EBPC December 9, 2012!!! Who's in????

[dthogue]

I personally allow space in my luggage for FE goodies and souveniers, it is easy to do as the space that you took up with your FEs to pass out creates it I have also heard of people using what they can on the ship, taking home their most useful or most prized and leaving the rest (any unconsumed candy, etc) in a nice small basket/ cute pile for their room host/hostess and it being much appreciated. I don't know of anyone that was bothered by that, but then I guess they probably never knew. The only negative response I have seen about gifts given on the disboards are when someone tried to sell them on Ebay

I feel that one of the best aspects of the FE is seeing my kids creativity and kindness in putting together special packages for those they will be giving to and I would never stifle these amazing traits We mostly do a simple craft or two (my kids are 4, 6 as of less than a month ago) and stuff that can be used on the trip- I won't give away any details you will just have to wait and see what I mean

We have received some amazing, thoughtful, useful and greatly appreciated gifts that were not consumable or flat/ lightweight. Some were homemade and some were purchased. I am glad that no one changed their minds on what to bring.

Lori,
Very well said!!! I know we take a separate bag with our gifts and that is what we use to bring them home in. On our last cruise we got a ton of candy and we did leave that for our stateroom host. I can't say that we got anything too bulky - I think most people plan their gifts so that they fit into the holder.

UPDATE ON THE FE ​

We are up to 17 cabins!! If you are interested in joining the exchange, check out the first page and PM me your information.

 

[dthogue]

Brenna says thank you - she's busy playing with her birthday present - the Kindle Fire!!! Hopefully it will entice her to read more

 

[JessicasMom]

Unfortunately, Irene had already hammered the Schoharie and Mohawk Valleys and much of Vermont before Lee arrived in New York State.

Yep, now I remember....I knew it was one of those storms but which one...I swear, after 50 the memory took a nosedive! (and I work with the elderly; not thrilled about the future! )

FYI, I periodically check to see if an OGT or VGT rate is being offered, and I noticed that the IGT rate is no longer available.

On other cruises, the GT's have come and gone and come again, as DCL "toys" with us ...but it's not appreciated!!! We haven't booked yet, so I'm hoping the OGT or VGT will be offered, or we'll just have to suck it up and pay more than I'd like. There is plenty of time yet; most GT's aren't offered this early anyway (she says hopefully ).

Where are you? I lived in Mountain Top. My Dad worked in Duryea. My sister who is also going on this cruise still lives in Mountaintop. I am still in shock when I look at the flood pictures and damage. My other sister lives in Williamsport and their house was spared but all of their friends and my brother-in-law's family weren't so lucky. My brother-in-law is a state trooper and he almost didn't make the wedding since he had his hands full. One of my bridesmaids lived in Kingston and they gave up and recently moved to Back Mountain.
Only I would pick the weekend to get married a 100 year flood decides to come along. The good news it that my wedding day was sunny and everyone made it.

And it's finally offical, we are booked!

We're in the N. Pocono area. Funny we've been discussing flooding and Knoeble's....it happened again this weekend, although only in the campground, not the park. Crazy storms and flash flooding in central PA; many campers had to evacuate on the congested holiday weekend. Mother Nature is a witchy woman at times (of course, so am I, if you catch me at the wrong time! ) Glad everything worked out for you...where did you finally have the ceremony and reception? It was on the news this weekend that a lot of the flood "survivors" got together for a block party to celebrate their progress with rebuilding, but the effort continues. Nice to know there will be other sort-of-local folks onboard!

Welcome new cruisers
I haven't been very active on the board or on the Facebook account because I am trying to plan all of my summer craft projects with my kids and keep getting sucked into kid project and crafty blogs during my online time. I have a strong desire to be craftier than my skills allow me to be but I keep trying.

Have you discovered Pinterest? I am completely addicted ! I've found lots of great recipes and gardening ideas, as well as some crafty ones (but I'm not as crafty as I used to be when Jess was young).

Looks like I missed my chance.

I've been away from home for the past 4 months and was going to wait till I was back home next week to try to get ducks in a row and then see about booking. Of course the IGT disappears 3 days before my flight home!

Here's hoping it comes back for a brief appearance sometime in the next few weeks....

Cross your fingers for us all (you're not alone!).

New Cruisers!

 

[Travelbee]

Chakapong or Dee. Anyone with headserver Harry.

Lito was the head server and Julia was the assistant server. Julia said she would be on board for sure. Lito was offered the Fantasy for his next contract but doesn't want to take it so he thought he would be there

Thanks for the suggestion, LindaBabe and bbangel.

GOOD Morning, Happy Cruisers!
What are y'all doing this weekend?

We've been camping in Santa Barbara all weekend and came back to 4 pages of posts to catch up on. At this rate, I'll never have time to go back and read the posts before I signed up!

This will be our third Disney cruise and we have always wanted to do the Panama Canal. We booked the IGT room so we will see what we end up with. We had good luck with booking the GTY room for our Mediterranean cruise aboard the Magic, so we are hopeful this time too. We are excited about our trip and looking forward to meeting everyone.

Our son, Hunter, will be 13 at the time of the cruise and we are from San Diego. He said he didn't care where we cruised as long as it was on Disney. We have cruised with others but Disney is the best and we can't wait.

Were you on the May 15 cruise? Your disname and your son's look familiar and I think we may have met on the train to Rome? I seem to recall you were on the January 2011 Panama cruise and you said you could swing it because Hunter is homeschool?

FYI, I periodically check to see if an OGT or VGT rate is being offered, and I noticed that the IGT rate is no longer available.

What a bummer! We were just telling our friends (and cruise buddies) over camping about it and they were very interested... I was going to wait for DCL to offer OGT or VGT but then didn't want to risk them not offering it and then mising out on the IGT. I guess it was a good decision to take the IGT. Otherwise I'd be all stressed out and checking hourly to see if the OGT/VGT is offered!

Is someone already keeping a list for the FE? Please count us in!

 

[bbangel]

Has anyone made any magnets specifically for this cruise yet? For those up for sharing their creations, I'd love have a (generic )copy of it. I'm not very savvy with photoshop but I'll make sure to post any designs I have the great DIS designers make.

I was just looking for some good designs for this cruise. Anyone created a DIS group logo or have good graphics they want to share?

 

[LindaBabe]

Linda,

What would you consider lightweight and not bulky? I know I was thinking of something in particular if I did get to go on this cruise and participate in the FE... it's consumable, but not necessarily on the cruise... so it would be going home with people.

I feel like I'd have to play 20 questions to try to figure out if things are appropriate without giving away what the gifts are. "Is it smaller than a breadbox?" One of our favorite ways to pass the time on long trips when we were kids. This would definitely be smaller than a breadbox. But maybe slightly heavier than a deck of cards.

What were some of the things you got on your last cruise that seemed a bit too bulky?

Smaller than a breadbox is good! Smaller than a coconut is better small as a deck of cards would be super. I can't say more than that without the possibility of offending someone on one of my previous cruises

I could, however, give you a long list of favorites though, and still be forgetting half the stuff. stickers, bandaids, a tiny bottle of salt from the great salt lake, glow sticks, cd's (both music and used as a magnet), candy, tiny packets of nuts, pens, pencils, key chains, magnets, sticky note pads, highlighters, wet ones in individual packets, charm thingy's for the bottom of a wine glass, crystal light individual packets, hand made necklace thingy's , phone charms, a box that came folded flat and carried drinks from the drink station. die cuts, punchies, origami, clever verses, pictures drawn by kids, a chalkboard (but it was light and thin and came with chalk), can cozy, caribiners, water wallet, ribbon, pirate flag, small blow up beach ball, post cards from hometown, postcards from destination, postcards made by the giver, you get the idea.

Linda, I can't remember if you were in one of my groups or not but I hope my FE wasn't too bulky to bring home!

.

No, dear. I have yours. That's why I haven't been specific - who knows when one of the givers might be lurking.

I personally allow space in my luggage for FE goodies and souveniers, it is easy to do as the space that you took up with your FEs to pass out creates it I have also heard of people using what they can on the ship, taking home their most useful or most prized and leaving the rest (any unconsumed candy, etc) in a nice small basket/ cute pile for their room host/hostess and it being much appreciated. I don't know of anyone that was bothered by that, but then I guess they probably never knew. The only negative response I have seen about gifts given on the disboards are when someone tried to sell them on Ebay

I feel that one of the best aspects of the FE is seeing my kids creativity and kindness in putting together special packages for those they will be giving to and I would never stifle these amazing traits We mostly do a simple craft or two (my kids are 4, 6 as of less than a month ago) and stuff that can be used on the trip- I won't give away any details you will just have to wait and see what I mean

We have received some amazing, thoughtful, useful and greatly appreciated gifts that were not consumable or flat/ lightweight. Some were homemade and some were purchased. I am glad that no one changed their minds on what to bring.

I'm Sorry - I clearly offended you and it wasn't intentional. I appreciated everything I was given, no question about it. I took photos of all of it. But I could not bring home some of the larger items. Outbound, I shipped a box of my heavy but consumable gifts to my hotel in California, but that is not an option for the return trip when one goes directly to the airport. We had to buy an extra suitcase, as it is.

I joined all the FE groups because I wanted to GIVE to everyone, never thinking about what that meant in terms of receiving I had to abandon a shopping bag full of stuff.

Also, I can tell you I'm not alone, in that either. Last year we were visiting friends in Puerta Vallarta on the WBPC - and I thought I'd take them my excess FE stuff for the kids. Two friends also gave me theirs - I delivered a huge shopping bag weighing at least 25 pounds.. . including the magnetic notepads and pens that I had put in their fes!. That's when I switched to consumable.

This trip, I'm not joining the FE exchange. However, a few little outbound gifties might sneak into my suitcase on the way to California.

 

[LindaBabe]

GOOD Morning, Happy Cruisers!

Holiday is over and it's back to school work and the gym, for those of us who go to any of the above - AND another day closer to our cruise.

Thinking about holidays and "close" - How are you planning to deal with the winter holidays this year, given that we won't be home until two days Christmas (I don't know when Hanukah falls)? What 'traditions' will you simplify or leave out altogether? What will you do in advance?

Happy day, all!

 

[dthogue]

Is someone already keeping a list for the FE? Please count us in!

Connie - check page one - you can PM me you info to be added to the list

 

[BethC1952]

GOOD Morning, Happy Cruisers!

Holiday is over and it's back to school work and the gym, for those of us who go to any of the above - AND another day closer to our cruise.

Thinking about holidays and "close" - How are you planning to deal with the winter holidays this year, given that we won't be home until two days Christmas (I don't know when Hanukah falls)? What 'traditions' will you simplify or leave out altogether? What will you do in advance?

Happy day, all!

Good morning! It was back to work this morning, and it's boiling in here. The condenser for our air conditioner broke, and won't be repaired for several days. It's already 86 degrees in my office. So I'm sitting here thinking about my cruise to nice, cool Canada coming up in less than two weeks!

We just decided to move our holiday plans to New Year's weekend. We celebrate Christmas with DH's family, and they were more than happy to agree. It seems that they're planning a "surprise" party for our 40th anniversary, which is that weekend (SIL had to tell me because we never spend NYE with them) and they couldn't figure out how to convince us to go there two weekends in a row, since it's a three-hour train trip each way! Now they can make their plans, I promised I wouldn't tell DH, and we're all good to go.

Beth

 

[socababy]

GOOD Morning, Happy Cruisers!

Holiday is over and it's back to school work and the gym, for those of us who go to any of the above - AND another day closer to our cruise.

Thinking about holidays and "close" - How are you planning to deal with the winter holidays this year, given that we won't be home until two days Christmas (I don't know when Hanukah falls)? What 'traditions' will you simplify or leave out altogether? What will you do in advance?

Happy day, all!

I will definitely have xmas shopping done by the end of Thanksgiving week. I've already told the kids that this cruise is a huge chunk of their xmas presents so I don't plan on buying too many. At least I am hoping with less time I won't go overboard like I do every year. I will have the tree up and decorated as well as the lights on the house. My oldest (ds9...go figure! He is still a believer!) did question whether we would be able to go see Santa and let him know what they wanted for xmas. Other than the normal things, we don't have too many traditions. I have found that I somewhat run from the holidays since Dh died instead of embracing them. THat's why this cruise comes as such a great time!

 

[bbangel]

My mom and I bought supplies for our FE gifts today! I hope they turn out as good as we hope And no worries they will be light and should hopefully be easy to take home

For the holidays we don't do a big family meal anymore so it should not be too hard to manage. We will likely do more for New Year's this year instead.

 

[Chernabog#1fan]

Hello,

My family and I have been able to confirm getting the time off for the cruise, so now we are just waiting to officially book it, but we will be booking it. My daughter will be 13 and my son will be almost 10. My daughter would like to Email with the other girls who will be her age. How do I go about setting that up?

 

[goiu]

GOOD Morning, Happy Cruisers!

Holiday is over and it's back to school work and the gym, for those of us who go to any of the above - AND another day closer to our cruise.

Thinking about holidays and "close" - How are you planning to deal with the winter holidays this year, given that we won't be home until two days Christmas (I don't know when Hanukah falls)? What 'traditions' will you simplify or leave out altogether? What will you do in advance?

Happy day, all!

We aren't doing a big Christmas this year, either. I'll have all my shopping done before Thanksgiving. We have both sides of our family coming the week of Thanksgiving and then the week afterwards. So, we'll decorate and have everything ready before we leave. We won't get a tree this year for the inside and just put one outside instead. Since we won't have anyone here this year it will be weird just being the 4 of us. The cruise is a big present for us too. So, hopefully I can control my spending for the kids.

 

[Moby]

Hello,

My family and I have been able to confirm getting the time off for the cruise, so now we are just waiting to officially book it, but we will be booking it. My daughter will be 13 and my son will be almost 10. My daughter would like to Email with the other girls who will be her age. How do I go about setting that up?

My dd is 13, but she'll be a 14 year old 8th grader at cruise time. You can PM me with your daughter's email address if you want Moriah to correspond with her. I'm not sure if she'll chose to be in Edge or Vibe since 14 year olds get to choose one or the other as their club for the cruise.

 

[LindaBabe]

GOOD Morning, Happy Cruisers!

Thunderstorms here yesterday afternoon - pretty wild - i'm sure there'll be a mess to clean up this morning.

We always have dinner on Christmas for a bunch of 'strays' like ourselves with no family around. Fortunately, I can leave the grocery shopping list with my spouse, so all I'll have to do is execute, when I get home. When he was in the military, Christmas used to mean hundreds of cookies, and dinner for sometimes a couple dozen, when we hosted all the single airmen we knew on our base in Germany. I still yearn for those days even though it's been nearly 3 decades since. December feels lonely and empty for me, so DH, who will be skiing by then (he hopes), compassionately enabled me to go on this cruise.

Looks like we have a bimodal distribution of kids - either 'littles' or 13 year olds! How many tweens and young teens are there, anyway? What fun for them all to have chums in their age groups.

Ok. Off to the gym. GOT to take off that excess tonnage from the last cruise. Then meet my lawyer for breakfast, and grocery shopping after that.

Happy day, all!

 

[yucaipagal]

I plan on having all shopping done by Thanksgiving- fingers crossed- and will try to not leave out too many traditions as my kiddo are still small. I will probably have us go look at Christmas lights once instead of multiple times and lessen the baking to just cookie decorating and goodies for the neighborhood, and we may have to cancel our "country christmas" that we always attend in our local apple picking town Oak Glen, but other than that I will try to touch on most of our traditions. I am excited as we will be going to the Grand Canyon to kick off our Christmas season this year with a ride on the Polar Express. It was scheduled for the same time we will be on the cruise, but I was able to reschedule no problem

My mom on the other hand may be a bit more stressed as she always hosts our big Christmas meal at her house and it will be a bit hurried this year. At least she will let my sister and I help out more this year, as we have been trying to take some of the pressure off for several years now and she has slowly been relinquishing a couple of beloved dishes to us

As for Hannukah- we celebrate that too, as my hubby was raised Jewish and I don't want to lose some of his traditions- that is the first week of the cruise. We don't do the gift giving portion that many who celebrate do, but light the menorah and play dreidel. I hadn't honestly realized the timing until the earlier post mentioned it, so I will have to talk to my hubby and see what he suggests....we'll see about that one until it gets closer

I am excited to see the ship decorated and do the gingerbread houses- we normally do the large gingerbread men so the houses will be fun for my family

 

[yucaipagal]

Ok. Off to the gym. GOT to take off that excess tonnage from the last cruise.

Happy day, all!

Good for you

I still have not removed mine from our cruise in March, or last May...or having my first child 6 years ago I hope to remove some before this cruise so my current clothes will fit by the end

 

[dthogue]

Hello,

My family and I have been able to confirm getting the time off for the cruise, so now we are just waiting to officially book it, but we will be booking it. My daughter will be 13 and my son will be almost 10. My daughter would like to Email with the other girls who will be her age. How do I go about setting that up?

Welcome

my DD is 14 and would love to correspond with your DD - I will send you a PM with her email address.

 

[WVURunner]

Ok. Off to the gym. GOT to take off that excess tonnage from the last cruise.

I hear ya on the excess tonnage from a last cruise! I got off the Fantasy this month and I weighed myself before and after. And even though I worked out every day on the ship, I was not happy with my number! I lost weight for my wedding in September and then I was training for a marathon. After the marathon, I let myself go a little. So my goal for this cruise is to be down a dress size and 15 lbs. My company is sponsering a fitness and weight loss challege starting in June so I am hoping that will help.

I am not sure we will be decorating for Christmas. It is just me and my husband and we go else where for Thanksgiving and since we will be in FL right before Christmas, we will be spending Christmas with my family in Tampa. I plan on mailing the gifts down before we leave for the cruise. Our gift to each other is this cruise. I am not sure what my sister is going to do with her two still believing kids.

 

[BethC1952]

GOOD Morning, Happy Cruisers!

Thunderstorms here yesterday afternoon - pretty wild - i'm sure there'll be a mess to clean up this morning.

Good morning! One not-so-happy cruiser here...still no A/C here in the office, and it's still hot and humid here at the Jersey shore. We had no rain at all yesterday (although it was promised by the weatherman) and the humidity just keeps climbing.

I was looking at the webcam for Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia, where I will be in two weeks. Those lucky people were wearing JACKETS! That means that it must be cooler and less humid there!

I love the hot weather, and I really don't mind the humidity since I've been around New Jersey's hot, humid summers all of my life. I just don't like being stuck indoors with no way of cooling off. It's just much too hot to think in here!

Have a wonderful day, everyone!

Beth