February 21, 2009 Magic Western Caribean

[Cinderella&Dopey]

Welcome Aboard!

 

[strega7]

Just checking in.....who has started packing? I am ready to go. Does anybody know how many more days till the cruise? I haven't taken the time to figure it out. Marci

 

[Cinderella&Dopey]

Just add a week to my ticker!

 

[mc2]

I think we are at 200 days today (not including today, but including the 21st)?
I got the count from a site that will calculate the time from one date to another (based on your time zone) - just enter the cruise information (I used 4 pm as the time of day) and choose your time zone. It gives you the exact amount of time from the moment you do it until day/time you choose (cruise).

http://www.timeanddate.com/counters/customcount.html

We'll be booking our reservations and excursions online before you know it (or at least I HOPE the time goes by quickly!! ).

 

[strega7]

Thanks guys, I know I am ready to go! almost in the 100's!

 

[Cinderella&Dopey]

Can't Wait to see you again Magic!

 

[DMMarla07860]

hope everyone is doing great. wanted to share some pictures from my trip on the magic in July 13th july 20th, 2008

 

[tracyz]

Hello everyone! My first post on these boards...I thought this would be the appropriate place! We'll be joining you guys on this cruise in February. I am now officially driving DH crazy, I'm already so excited for it. Our family did a 3 night cruise on the Wonder in February '07 and just loved it. It was our first cruise, and convinced us we would love a 7-night adventure.
It will be us (me, DH, and DD18 and DD6), and this time we're bringing along my parents, and my sister and her DH and their 2 daughters (13 & 3). It will be the first cruise for all of them. My 13 year old neice is the one who's as excited as I am...I can't wait!!
Already starting to think about Christmas gifts I can buy that are cruise-related.
And I'm looking forward to getting to know you guys before we all cruise together!

~Tracy

 

[mc2]

Hi Tracy!
Welcome! The anticipation for the trip is driving me CRAZY!!! I'm going to be booking our flights in the next 2 weeks - just what I needed - another "excuse" to go crazy with my obsessive trip planning! ha ha! I feel like I now remember what it felt like to be a kid and to want to ask "Are we THERE yet????".
I'm with you on the Disney theme for Christmas - feel free to share if you come across any great things! I think the adults will be getting those baggallinni (sp.?) bags - I'm hearing really great things about them on the board.

Anyone planning to go down the night before and planning rent a car to get from MCO to the Port Canaveral area? I've been checking out the rates for one-way rentals, and am just wondering if anyone else is doing the same? We should "compare notes" as they say. I've seen all of the posts r/t different codes and such, but might worth discussing here since we may be looking for the same rental (MCO-Port Canaveral) on the same date. We'll need a minivan (or 2 sedans?) to get the 6 of us to Port Canaveral - or maybe even a U-Haul with the way that my mother and I tend to pack! Ha ha! We'll be coming with enough luggage for a 7 MONTH vacation! ;-)

 

[tracyz]

I'm just waiting for JetBlue to put the tickets on sale for February. Does anybody want to take a guess how many times I check that website every day?

We're also planning to go down on Friday and get a rental car one-way from the airport. Then we'll do a one-way rental on the other end too. I've done a little bit of looking, and we'll definitely save some money by doing the 2 rentals over paying for the Disney transport for the 4 of us. The money we save will pay for a hotel in Cocoa Beach on Friday night, and we'll either go to beach or to the Kennedy Center for the afternoon.

 

[DMMarla07860]

We are planning on going down the day before and going to a hotel close to the airport or the hotel in the airport and so we can be well rested for two weeks aboard the Disney Magic

 

[tracyz]

MC2, I tried to respond to your PM but I don't have enough posts yet ~ I guess I need to get busy!

I'll post my response here because others might be interested anyway! Thanks for the helpful info. I looked at that link you gave me and I've also booked us a room at the Radisson. After looking at the pictures, I recall that last year we stayed at the Country Inn & Suites, which was nice, but we had to go to the Radisson to catch the shuttle and thought it looked great. This time we're going to stay there! And I booked a room with the whirlpool in the bedroom! Great way to start the vacation!!

I really like your idea of returning the rental car the night before (that's what this board is great for, I might never have thought of that on my own). In fact, we can check in at the hotel then just one of us can go return the car and everyone else can just relax at the hotel. Great idea!

Now on to researching the rental car...

 

[DMMarla07860]

hope everyone is well, is anyone else watching the Magic today?

 

[tracyz]

You piqued my interest, so I checked, but I can't tell for sure...have they made it through yet? I saw there were some delays...

 

[DMMarla07860]

yeah, they made it through

 

[mc2]

MC2, I tried to respond to your PM but I don't have enough posts yet ~ I guess I need to get busy!

I'll post my response here because others might be interested anyway! Thanks for the helpful info. I looked at that link you gave me and I've also booked us a room at the Radisson. After looking at the pictures, I recall that last year we stayed at the Country Inn & Suites, which was nice, but we had to go to the Radisson to catch the shuttle and thought it looked great. This time we're going to stay there! And I booked a room with the whirlpool in the bedroom! Great way to start the vacation!!

I really like your idea of returning the rental car the night before (that's what this board is great for, I might never have thought of that on my own). In fact, we can check in at the hotel then just one of us can go return the car and everyone else can just relax at the hotel. Great idea!

Now on to researching the rental car...

Hello!
In case some people haven't seen it, I thought I would post the link for the thread that I had sent to her:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1520273
There are some super helpful people from the Port Canaveral area who have been providing TONS of general information about the area in the thread - everything from hotels, to which car rental companies have offices in the area (and have shuttles), to where to buy beer - you name it, they have answered it! The same people are also running a similar thread on the cruisecritic website. I think it's basically the same information on both sites. I've been following it for a few months now, and have found it to be incredibly helpful!

As for the car rental comment, the Radisson Resort at the Port has a free shuttle that will take you directly to the Port (you can book a seat/time when you make your reservation). I don't know if there are any other hotels that offer a similar service. Our thought was to return the car the night before and take the hotel shuttle the morning of the cruise - in the hopes that we could avoid some of the crowd/chaos and such at the car rental companies on the morning of the cruise (for those who are arriving/dropping off and departing/picking up). Those are our plans, anyway!

Hmmm...so far that makes 2 groups (?) at the Radisson for the Friday night....do I feel a pre-cruise pool party coming on??? Ha ha!

We're one day closer.....

 

[tracyz]

Oh, yes, oh, yes!! Pre-cruise celebration at the Radisson! It will be a blast!

 

[stacieps]

Well, we're just back from a short Carnival cruise (with the Girl Scout troop), so now I'm ready to start thinkings about this cruise.

We happened to visit Key West and Cozumel (we'd been before, but several years ago) this week on the Carnival cruise, so now I have an idea of what we want to do (or not do) in February. Our kids will be 11 and 9 when we board the Magic, so that will give us more choices than the time we visited these islands years ago.

We are booked at the Hyatt at MCO on Friday night, so we will miss the party at the Radisson. We fly in late afternoon/early evening Friday, so we enjoy relaxing right there and getting going early Saturday a.m.

I have to schedule a town car - I can't remember who we used last year, so I'll have to see if I can find my old paperwork.

We booked our flights on Delta a few months ago (Boston), and I'm glad we did seeing what Southwest wants out of MHT - double what we paid!

Have fun with all your planning!

 

[tracyz]

No worries about missing out on the pool at the Radisson, Stacie...there will be lots of fun when we get on the ship!!
I'm very interested to hear about your experiences with Key West and Cozumel, if there were things you really enjoyed or would advise not to bother with. My daughter is 6, and my niece who will be traveling with us is 13.

 

[DMMarla07860]

hope everyone is great and has a awesome weekend