**Fantasy Becomes Reality** Group--5/19/2012 (INDEX/ROLE CALL, PAGE 1--ENTRY 1)

[donaldsgal]

Hey, everyone, the Fantasy is in port today. I think today is the first Eastern Caribbean sailing for her. You can see her here: http://www.portcanaveralwebcam.com/. I think the camera switches back and forth between the Fantasy and the other ship in port (the one with the fireworks graphic on the side - not sure which line owns that one).

Also, I read on this thread that tipping will now be automatic. I'm still learning about this, so I can't totally say how it will work. I saw that kimistry6 posted on the thread. I'm not totally a fan; I don't like a company assuming I'm going to have great service and deciding the tip for me, so we'll probably talk to the agents at check-in about this so that we have the ability to tip what we want, based on service. What do the rest of you think? Oh, and here's the thread: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2913421 (already quite long for having been started yesterday).

We got our cruise documents yesterday, too!

 

[Elaine Dragonlady]

Hey, everyone, the Fantasy is in port today. I think today is the first Eastern Caribbean sailing for her. You can see her here: http://www.portcanaveralwebcam.com/. I think the camera switches back and forth between the Fantasy and the other ship in port (the one with the fireworks graphic on the side - not sure which line owns that one).

We got our cruise documents yesterday, too!

Norweigan sun owed by norweigan cruise line

 

[kimistry6]

Hey, everyone, the Fantasy is in port today. I think today is the first Eastern Caribbean sailing for her. You can see her here: http://www.portcanaveralwebcam.com/. I think the camera switches back and forth between the Fantasy and the other ship in port (the one with the fireworks graphic on the side - not sure which line owns that one).

Also, I read on this thread that tipping will now be automatic. I'm still learning about this, so I can't totally say how it will work. I saw that kimistry6 posted on the thread. I'm not totally a fan; I don't like a company assuming I'm going to have great service and deciding the tip for me, so we'll probably talk to the agents at check-in about this so that we have the ability to tip what we want, based on service. What do the rest of you think? Oh, and here's the thread: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2913421 (already quite long for having been started yesterday).

We got our cruise documents yesterday, too!

My biggest concern for us with the auto tipping is that we bought gift cards to pay for everything. If we charge something to the kttw card and the tips are charged at the same time, it will be a bit of a hassle to get our credit card reimbursed to use the gift cards. I do like the automatic charging though. I went to guest services at 4 am to avoid standing in a line to pay for tips last year. This eliminates that as long as we are ok with the suggested tip amount. I'm interested to hear other opinions as well.

 

[Pirategirrrl]

I'm kind of catching up on the last several pages, but just popped on real quick to ask for prayers... My little cousin (high school) was in a really bad accident a few hours ago and was life flighted to Akron Children's Hospital where she is in surgery now... This is the article-- she's the one on the stretcher. Kind of scary to see a pic like that and know who it is Please send some prayers her way...

I hope she is doing better

Thank you all for the prayers a while back for our Uncle Tony. Unfortunately his improvement was short lived and unfortunately he passed away tonight. We're frantic here trying to find a flight for my grandmother to fly back to MA/CT from Orlando in time for the wake/funeral. Unfortunately its spring break in the Northeast and finding a flight that is nonstop is really a problem.

Please keep us all in your thoughts we will get through this but we will definitely miss him.

I'd just put her in our car and drive her up there and drive back down here but its Finals next week and I can't. Had it been any other time in my semester I'd skip school and do it but I can't and it stinks.

So sorry to hear of your loss

 

[barbreis]

I have been trying to keep up with all the posts but work has been so busy lately. I have 3 weeks left until this trip begins because I leave on May 12 for Orlando. yayy!!!

My thoughts are with those who have suffered family loss or illness/injury - I hope everyone is doing okay.

I also have fe gifts for each family - I'm not necessarily very creative so I had to start early. I need to get things to do fe and gift bags for my gifts this weekend since I am running out of time now.

I know people were asking about the excursions that have been booked - I am doing the Rib Boat on St Maarten and Trunk Bay on St John. This is my 3rd trip to St Maarten and 4th trip to St John so I had to look for different things to do. I love both places though. One excursion that is a lot of fun on St Maarten is the America's Cup Yacht - my friend and I did that a few years back and it was a blast!

I do purchasing/accounting for the federal government - nothing too exciting (which is how I like it).

Looking forward to meeting up in 4 weeks - I will have access to my email the week before the cruise so I will keep an eye out for a meetup time on sailaway day.

Take it easy everyone and see you soon!!!

Barb

 

[LivingtheWDWdream]

Ok bear with me as I work through this maybe someone can help clarify and explain it to me.

When you check in you either give a credit card or a specified amount of cash for charges you make on the ship. As you charge things to your room account they are added to your folio. If you hit a certain amount (why does $500 sound familiar) they either ask you to put down more cash, or they charge your credit card for the charges that are on the account up to that certain amount. Every time you reach that limit they do that. Any charges at the end of the cruise that haven't been charged previously would be charged to the card on file or you would have to settle the bill before leaving the ship.

Is that correct?

If so, with the automatic tips are those added to your folio for your ship charges? or do they just charge it to whatever form of payment was given when you reserved the cruise?

Reason I am concerned is that we are paying cash for everything put on our on board folio as we don't like coming home to debt we have to pay off. Plus this forces us to limit our spending (we'd over spend otherwise). We plan on giving the recommended tips if not more given how well we've been helped on previous cruises. So for us its fine but we just need to know how they work this tip thing.

Not a fan of automatic gratuities being added to bills before services are rendered but it is what it is so we will have to just figure out how this works and plan accordingly.

 

[5Dreamers]

Thank you all for the prayers a while back for our Uncle Tony. Unfortunately his improvement was short lived and unfortunately he passed away tonight.

Please keep us all in your thoughts we will get through this but we will definitely miss him.

We send our condolences. You are all in our thoughts.

Thanks everyone for your well wishes! Hannah went back to school today and was her usual self tonight when we Skyped, so I'm confident she's on the mend! Your kindness is very appreciated!

So glad she is getting better!

I'm kind of catching up on the last several pages, but just popped on real quick to ask for prayers... My little cousin (high school) was in a really bad accident a few hours ago and was life flighted to Akron Children's Hospital where she is in surgery now... This is the article-- she's the one on the stretcher. Kind of scary to see a pic like that and know who it is Please send some prayers her way...

So sorry to hear about your little cousin's accident. She is in our prayers.

 

[5Dreamers]

I was checking prices on our car rental and came across a deal on the one-way from Orlando airport (MCO) Friday May.18to Cape Canaveral (CC5) return Saturday May.19 through Budget. Origianally we had rented a car, but the Minivan is on sale for $30.99 + tax (or $27.89 for Executive costco memebers).

I don't know how long this price will last, but if anyone else is driving from the airport to the port, you may want to check it out.

 

[Case1096]

I was checking prices on our car rental and came across a deal on the one-way from Orlando airport (MCO) Friday May.18to Cape Canaveral (CC5) return Saturday May.19 through Budget. Origianally we had rented a car, but the Minivan is on sale for $30.99 + tax (or $27.89 for Executive costco memebers).

I don't know how long this price will last, but if anyone else is driving from the airport to the port, you may want to check it out.

Awesome find!!! We are in for 2!

 

[Case1096]

Also, I read on this thread that tipping will now be automatic. I'm still learning about this, so I can't totally say how it will work. I saw that kimistry6 posted on the thread. I'm not totally a fan; I don't like a company assuming I'm going to have great service and deciding the tip for me, so we'll probably talk to the agents at check-in about this so that we have the ability to tip what we want, based on service. What do the rest of you think?

We don't mind the automatic tips, we've been doing it for years on other cruise lines. You can always go to guest services and opt out of the automatic tips. We also like it cause it charges directly to our credit card so we get the reward points out of the additional purchase, not to mention it is coded as travel so we get even more rewards! Only one time did we opt out of auto tips. That was because we did not eat in the main dining room. We tried it the 1st 2 nights and our waiter was just terrible, really not understanding that we had a child under the age of 1 who would not sit for that long. We tried explaining it to him but he just didn't get it when we asked for our food a bit faster (we were sitting at a table for 2). Anyway, our room steward on that cruise was excellent, he even brought us a lobster dinner one night on our balcony. So we gave him and his assistant double tips!

 

[Elaine Dragonlady]

Three weeks today we will be winging our way across the Atlantic for our pre cruise break, and most importantly, happy reunion with our daughter Elisa and her husband Terry. Now I'm going to be terribly English and (hopefully) watch Manchester United consolidate their position at the top of the English Premier League ( football/ soccer).

Elaine

 

[Boomerang4]

Guys, check out these great scans of the full menus from the MV. This gal got them uploaded perfectly. There appear to be a lot of old favorites included and some new options as well.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B91BqzFbpQVPcWNSVEphdEJkc2s/edit

OK all, which is your favorite menu??

I would vote for the Captain's Gala, with Prince and Princess and Pirate night taking second and third respectively.

--------------------

Elaine, sorry about the draw today. And good luck with the derby with Man City. must have been a difficult day for you.

---------------------

I read on DISboards that in Remy you have an option of paying for a wine pairing with the tasting menu.

Has anyone done this?
Do you recommend it?
What was it like?

 

[dlf246]

Guys, check out these great scans of the full menus from the MV. This gal got them uploaded perfectly. There appear to be a lot of old favorites included and some new options as well.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B91BqzFbpQVPcWNSVEphdEJkc2s/edit

OK all, which is your favorite menu??

I would vote for the Captain's Gala, with Prince and Princess and Pirate night taking second and third respectively.

Wow. Great link, Boomerang4! The items do seem like the official ones posted on DCL. Or do you think the menus will be slightly different on the non-MV cruises??

 

[carouselkr]

Guys, check out these great scans of the full menus from the MV. This gal got them uploaded perfectly. There appear to be a lot of old favorites included and some new options as well.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B91BqzFbpQVPcWNSVEphdEJkc2s/edit

OK all, which is your favorite menu??

I would vote for the Captain's Gala, with Prince and Princess and Pirate night taking second and third respectively.

--------------------

Elaine, sorry about the draw today. And good luck with the derby with Man City. must have been a difficult day for you.

---------------------

I read on DISboards that in Remy you have an option of paying for a wine pairing with the tasting menu.

Has anyone done this?
Do you recommend it?
What was it like?

Thanks for the menus link...great job, whoever did the scanning of those menus...I am most happy to see some of my personal favorites from the Disney Dream still there, as well as lots of new items that I look forward to trying. Not sure what my favorite menu is, because, well, I just love something on every one LOL

As to Remy, we dined there on the Disney Dream in January, and we did do the whole shebang of the wine tasting menu. There were 2 different meal options, so DH ordered one and I ordered the other. There was an item on his that was tomato, which he hates, and the waiter just traded our items for that course, so I ate his and vice versa. Everything was delicious! The service was great! By the time we got to the 4th wine, however, we really were not in need of more wine, and probably did not appreciate that as much. The cheese board was amazing, with so many selections that by time they got to the last one, we forgot the first few! We joke that the bill for that meal cost more than the cruise!! The meal started at $75 per person, then adding the whole wine tasting menu added about $125 more per person. It was a great meal, and fun to do ONCE! But, IMHO, we get just as nice of a meal doing the similar experience at the Flying Fish on the Boardwalk, for less $$!

 

[nonni]

We would be interested in 3 adult sized bracelets. I wonder if it would be faster to just order plain green ones, without an imprint. Just a thought, I know we are getting down to crunch time.

 

[Boomerang4]

As to Remy....

Thanks Kathy, this was helpful. I guess you can decide on the day, which just may be what we do, but it's helpful to hear about someone else's experience.

 

[bookite]

I've been mia so lots to catch up on...

yes Tyber is a boy sorry it took me a while to answer my pm on that, lol!

We also have a competitive gymnast, all us southerners, lol! We head to al on sat for aau districts.

Third, dh looked into bracelets tonight. The company he found has three sizes and we can do just "fantasy becomes reality" or we can do that with a Mickey head. W/o the Mickey head the bracelets are approx 35 cents each (that's ordering 200) with the Mickey head they are approx 45 cents each. The site is reminderband.com we have 10 people in our group and we are in as well. With them being silicone we could just leave them on all the time.

We will be dressing up, the kids in tux or suits (depending on if tuxs still fit from last year) and formal dresses but dads in suits.

I will be running cc 5k and I'm super excited for the bib and "medal"! This will be my third race, I've done a 5k and an 8k.

What Else...? I am speaking at a luncheon on we'd to 80+ women so I haven't started fe stuff. Once that's over I will jump in with both feet. I am an event to event person, I have to focus on what is breathing down my neck "right now" before anything else, lol!

Screename is actually dh's it's the phonetic spelling of our last name. I go by msbookite everywhere but here and dh is Bookite, I kinda stole this board from him, lol!

Lara

 

[barbreis]

If we get bracelets, I would be interested in 1 adult as long as it isn't latex or neoprene. Let me know how much to give someone if we order.

Barb

 

[JohnPA]

So I looked at our group size and it looks like we would need about 200 adults and 100 youth the total would be about $180.00 ish?

Susan:

We'd be interested in 2 adults if we go for them. I don't know what the tally is now, but if we (YOU!) decide to order, I think if we doubled the 'confirmed' number, we (YOU!) could sell the rest on board to those that didn't see the posts on here. PM me if you want to discuss.

John

 

[JohnPA]

Third, dh looked into bracelets tonight. The company he found has three sizes and we can do just "fantasy becomes reality" or we can do that with a Mickey head. W/o the Mickey head the bracelets are approx 35 cents each (that's ordering 200) with the Mickey head they are approx 45 cents each. The site is reminderband.com we have 10 people in our group and we are in as well. With them being silicone we could just leave them on all the time.

Lara

Lara:

Are you working with Sues14 on bracelets? Just wondering.