February 12, 2011 - 7 night Eastern

[ilovedevin]

Tiredofcold, you are so funny. Don't stress yourself out, there is no such thing as too cheap. The purpose of the FE is not to spend an arm and leg, it's just a little fun thing to particiapte in with your fellow cruisers. By the way all the items you listed all sound really nice. In question of your adult gift, gift's from your place of residence is always a cool idea ie, smarties, postcards, refridgerator magnets, again nothing is too cheap.



Julie

 

[TiredOfCold]

Thanks ILoveDevin.... I'm going to try and relax a bit...
I started buying stuff already, I'll probably end up with an entire suitcase full by February...

 

[ilovedevin]

Tell me about it lol, I booked our cruise on Jan 28 and shortly afterwards found this site. Now I have a ton of magnets, t-shirts made for DH, DS and myself and thinking I need more for DS there are just so many creative DISer's on here with too many cute designs for shirt's I can't stop. Then for the FE's I knew right away what I wanted to make for the stateroom gift and at the time that was all I was going to do, but now I have a two stateroom gift's, one per person and one for the kids


Julie

 

[ilovedevin]

So I posted an inquiry about DIS-MEETS and received several response's most saying that the best place to meet is at the promenade lounge at 3:00. According to everyone it is out of the heat, easy to find and a good time since it will be after lunch and before the saftey drill.

Please let me know if this doesn't work for any of you.
Julie

 

[Jax]

You guys are started to get me all excited again, especially since it is a cold miserable day out (TiredOfCold we are also from Calgary).

I have created our designs for our magnets now I just need to get them printed off and ready to go.

Have created designs for our t-shirts. The 2 girls I am traveling with have no idea about the cruise. We are making matching t-shirts for everyone which we will give the girls the day we leave for the cruise and see how long it takes them to clue in. So now I just need their mom to pick the designs and then I can get those made (also want to make us shirts for pirate night so need to finish those designs).

I have started planning our FE gifts, I just need to make a decision what I am going with. I have never done FE so excited about that.

Woo hoo, logged into to my TA site and was told 149 days!

 

[mrbudyhed]

Thanks for doing all this leg work, Julie. 3:00pm to meet and the location sounds fine to me! (Course, I've never been on a cruise before, but I'm sure we'll find the spot--Got plenty of time to study the ship map before that!)

 

[TiredOfCold]

Yes - thanks Julie that meeting spot works for us - sounds like it will be easy to find.

I know Jax!! This weather is soooo depressing... we never even had a summer and now they are calling for snow on Thursday. Gotta love Calgary, not!

 

[capitalmom]

OK, you Calgarians are not exaggerating... I was there this past weekend visiting family en route home from a business trip and it was cold!! My relatives there were all complaining about what a yucky summer it's been. First time I've worn a jacket since April - never thought I'd say this but it was nice to get home to Ottawa to be warm! Beautiful city though and great shopping And it'll just make you appreciate those warm sandy beaches even more... Keep warm and let's hope the snow stays away for a bit longer!

Danielle

 

[Disneyhenry]

I was wondering if anyone else was form the Pacific Northwest?

I am gonna make some beaded wrist band and necklaces for the FE, also hitting the dollar store and any after xmas specials.

It is sprinkling outside and I needed a little reminder of things to come, it is always great getting on here and seeing everyone's ideas!

~Thank you and can't wait until Feb!!! I will get to meet a great group of people

 

[noelk]

NoelK, I am on a few other boards with this name. I have been on the "large" general travel board for years and recently joined the cruise section of it - I think that is where you likely saw me as I remember your daughters age and your location (excited to see a fellow Canuck with a daughter the same age!)

Eva started grade 1 a few weeks ago - she isn't 6 until November, so is one of the younger ones in her class. She speaks French and English and has friends ranging in age from 4 to 8 so I'm excited for her to meet up with everyones children!

This trip is going to be a blast....

Yes, Laura started grade one last week and so far so good...after two years of kindergarden, she was defnately ready for full day school! She's in French immersion, and like us, can't wait!

Our overall planning continues apace..like others here, we've added a pre-cruise night at WDW (Port Orleans FQ), and while we'll probably hit downtown Disney, we won't venture into the parks. Still no flights booked for us...waiting for a seat sale! Also will need to book a rental car for the day to pickup at the airport and drop in Port Canaveral.

 

[TiredOfCold]

NoelK - we haven't booked our flights yet either... also waiting for that seat sale. They just released sale fares up to December 16th yesterday so I'm hoping in 4-6 weeks we should be good to go. We are going to book a couple of the tickets on our Avion points so we will only have to pay for one ticket. Airfare is currently running around $700 return from Calgary.

I booked a car rental with Budget using the DIS board discount code. It's not a pre-pay so we could cancel at any time and it's a great rate - $33 (taxes in) for an intermediate car for 24 hours, pick up at airport and drop off in Cape Canaveral.

Still trying to decide if we will do a few days pre-cruise at WDW or post-cruise so we haven't booked hotel yet. Will most likely do the parks post-cruise but I recently realized that we are disembarking on President's Day Weekend - YIKES! Should make for an ugly scene at WDW....

And... just spent another $40 at the dollar store today - hahahaha. I don't even know how many children (or what ages and gender!) I am buying for so my shopping is somewhat random! I figure I'll fill in the gaps shortly before cruise date when our FE list is finalized.

 

[MonicaW]

We just got back from our back-2-back cruise, booked Alaska for August 2011 and now I am ALREADY planing another. There is a 25% off sale for us Canadians so this cruise date might just work for us!

I took a peek at the Disney site vs booking with Dreams Unlimited and the prices were the same - BUT Dreams Unlimited is offering a room credit of $100 on top of the $25 that Disney offers.

Anyone ever deal with Dreams Unlimited? What do you think?

Thanks!
Monica

 

[noelk]

NoelK - we haven't booked our flights yet either... also waiting for that seat sale. They just released sale fares up to December 16th yesterday so I'm hoping in 4-6 weeks we should be good to go. We are going to book a couple of the tickets on our Avion points so we will only have to pay for one ticket. Airfare is currently running around $700 return from Calgary.

I booked a car rental with Budget using the DIS board discount code. It's not a pre-pay so we could cancel at any time and it's a great rate - $33 (taxes in) for an intermediate car for 24 hours, pick up at airport and drop off in Cape Canaveral.

Still trying to decide if we will do a few days pre-cruise at WDW or post-cruise so we haven't booked hotel yet. Will most likely do the parks post-cruise but I recently realized that we are disembarking on President's Day Weekend - YIKES! Should make for an ugly scene at WDW....

And... just spent another $40 at the dollar store today - hahahaha. I don't even know how many children (or what ages and gender!) I am buying for so my shopping is somewhat random! I figure I'll fill in the gaps shortly before cruise date when our FE list is finalized.

...I'm thinking along the exact same timelines on booking the airfare...currently running $565 per person return from here in Ottawa (but what makes me think twice about it is fares from Syracuse, NY are only $320...and that's only a 3 hour drive away!).

I gotta get on that car rental rate and book one of those!

We'd love to do extra days at WDW, but in many ways the cruise is in lieu of WDW...we took our six year old to WDW when she way 3...we did all four parks over ten days and had a blast...at age 2, I think her younger sister is a bit too young to do WDW, so the cruise will give us some Disney Magic...and we'll do a separate trip sometime in 2012. As for your plans, I'm sure the parks will be much more managable pre-cruise...

 

[TiredOfCold]

Hi Monica,

I originally booked with DCL and then transferred my reservation to DU.... in hindsight I should have booked with DU right of the bat as they were offering a $200 OBC at that time. They still gave me a $100 credit - so I'm $75 better off than I was.

I don't have any prior experience with them, but there are a lot of posts on the board about their service (no surprise since they sponser it!). Anyhoo... I would read through the forums and find the name of a specific agent that prior clients recommend... it is another thing I wish I would have done as it seems that some of the TA's are more responsive than others!

 

[Jax]

Hello MonicaW,

I am also booked through Dreams Unlimited.

This will be my 3rd time booking a vacation through them (second cruise) and I don't have a complaint yet.

There is a Canadian based Disney travel agency that I also use (another great company) however they don't offer the OBC so I book through Dreams instead.

 

[ilovedevin]

I just bought Devin a priate costume at Costco's... too cute

 

[TiredOfCold]

Julie, I saw those costumes a couple of days ago - very cute!

I didn't buy one for my DD - waiting to buy her a princess one from the Disney store here (fingers crossed that they go on sale after Halloween), but of course I did pick up MORE stuff for the FE exchange. I am out of control.....

 

[ilovedevin]

Emma, LOL you sound just like me, once I get excited about something I can't stop.

 

[Disneyhenry]

Ok after reading these posts I must go buy my DS a Pirate Costume too! Sounds so cute!
Anyways I had to share I started to buy my FE supplies today, so much fun! Can't WAIT!!!

 

[ilovedevin]

The costume is so cute for little boy's unlike little girls outfits it's hard to find really cute boy's stuff I wish Disney would make more boy's costumes and sale them year round as they do for girls. I know getting the stuff for the FE is so exciting! The stateroom gift I am giving out I am making and everytime I get one done I get so excited