Eastern Caribbean Fantasy Oct. 5, 2013

[Deb T.]

Boy, when I read our posts, it really makes me think I need to start packing before October 3rd!

We are usually completely packed a full week prior to any trip. For me, it takes away all the last-minute stress and sets the tone for a nice, relaxing vacation. I'm the same way with the Christmas holiday... I buy and wrap gifts throughout the year so that by the time December arrives, I can relax and enjoy the season!

 

[alagille]

We are usually completely packed a full week prior to any trip. For me, it takes away all the last-minute stress and sets the tone for a nice, relaxing vacation. I'm the same way with the Christmas holiday... I buy and wrap gifts throughout the year so that by the time December arrives, I can relax and enjoy the season!

But, I'm a list maker. Once it's on the paper, it's out of my head and as good as in the suitcase! We are still using some of the items we take with us, so it would be tough to pack it all away. (stay's less wrinkled too). Yep, that's my procrastination story and I'm sticking to it!

 

[Viking]

But, I'm a list maker. Once it's on the paper, it's out of my head and as good as in the suitcase! We are still using some of the items we take with us, so it would be tough to pack it all away. (stay's less wrinkled too). Yep, that's my procrastination story and I'm sticking to it!

So am I - I have checklists for all kinds of vacations:
-Cruises
-Diving trips
-Hiking trips
-City trips
-Club vacations

Some of them are more than ten years old and have evolved a lot with the time.

 

[goofydvc]

We only have 4 more weeks to wait.

 

[pixiehallow]

As I was getting everything ready for the distribution of FE's, I came across an awesome site. You can enter the decks you want a map of and create PDF's of them.
Here is the site:
http://www.cruisedeckplans.com/DP/Main/decks.php?ship=Disney%20Fantasy
I will post this on the group page later as well.

 

[Viking]

Good news! Two of the four tropical waves have already faded out. The two remaining tropical waves only have a 20% chance of formation. There have been over two dozen tropical waves off the coast of Africa already this summer, and only a couple of them gained enough strength to be called a tropical depression. And, TS Gabrielle is now a "post-tropical depression", meaning she will be just a pesky rain storm in Mexico soon.

For anyone who would like to follow tropical weather systems as we get closer to our cruise, here is the best website: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ We live on the east coast, in an area very prone to hurricanes, so I check this site daily from early May through the end of October.

I'd much rather be on a Disney cruise than at home during a hurricane. The captain will move the ship well out of harms way, whereas at home, we always end up with lots storm damage and loss of electricity for days each time a hurricane blasts through here.

Here's hoping for smooth sailing October 5-12!

That's the same link I posted some weeks ago
After experiencing Hurricane Floyd at WDW in 1999 and seeing its path of destruction in the Caribbean a few days later on our very first cruise we became very aware of the weather in that area and have used that website ever since to get a feel fo the situation.
We also went through a full hit by TS Harvey in the same year and had encounters with Ivan and Jeanne in 2004 - not exactly fun, but kind of exciting for us Europeans as we don't have extreme weather situations like that back home.

 

[Viking]

Update on the weather:
There's a low pressure system situated between Western Africa and the Cape Verde Islands that has a probability of 90% to become a tropical cyclone within the next five days. It's name would be Humberto then.
No threat for the cruise, even though it may hit some of our Ports-of-Call - and if it lives long enough it may affect our flight across the Big Pond, but it's far too early to lose sleep about that

 

[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~

 

[tatianasuv]

Haven't been able to go on the yahoo page since my laptop is broken. Trying to make the best of it till I can get it fixed!!

 

[Deb T.]

Haven't been able to go on the yahoo page since my laptop is broken. Trying to make the best of it till I can get it fixed!!

Yikes! It's a bummer that your laptop is broken!!! We just had to replace mine last December, so I can empathize with your predicament.

Is there any info from the yahoo page you need that I could send to you in a private message through the DIS Boards? I'm more than willing to help!

 

[pixiehallow]

Yikes! It's a bummer that your laptop is broken!!! We just had to replace mine last December, so I can empathize with your predicament.

Is there any info from the yahoo page you need that I could send to you in a private message through the DIS Boards? I'm more than willing to help!

I was going to offer the same thing. I can also send it directly to your email if you need it. Just let us all know.
Tink

 

[Viking]

I did Anja's ESTA today and now we're only waiting for the letter from DCL.

 

[pixiehallow]

JulFromMD, I got a message from the Yahoo telling me that your email was not working. Messages I sent through the group page to you are bouncing back. Could you please go to the group page and send me a message by finding Pixiehallow in the members list and select 'send an email'.
I want to make sure I have all of the emails in order so I can get all of the cabin # spread sheets out to the FEer's the week before the cruise.

 

[pixiehallow]

Lea,
If it is not to much to ask (I know you are getting ready to head to the states soon), could you please put a quick letter together for all of us taking part in the crazy plane beach excursion.
Include things like meet time and place, how payment will work (do we pay you, or the guide), what you know as far as scheduling goes, and anything else we may need to know.
If you don't have time, could you shoot me a message (it does not have to be neat and ready for the group) with any information we all need, and I can get something put together.
That way we can print it, or load it on to a device we will have handy (saving you the time it will take to answer the same questions 30 times over).
Thanks again for taking care of this for us.
Tink

 

[PontiusPython]

The Latecomers FE Sign Ups are officially CLOSED.

I hope everyone who wanted to join got in!

- Candace

 

[Viking]

Humberto is now alive and kickin'.
It's still just a tropical storm, but will most probably be a hurricane by Wednesday.
The good news: Presently it doesn't look like it will hit the area we're covering during our cruise. I guess we'll know more by next Sunday.

 

[JULIERB]

Here goes, I am going to ask all my stupid questions today and get it over with, and please bear with me if this has already been covered:
Viking,
How did you win a cruise? Bingo? Just curious. rolleyes:

My main question is regarding transportation to and from port. We always fly in a day in advance (due to a really, really bad experience on our honeymoon). Then we end up having a rental car. We have parked the rental for the entire week at a hotel. The hotel parking was "free" (or at least covered in the room rate) and the hotel operated a shuttle to the port, again for free. However, it just seems awfully wasteful to rent a car just to park it for a week. And then there is the concern that it might be stolen/wrecked/vandalized, etc. We have also rented a car at the airport and turned it in at the port and then rented again when we returned. We did this in Miami. The car rental agencies ran shuttles to and from port before and after. This was a bit more stressful and surprisingly not really much less expensive.

So I'm wondering what experience others have had. I'm assuming the car rental agencies also run shuttles at the Port Canaveral. Is this the case? Does anyone have other ideas or tips?

 

[mrs stevenson]

Ok so crystal heard back from disney re mixology. Disney have dived the group into two smaller groups which are as follows-

Mickeys demented group 2pm-3pm
Crystal and Trent Rachetto room 7681
Alison and Craig Stevenson room 7158
Jennifer and dale Anderson room 8174
Dodie and Eric auglis room 7156
Lisa Garcia gty
Ded and al auglis gty
Kris brown room 8675
Carrie tucker room 8677
Debbie Libya room 6172
Cindy Hammond summer room 12524
Tamara and Kyle Hight room 7580


Mickey Mouse club 4pm - 5pm
Christina and josh area room 6180
Nancy Tate dibbs andnrobert room 6652
Leslie and Shaun Kirkby room 8066
Tracy and Steve Blake room 2012
Tiffany and brad Thornton room 9045
Chuck and Cheryl Room 6510
Karen Kelly and Christine contrary room 7040
Padilla and Paula cala room 7530
Santiago morales and Tammy voraz room 554
Viking and wife


Both are booked for October 7th which is a sea day. If anybody wants to swap groups about etc they will need to do this via guest services onboard.

Just wanted to say a big thank you to Crystal ( disneyfan_SD) for taking the time to organise this for us. It should be a lot of fun.

 

[Viking]

Doing the document dance
Today our baggage tags and our docs arrived.
Now we have everything and are ready to go. 18 days total til we leave, twelve days of work left.

 

[mrs stevenson]

Oh and I forgot to say it will be held in the skyline bar.