Feb.4,2006. Who else is sailing?

[Billinaz]

I went to book at 105 days out.

I noticed that the site opened later than I thought, and it was a little at a time.. not all at once.

After a full day though, I had the kids registered for the clubs, PALO and a couple of excursions reserved.


We are going to do a little snorkeling this trip. We booked the parasail for the kids to do at 10:30 (we have to go tandem with them) and our 10 year old girl is already talking like she may back out. It will be be somewhat boring for me after 2500+ skydives under my belt.....

We will be at table 31, call and request 32, I think it will hold all of you. I can call and get a specific rotation if you want to try to get together, maybe getting Animators the first night?

 

[mark_story]

Well,

I guess that, despite what Disney said, the deadline for making reservations was 3:00 EST, not 12:00. Got up (tired and slightly annoyed) this morning and managed to make our Palo's and spa treatment reservations without problems.

So the system works, just not at the time that they said.

Anyone else make their reservations last night?

Mark

 

[steveandtonya]

We will have to wait until the 15th or 16th when we are finally paid up. Disney told me the other day that there should not be too much trouble getting what we want.

Steve

 

[dee47]

So I booked stuff last night -- couldn't book the CC Eco Tour, and I called DCL this morning -- they escalated it to a supervisor who has to research it...They're not sure why, after booking the Cabana Massage, the system blocks me out of the Eco tour (there is no time conflict). Otherwise, the only other bummer was that I couldn't book the Cabana Massage for me and Kat at the same time slot -- so one of us will lie on the hammoc in Serenity Bay for an hour while the other gets a massage, then we'll switch...Tough life, I know...

I had to wait until midnight my time, unlike what I was told on the phone by dcl.

I think they have some bugs in the system...

But I got St Maarten and St John all set, and Palo Monday Morning (couldn't wait!) and Thu. night (I'm hoping Pirate Night is still on Tuesday...)

I'm tired, but overall happy.

 

[sbatty]

With all of our reservation madness I don't think we welcomed Billinaz to our thread.

My DS would love having a friend in the club. He will be almost 8 when we cruise. I am still debating if I am going to put him in the club with our DD (will turn 6 on the cruise) or put him in the lab. He votes for the club. Is your youngest in K or 1st grade?

 

[Johnna_Story]

So I booked stuff last night -- couldn't book the CC Eco Tour, and I called DCL this morning -- they escalated it to a supervisor who has to research it...They're not sure why, after booking the Cabana Massage, the system blocks me out of the Eco tour (there is no time conflict).

I'm sure it's not a glitch in the system - obviously Disney was concerned about how much you were booking and therefore spending oh so much, and really, they just want to save you some money. They care, they really really care.

 

[TigerB]

Hi everyone,

I finally made it over to this thread to join, introduce ourselves, and meet all of you. Here's our story:

We (DH and I) are taking our first cruise ever...which will be on the Magic 2/4 with all of you. We bought DVC this past year after selling our house, making a profit, and moving from MA to NY. So, we are thrilled to be DVC owners. I have been on the DIS boards for about 2 years but don't post too much. I am an obsessive planner and we are in the final planning stages of the trip that will culminate with us on the DCL with all of you.

So, here is our trip details and who we are:

DH and I (both 28 yo) have no kids. We wanted to get pregnant this year, but HAD to wait till after this trip in Feb 06 because I didn't want to be limited on anything for this dream trip. So, DH and I have meticulously planned this trip with my stepdad (56) and are taking my mom on this trip as a *SURPRISE* 50th birthday gift to her. We are so excited. That's one of the reasons we bought DVC was to be able to pull off a trip like this (and have great vacations to boot here on out every year). So, we will do 1 week at DW staying at Grand Floridian Mon - Friday before the cruise. Sat 2/4, we start out 2nd half of the trip - the cruise with all of you. It is the first time ANY of us have cruised (unless you want to call my Marine husband's 6 month on a military ship a cruise) and of course, our first DCL experience.

We've done pretty well with our planning so far. For example, for our WDW stay, we already have booked breakfast at CRT with Cinderella, and an Illuminations cruise. By the way - will anyone else be in WDW the week prior to sailing? We might offer up spots on our Illuminations Cruise to offset the cost of it...

Anyway, we would like to meet other DISers, if there are parties, pub crawls, whatever. We can't wait! So, if there is a list of room #s, we would be happy to be on that. I have to check our materials at home, but I think we are on either deck 3 or 6. We put my mom and stepdad in a navigator's verandah suite and we are in a regular inside stateroom across the hall from them. They aren't really the partiers, but DH and I can be.

So, since we are not repeat cruisers, like all of you, we can't book our reservations yet. They told us we had to wait till 75 days out which puts us at Nov. 22 - the week of Thanksgiving.

We will book Palo for dinner and brunch...maybe also for Tea. DH and I are scuba divers and will be doing one of the Scuba excursions. Is anyone else? We will also book the Submarine excursion at St. Thomas.

We can't wait to see mom's face when we go on this trip. She thinks she is going on a rinky dink WDW trip for a few days and then to her INLAWS in FL for the 2nd week. She doesn't know we are going on the trip, has no idea we are staying at GF, and has no idea about DCL! We are so excited that sometimes we want to spill it to her to get her excited. She will be blown away.

Anyway, we just wanted to introduce ourselves. We would be game for a Palo group brunch, so include us as 4 adults. We are not sure what night to have Palo dinner -- since we want to watch Superbowl, and want to dress up for formal night, and want to go to pirate party. So, I am not sure what night that leaves us. ?? Oh, we are on the 8pm dinner rotation since we don't have kids. Lastly, we were thinking about having Palo dinner on SUnday before the superbowl, since we have 8 pm seating, that we thought if we did Palo, we could have like a 5 or 6 pm dinner and go to Superbowl afterwards (instead of being at 8 pm regular dinner rotation). Does anyone have any advice on this? not sure when Formal night is, but I think people say it's Monday night and Tue is pirate party. Any advice would be great.

Sorry to get long-winded. But I had a lot to say since this is a 1st for us!

Thanks ~

Stacey & Tim (plus DMother and DStepdad)

 

[steveandtonya]

Welcome Stacey and Tim and Staceys folks. You are going to have a magical time. My wife would live on the ship( if I could afford it).

Steve

 

[mark_story]

Hi everyone,

I finally made it over to this thread to join, introduce ourselves, and meet all of you. Here's our story:

We (DH and I) are taking our first cruise ever...which will be on the Magic 2/4 with all of you. We bought DVC this past year after selling our house, making a profit, and moving from MA to NY. So, we are thrilled to be DVC owners. I have been on the DIS boards for about 2 years but don't post too much. I am an obsessive planner and we are in the final planning stages of the trip that will culminate with us on the DCL with all of you.

So, here is our trip details and who we are:

DH and I (both 28 yo) have no kids. We wanted to get pregnant this year, but HAD to wait till after this trip in Feb 06 because I didn't want to be limited on anything for this dream trip. So, DH and I have meticulously planned this trip with my stepdad (56) and are taking my mom on this trip as a *SURPRISE* 50th birthday gift to her. We are so excited. That's one of the reasons we bought DVC was to be able to pull off a trip like this (and have great vacations to boot here on out every year). So, we will do 1 week at DW staying at Grand Floridian Mon - Friday before the cruise. Sat 2/4, we start out 2nd half of the trip - the cruise with all of you. It is the first time ANY of us have cruised (unless you want to call my Marine husband's 6 month on a military ship a cruise) and of course, our first DCL experience.

We've done pretty well with our planning so far. For example, for our WDW stay, we already have booked breakfast at CRT with Cinderella, and an Illuminations cruise. By the way - will anyone else be in WDW the week prior to sailing? We might offer up spots on our Illuminations Cruise to offset the cost of it...

Anyway, we would like to meet other DISers, if there are parties, pub crawls, whatever. We can't wait! So, if there is a list of room #s, we would be happy to be on that. I have to check our materials at home, but I think we are on either deck 3 or 6. We put my mom and stepdad in a navigator's verandah suite and we are in a regular inside stateroom across the hall from them. They aren't really the partiers, but DH and I can be.

So, since we are not repeat cruisers, like all of you, we can't book our reservations yet. They told us we had to wait till 75 days out which puts us at Nov. 22 - the week of Thanksgiving.

We will book Palo for dinner and brunch...maybe also for Tea. DH and I are scuba divers and will be doing one of the Scuba excursions. Is anyone else? We will also book the Submarine excursion at St. Thomas.

We can't wait to see mom's face when we go on this trip. She thinks she is going on a rinky dink WDW trip for a few days and then to her INLAWS in FL for the 2nd week. She doesn't know we are going on the trip, has no idea we are staying at GF, and has no idea about DCL! We are so excited that sometimes we want to spill it to her to get her excited. She will be blown away.

Anyway, we just wanted to introduce ourselves. We would be game for a Palo group brunch, so include us as 4 adults. We are not sure what night to have Palo dinner -- since we want to watch Superbowl, and want to dress up for formal night, and want to go to pirate party. So, I am not sure what night that leaves us. ?? Oh, we are on the 8pm dinner rotation since we don't have kids. Lastly, we were thinking about having Palo dinner on SUnday before the superbowl, since we have 8 pm seating, that we thought if we did Palo, we could have like a 5 or 6 pm dinner and go to Superbowl afterwards (instead of being at 8 pm regular dinner rotation). Does anyone have any advice on this? not sure when Formal night is, but I think people say it's Monday night and Tue is pirate party. Any advice would be great.

Sorry to get long-winded. But I had a lot to say since this is a 1st for us!

Thanks ~

Stacey & Tim (plus DMother and DStepdad)

Welcome, guys. We booked this cruise when we were 286 days out -- and as of today, we have 85 days to wait. The time is just flying by. It will be here before any of us know it.

Welcome aboard!

Mark

 

[jblb1020]

Hi, My husband and I and my two children are booked on the disney Magic for Feb 4th 2006 We cruised on the Disney Magic on our honeymoon in 1998 and this will be the first cruise with the kids. I am really looking forward to it!

 

[Billinaz]

If anyone wants to get kids in touch so that they have extra playmates right away (really helped last year) I created an email address for our kids:


kids_dcl_magic@cox.net


Kimberly will be 10
Daniel will be 8
Melanie will be 6


This email address is monitored by me, and they can exchange photos.

Here is their photo from last year:

 

[Billinaz]

She is in First Grade........

With all of our reservation madness I don't think we welcomed Billinaz to our thread.

My DS would love having a friend in the club. He will be almost 8 when we cruise. I am still debating if I am going to put him in the club with our DD (will turn 6 on the cruise) or put him in the lab. He votes for the club. Is your youngest in K or 1st grade?

 

[sbatty]

Billinaz,

What a nice picture? Are you all planning to dress up for pirate night this year? When my kids get home from school I'll see if I can get them to send off a note.

Is Daniel looking forward to being in the Lab this year? Looking at the Navigators I am trying to decide if my DS would be better off in the Club or Lab. He really enjoyed relaxing watching a movie late at night. It looks like the Lab has a lot more going on into the evening.

 

[Billinaz]

HE really hasnt said anything about it. Last year he didnt really enjoy it, but I think that was because he didnt have anyone to play with like his sisters did. He also had a broken arm on that trip. We emailed people last year and it helped them get acquainted prior to the cruise..... Last year was also a surprise for them, they didnt know we had booked the cruise, the kids thought we were only doing WDW. When we left the Grand Floridian, they didnt believe me when I told them we were actually going on the Wonder too....

I thought about getting dressed up @ pirate night, but havent thought much about it.

We will be in Cabin 8532, and dining at table 31.

Billinaz,

What a nice picture? Are you all planning to dress up for pirate night this year? When my kids get home from school I'll see if I can get them to send off a note.

Is Daniel looking forward to being in the Lab this year? Looking at the Navigators I am trying to decide if my DS would be better off in the Club or Lab. He really enjoyed relaxing watching a movie late at night. It looks like the Lab has a lot more going on into the evening.

 

[jblb1020]

My children are ages 2 1/2 and 5. Disney Cruise line told me that because my daughter is a month shy of her third birthday (and she is already potty trained) that she might be able to go into the 3-5 age group for the oceaneer"s club. Has anyone had a similar situation? I really don't want to separate my son and daughter. I would love to get my kids together with children that will be cruising on Feb 4th!

 

[jblb1020]

My children are ages 2 1/2 and 5. Disney Cruise line told me that because my daughter will be a month shy of her third birthday at the time we cruise(and she is already potty trained) that she might be able to go into the 3-5 age group for the oceaneer"s club. Has anyone had a similar situation? I really don't want to separate my son and daughter. I would love to get my kids together with children that will be cruising on Feb 4th!
Also we have a the late seating for dinner which I am trying to get changed to the earlier seating and I am on a waiting list. Doea anyone have a preference for dining times when traveling with children or should I keep the later seating???

 

[Billinaz]

They will usually let you "bump" a kid into the next age group if they are close... but they dont want them going back and forth to the groups. They want them to stay in one age group for the cruise.


I preferred the earlier seating because the kids are used to eating at that time. They get pretty worn out with everyhting we were doing, and that late seating could be problematic...

 

[mark_story]

My children are ages 2 1/2 and 5. Disney Cruise line told me that because my daughter is a month shy of her third birthday (and she is already potty trained) that she might be able to go into the 3-5 age group for the oceaneer"s club. Has anyone had a similar situation? I really don't want to separate my son and daughter. I would love to get my kids together with children that will be cruising on Feb 4th!

jblb1020,

My children will be 5 (DS) and nearly 3 (DD) during the cruise (my daughter will be about six weeks shy of 3). Do you have a son? My DS is mainly interested in playing with boys.

Mark

 

[Johnna_Story]

My children are ages 2 1/2 and 5. Disney Cruise line told me that because my daughter will be a month shy of her third birthday at the time we cruise(and she is already potty trained) that she might be able to go into the 3-5 age group for the oceaneer"s club. Has anyone had a similar situation? I really don't want to separate my son and daughter. I would love to get my kids together with children that will be cruising on Feb 4th!
Also we have a the late seating for dinner which I am trying to get changed to the earlier seating and I am on a waiting list. Doea anyone have a preference for dining times when traveling with children or should I keep the later seating???

When I first read this, I thought I was reading my husband's message!! As you saw from his reply, our kids are the same age as yours - our 5 yr old sure hopes your 5 yr. old is a boy! As for late seating - we had late seating on our last cruise last March and it wasn't as bad as we thought it would be. The maitre'd was great about giving us early seating the first couple of nights if he could (when folks went to Palo's). But then we kept late seating for the rest of the week since we missed our servers, and we just re-adjusted to the routine. Mostly we coped by late naps for both kids (and us!! ), and a 4:00 mini-meal from one of the snack bars on deck 10.

But we do have early seating on this cruise. We're hoping that will get the kids to bed a little earlier and we'll try harder to stay awake for some of the grown-up activities (read: Bars ) that we feel like we totally missed out on last year.

 

[dee47]

I'm sure it's not a glitch in the system - obviously Disney was concerned about how much you were booking and therefore spending oh so much, and really, they just want to save you some money. They care, they really really care.