PLEASE WEIGH IN.

Please. Seriously.

We've got 3 votes on that poll today and we've got at least 8 groups/families participating (11 staterooms at this moment). I'd like to know what everyone is thinking. I'm okay with closing it early (especially since I'm the one who came up with the arbitrary closing date to begin with - and I just came up with it so we wouldn't have the list open indefinitely) but I want your feedback.

Thank you!

- Candace (Python)

 

[Viking]

In our family I'm the compulsive vacation planner, my wife just has to say what she likes or not - fortunately she accepts more than 90% of my ideas
We usually have a detailed plan with reservations for all hotels and theme parks, perfectly prepared hikes in National Parks, etc.
I even download coupons before the trips and check the weekly ads of supermarkets to know where to shop for groceries on the day of our Arrival.
We also prearrange attendance of classes like Zumba or Body Pump with local gyms or check out running tracks.

Talking about vacations:
I'm celebrating a special vacation anniversary this year as exactly 25 years ago in August 1988 I made my first trip to the USA. My first wife and I flew to Miami and spent 2 1/2 weeks in Miami Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, including my first trip to WDW, which consisted of just MK and Epcot then.
In 1995 Anja and I did our first trip to Orlando with visits to WDW, Busch Gardens, Cape Canaveral and Clearwater Beach.
My total comes to 21 USA-trips, with a total time spent there of about 60 weeks. Five of my trips were business trips to my company's headquarters in Colorado, totalling 7 1/2 weeks. Anja's total is 15 trips.
Anja and I spent about a year of vacation time in the USA and have visited 25 states so far, with about 25,000 miles driven on American roads.

 

[kmronnie3]

Need Help with dis signs


I am looking to see if anyone in our group does disigns? I wanted to make some as magnets for my door and was hoping someone could point me in the right direction.

Thanks


Karen

 

[pixiehallow]

Need Help with dis signs


I am looking to see if anyone in our group does disigns? I wanted to make some as magnets for my door and was hoping someone could point me in the right direction.

Thanks


Karen

What are you looking for as far as designs go.

I just did a search of the DIS board for DISigns. I am in aw of some of the options.

 

[kmronnie3]

What are you looking for as far as designs go.

I just did a search of the DIS board for DISigns. I am in aw of some of the options.

I am looking for something that I can put our cruise date and name on. I laminate them and then put magnets on the back and cover my door. It would be cool if we could one made of the t-shirt logo and put on our door. That way it will be easy to tell who is in our group.

 

[pixiehallow]

I am looking for something that I can put our cruise date and name on. I laminate them and then put magnets on the back and cover my door. It would be cool if we could one made of the t-shirt logo and put on our door. That way it will be easy to tell who is in our group.

do you want me to send you the shirt jpg?
Or maybe see if I can put some Disney fonts with it?

 

[Viking]

With our trip to Florida and the cruise drawing closer I started checking the Caribbean weather - especially for potential storms. If anyone else is interested, here comes a link
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

Presently it looks like the storm factory off the African coast is spooling up, with two small low pressure systems headed west.

Let's just hope that we won't be affected - even though a Mistery Cruise can be fun as some of our fellow cruisers learned in 2002

 

[jaimelynn4]

Viking,
What's a mistery cruise and what happened in 2002?!! Sounds like an adventure!

 

[Alexle2007]

Just booked our cruise late last night so I am newcomer to the party. So looking for the cruise! This will be our 1st cruise ever and it's just the 3 of us- DH, DS6 and me. Frantically booked flights today, hotel for Fri and added Disney transportation. Now just need to work on the excursions. Still waiting for a room since we went guaranteed balcony. It's a surprise for my DS. I just hope I can hold out!

 

[Viking]

Several of the original cruisetoberfest members cruised in fall 2002 and didn't make it to any of their scheduled ports of call, but visited other destinations, because the ship had to completely redo its itinerary due to a hurricane.
Papa can tell you more. I think he came even up with the term 'Mistery Cruise' then.
AFAIK they never were in any danger to get into the storm's path. Usually hurricanes move considerably slower than a cruiseship travels and with nowaday's satellite-based weather reports it is easy for any cruiseship to simply be where the storm isn't
The only logistic problem may occur when Port Canaveral is affected by a storm either on departure or arrival day.
We did twelve of our thirteen Florida-vacations during hurricane seanson and were affected by storm only twice. Once in 1999 when we had to ride out a Hurricane Floyd in WDW (near miss) and Tropical Storm Harvey in St Pete Beach (full hit), and Hurricanes Ivan and Jeanne in 2004 (near misses, too).
Floyd kind of spoilt our first cruise as Castaway Cay suffered a full hit and we went to Key West instead.
Ivan and Jeanne resulted in a change of plan as instead of spending three nights to do some scuba diving in Crystal River we spent a night in Orlando close to the airport and then two nights in Savannah, GA.
A week later Ivan came back and shook us a bit while we were in St Augustine, but that wasn't a big bother.
It's the price one has to pay for travelling during hurricane season

 

[pixiehallow]

Just booked our cruise late last night so I am newcomer to the party. So looking for the cruise! This will be our 1st cruise ever and it's just the 3 of us- DH, DS6 and me. Frantically booked flights today, hotel for Fri and added Disney transportation. Now just need to work on the excursions. Still waiting for a room since we went guaranteed balcony. It's a surprise for my DS. I just hope I can hold out!

Welcome to our group Alexle2007

Better late than never.
We have a group page that I will send you an invite to shortly. It has good information about different meets, and all the other on goings for you to catch up on.
Another thing to consider is whether or not you want to take part in the FE exchange. The late comers FE is closing very soon, so you do not have much time to consider it unfortunately. If you decide yes, you will need to contact Pontiuspython this weekend. Also, there is a sign up for it on the group page.
If you have time with all the chaos of planning, take some time to read up on the groups activities and feel free to ask questions. There are several veteran cruisers that are ready to help.
Tink

 

[pixiehallow]

The sign up for this FE is closed


Notice to late comers, contact Pontiuspython. She has volunteered to oversee putting something together for late comers. Her current cut off date is Sept. 5th

I will try to keep the FE at (or very Near) the top of each new page from now until we cruise for convenience.

Break down of groups: (yes, some cabins are in both groups. ..they requested to be)

Group I
pixiehallow
TamaraH
FrozenMinnie
Santam01
JulFromMD + 2
JulFromMD +3
JulFromMD +4
LadyCP
ozdisneyfan
Tiggerlily878
Deb T
Wanderluster25
2Crazygoofies
tatianasuv
Mrs Stevenson
MDennis28
DisneyFan_SD
Texas Lady
crews
Gillilma

Group II
pixiehallow
actnkidz
Mercinursi
jamelynn24
TCCDad
kmronnie3
Contrady family
Santam01
JulFromMD
JulFromMD +1
jbhatch
goofydvc
Tenn
chipmunklove
Jgamy
SinDee
Kprovax
Kprovax +1
Deb T
hng1979
jaimelynn4
Marchetti family
hmhaase
Texas lady
Southern gal
Aussiemickey
Fluffybunnyfeet
Ourfairytalelife
Carpenm3
Larrisje
dancegirl914

48 confirmed

Sub Groups have been sent out...If you are in group I, please remove MickeyFan from your list.

If you want a list of all Cabins, I will be happy to send one to you. All you have to do is ask

~Tink~

 

[pixiehallow]

Attention all group page members:
I just got a call for help from one of our members today. She was hit by the rolling updates Yahoo is conducting.
It is yahoo neo.
I did some looking into it today and found that it is a one person at a time update, and from the reports I hear, it is screwing everything up.
Our group member was having problems accessing the tables and could not add any new info (let alone make any edits).
Reports have said that when moderators are hit, they loose the ability to access any of their groups info.
So, I downloaded all of the current info on the group page for safe keeping.
Also, if this happens to you, (as long as I have not been hit yet) I can make any changes you need. Just let me know. Also, since I have downloaded everything as it is today, I would like to ask anyone making additions or changes to the page to please let me know as well so I can update the files I saved. Thanks for your help.
I just want to make sure all of the hard work that has gone into getting us organized for the cruise is not lost this close to sailing.
Tink

 

[pixiehallow]

This is a call for input from all you Disney World Veterans in the group.

We have never stayed at the Polynesian so I am not to sure about the Disney transportation Options to and from there.

As I had mentioned before, we will be doing down town Disney Friday and then have dinner reservations at the Polynesian for the Luau at 5:15.

We have done the bus transportation and know that we could easily just catch the bus to any resort. But the boys were hoping to utilize more of the transportation options (you know like boat, monorail, etc). We always make time to ride on as many of the forms of Disney Transportation as we can while we are there, but this is a route we have not experimented with yet.

Does anyone have any suggestions on alternate ways to get from DTD to the Polynesian. And if so, how much time should we alot for the route(s) you are recommending?

Thanks in advance for the help.

Tink