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

[LindaBabe]

Big plans brewing at our house. Tonight is the first of my daughters birthday parties. She is having a skating party with 7 friends. Skating, laser tag and a rock climbing wall as well as a visit to Teddy Bear Land(Build a Bear knock off).
I say first because we leave on Friday for her Adoption Group reunion in South Carolina and will celebrate her real birthday with the 4 of the girls that shared the first year of her life. All this for turning 9, can't wait to see Sweet Sixteen.....Wait.....Oh yes I can! !
And speaking of my sweet daughter. She has an ADHD diagnosis. To avoid meds we use dietary methods to deal with it. We avoid white sugar and dairy.She was tested for gluten/wheat sensitivity but had no problems with that. Since she avoids them, we all do because it is just easier. It makes such a difference in her behavior and attention span!(not to mention mom and dad's waistline) As a result we find ourselves eating mainly meat, veggies and fruit. It works out great during the school year but summer we slack. So we have all gained a few lbs and she is a little more 'energetic'. Mid August we will go back to the better way of eating to prepare for school after Labor Day.
OK I have rambled enough to avoid party prep .

I can SO relate to that - ADD my whole life, but not diagnosed until age 50. Ritalin was a godsend for me, but since i've been on this diet, my "brain fog" has lifted and focus improved - I haven't lost my keys in a MONTH! Woo Hoo.

Can anyone tell me about pin trading on the ship? I know there will be times scheduled for this, but how popular is it? I've looked at the starter kits, and it seems pretty expensive to get our four kids started on this if will not really be a big deal on the ship. On the other hand, we don't want them to miss out if it is a popular thing to do. I see we can buy a bigger lot of pins on e-bay, which would probably be the way to go if we do decide to go for it. Any thoughts?

I've always bought a "lot " on ebay - but you want to look for a seller that's got a lot of postive feedback . The CM's outside the dining rooms usually have lanyards, and there will be pin trading nights in the atrium - and officer pin trading. Sometimes they have some good ones.

We just booked this cruise. We were originally booked on the westbound repo in May 2013 but circumstances caused us to rebook on this one.

Shout out to socababy who we sailed with on the Nov 2011 MR cruise.

Welcome ABOARD!

I did it! Just have to follow instructions better, that's all....

Oh, those look like nice soft ones! I'd ditch my dcl platinum for one of those.


My Cartagena tour is now at Capacity. Any further inquiries will be wait listed in case someone drops out. Thank you for your participation.

 

[dededisney]

For those of you doing DCL excursions, what is everyone planning on doing?

We would love to do a ziplining tour in PV, so if they still offer that (I know we have a shorter port time, so don't know if they will offer it or not) we might sign up for that one. Also doing the dis Costa Maya ruins tour, but that is all for now...nothing in Cartegena appealed to me, so we'll see about that one.

We are leaving on Friday for Miami for a week and then on a short 3 night Carnival cruise to the Bahamas...I am going to be very sad if the Dream is in port along side us! I just hope we won't be too disappointed with Carnival since we have always loved our Disney cruises. I'm sure we'll have fun regardless.

 

[Gdes1]

Welcome to our new cruisers!

I just received my copy of "Path Between the Seas". Holy cow! I didn't realize I was going to get a PhD in the subject. DH looked at the book's size and said, "Doesn't Netflix have some documentaries?" (Yes, they do.)

I still plan to read it. I just wish I had more time for reading, like I used to. If I read 10 pages per day I will finish just in time for the cruise!

For excursions, our plans right now are:
PV and Cabo - not booking anything. The plan is to assess kid's moods, weather, and parental energy level the morning we dock and maybe go to the beach for a bit on our own. Given our short time in port, the excursions available for MR sailings might not be available for us, such as Paradise Beach.

Costa Maya - doing ruins tour that Julie is organizing, yay! Really excited for that one.

Cartagena - undecided. Would love to do Rosario islands, but the price, ouch! And I wouldn't do that one on our own due to the real risk of not making it back in time. I need to research this one more and decide if it's worth the price.

 

[LindaBabe]

GOOD Morning, Happy Cruisers!

Cartagena - undecided. Would love to do Rosario islands, but the price, ouch! And I wouldn't do that one on our own due to the real risk of not making it back in time. I need to research this one more and decide if it's worth the price.

ISn't that always the trouble? TOO many lovely choices, too little time.

Currently planning our Fall road trip - Albany NY to Gainesville, FL and return. There are SO many possibilities I've had to make a flow chart with the choices. Has any one here ever been to the Okefenoke swamp? Amelia Island?

Gdes1, you'll be able to get even MORE education on board - they usually have a retired canal pilot on the ship - he'll likely give a lecture every sea day before the Canal, and then do live commentary all day on the passage day.

Happy Day, all!

 

[WVURunner]

Welcome to our new cruisers!

I just received my copy of "Path Between the Seas". Holy cow! I didn't realize I was going to get a PhD in the subject. DH looked at the book's size and said, "Doesn't Netflix have some documentaries?" (Yes, they do.)

I still plan to read it. I just wish I had more time for reading, like I used to. If I read 10 pages per day I will finish just in time for the cruise!

I just started chapter 3 yesterday and they haven't even picked a location for the canal route. So far, I am enjoying the history. Since I have the kindle version, I did't bother to look at how thick it was. I am only at 7% complete. My goal is to read during my lunch break and before I go to bed but I might have to step it up since my DH wants to read it before the cruise . He might be reading it on the plane to LAX!

 

[hedgerow]

I can SO relate to that - ADD my whole life, but not diagnosed until age 50. Ritalin was a godsend for me, but since i've been on this diet, my "brain fog" has lifted and focus improved - I haven't lost my keys in a MONTH! Woo Hoo.

One of our biological kids is ADD. When we were in the process of having him diagnosed the dr said, "There is a good chance one of you is ADD also, since it is hereditary." Hubby just looked at me and smiled. And I do notice some things about myself that could fall in that category.
One thing we found was caffeine is a godsend. When we adopted Serenity from China she was 11 months old and already drinking hot tea. We kept letting her drink it in the morning. I felt like a terrible mom giving her caffeine. As she got older she would sometimes try my coffee. Oh I got some nice looks at the local chain coffee shops(her fave thing was a mocha latte equal parts coffee, hot chocolate and milk) After her diagnosis, when talking about using diet to control her symptoms the dr suggested using caffeine. He said caffeine works the opposite in some cases, instead of being a stimulant it calms. Turns out I was doing something right after all!

 

[LindaBabe]

One of our biological kids is ADD. When we were in the process of having him diagnosed the dr said, "There is a good chance one of you is ADD also, since it is hereditary." Hubby just looked at me and smiled. And I do notice some things about myself that could fall in that category.
One thing we found was caffeine is a godsend. When we adopted Serenity from China she was 11 months old and already drinking hot tea. We kept letting her drink it in the morning. I felt like a terrible mom giving her caffeine. As she got older she would sometimes try my coffee. Oh I got some nice looks at the local chain coffee shops(her fave thing was a mocha latte equal parts coffee, hot chocolate and milk) After her diagnosis, when talking about using diet to control her symptoms the dr suggested using caffeine. He said caffeine works the opposite in some cases, instead of being a stimulant it calms. Turns out I was doing something right after all!

Absolutely! I can have a cup of dark roast and go right off to sleep.

 

[Gdes1]

I just started chapter 3 yesterday and they haven't even picked a location for the canal route. So far, I am enjoying the history. Since I have the kindle version, I did't bother to look at how thick it was. I am only at 7% complete. My goal is to read during my lunch break and before I go to bed but I might have to step it up since my DH wants to read it before the cruise . He might be reading it on the plane to LAX!

Oh, wow, OK. First, I was wrong, I need to do 5 pages per night to finish in time for the cruise. It's not that it's not interesting, it's that I stay home with two small kids and have zero time to myself and 15 things I'd like to do, but at the same time, I'm exhausted by 9pm.

The documentary was not bad, but they spent tons of time talking about the failed tries, the dirt, the dirt, more about the dirt. Then, in the span of 5 minutes, the canal is almost done, has hydraulic gates and, voila! There it is, like magic. We still have another documentary on our Netflix queue.

Linda - I am looking forward to the talks. I hope they offer each of them twice so DH and I can swap going vs. taking care of the kids.

 

[Started With a Mouse]

I'm hoping that we can do this one again.

When will the Port Adventures be open to book? Will the ones that are too long be not available when clicking on them? Still want the Paradise Beach one in PV, but if it's shortened to 2 hours, it won't be worth the effort.

 

[Started With a Mouse]

GOOD Morning, Happy Cruisers!



ISn't that always the trouble? TOO many lovely choices, too little time.

Currently planning our Fall road trip - Albany NY to Gainesville, FL and return. There are SO many possibilities I've had to make a flow chart with the choices. Has any one here ever been to the Okefenoke swamp? Amelia Island?

Gdes1, you'll be able to get even MORE education on board - they usually have a retired canal pilot on the ship - he'll likely give a lecture every sea day before the Canal, and then do live commentary all day on the passage day.

Happy Day, all!

Do you know if they have a separate talk for the kids?

 

[buckeyesix]

We booked the trip!

Now, the passports (for the children). We had our appointment with the passport agent at the library today, and the forms will be in the mail in the morning. We waited in a meeting room while she made some phone calls to make sure we had everything (with internationally adopted children, the paperwork is more cumbersome). Then she sorted the papers, did a bunch of stacking and stapling, verified our IDs, made some copies, filled out her part of the form, stamped the official stamp on the front. And after all this, she said, "The only thing I'm not sure about is that the forms are supposed to be filled out in black ink, and you used blue." ARGHHH!

If she had told us that at the beginning of the meeting, we could have filled out the forms again in black while we waited for her to make her phone calls, etc. We were in the room by ourselves for at least 20 minutes. Plenty of time to redo the forms BEFORE she processed them. Of course, she told us that she couldn't let us redo them right then, because she had someone else waiting for her. If we wanted to, we could make another appointment for a different day. We decided to take our chances.

By the way, we both read through the directions when we got home, and nowhere could we find a mention of ink color. So we should be okay. But still.

 

[LindaBabe]

Oh, wow, OK. First, I was wrong, I need to do 5 pages per night to finish in time for the cruise. It's not that it's not interesting, it's that I stay home with two small kids and have zero time to myself and 15 things I'd like to do, but at the same time, I'm exhausted by 9pm.

The documentary was not bad, but they spent tons of time talking about the failed tries, the dirt, the dirt, more about the dirt. Then, in the span of 5 minutes, the canal is almost done, has hydraulic gates and, voila! There it is, like magic. We still have another documentary on our Netflix queue.

Linda - I am looking forward to the talks. I hope they offer each of them twice so DH and I can swap going vs. taking care of the kids.

All the presentations are repeated on your stateroom television

When will the Port Adventures be open to book? Will the ones that are too long be not available when clicking on them? Still want the Paradise Beach one in PV, but if it's shortened to 2 hours, it won't be worth the effort.

Platinum & Concierge guests can book on August 11. Gold somewhat later - I forget whether it's a couple weeks or a month, and first timers a couple about two or three months out.

Do you know if they have a separate talk for the kids?

Not usually, but they too can see it on the stateroom TV.

We booked the trip!

Now, the passports (for the children). We had our appointment with the passport agent at the library today, and the forms will be in the mail in the morning. We waited in a meeting room while she made some phone calls to make sure we had everything (with internationally adopted children, the paperwork is more cumbersome). Then she sorted the papers, did a bunch of stacking and stapling, verified our IDs, made some copies, filled out her part of the form, stamped the official stamp on the front. And after all this, she said, "The only thing I'm not sure about is that the forms are supposed to be filled out in black ink, and you used blue." ARGHHH!

If she had told us that at the beginning of the meeting, we could have filled out the forms again in black while we waited for her to make her phone calls, etc. We were in the room by ourselves for at least 20 minutes. Plenty of time to redo the forms BEFORE she processed them. Of course, she told us that she couldn't let us redo them right then, because she had someone else waiting for her. If we wanted to, we could make another appointment for a different day. We decided to take our chances.

By the way, we both read through the directions when we got home, and nowhere could we find a mention of ink color. So we should be okay. But still.

Welcome aboard!

 

[ChipperMerlin]

This may seem a bit sad but I have never made a gingerbread house, is this only available for the kids or can anyone get tickets?

We did a Mexican Riviera cruise this past December and another friend and I made gingerbread houses. We said that "termites" ate mine - I'm married to one of the "termites." I took pix each day as the house got smaller and smaller. It was delicious! Because you are not allowed to take the house off the ship, Sandy gave hers to the Guest Services staff. She and her husband were also "termites."

I think you have to go to Guest Services to make a reservation. I am assuming they will do it early in the trip so you'll have plenty of time to eat it.

 

[Cruise]

Speaking of passports....

Mine expires in April. I realize that some countries require you have at least 6 months left on your passport to accept it (I'll have 4 months left on it when we return to Miami). However, I've looked at that list of countries and we're not going to any of them.

That being said, I don't want to be standing at check-in at the LA port and have a CM tell me that they won't accept my passport because it doesn't have 6 months left on it.

That means I should send it off by September 1 at the latest just to be sure that I'll have it back in time to head to LA.

It just annoys me to no end that I'm basically going to be double paying for 8 months of validity on my passport. They really should make the new expiration date 10 years from your current expiration date if you're renewing it within 12 months of that date or something.

 

[ChipperMerlin]

We've made arrangements to go on up to Disney World for a few days, so we could see all the Christmas decorations and go to the Candlelight Processional. Thus, I started checking flights back to San Francisco from Orlando on the 27th. We chose the non-stop on United for $255/person, one way. Even with paying $25 for a suitcase, we'll still beat the Southwest flight prices that ranged between $349 to $394 - with stops at Midway or Denver. Now I just have to hope that United doesn't change this flight!

 

[pharmjenn]

Julie- I just renewed mine and got it back in less than a month, probably closer to 3 weeks. Stupidly, I paid the $140 and got the additional passport card. Didn't even realize I was paying extra, since I had been looking at british passport costs of over $200 to renew, so the $110 vs $140 didn't jump out at me. So now I have a passport card I will never use, but it sure looks official.

 

[dthogue]

We are CC Gold members and the Disney website says we can begin booking on August 26th.

I wish they would post the excursions for our trip so we can start planning and deciding what we want to do. DD wants to do a zip line tour and also horseback riding on the beach.

I like the lanyards - the ones DCL hands out are too thick for me, bothers my neck. I also like the idea of the ID card in the front with our names.

 

[Manon_Paul_Nina]

Tammy, are you looking at the groupsize of the FE already?
I have to start with the FE gifts and im wondering how many i have to make?!?
You want to keep it like this or divide the group in to a bit smaller???

 

[dthogue]

Tammy, are you looking at the groupsize of the FE already?
I have to start with the FE gifts and im wondering how many i have to make?!?
You want to keep it like this or divide the group in to a bit smaller???

At this point, I am not planning on spilting the list into smaller groups. The cutoff date will be Oct 28th for new people to sign up - so there really is no telling the exact number of participants til then. For our gifts, I have been making them as staterooms are added so that I don't have to do them all at once.

 

[skoi]

I'm back sorry for not answering PMs in a more timely manner. Youngest ds came through his surgery okay. Great doctors who are good at managing his post-op issues (he always has infections/ other issues-- if there's a strange and rare complication to any procedure, he gets it), but they're still time consuming.

Our internet has been in and out (more out than in) so this is a rare more than five minutes I can be on the board. Will try to catch up as soon as I can.

Was someone interested in doing a second Palo group? Because there are a handful of people who want to do a group brunch and the first one is filled up.

Julie