Feb. 21, 2004 Eastern Cruise

[av01bps]

How long are we on the small boat to St. John for the Trunk Bay snorkel? Has anyone snorkeled with a six year old?
Thanks
Amy

 

[whytcrystal]

Hi all- I read all of the posts here and on the group board. Let's see if I can cover the important stuff.

Gina-
Yes to 8pm on Friday by the pool. Yes to PL after the drill (great idea!!).
Gayl-
Emailed you Cayla's email address.

We have now added another to our entourage. That makes 14.

For excursions:
In ST most of us are doing the Barefoot Cat S&S. The others are doing the St John Island Tour.

In SM - Most of us are doing the under 2 flags tour.

In CC - DS is parasailing at 11:30. I wanted to but am barley walking because of the RA and don't want to chance losing the $$ if I have a bad day. The Dr. put me on new Meds today that will take 2-3 months to work. Soooo, I figure I will leave it up to fate and if the morning of CC I am having a 'good' day I will see if there is an opening. If there is no opening I will just enjoy knowing my son got to experience the thrill.

NOW THE IMPORTANT QUESTION FOR HEATHER> Is DMB scheduled to be on our cruise?? We saw them in Sept of 2002 and absolutely loved them!

 

[bassoongirl]

Amy,

I have no idea how long the boat ride to Trunk Bay is. However, given that the whole excursion lasts 4 to 5 hours and we get 1 1/2 hours on the beach, I'm guessing the boat ride is about an hour each way. We did a similiar excursion to St. John when I was in seventh grade (a long time ago!) and I remember the boat ride being a lot of fun!

By the way, where in the Detroit area do you live? We live in Plymouth.


whytcrystal,

My daughter, Katie, is looking forward to exchanging e-mails with Cayla.

Gayl

 

[av01bps]

We're in Bloomfield. We have a first and third grader- what are you bringing to the cruise party?

Also we have a 4 year old and one year old.... how "fun" will our meals be????


OOOH saw the DCL on Travel Channel! Big fun.


Veranda Man sent a FABULOUS postcard to the girls. What a great guy!!
Amy

 

[Gina]

Amy -- are you doing early or late seating?? I have a second-grader, and he would love to have other kids his age at the table. Maybe I could get him to stay through the whole meal that way. We are already sitting with another DIS'er, Linda, and her son who is a bit older, so we could have a regular DIS party every night at dinner!

I can't believe we finally have Christmas behind us... time will fly now for sure!!

-gina-

 

[av01bps]

We are doing early seating- for 10 people! Well, Andy is one, but still a person! I think we will be having "big family dinners" but can't imagine that once my girls make friends that there won't be table hopping!

Hannah is 8 and in third grade, Kate is 6 and in first grade.

I am sure we'll all have fun together!

 

[bassoongirl]

Amy,

I don't know what to bring to the cruise party except for bubbles. Do you have any ideas? A while ago, Gina mentioned she might make our whole group DIS name tags. Now with the numbers in our group growing, that might become a big job! A couple months ago, I picked up four of the Mickey Alien Green paint samples at Home Depot. I can use them to make name tags for our family to ease the load on Gina!

My son, Ryan, is in the third grade too. There seem to be a lot of kids in the 6 to 9 years-old age group.

Gayl

 

[Gina]

*chokes*

The nametags... I totally forgot about the nametags... cripes, I had better get on that!!

I can't do anything fancy... just lime green foam-cor in a Mickey shape... but they will be a good way to recognize each other. Please, if you'd like one, just post how many you need here and the first names. And I will try really really hard to get them done.

As for the party, I am also bringing bubbles, and a few glow bracelets. The kids always love those so much. And they sell them on the ship, but you can buy 5 of them at Walmart for what on costs onboard. Of course. I am going to try and order some from Oriental Trading Co. real soon here, because that is even cheaper than Walmart if I go that route.

-gina-

 

[whytcrystal]

Gina-
I will take care of the tags for the 14 of us. Does anyone know what the name of the paint color is at HD?

 

[woody64]

Hello gang,

Gina, I will take care of name tags for my crew but thanks for the offer. I have the paint chips from Home Depot. I think the color is Alien Green but they have several that are close to the bright green.

My 8 yr old Alex(3rd grade) and my 5 yr old Cam(Kindergarten) are bringing some Yugi-Oh cards to duel others with. Who else is bringing these? I have limited them to 1 "deck" each. Would anyone like the kids to email each other before the cruise?

Nice to see more people joining and it is going to be great.

Bruce

 

[av01bps]

I'd be glad to share emails with other kids to write to our girls. Neither of them are into Yu Gi Oh. Hannah likes mythology and Kate's into everything (when one is six...). Tell me more about the sail away party. We can get 50 glow bracelets at Oriental Trading for $39.00. Schlepping them is the issue, but I'd rather spend the extra $$ on the "drink of the day!"

We are thinking of not taking Kate (age 6) snorkling. What other excursions are there on St Thomas- Has anyone done the beach day?

Is there shade?

On the Trunk Island snorkel, has anyone seen or experienced kids deciding snorekling is NOT for them... and then you're stuck out there.... hmmm

Mommy Needs Coffee!
Amy

 

[bassoongirl]

Gina,

I will do the name tags for our family too. Like I said, I already have the paint chips and I don't want you to stress out about name tags when there are so many other things to worry about for the cruise!

Woody,

My son, Ryan, is planning to bring a deck of Yugi-Oh cards too.

Amy,

I think on the Trunk Bay excursion you can just hang out on the beach and not snorkel. So your daughter wouldn't be forced to snorkel if she doesn't want to. When I went to St. John back in seventh grade, my mom chose to spend the time on the beach and not snorkel. I can get some glow bracelets for our family. Getting 50 bracelets for $39.00 is a great deal, but I agree about not wanting to schlep them down to Florida!

Gayl

 

[Gina]

Hey Bruce -- You know Tyler Dean is bringing his cards. And the Gameboy. Now he's just mad at me because I won't let him bring his Bey Blades -- he had visions of battling tops right there in the terminal while we're waiting.

Email penpals would be neat! His email address is tylerdean@houston.rr.com.

My minor coup of the weekend -- Walmart had the Kodak Max 800 speed film 4-pack on sale for $8 and change, and I had a $2 off coupon that was about to expire. That 800-speed is usually so much more than the 400, around $9 or $10. I was very happy.

Tyler Dean has grown SO much in the past year, I'm worried now that none of his shorts are going to fit. I did find him some tank tops and bathing suits in the next size during last summer's closeouts, but no shorts. Of course down here, they start putting shorts and stuff out in January, so maybe I'll still be able to find him some things.

-gina-

 

[bassoongirl]

My son Ryan's e-mail address is: ryan_parr@earthlink.net
He is nine years old and likes Yugi-Oh, Bey Blades, Bionicles, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and his Gameboy.

My daughter Katie's e-mail address is: katie_parr@earthlink.net
She is 12 years old and likes ice skating, softball, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and reading.

It would be fun for the kids to exchange e-mails before the cruise!

Gina, my son Ryan got a remote-controlled Bey Blade from his grandmother for Christmas and loves it! Katie and Ryan will definitely bring their Gameboys with them on the trip, but no other toys except for the Yugi-Oh cards.

That's a great price for film! We are taking our digital camera on the cruise. It takes beautiful pictures outside, but the flash doesn't really work, so any pictures taken inside don't usually turn out. Bummer! I may bring our regular camera to get inside shots. We are also getting disposable underwater cameras too. We bought one for our last cruise and it worked great while we were snorkeling and took really good pictures out of the water too.

Gayl

 

[av01bps]

Hannah and Katie use my email (we just haven't set one up yet for them.) I started a thread about my "what if we miss embarkation" nerves... it's amazing how many people have strong opinions on these forumns... I didn't book the trip, so I kind of have no vote! I am however, inundating my family with trip tips.

 

[Gina]

I would just take the strong opinions as caring... many people have been through situations like that, and just hope that by sharing their thoughts on it they can prevent someone else from going through the same thing. I would really, really seriously consider changing your own tickets, regardless of the hassle or cost. As someone said, coming from Detroit, I wouldn't even fly in the day before -- I'd make it two. No way in a gazillion years would I even fly in the day of, much less cutting it so close time-wise. We want you to make it to the DIS meets with us!!

Gayl -- that's so funny!! Ryan's "like" list could have been written by Tyler Dean, every part of it. He's very jealous that Ryan got the remote-control Bey Blade, though. He wants that bad. *smile*

We're both huge LoTR freaks -- you'll have to hear TD do his Gollum impression. He's got it down so perfect, it's creepy.

Has anyone seen that Limbo Elmo?? Ohmygosh, that is the cutest thing... my little cousin got it for Christmas, and I wanted to steal it. Elmo's in a little Hawaiian shirt and flip-flops, and he actually limbos back and forth under a pole you hold, singing all the while. I want to bring one on the cruise and just put him in the middle of the dinner table. He's adorable.

Anybody get anything new and exciting for the cruise lately?

-gina-

 

[bassoongirl]

Gina,

My whole family are LoTR freaks too, except for me. I like the movies, but I couldn't get through the books. I love to read, but I am not a big fan of science fiction or fantasy. Ryan got this really cool Legolas action figure for Christmas. His bow even shoots toy arrows!

This weekend I picked up a couple more things for our cruise (but they aren't very exciting!). I bought a set of bungee watches at Office Max for half off. They are small watches on an elastic wrist band. I got them for my kids so they can keep track of time on the cruise. I think these watches will be easier for them to wear than regular watches. I, personally, am getting a new battery for my Mickey Mouse watch! I also bought a small bottle of room fragrance at Bath & Body Works. I read another thread that recommended the spray for the bathroom.

Amy.

My husband and I went on a Carnival Cruise over New Years a couple years ago, and our plane was delayed leaving Detroit due to weather. We got to Orlando very late. Since the plane reservations were made through Carnival, they did thankfully hold the ship for us. For this cruise, we did not book our airfare through Disney because it was so expensive, so we are flying in on Friday evening. I agree with Gina. If you can somehow fly in earlier that may be a good thing. It is tough to change travel plans with a large group though. At least with your group, if you all miss the ship together, you will have an adventure getting to the ship in St. Maarten! I wouldn't worry about the strong opinions of other DISers. Some people do offer friendly advice and others can't understand why people wouldn't follow their "expert" recommendations!

Gayl

 

[Gina]

Just had to share this... someone on the Passporter boards who is sailing Feb. 5th already got their docs a few days ago! So we won't be far behind!!

-gina-

 

[bassoongirl]

So...Does that mean we will be doing the "document dance" soon? I can't wait! My family thought I was nuts when I did the "double digit dance"!

Happy New Year!

Gayl

 

[Ms. Linda]

WOW! there sure are a lot of new people on the list.

Well my DS was looking over my shoulder and saw the countdown. He ran to his room to count the days out on the calendar. He jumped up and down all the way back, announcing that Feb. 21 is not summer. OK I misled him earlier. I am sure that at least everyone at Junior High, if not the whole parish, will know within the week that we are going on a DISNEY CRUISE.
DS is 11 and can be reached at my email address for now.

Happy New Year.

Linda