February 25th Magic Cruise Board

[cyndi-rella]

Welcome to the board, Shillee! I know that there are a few folks on here that are traveling with little ones. I am sure we can all give our best tips!

Some of our tips include-
Over the door shoe hanger! It is great for toiletries and all of those little items.
Power Strip! You will need it! Especially if you have any electronics.
Ship your things to the ship! If you don't need it on the way, we shipped our FE items and other things 4 days before departure. It was in our room when we got there. There is a link on the boards and you have to follow the instructions EXACTLY!
Pre-Soaked Sponges! We bought some inexpensive sponges, cut them in half and pre soaked them in Palmolive. When they dried, you put them in a Ziploc and Wha-la-Portable Cleaning!!!! Extra helpful on reusable drinkwear and toddler things.

I am sure others have some things to share, as well! Let the planning continue!

Remember, FE talks start at the 7 month countdown, although, right now we don't have too many folks.

Have a great rest-of-the-week.

emmysdidi and cyndi-rella

 

[Beth D]

[Anyone else traveling with little one's? Or has traveled with small kids? I am open to any advice.

This is our first cruise too, but we have traveled (and flown)with DS since he made his first flight to Orlando at age 1(he's now 6)!

Tip #1 - never underestimate the power of food! Everytime "Mr. Crankypants" made an appearance in my son, he was hungry. Fruit snacks, PB & J, goldfish crackers and cheese sticks are staples everytime we travel, as they stay a long time and can go through airport security too! I still keep snacks in my purse for when we have a long wait in a restaurant.

Tip #2 - if food is not the problem, usually a good nap is in order! We always tried to keep as close to his nap schedule (afternoon) as possible. When traveling we would do lots in the AM and make it back to the room for nap time. Bedtime was stretched late some, but sleep is a miracle worker.

Tip #3 - a "friend" to travel with. We always let DS pick one friend to ride with him on the plane, and another gets packed in the suitcase for when he gets there. But somehow his stuffed Mickey always stows away in one of our suitcases as well, every year! He's just gotta make it back to see Minnie!

Tip #4 - a nightlight. Hotel rooms and cabins are scary! We got a cheapo one that stays in his travel case. So everytime he goes anywhere that he needs his overnight kit and toothbrush, that is there too.

I'm sure I'll think of more later, but those are the big lifesavers for us!

Glad to see someone else on here!

Beth

 

[cyndi-rella]

Those are really good tips, Beth D! I especially like the nightlight one. It does get super-dark in the room. We bought one that we put in the bathroom. That way when you have to go in the middle of the night, your don't get hurt...

Bring your own cooler. We bought a nice sized coleman soft sided cooler that I used as one of my carry ons. I put in there anything that could have been disposable (wipes, etc.). We stayed at the Radisson at the Port the night before so we could be there right at 10. They have a shuttle that will take you to a store and we purchased our own alcohol. That worked out great and if you have some things for your little ones that you want to keep cold, you can use it for that too.

The seven month mark is upon us!

 

[Beth D]

The seven month mark is upon us!

Let the partying begin!

Happy Fathers Day to the Dads on here!

Cyndi-rella - Are you coming down the night before again?

I'm just starting to look into flights from OH, but am looking at Friday AM flights to be safe. Southwest doesn't release travel through March until next month, so I don't want to book anything until I see their rates.

We have a lot of options where we live - Cleveland and Toledo are an hour, while Detroit and Columbus are just under 2 hours away. Almost too many to sort through!

Has anyone started dreaming of excursions yet? I've been going through all the TR's and cruise meets from the Magic Eastern trips on the boards trying to find ideas. (Yes, I know i'm totally obsessive!)

Living on Lake Erie we are a water family, and DS would LIVE in the pool ALL DAY if we let him. I'm looking at snorkeling and beach trips on both Islands.

Beth

 

[cyndi-rella]

Yes, Beth D, we are going to the Radisson at the Port on Friday. We did it last time and loved being able to just get there early. One of the things that we would do different at the Radisson is we would insure we had a room that is closer to the lobby or check any un-needed luggage. It is a LLLOOONNNNGGGG haul back up to the main loading area.

Just make sure you call and set up a time for your shuttle as soon as you book your room.

Does anyone think they will do Kids Sail Free? It seems low booking so far!


Have a Great rest-of-the-week!

emmysdidi and cyndi-rella

 

[shillee]

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone! I will have to figure out how to get what I need in our lugguage - way too expensive to ship from Canada!

I am also taking notes of things to remember

Beth - where do you live in Ohio if you don't mind me asking? My folks had a sailboat when I was growing up and I LIVED for our 2 week summer vacations - Put-In-Bay and Cedar Point as well as Vermillion! Long adventure coming from Lake St. Clair but some of the best memories I have from my younger years!

Still need to 'think' about the FE. DH wasn't too keen on it at all and I know that I can't truck a bunch of stuff with me for the trip so not sure on that one yet. But it looks super neat I will say!

 

[Zachsmom4]

We decided to bite the bullet this time and drive to Florida, We usually fly, but decided to try something different. It will be a 20 hour drive from Wisconsin, so I hope it won't be too bad.

We are also planning on a day at Seaworld before the cruise. We have never been there, and DS has been asking to go for some time now.

It should be fun....

 

[Beth D]

Beth - where do you live in Ohio if you don't mind me asking? My folks had a sailboat when I was growing up and I LIVED for our 2 week summer vacations - Put-In-Bay and Cedar Point as well as Vermillion! Long adventure coming from Lake St. Clair but some of the best memories I have from my younger years!

Sandusky! I wouldn't live anywhere else than on the lake!

We visited you up north (sort of) this spring and took a road trip to Toronto to see the Lion King and a day at Niagara Falls!

Has anyone had trouble with the Disney website lately? I've tried logging in to view our trip and reservation and keep getting all kinds of errors.

It could be that I'm using AOL, but it also was wonky when I tried it at work the other day. I'll keep trying...

 

[Beth D]

We are also planning on a day at Seaworld before the cruise. We have never been there, and DS has been asking to go for some time now.

It should be fun....

Seaworld is also awesome! You will have a great time there, just don't sit in the first section of seats at Shamu's show unless you want to get soaked!

The cat & dog show is suprisingly good especially if you have little ones that might be afraid of larger animals. Feeding the sealions, dolphins or rays must also be on the list!

The only bad thing now about them is no free beer anymore since Anheuser Busch sold the division!

 

[Scillycruisers]

I have just booked this as our second Disney Cruise - we were on the 5 - 12 March Western Caribbean as well and loved it. There are 3 of us - Mum, Dad and our son who will be 5 by then. When I told him I had booked another Disney holiday he wanted to start getting packed straight away. He was most disappointed to find out how long he has to wait before we can get back on the jumbo jet to Orlando!

 

[Beth D]

I have just booked this as our second Disney Cruise - we were on the 5 - 12 March Western Caribbean as well and loved it. There are 3 of us - Mum, Dad and our son who will be 5 by then.

My DS is 6 and will turn 7 on the ship. We'll have to find out if they like the same things. DS would love meeting a new friend!

Since you've just gotten off of one, any tips for us newbies?

 

[Scillycruisers]

My DS is 6 and will turn 7 on the ship. We'll have to find out if they like the same things. DS would love meeting a new friend!

Since you've just gotten off of one, any tips for us newbies?

What a great way to spend a birthday!

I am sure our boy would love to meet a friend - he was constantly looking for people to play with him last time, especially in the pool. It would also be nice if there was someone he had seen before in the kids club.

As for tips, the main one is to relax and enjoy! It was a very different type of holiday for us and we really enjoyed not having to make many decisions. Having meal times and restaurants decided for us was a lot more relaxing than we expected - it helped that we all enjoyed the food in all of them!

For specific things:
- as already mentioned on previous posts an over the door organizer is a great idea - I followed this advice from a post prior to our first cruise and it saved a lot of searching for room keys, sun glasses etc.
- make the most of the ships photographers - they are everywhere, not just with the characters, but there is no pressure to buy. They will take photos with your own camera too so make sure you are always carrying it. We got some lovely "studio style" closeups of our little boy from a 15 min session they did with him on pirate night and there was no queue at all for it
- if you are wanting to buy some of the photos, check and collect them throughout the week - the desk will give you a wallet and store them for you so you can then decide what you want to buy later. The only time we felt it was unpleasantly busy onboard was at the photo gallery on the last night.
- we thought Parrot Cay was the best place for breakfast - it was a buffet, but you were shown to a table on going in and your drinks were served at the table. It seemed a bit less hectic than the buffet at Topsiders and more flexible than the table service at Lumineres

Can't think of much else at the moment, a lot has already be mentioned earlier by people with lots more cruising experience than us.

Looking forward to it more everyday

 

[cyndi-rella]

We are all excited to get a new cruiser! We were on the 5-12th Magic, as well! It was our first cruise!

We have some great tips going on here! Thanks for everyone jumping in!

We didn't have breakfast outside of Topsiders. I will be anxious to try it.

Did you all see the Southwest sale? It would have been a 160.00 RT fare from Omaha. The dates didn't go out as far as our cruise but hopefully

Has anyone gone to Cars 2 yet?

Look forward to my FE post this weekend!

emmysdidi and cyndi-rella!

 

[Zachsmom4]

My DS is 6 and will turn 7 on the ship. We'll have to find out if they like the same things. DS would love meeting a new friend!

Since you've just gotten off of one, any tips for us newbies?

My son will be 6.5 when we cruise. I'm sure he will be looking for some friends on the ship as well.

 

[Beth D]

Did you all see the Southwest sale? It would have been a 160.00 RT fare from Omaha. The dates didn't go out as far as our cruise but hopefully

Has anyone gone to Cars 2 yet?

emmysdidi and cyndi-rella!

Southwest releases travel dates that will extend through March 6th (or 9th I think) on July 26th. I've got it marked on my calendar now!

We took DS to Cars 2 last night! Too funny! I loved the Crabby boat featuring Captain Sig's voice from Deadliest Catch, and the Pope Car in the Popemobile car was hilarious. Very crowded, lots of kids, but a good laugh for the whole family. Mater had a much more prominent role this time.

All the "lemon" cars like the AMC Pacer, Gremlin, the Pinto and other bad cars from the 60's & 70's are uniting against "clean" gas to make everyone buy their oil. Very clever as always.

I'm loving that there will be several boys the same age as mine! We'll have to do a meet the first day either at port or on the ship so we will know what everyone looks like!

 

[Scillycruisers]

We didn't realise that there was another buffet breakfast available until there was a bit of a queue at Topsiders and a crew member told us about the other places.

Cars 2 doesn't come out in the UK for another 3 weeks, then we live on a tiny island with no cinema, so we will have to wait for it on DVD or hope that it is still on next time we go to the mainland for a visit. Never mind, will have to go to the beach instead - a tiny island has some advantages!

Would be great to have a meet onboard to put some faces to names and let the kids meet.

 

[cyndi-rella]

Hello, cruisers! For those of you here in America, Happy Independence Day! We have been going, going and going with friends and family. We hope you all have been having a fun and relaxing Holiday!

For those of you who hail from other countries, what type of celebrations do you have in your areas? My daughter was asking today and I told her I would ask!

We just had a weekend with the family we will be traveling with! We already started lying out our plans! We are thinking we may go early and get it Universal Studios. Has anyone ever been?

Have a Great Day!
emmysdidi and cyndi-rella

 

[Beth D]

Hello, cruisers! For those of you here in America, Happy Independence Day! We have been going, going and going with friends and family. We hope you all have been having a fun and relaxing Holiday!

We just had a weekend with the family we will be traveling with! We already started lying out our plans! We are thinking we may go early and get it Universal Studios. Has anyone ever been?

Have a Great Day!
emmysdidi and cyndi-rella

Happy 4th to you too!

Universal is good, but in a different way. Plan a whole day at each side, but if you have thrill seekers, IOA is much better than the Studios.

Go before opening so you can get in line to ride Harry Potter. I'm a coaster fan, but that was the most technically complex, immersive, fantastic ride i've ever been on!

Bring lots o bucks, cause the Butterbeer (Frozen of course!) is to die for! Now if only they could put a little "adult" into that, it'd be the perfect concoction!

Wands are $35, but we didn't wait, as the line for Ollivanders experience was an hour as well. Yes, i'm saying it was another hour (after the 1.5 hour wait for the ride) to get into a gift shop to buy a wand! You can get them elsewhere.

Our favorite place to eat there is at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. The volcano nachos are huge, and shaped like a volcano! They are very family friendly, the kids all get parrot masks, the environment is musical, laid back, and a perfect primer to a cruise! Everyone dances to fins with their shark heads, and the volcano "blows" every hour.

Can't wait to meet everyone!

 

[Scillycruisers]

Hello, cruisers! For those of you here in America, Happy Independence Day! We have been going, going and going with friends and family. We hope you all have been having a fun and relaxing Holiday!

For those of you who hail from other countries, what type of celebrations do you have in your areas? My daughter was asking today and I told her I would ask!

We just had a weekend with the family we will be traveling with! We already started lying out our plans! We are thinking we may go early and get it Universal Studios. Has anyone ever been?

Have a Great Day!
emmysdidi and cyndi-rella

Happy Independence Day to everyone who has one too - we don't have anything on 4th July in the UK. The kids did get a day off from our local school (or pre-school in our case) today though as it was an "inset day" for teacher training.

Our most recent holiday celebration was May Day which in our part of the country is celebrated by the primary school children taking part in the crowning of the May Queen and maypole dancing. They are all dressed in white and carry flowers. The little ones in particular look very cute! Our little boy is in a pre-school nursery class so took part in one of the dances with his class-mates (it was more of a chaotic skip around the park than a dance, but all very sweet).

Our next holiday weekend is at the end of August, but there is nothing in particular celebrated then. We did get an extra holiday day this year though with the Royal Wedding!

We've not been to Universal - we went to Disney before our last cruise and are staying there again for 4 nights before this one. Will probably visit 2 of the parks again - haven't decided which 2 yet.

 

[Scillycruisers]

Just making sure my ticker is working!