Feb.4,2006. Who else is sailing?

[skylynx]

Well, with less than a week to go, I consider us totally "on the approach".

Marcy and others, thank you all so much for your concern. I can't tell you how much this upcoming cruise has helped ease some of the sadness we are feeling...I know I'm not the only person to lose parents close together, but somehow I feel like a big part of my history has been erased. The cruise will be a chance to sort through some of my feelings and try to get my heart light again.

Today we went to Target for the ceremonial purchasing of sunscreen and underwater cameras. Then John and I headed to the basement, put the Disney Cruise Line DVD on the downstairs telly, and actually finished packing. This exercise included some pretty amusing wrestling with the space bags. Somehow I don't recall the people in the Space Bag infomercial clambering ungracefully all over the bags, kneeling on a bit of dog bone (ouch) or having the air blow out both ends of the bag whilst trying to cram four gowns, six pair of shorts, pirate costumes, and a Ritz Carlton bathrobe into it.

I'm glad John finally got around to introducing himself. He is a Brit, but not so proper as he likes to think he is, especially since he's gone a bit wild living in the states these past few years. We met a little over five years ago when we were both taking a Disney Institute business class (AKA Junket Extraordinaire). He remains my very, very best Disney souvenir. We got married at a ranch outside Las Vegas nearly two years ago, but made it back to Disney for part of our honeymoon. It was important to return to the scene of the crime.

Dee...thanks for your picture posting advice. Hopefully we'll crack it before everyone leaves for Florida!

I've said it many times, but truly mean it when I say it will be such a pleasure to meet everyone. Long live virtual communities!

 

[steveandtonya]

Next time the Magic leaves Port Canaveral, we'll be on it. Hope everyone has a safe trip to the port. We start the drive down about midnight Tuesday night. Supposed to take about 20 hours. Looking forward to meeting everyone at the party in Bill's suite saturday afternoon and around the ship. GO STEELERS!!!!!!!

Steve, Tonya, Delaney (10), Zachary (9).

 

[yachtsea]

Hey Everyone!

Things have been busy. I am starting to go through the pile of stuff I have been putting aside for the cruise. I am looking for a new pair of shoes and the stores have nothing. This is not a good shopping month as everyone is sitll trying to clear out the very picked through and a little spring stuff is trickling in. I am thinking the mall at Cocoa will be a good place to look.

Tomorrow I am gonna actually put things in a suitcase. But...I still have papers to grade and lesson plans to get done for my sub. Always something, and for my "Real job" of being an adminstrative assistant in the school office I have registration for next year starting Monday morning. AAAAAAAHHHHH!

I saw the post earlier about the Space Bags. I bought some of those 2 gallon zip loc bags to use for certain items. I used to put my kid's clothes in ziploc bags when they were little even at home. Items that went together were put together. It sure saved on wrinkles, space and matching. So I have been using them for years for travel. I really do like the bigger ones they are making now.

The weather in Charlotte has been nuts! We basically have had no winter. I am one that enjoys a good cold snap, so I hate the weather lately. You always start with cold in the morning and then by the afternoon it is warm.

Well, can you believe we are a week away? Around 5:00 today I told my youngest daughter who had stopped by that I would be about to sail next week at this time. WOOOHOOO!

I have been reading that most people are very pleased with the new check in process at the port. I am wondering if it is best to still get there so early. I know that many have said it is best to get there at about 10:00. Of course, we will be so excited it will be fun to get there and just soak it all in. We still have to arrange for our shuttle to come and get us.


Looking forward to meeting you all.

Debi

 

[MarcyIn Florida]

I'm glad John finally got around to introducing himself. He is a Brit, but not so proper as he likes to think he is, especially since he's gone a bit wild living in the states these past few years.

Ah, I hope i didn't embarrass him by calling him out on his heritage! Funny enough, the case that has me at the office 20 hours a day (including now) has me in constant contact with various British witnesses and barristers. My dh's mother is also a Brit, with all of her family back in Essex, so dh and John may have some things to talk about off the bat. (<----- I think it's a bride, but kind of looks like a barrister)

 

[Billinaz]

Next time the Magic leaves Port Canaveral, we'll be on it. Hope everyone has a safe trip to the port. We start the drive down about midnight Tuesday night. Supposed to take about 20 hours. Looking forward to meeting everyone at the party in Bill's suite saturday afternoon and around the ship. GO STEELERS!!!!!!!

Steve, Tonya, Delaney (10), Zachary (9).

Gonna be interesting how many people fit into the room! This really grew, and its not that big!

The biggest part for me is the kids getting to know each other!...

 

[Solome]

Alright, I'm off to Home Depot - with my list - Thanks to everyone on this forum for all of the great information for us newbies

 

[MarcyIn Florida]

Is anyone going on one of the Trunk Bay excursions?

We'd love to do this, but it looks like the only DCL one is a snorkel tour for ages 5 and up, so we can't go (dd2 is almost 3).

We've never done a DCL excusrion for this exact reason -- I don't want my kids to grow up too fast, but I would like to do an excursion some day soon!

 

[dee47]

Is anyone going on one of the Trunk Bay excursions?

We'd love to do this, but it looks like the only DCL one is a snorkel tour for ages 5 and up, so we can't go (dd2 is almost 3).

We've never done a DCL excusrion for this exact reason -- I don't want my kids to grow up too fast, but I would like to do an excursion some day soon!

We're doing the Trunk Bay excursion at 7:40AM. It's a shame you can't take your DD -- I would have thought you could just play on the beach and skip the snorkeling...

 

[skylynx]

Hey, Marcy...we're going on the Trunk Bay Snorkel and Beach tour...there may still be room, as I've heard spaces are reserved for folks who can't/don't try and sign up until embarkation day.

Door Sign Junkies...
...we stumbled upon a fabulous idea (some of you probably already figured this out long ago, but it was an epiphany for us). Two years ago I bought the DCL 12"x12" souvenir photo album and a DCL scrapbooking kit with all the cool decorated papers and themed cutouts and stickers. Not surprisingly, it was still sitting in its wrapper waiting for us to do our 2004 cruise. Well, we figured we'd use two sheets of the 12x12 paper for our door signs...the first one with our DIS names and this cruise date on it, and the second with sort of a collage of our family. We used the stickers and borders along with some photos and other stuff. Now here was our big "a-ha!" moment...we figured after the cruise, these will fit right into the scrapbooks and become our title pages! We can do this on future cruises, too, and therefore have a way to "save" our door signs in an easy way.

 

[Billinaz]

Seems Ive been outvoted!


My wife does not want to go to Palo that early (10)... we have ressies for later that day....


Maybe someone else wants that spot?

 

[Johnna_Story]

Seems Ive been outvoted!


My wife does not want to go to Palo that early (10)... we have ressies for later that day....


Maybe someone else wants that spot?

Dude - it's YOUR birthday; shouldn't you get to do what YOU want?!

Just kidding - hope you enjoy whenever you go.

 

[skylynx]

Hello all...

So much progress has been made:

1. Door signs are completed and laminated at Kinkos for 6 usd.

2. Pirate costume assembled and tested

3. Tuexdo at the dry cleaners - pick up on Monday

5. Time to finish the packing

cheers

John

 

[jblb1020]

Well my parents surprised me Saturday night and they are now joining us on the Disney Cruise!! I can't believe that its this weekend!! I am so looking forward to just getting away. We are leaving Friday at 11am and can't wait to meet everyone!!! How are we going to get through this week, the excitement is killing me!!!

 

[Johnna_Story]

Well my parents surprised me Saturday night and they are now joining us on the Disney Cruise!! I can't believe that its this weekend!! I am so looking forward to just getting away. We are leaving Friday at 11am and can't wait to meet everyone!!! How are we going to get through this week, the excitement is killing me!!!

How fun for you!!! Great opportunity for babysitters. We will see you on Saturday! I know - I can't believe it...

 

[Impala]

Ah, I hope i didn't embarrass him by calling him out on his heritage! Funny enough, the case that has me at the office 20 hours a day (including now) has me in constant contact with various British witnesses and barristers. My dh's mother is also a Brit, with all of her family back in Essex, so dh and John may have some things to talk about off the bat.

Absolutely not a problem, I look forward to meeting you and talking with you.
I was born in Oxford just before they finished Stonehenge. In fact, I remember as a kid it had the scaffolding still on it when I visited it on a school trip.

As Denise has already mentioned we met on a Disney Institute Business course. On my joining instructions for the 4 day programme, it said, this course “will change you life”. Once again the Disney touch worked on us and how right they were. These courses were designed to tell you the secrets of the Disney magic, and included such items as quality service, creativity, leadership and customer loyalty. Part of the ice breaking process was to have interviews with several of your class members, and that’s how we met.

I make the claim of booking the first Disney Cruise as a surprise for Denise as we have been hooked ever since.

Apart from Disney Cruises, and all other things Disney - we both still cry over the loss of the Tapestry of Nations Parade., our interests are:
We have a couple of horses we ride, we love to travel and drink wine.
Our favourite spots apart from Disney theme parks are Las Vegas, Monterey Ca, wine country, Jackson Hole. WY.

See you soon

John

 

[skylynx]

I know we are fast running out of shopping days 'til cruise time, but had to share that we got some great pirate jewelry at the clearance sales at JCPenney, Kohl's and Value City (midwest phenomenon). They had great ugly chains with fakey gold coins and clinking bits of unidentifiable metal shapes, along with some equally perplexing arrays of rawhide, dullish silver bits and what I can best describe as warthog teeth. It was pretty evident why these items were never sold as "jewelry," but as pirate accessories, they are brilliant! The cost for these treasures ran from about two dollars for the warthog teeth thing to just under five dollars for the scary tri-chain dangler John will wear.

We dress up for the Renaissance fairs here in the Flatlands, so we had some medieval residuals that doubled up as pirate wear. We were laughing ourselves silly during the full dress rehearsal for Pirate Night last night. Fortunately, none of this stuff takes up much space in the luggage, so we'll be well appointed to shiver our own timbers.

I've been watching the weather for sailaway...it is improving. Two days ago solid rain was predicted, now the forecast is for chance of scattered thunderstorms with a 40% chance of precip Saturday (according to weather.com, anyway). And since the weather forecast is better on either side (Friday and Sunday) we at least have a shot at decent (non-raining) weather for sailaway. Weather is looking good for our ports of call, too. And to my extreme pleasure, for once we are NOT supposed to have the snowstorm of the century coinciding with our departure time at the airport.

John's tuxedo is back from the dry cleaners, and we are now ready to "seal'em up"!!!

 

[dee47]

I was born in Oxford just before they finished Stonehenge. In fact, I remember as a kid it had the scaffolding still on it when I visited it on a school trip.

I like you guys very much! Dinners should be a fun event this cruise! And I believe you're just down the hall from us stateroom-wise.

we both still cry over the loss of the Tapestry of Nations Parade.

ME TOO!!! I miss this parade soooo much!

Can't wait to meet you!

 

[dee47]

I was debating whether to post this because I'm trying to keep up a happy face, but my kitty had to be euthanized today, and I'm really hurting. He was 14, with 2 types of cancer going, but doing fairly well until this weekend, when he took a nosedive. I'm supposed to finish this ton of work before I leave Wednesday, and I have to finish last minute packing, and really all I can do is sit here and cry. My pets are my kids as much as my DS is, and I miss Max so much.

He was obviously very patient with my son...

 

[skylynx]

Oh, Dee...we know what you are feeling. We lost a beloved old golden retriever a few months ago, and my 24 year old horse last year. Both had to be euthanized, and giving the go ahead for that awful decision is one of the hardest thing an animal loving person ever has to do. When I had to have my horse put down, a neighbor and friend said "it is the last loving thing you do for them." It didn't help much at the time, but now I realize in exchange for all the unconditional love they give, you simply cannot let them suffer to postpone your inevitable pain of their loss.

Guess I won't be the only one needing that Disney healing...please know my heart grieves along with yours, and that I understand the depth of your sadness is not diminished because the love you lost had four legs instead of two.

Denise

 

[yachtsea]

Skylynx,
Those were some of the kindest words I have ever heard in regards to the decision about a pet.

Dee - I am so sorry for your loss. I know that it hurts. Cal and I had to make that decision for our Silky Terrier we had until he was almost 17. He grew up with our girls and it was a hard decision to make. However, he was in a lot of pain.

I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers that you will be able to get your work done and get everything ready for the big trip.

Our oldest daughter just called on her way to her house and asked what I was doing. Well, packing of course and stressed a little. She had absolutely NO sympathy for me whatsoever. She and her husband love cruising so there is a bit of jealousy springing up.

Now that I am looking at these dressy things I am feeling like I don't really want to bother. So, I am not sure what I am gonna bring now. I so badly don't want to have to make a lot of decisions while away. Relaxation - here we come.

Hey - did anyone else have a hard time concentrating today?

Debi