February 12th, 2009 Wonder

[msusparty]

My DD is a girl scout,too. She loves to sing, dance, and make crafts. She is cheerleading and gymnastics. It sounds like she will have a lot in commom with both of your DDs. Your DD9 will be in the Lab with my DD since 8-9 are together.

My kids have been to WDW twice. But, they would rather cruise (which is ok with us)

Also will have a DNephew 10 on the cruise, the same age as your son . He is involved with gymanstics and piano.

Our children love DW and DL, but have never been on a cruise. Hopefully, they will like it as much as yours

 

[msusparty]

Ok, it may be a little early, but....

Do we want to do anything like fish extenders or a dis-meet? Or do we figure that it's such a short cruise that we don't want to bother?

We would be up for a quick meet too.

Not exactly sure what a fish extender is, but would be willing to learn.

 

[stsomewhere]

Also will have a DNephew 10 on the cruise, the same age as your son . He is involved with gymanstics and piano.

Our children love DW and DL, but have never been on a cruise. Hopefully, they will like it as much as yours

My Ds-10 is also in gymnastics. He is in orchestra and plays the viola and guitar.


I'm up early checking the school closing lists. We got 5 inches of snow last night.

But , school is open , so I can finish up last minute Christmas things.
The kids have 1/2 day Thursday and are off until Jan. 5.

 

[kcashner]

Went on DCL website to check if we were upgraded. I know its early, but I can't help myself .

We weren't upgraded, but our dining was changed from late to main seating

They haven't done cabin assignments yet, so no one knows about an upgrade. If you booked into a specific stateroom, that room will be showing on the computer. If you booked as a gty, you will not see an assignment yet. Cabin assignments (including upgrades) are usually done about 30 days before sailing. People with gty cabins can be moved again any time up to sailing....and upgrades can occur after that but are much more rare. Most people find out at about the 30 day mark on line or when their documents arrive.

A fish extender is a small bag or fabric piece with multiple pockets...usually one for each person sailing. The "fish" is the holder by the stateroom door that is used by crew to place memos, letters, etc. for people in the cabin. The "fish extender" hangs from the fish. On some cruises, dis-ers have set up small exchanges as surprises....the group agrees to a one item per person or a price limit, forms a list of participating cabins, and at some point you go around and put your gifts in the fish extenders. It is fun to return to your cabin and find treasures.

SOme of the things we've given/recieved were small highlighters (great for navigators), magnets, anything Disney related, pens, pencils, notepads, individually wrapped candies, temporary tattoos, pirate eye patches, kid drink cups, post card of the Magic in one of the ports we visited, etc. The idea isn't to be expensive--it is to have fun. Usual sources of this stuff is dollar stores, after Christmas sales, etc. There are several posts of much larger exchanges than I've ever been a part of. On our last cruise, we had 9 cabins with a total of 23 people involved. Some groups do to by cabin, some by person, some by kids....whatever. It's a fun idea especially on longer cruises.

 

[wink13]

I just booked these dates for our first cruise. I'm taking my boys DS 15 & 9 as we were going to be in Orlando Feb 11-16th we thought the cruise would be a nice change. We were just at WDW in Oct. Any advise for this cruise rookie group?

 

[kcashner]

I just booked these dates for our first cruise. I'm taking my boys DS 15 & 9 as we were going to be in Orlando Feb 11-16th we thought the cruise would be a nice change. We were just at WDW in Oct. Any advise for this cruise rookie group?

Check out the regular cruise forum section of the boards. We are DCL freaks. We've done the Magic 17 times, but this will be our first "Wonderful" time. I suspect your teen will love Aloft (DD loves the Stack). Nice to know that there will be another teen on board.

We did The Magic on President's week last year. They had a list of teens 5 pages long. The CM commented that the week before, they'd had 18 teen on board. Personally, I like the smaller groups. I don't know what to say as to basic advise--read the forum, and feel free to ask any questions!

 

[wink13]

Check out the regular cruise forum section of the boards. We are DCL freaks. We've done the Magic 17 times, but this will be our first "Wonderful" time. I suspect your teen will love Aloft (DD loves the Stack). Nice to know that there will be another teen on board.

We did The Magic on President's week last year. They had a list of teens 5 pages long. The CM commented that the week before, they'd had 18 teen on board. Personally, I like the smaller groups. I don't know what to say as to basic advise--read the forum, and feel free to ask any questions!

I spent last night reading the trip reviews. What a great help for someone who knows nothing about cruising. That's why we love the DisBoards.

 

[msusparty]

I just booked these dates for our first cruise. I'm taking my boys DS 15 & 9 as we were going to be in Orlando Feb 11-16th we thought the cruise would be a nice change. We were just at WDW in Oct. Any advise for this cruise rookie group?

Our first cruise too. We are WDW and WDL regulars also. Kids are very excited. They like to watch the DCL video often. Hopefully they will enjoy it as much as the parks .

Will be traveling with two Dnephews ages 10 & 13 that are similar age to your DS. Also have DD ages 7 and 9.

 

[msusparty]

Up to about a foot of snow in the past couple of days.

Just returned from Vegas so it is a little easier to take. Although it did snow there too.

All this snow just makes me want to go on the cruise that much more

 

[wink13]

Our first cruise too. We are WDW and WDL regulars also. Kids are very excited. They like to watch the DCL video often. Hopefully they will enjoy it as much as the parks .

Will be traveling with two Dnephews ages 10 & 13 that are similar age to your DS. Also have DD ages 7 and 9.

Cool, hope we run into you on the ship and the boys can hang out.

 

[kcashner]

Our first cruise too. We are WDW and WDL regulars also. Kids are very excited. They like to watch the DCL video often. Hopefully they will enjoy it as much as the parks .

Will be traveling with two Dnephews ages 10 & 13 that are similar age to your DS. Also have DD ages 7 and 9.

We actually like the cruise a lot more than the parks. Don't get me wrong--we like the parks...but I joke that the cruise is a "mom vacation." In the parks, you still have to deal with where you are eating, is everybody getting to do some of the things they want to (kids squabbling over which park to do that day, etc.) On the cruise all the food is "pre paid." If you child gets something he/she doesn't like to eat, they can order something else--no charge. It's a great time to try new things! Each person can do what he/she wants--do you want to do family veggie racers while brother or sister is in the Lab? No problem! And there's a lot less walking than at the parks.

One bit of advise. Just as you can't see all of WDW in a few days, there is no way you can possibly do all there is on the ship. And that doesn't even count the islands. Remember to relax and have a great time--don't try to do it all. If you like it, you can come back.

And...if you want to come back, remember the benefits of re-booking while on board.

 

[stsomewhere]

My kids love to cruise, too.
We asked them if they wanted to go to WDW this year. They said they wanted to go on DCL.

This is our first Disney cruise. We are looking forward to it. We have been on RCCl, NCL, HAl, and Carnival.

What is so wonderful about crusieing is the kids think that they are getting a vacation away from mom and dad. Both kids enjoy goign to the kid programs and meeting new friends.

 

[Brancaneve]

Almost a year ago we went on the DCL first(Magic) and then to WDW for another week for the very first time. Before the trip, I thought I would enjoy the cruise much more than WDW but I had a really hard time on the cruise AT FIRST. After I relaxed a bit, got familiar with the ship and saw land, I started to enjoy it. But my kids are and were small and my youngest was not old enough and potty trained to be in the Kid's Club. My daughter was only 5 and could not stay longer than 2 hours. We also had late seating and that all combined made it really hard for us. I noticed that the happiest people were those who had older children.

Now we are going back and the kids should hopefully do better in the kid's club although there may not be many opportunities to put them in there. With it being just a 3 night cruise, we may only have the evenings to drop them off but you don't want them to miss the shows.

Also, does anyone know if Valentine's Day will be our semi formal night?

 

[stsomewhere]

I hope that everyone had a terrific holiday.I got strep for Christmas!

We celebrated Christmas with my stepdads family on Sat. Dec 20. My lovely sister told me that her 1yr old wasn't feeling well. But, they decided to come anyway.
During the party, he got sick. But, she stayed.

On Christmas Eve, we all went to my grandmas. When we arrived, my cousin told me to stay away from my nephew (7). Apparently, he had gotten sick in the car on the way. BUt, my sister decided to come anyway.

I woke up that night so sick. I was running a temp. Well, I did not go to Christmas dinner. I stayed home. My sister and BIL were sick, too. There other son(9) got sick. They thought it was strange that I stayed home. I have been in bed since Christmas eve (excepy for the dr on Sat.) Today is the first day I sorts feel normal.

I feel bad because I spoke with my grandma this afternoon. She has some of the symptoms. I feel bad becasue my grandparents are 85 years old. This is the last thing that they need to get.

 

[Brancaneve]

Sorry you missed Christmas dinner but it's better to get sick now than on the cruise ship!

 

[stsomewhere]

Also, does anyone know if Valentine's Day will be our semi formal night? [/COLOR]

I looked at the 3 day navigators.

Thursday-Cruise casual
Friday-Pirate or cruise casual
Saturday- Dress optional

I bet that a lot of people will be dressed up for Valentine's. It will be the night, I am making the our family dress up.

 

[stsomewhere]

We received an info and tip package from DCL in the mail today.

 

[msusparty]

Sorry to hear about Christmas, but glad you are feeling better too.

I read the kids your post and they were disappointed we did not get anything in the mail. What did it look like? What kind of information did it contain? I am sure they will be checking the mail everyday until we get something too.

 

[stsomewhere]

I looked at the shipping envelop. It came from our travel agent.
It is an overview of what to expect on the ship. explains the different areas of Castaway BAy, excursions.

The stuff info we get from the Dis board.

 

[JoyaDelMar]

Hello everyone! Just thought I'd introduce myself as my best friend and I will be joining y'all for this weekend cruise.

This will be the first Disney Cruise for both of us, and her first cruise ever! We both graduated from college last May and this will be the first time we've seen each other since graduation. We're very excited - we've been planning a Disney Cruise for over two years now.

I've been combing the forums for a few weeks now ever since purchasing the tickets. Now I'm just counting down the days...