From WDW to DL With Love - January 06, 2011 part 2

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Jenn,
You are so right once again. I remember when my best friend went to the Marines right out of High School. Man I was so happy he just had to do the one weekend a month thing for a few years. He never got sent anywere. I am very thankfull for all if our hard working service personel, not only military but on the civilian end as well. I am happy today that at work I get to call them out and preboard them and their familes. I know it is not much but as a company it is the least we can do on this day to honor our service men and women. Oh they get free drinks on the plane too. Again thank you to all who are, or have served. You have more guts than I.
Thanks Alan, I don't know if it's guts. For me it was important to give back. My Dad was born in the Italian version of a concentration camp shortly before WWII ended. American GIs liberated the camp and freed my family. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the American military. I always felt that I needed to join to repay this country. So guts, not so much. But a devote gratitude to what so many did to allow my family to survive and then open its doors to us.
 
Correct...you would need 100 "gifts" There is no schedule - you do them when you want.

Remember too, gifts can be as simple as candy bars or cookies. Also, I'm fairly certain a good number of the Floridians here have offered to be "receivers" for boxes of stuff that needs to be sent ahead. It definitely helps when you can just drop the box at the UPS store a week in advance.

Even with the current numbers (225 guests and 85 staterooms) I don't think anyone should be spending more then they feel capable of.

Oh yeah, and the website is up to date (Cruise list, cabin map, pictures etc.) If I don't have current info up and you don't have a current PM from me asking for clarifications, you can assume I lost your message in the PM trail.
 
I share in your happiness. To me I am looking at it as six months to go.

Last cruise, I counted down by sailings. I did a quick count and it looks like the wonder has 53 sailings until ours!

When we get to under 200 days...I will actually feel a bit of panic, in a good kind of way!

Happy Memorial Day!
 
Remember too, gifts can be as simple as candy bars or cookies. Also, I'm fairly certain a good number of the Floridians here have offered to be "receivers" for boxes of stuff that needs to be sent ahead. It definitely helps when you can just drop the box at the UPS store a week in advance.

Even with the current numbers (225 guests and 85 staterooms) I don't think anyone should be spending more then they feel capable of.

Oh yeah, and the website is up to date (Cruise list, cabin map, pictures etc.) If I don't have current info up and you don't have a current PM from me asking for clarifications, you can assume I lost your message in the PM trail.

Jeff, thank you for this!

And knowing we have military (former or present?P) on this thread, I too want to thank you for serving our country. I try to do the little i can to show my appreciation (at an ER tried to pay for sodas for 4 soldiers from Ft who were there as a result of playing basketball. ) I work as a civilian at the fort with civilians and military who have deployed all over the world, including NY on 9/12 and the sandbox. These are incredible men and women and I appeciate all the military and how they enable me to live life free.
 

Happy Memorial Day!

I'd like to add our THANKS and APPRECIATION to all thoses past and present serving this wonderful country of ours.
 
Remember too, gifts can be as simple as candy bars or cookies. Also, I'm fairly certain a good number of the Floridians here have offered to be "receivers" for boxes of stuff that needs to be sent ahead. It definitely helps when you can just drop the box at the UPS store a week in advance.

Even with the current numbers (225 guests and 85 staterooms) I don't think anyone should be spending more then they feel capable of.

Oh yeah, and the website is up to date (Cruise list, cabin map, pictures etc.) If I don't have current info up and you don't have a current PM from me asking for clarifications, you can assume I lost your message in the PM trail.

I agree... I had posted in a previous post...they can be candy, temp. tatoos...all sorts of small items that do not cost much or weigh to much.

We are having our items shipped ahead to a friend or hotel.
 
Jeff and I can take some shipments with us to the port if people don't want to pack it/ ship it to a hotel. We are limited in how much we can take however since we're bringing alcohol on board for our party of 14. :)
 
Look at you, you little party animal. I like that.
Not me (anymore), but the group of us are bad influences on each other. Two of my three drinking buddies are on the cruise. There will be alcohol induced fun!
 
As for FE, you can start now working on gifts if you want, just realizing the final numbers maybe very different. Jeff and I can set up the t-shirts on cafe press or zazzle, it's very easy to do. By doing it there, anyone can order whatever they want whenever. Jeff has all of the images that people submitted for the thread. He'll try to get them up this week. As of right now (knock on wood) he only has one umpiring game this week, so he should be home most nights this week to work on the cruise stuff.

The tshirts will be awesome- I think we discussed this way back on our first thread, but cant remember if we reached a decision or if so, what it was. Didnt we vote on one of the designs as "the official one" to be used? So for the tshirt, shouldnt we all do the same? I love all the designs and since so many of you creative designers offered to let us use them for door magnets, that is great, but personally I like the idea of "unity" and us having matching tshirts to wear around the ship and be recognized, same with the bracelets, lanyards, etc. IMO it sort of defeats the purpose if we all have different shirt designs?

I had a place for the 2008 PC cruise that did our lanyards very inexpensively. If anyone wants to go in on lanyards - let me know and we can do it as a group FE gift if you like. I will check on the company and see what thier prices are now.

Since we are on talks of planning too...I do not know if anyone is interested or not but we had 2 events I thought were fun in 2008 - we did a PJ breakfast. We met in our PJs and simply went to breakfast - we also took a group photo in the atrium. I will see if I can find the picture.

Lanyards sound great! I dont think I'd like to be in the FE group to do it since I like making some creative gifts, but I sure am interested in getting one! Is there a site where they can be designed and then ordered on demand individually like the tshirts or is there not such a thing for this?

The PJ breakfast sounds like a great idea to me! Sounds fun!

I really think if there are going to be that many or more cabins signing up for FE then the list should be broken down into smaller groups or some other method to cut the weight/space issues, and also the costs.

I agree- I love making creative gifts and going all over the ship, but the most I've ever had was 20 staterooms. I'm thinking 100 would be very time consuming, expensive and space issues- even if we shipped the stuff down to FL, seems like it would be difficult to carry the boxes on board along with wheeling our checked luggage, carryons, and of course rolling coolers of adult beverages ; )

Are we going to wait and see the final numbers and decide if we are splitting up into groups or are we definitely doing all staterooms? I think groups are a great idea if we have a large size, but my only reservation is that I would want to make sure that everyone gets some of the "signifcant" gifts- ie- door magnets, lanyards, bracelets, etc if those are decided that they will be FE groups doing them.

Jeff and I can take some shipments with us to the port if people don't want to pack it/ ship it to a hotel. We are limited in how much we can take however since we're bringing alcohol on board for our party of 14. :)

You just reminded me of a question I was going to ask about the alcohol. Normally, I bring a soft rolling cooler with a couple of bottles of vodka and rum for the length of the cruise, purchased at a liquor store in FL on the way to the port. But, I was wondering, do any of you only bring on a small amount, say for the first couple days, and then stock up on cheaper liquor in Caribbean ports? I remember getting a large bottle of Bacardi for 10 bucks in St. Thomas this year. I was thinking, why should I spend $$$$ on enough liquor to last over 2 weeks in the US liquor store, if I can buy the same stuff for much less in our first port, Aruba? I havent been to Aruba but I'm assuming they have similar prices to other islands? Has anyone done this before? To me it sounds like a no brainer, but I dont know if they have restrictions on amounts, or in certain ports, or whatever- I wouldnt want to be caught on board without enough liquor for my whole trip if buying on the island didnt work out for one reason or another, so I was curious what the rest of you think if you have any experience with this?
 
I did FE gifts for 135 cabins on the 5 day double dip in 2008! It wasn't all that difficult - I made bookmarks. My box weighed a couple pounds. What I Would do differently is deliver one deck per day or two at most and not try to deliver the whole ship in one day.
 
I did FE gifts for 135 cabins on the 5 day double dip in 2008! It wasn't all that difficult - I made bookmarks. My box weighed a couple pounds. What I Would do differently is deliver one deck per day or two at most and not try to deliver the whole ship in one day.

wait, does that mean you got 135 gifts back? wow1
 
wait, does that mean you got 135 gifts back? wow1
Yes, if everyone does the same thing. We've done big FE's before and had a similar number (as we will with the cruise and the door magnets), it's really not that bad. It only gets bad if you decide to do something big (like the wipe boards). A big number is doable, but you may need to be creative.
 
The tshirts will be awesome- I think we discussed this way back on our first thread, but cant remember if we reached a decision or if so, what it was. Didnt we vote on one of the designs as "the official one" to be used? So for the tshirt, shouldnt we all do the same? I love all the designs and since so many of you creative designers offered to let us use them for door magnets, that is great, but personally I like the idea of "unity" and us having matching tshirts to wear around the ship and be recognized, same with the bracelets, lanyards, etc. IMO it sort of defeats the purpose if we all have different shirt designs?

We did agree on a design and I think they should all be the same. As for the lanyards and bracelets - I am not sure we actually chose a saying or if we are using the one on the design


Lanyards sound great! I dont think I'd like to be in the FE group to do it since I like making some creative gifts, but I sure am interested in getting one! Is there a site where they can be designed and then ordered on demand individually like the tshirts or is there not such a thing for this?


Unfortunately, to get a price break, they are not available individually - that being said - I will look and see if I can find something because it would be easier

The PJ breakfast sounds like a great idea to me! Sounds fun!

We did have fun! We just need to pick one of the sea days!



I agree- I love making creative gifts and going all over the ship, but the most I've ever had was 20 staterooms. I'm thinking 100 would be very time consuming, expensive and space issues- even if we shipped the stuff down to FL, seems like it would be difficult to carry the boxes on board along with wheeling our checked luggage, carryons, and of course rolling coolers of adult beverages ; )

Are we going to wait and see the final numbers and decide if we are splitting up into groups or are we definitely doing all staterooms? I think groups are a great idea if we have a large size, but my only reservation is that I would want to make sure that everyone gets some of the "signifcant" gifts- ie- door magnets, lanyards, bracelets, etc if those are decided that they will be FE groups doing them.


You just reminded me of a question I was going to ask about the alcohol. Normally, I bring a soft rolling cooler with a couple of bottles of vodka and rum for the length of the cruise, purchased at a liquor store in FL on the way to the port. But, I was wondering, do any of you only bring on a small amount, say for the first couple days, and then stock up on cheaper liquor in Caribbean ports? I remember getting a large bottle of Bacardi for 10 bucks in St. Thomas this year. I was thinking, why should I spend $$$$ on enough liquor to last over 2 weeks in the US liquor store, if I can buy the same stuff for much less in our first port, Aruba? I havent been to Aruba but I'm assuming they have similar prices to other islands? Has anyone done this before? To me it sounds like a no brainer, but I dont know if they have restrictions on amounts, or in certain ports, or whatever- I wouldnt want to be caught on board without enough liquor for my whole trip if buying on the island didnt work out for one reason or another, so I was curious what the rest of you think if you have any experience with this?

We bought alcohol and juice in Aruba. Although Aruba was almost to the end for our cruise - I plan to do the same this time around and only bring on a small amount to get me to Aruba.
 
wait, does that mean you got 135 gifts back? wow1

Yes, maybe more. Most of them were small things - a printed pencil, mini candy bars, packs of gum, postcards - some homemade - I had a big bag of candy that I gave my room host on the last day to share among the staff, a bag of "good candy" that I took with me, a bag of usefull goodies I kept, and another box of small toys and things of that nature that I donated to Give Kids the World.

One of the most useful gifts I received was a snack size bag containing a rubber band, paper clip, q tip, band aid, saftey pin and wire tie. VERY clever.
 
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