Feb. 21, 2004 Eastern Cruise

[Gina]

I have a sailaway meet scheduled too! Did I not get that one on the calendar?? Sunday is pretty much for anyone who misses Friday night or Saturday, because I don't want to miss anyone!

Sailaway meets are fun, everyone is in such a party mood. I was shooting for deck 10, right along that area that looks down on the party area at the Goofy pool. I just can't remember which side, port or starboard. LOL Whichever side is facing the terminal. I'll have lots of bubbles for whoever wants to show up! I just hate being down there in that crushing crowd... *shudders* Much less nuts up on 10. *smiles*

Linda ~ Linking the ressies together is easy! Another DIS'er and I did it last time. How many are in your party? If you want to email me privately, all I need is the name the ressie is under and the stateroom number. The main thing I need is other kids at whatever table I am at, or my dinner will be nooooo fun. LOL

Woody ~ How much were the tins, do you know? Although these days, all I hear about is Bey Blades... That, and Transformers, which has been a long-time love of his. But neither of those travel well.

Gonna be in double-digits soon!!!

-gina-

 

[bassoongirl]

Gina,

I am glad you planned a meet during the sailaway. That will be so much fun! My friends from church left yesterday on their Magic cruise. They are staying in the Walt Disney Suite. I am so jealous! I keep thinking about them, where they currently are, and how we will be there in another couple months!

My son also like Bey Blades. He and his friends sometimes play with them at recess. A friend of ours who has a 10 year old son, just gave my son a huge stack of Yugi-Oh cards. My son was thrilled! I guess the cards he gave us were his son's duplicates. He must have a huge collection!

Gayl

 

[woody64]

Meeting during Sat. afternon sounds good. We will probably be on one of the first buses from MCO. We want to spend as much time as possible on board.

Gina-I just saw Y-O tins for $19.99 at Toys R Us. My boys go thru stages of toys. They occasionally play with their Bey Blades. Current active favorite, besides Y-O are Lego Bionicles. Good thing we'll be in Legoland Sat.

woody

 

[bassoongirl]

Woody,

We are planning to be at the port early too. I think we will take a limo from MCO. It will be cheaper for the four of us and we need to get from the port to MCO by 9:30 on the following Saturday. Our flight leaves at 11:30 am. I know that is cutting it close, but I couldn't pass up the good deal on the airfare!

My son loves Bionicles. I think he has most of them. The newest batch came out just after his birthday last summer. Luckily he got some Geoffrey bucks from Toys 'R Us for his birthday, because I wasn't able to any of the new ones before his birthday. Your boys will love Legoland!

Gayl

 

[Gina]

Ahh yes, the Bionicles... those pieces feel SO good underfoot at 3am. He still yearns for a couple new ones, but for the most part they have fallen from his favor.

Have fun in Legoland this weekend, Woody!!

-gina-

 

[bassoongirl]

I read another thread on this board about the Anguilla Dolphin Encounter. It sounds great! My kids would love it! The only problem is the price. If you book through DCL, the cost is $180. If you book directly through Dolphin Fantaseas, the cost is $140. Either way, it is a lot of money.

Have any of you veteran cruisers heard anything about this excursion? I would be interested in booking directly with Dolpin Fantaseas, if I was certain that we could get to Anguilla and back without big problems. Please let me know your opinions of this excursion.

Thanks,
Gayl

 

[bassoongirl]

Here is an update to my question about the dolphin encounter on Anguilla. I received an e-mail today from Dolphin Fantaseas which said that they are totally booked on the day we will be in St. Maarten. They said that they had an exclusive contract with Disney for the excursion. So, it looks like if we want to do this excursion, we will have to book it through Disney.

Gayl

 

[Gina]

Wow, that dolphin encounter sounds SO neat!! I wish I could afford something like that. I am still completely decisionless on excursions... I just want to get off the ship and go play on a beach for a couple of hours, but still have not had time to compile people's opinions on the different beaches yet, and we did nothing like that on our first Eastern cruise.

I can't believe we're going to be in double digits so soon!

Hey Woody, how was Legoland??

-gina-

 

[bassoongirl]

Gina,

I keep going back and forth on what to do for excursions. Sometimes, I think it would be best to keep things simple (and cheaper) and just spend the days at the beach. Other times, I think we should try to do some kind of excursion involving snorkeling or dolphins or something since it is unlikely we will be on a Caribbean cruise again soon. My kids would love a dolphin and stingray encounter! I am sure it is something they would never forget. However, $180 per person is a lot of money! Oh well, there is still time to make a decision.

I saw my friend from church tonight who stayed in the Walt Disney Suite on the Magic last week. Her family had a wonderful time. She told me I should be counting the days until our cruise, and I told her I already am (103 days!!).

Gayl

 

[woody64]

Hello all:

Back from the whirlwind trip to CA. The boys enjoyed playing in the ocean the day we arrived. We kept them in clothes as it was chilly(water 63 degrees...brrr) but they got soaked and loved it. Legoland was a lot of fun. They both really enjoyed and so did we. Everywhere you turned you saw something incredible. It might be boring though for someone 10 and older.

Then it was off to California Adventure. It reminded us a lot of MGM Studios. It was all decked out in Christmas decorations and all the characters were in their Christmas clothes. They even had a surfin' Santa to get pics with. Soaring over California was awesome(and coming to WDW) and Grizzly River Rapids is much better than Kali River Rapids.

Monday at Disneyland was a mess. The park was packed! We did some of the things we wanted in the morning but mid-afternoon went back to the hotel and swam. At night we saw parade and fireworks. After the fireworks it "snowed" on Main Street which was very cool. Everything was done up for Christmas and looked great, our favorite being It's a Small World. The crowds were so big they extended park hours 1 hour to 11 pm close. Pirates, Splash, Haunted Mansion all had waits between 1-2 hours. My DS(8) even said "This is nuts". This being our first trip to DL we were shocked at how small the castle is. It looks like a normal house.

We stayed at the Grand California Hotel at DL...WOW! It was beautiful. It reminds me of pictures I have seen of Wilderness Lodge. The room was very nice and the best part was location. The GC has an almost private entrance to DCA and a short walk thru DTD to DL. No buses to wait for etc. This was the best part, especially at 9:45 after the fireworks.

We much prefer WDW. We like the open spaces at the parks and between the parks and hotels, even if it means waiting for a bus. We also like having the 4 parks for people to move between. The biggest difference in the 2 parks was the great number of Season Pass holders that attend. They were a lot of the crowd and we have never seen many at WDW. DCA has some better rides but with Soaring coming to WDW that will help. We also like Orlando being 2.5 hours away vs. 4 by air.

All this said it was a fun trip and we were glad we were able to go. We're glad we got to see DCA and DL but prefer WDW. Sorry for the long note but can't wait to see the double digits.

FYI-The only excursion we are doing is a trip thru DCL to St. John. Would love the Dolphin excursion but can't justify the cost.

Bruce

 

[bassoongirl]

Bruce,

Thanks for the trip report about DL and California Adventure. When we were at DL a couple years ago, my kids could not believe how small the castle was either. Too bad about the crowds. Was it extra busy because of Veteran's Day?

We loved Soaring over California at California Adventure too! Even my husband who gets motion sickness, loved the ride. I am glad it is coming to WDW. The CMs at California Adventure told us that Grizzly River Rapids was way better than Kali River Rapids, but after waiting a couple hours to get on the ride (since it kept breaking down), we weren't as impressed as we should have been. Oh well. Did you go on the Ferris Wheel? My huband did not like it at all! My daughter and I loved it! We are thrill seekers!

Tomorrow is Double Digit Day! I will be doing the Double Digit Dance around my home and office. My family can hardly wait to see it!

Gayl

 

[woody64]

Hi Gayl,

Sorry for the long report. We did not go on Ferris Wheel as we were getting tired. We did 3 parks in 3 days. Too much.

Grizzly River Rapids was great IMO. We only waited 20 mins. in the afternoon. Alex(8) was sooo disappointed he didn't get soaked. Later that evening he and I went back to do a little more shopping and maybe ride this ride again. We were lucky(?) because it was walk right on. Of course it only reached the 60's during the day so the evening was chilly, no wonder there was no line. Well, this time we stayed dry again until the geyser near the end started just before we arrived at its location. We got soaked. He was thrilled. So we left and went right back on a second time because we couldn't get any more wet. That's where staying at GC was great. We thought this ride seemed more like a white water ride would be like and going thru the "mountain" was fun. We stopped a couple of times at night but we were on the hill going up so we had a great view of PP and Screamin' CA. They stopped to take cars out so they wouldn't go thru the ride empty.

The crowds were because of the holiday. We talked to some very nice people who lived 30 mins. away and they said some people use DL as a "babysitting" place. Drop the kids off and pick them up hours later. We were amazed.

Bruce

 

[bassoongirl]

Happy Double Digit Day!!!

We now officially have less than 100 days until our cruise! Yay!! I am doing the Double Digit Dance around my office! It is quite a sight!

Gayl

 

[Gina]

WOO HOOOOOO!!!!




I can't believe it... we made it to double digits!!

Bruce, thanks for the report... it sounds like you guys had a great time!

Now everybody go put on some steel pan music and dream of where we'll be in 99 days!!

-gina-

 

[Gina]

LOL... we must have been posting at the same time, Gayl. Great minds think alike!!

-gina-

 

[woody64]

It's great seeing double digits! Let the intense planning begin...well, begin right after Christmas. Too much to do not enough time!

Bruce

 

[bassoongirl]

Uh oh!

Our thread dropped to page 2! We can't let that happen!

Christy, I saw on another thread that you booked your transportation for our cruise through Happy Limo. We are planning to use Happy Limo too. I have read good things about them on the boards and they seem to have good prices. I made a reservation online with Happy Limo on Sunday. It seemed pretty painless. However, I was charged for the gratuity up front. Did they charge you for the gratuity too?

Gayl

 

[woody64]

Gayl,

You read my mind. Last night I checked and saw it was on page 2 and didn't think that was right. Lets hear from everyone and tell how far you've planned ahead/started gathering and packing.

We have pre-night hotel(OKW) and that's it. We know what we want to do but that's it. How's everyone else doing? My money is on Gina for being the most organized as I thought she said she has started to gather things.

Lets check-in and keep the countdown going!

Bruce

PS-Happy Birthday Mickey!

 

[bassoongirl]

Okay, here is what we have so far:

Flights: Spirit Airlines - Arrive in Orlando at 6:40 pm on Friday
Depart from Orlando at 11:45 am
Staying at the MCO Hyatt on Friday night
Transportation to and from the Port: Happy Limo
Excursions: (Tentatively planned)
St. Maarten - Great Bay Beach
St. Thomas - Coki Beach for snorkeling
Items Acquired for Cruise:
1. DCL Tote Bag - from Ebay
2. Living La Vida Mickey CD - to get in the cruise mood!
3. Collapsable Swim Raft - so I can float in the beautiful Caribbean! I used the swim raft this summer and it was great! The only problem with it is I can't get it to collapse to fit into its nice carrying case! I have about three months to figure it out!

Gayl

 

[Gina]

Gayl said:

I made a reservation online with Happy Limo on Sunday. It seemed pretty painless. However, I was charged for the gratuity up front.

Hi Gayl -- I've used Happy Limo for WDW trips before, and have been, well, happy with them. But there was NO way I was paying for a tip up front, and I told them that. I told them I would happily tip the driver at the end, and they took the charge off my quote.


And Bruce said:

My money is on Gina for being the most organized as I thought she said she has started to gather things.

ROFL!!! Gather things? I have things packed. You know, cruise-only stuff that I don't need between now and then. Tyler Dean and I did sit down and go over the list and what is already in the cruisebox and/or packed, to check some things off.

Plans-wise, everything is done. Radisson is reserved, rental car is reserved, all that's left is final payment which will be at the last minute, I'm sure.

As for excursions, I think we're just going to go to Great Bay Beach in St. Maarten, right off the ship, in the morning. Then I can take him back to the lab and go do a bit of shopping by myself. (Hopefully, if I have more than two nickels to rub together by then, heh) St. Thomas, I'm just going to hop off and go get me some more cheap Malibu rum, hit the color-changing t-shirt place again, and go back and enjoy an empty ship.

I'm just ready to go NOW...

And yeah, Happy Birthday, Mickey!!



-gina-