From WDW to DL With Love - January 06, 2011 part 3

[Pixie Dust II]

IsI anyone out there able to book the Disney excursions. I was told Sept. 23rd but could be wrong

I'm thinking about the Whale Watching in Cabo (through Disney) and the Dolphins in Puerta Vallarta with my (then) 4 year old doing the dolphins and kids. Any experience with that one?

What's everyone doing in Costa Rica? Are there any rain forests closer than 2 hours away (long bus ride for a preschooler)

Thanks

cg

In Costa Rica we are doing Nature Reserve & Aerial Tram. Is anyone else doing this?

Right now I am doing cinnamon sugar pecans for snacking in the car tomorrow and also and additional batch for my sil. My house smells so good. It is better than any room freshener you can ever buy!

We are leaving at 6am tomorrow. I guess that means an early bedtime. Jasmine will never understand that!

 

[aan1701]

I thought if your reservations were linked you could book everyone in your party once your time to book came open.

That's the way it worked for my upcoming B2B next month. We are Gold, my mom is silver (She will be gold for this cruise) and it let me book her with us for Palo brunch.

 

[JenKatt]

Concierge & Platnium CC should have been able to book sometime last week, I think.

I know my parents were able to book Palo, but we haven't done any excursions yet b/c DH & I are only gold members and we wanted to book all 4 of us at the same time so we were certain we all got the same excursions.

If you book the same excursions/ Palo/ etc, you can book now for everyone.

 

[rotary2808]

It let Dad book Palo for all 4 of us, but when he went to book shore excursions it wouldn't let him book for DH & I even though our ressies are linked, which he thought was odd. We'll have to try going back in and seeing if it will let us book them now.

 

[Tinkerbel129]

We are looking at the city tour - I think it's $30 each or so. Since my DD is homeschool, I am allowed to count each port as a field trip day if she does something educational. Since I am not the most adventurouse, I thought the city tour seemed like a good idea.



I love Tink! Is the bus tour the same as the city tour?

That is the one we are doing too!

Something I do remember from the past PC cruises....there could be multiple buses for the same time, same tour. Several of us agreed to go together, but when you go to the meeting area Disney has you report to, they give you a sticker and we ended up in different tour buses. For example: yellow Simba on one bus, blue Cinderella on a different bus, etc... In Manzanillo & Cartagena there were several buses and they did seem to stagger who was where & when, so there wouldn't be too many people at one time. My suggestion on this would be to meet by a certain staircase, floor and then proceed to the Disney location. just a thought

 

[Pixie Dust II]

Something I do remember from the past PC cruises....there could be multiple buses for the same time, same tour. Several of us agreed to go together, but when you go to the meeting area Disney has you report to, they give you a sticker and we ended up in different tour buses. For example: yellow Simba on one bus, blue Cinderella on a different bus, etc... In Manzanillo & Cartagena there were several buses and they did seem to stagger who was where & when, so there wouldn't be too many people at one time. My suggestion on this would be to meet by a certain staircase, floor and then proceed to the Disney location. just a thought

Good idea!!!

 

[danfromca]

Yes, it is the city tour & shopping.

That is the one we are doing too!

Something I do remember from the past PC cruises....there could be multiple buses for the same time, same tour. Several of us agreed to go together, but when you go to the meeting area Disney has you report to, they give you a sticker and we ended up in different tour buses. For example: yellow Simba on one bus, blue Cinderella on a different bus, etc... In Manzanillo & Cartagena there were several buses and they did seem to stagger who was where & when, so there wouldn't be too many people at one time. My suggestion on this would be to meet by a certain staircase, floor and then proceed to the Disney location. just a thought

Yep - I'm pretty sure it's going to be one of the most popular of the limited selection in Manzanillo. We're probably going to go for that one as well.

 

[Pixie Dust II]

Disney Dreams everyone. I am going to try to get to sleep early for my early morning. Hoping for a football victory after a 5 hour drive. I will talk to everyone on Saturday or maybe not till Sunday. I will be one tired lady, but so happy to get to see my dd and dsil!.

Everyone keep safe & happy!

 

[perdy1234]

hi Everyone Welcome to all our new cruisers! i hope the lost puppies are found soon and that others whos pets are sick get better soon. We had our own excitement today with our shihtzu. She went in for a routine teeth cleaning and now she needs 11 teeth pulled and some fillings on others. She is feeling so bad tonight no life in her at all and she is only 6 So this new vet bill puts a damper on the cruise spending. So i was wondering how much people are budgeting for this cruise. I don't think we are doing much for excursions. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Also we are in wdw for a week before the cruise. Has anyone used garden grocers to get their groceries? How were they for service? Thanks so much

 

[JenKatt]

We're putting money aside now and will start filling the on board account with what we've got. We're a big party so budgeting is kinda hard. We'll have the money in the on board account before we get on board to cover any excursions, spa appointments and Palo that we book now. Other than that, we're winging what else we'll need to put aside now.

 

[LindaBabe]

Good Evening!

Anyone going from DL to Las Vegas after the cruise?

We will be away for a few days. We are also campers and we are going to a fund raiser for the Make A Wish Foundation which grants wishes to sick children. Last year they raided over $30,000 in CT and helped grant three wishes- all to Disney World.

When we get back on Monday we will make some decisions on some of the excursions mentioned .

I'm spending the weekend at Disneyland and then going up to Vegas for a few days.

Where is the Make-A-Wish fundraiser? I always sell angels for them at Christmas in the local mall. And when in Florida alone in the winter, volunteer at Give Kids the world - so MAW is near and dear to my heart!

I thought if your reservations were linked you could book everyone in your party once your time to book came open.

If you book the same excursions/ Palo/ etc, you can book now for everyone.

It let Dad book Palo for all 4 of us, but when he went to book shore excursions it wouldn't let him book for DH & I even though our ressies are linked, which he thought was odd. We'll have to try going back in and seeing if it will let us book them now.

THAT was my experience - Palo OK, excursions not. MY TA tried too, but no luck.

Going to be a bummer if we end up with our party split up.

 

[aan1701]

Well we figure we will need about 400 for tips, we know we are going to Palo for Brunch and that is 30 plus tip, we know we are going to tea at Palo, and that is 10 plus tip. so right there that is almost 500 and I have not even left home. Maybe we will need about 120-150 for shutters, not sure. Also not sure about excursions, but it looks like the rafting is going to be out for me. It says they highly recomend incect repelent, and I am alergic to it, so no rafting.

 

[perdy1234]

When you add money to your onboard account does it come off your credit card right away? We were thinking about doing this because it would be nice to have alot of the extras paid for before we board the boat!

 

[carmie3377]

I was just checking on travelocity site to see how how many cabins were available (still 7+ in many cats) and noticed that Secret Porthole Cabin 5520 is available at the cost of an inside (10A). Thought someone might be interested as I know how popular these room are!

 

[hawkaye19]

Since my DD is homeschool, I am allowed to count each port as a field trip day if she does something educational.

Just curious, we homeschool Liam and we follow our own curriculum.

Are you taking your DD out of school for the trip and your school/schoolboard requires you to justify each day as an educational outing?

 

[hawkaye19]

Is anyone out there able to book the Disney excursions. I was told Sept. 23rd but could be wrong

I'm thinking about the Whale Watching in Cabo (through Disney) and the Dolphins in Puerta Vallarta with my (then) 4 year old doing the dolphins and kids. Any experience with that one?

What's everyone doing in Costa Rica? Are there any rain forests closer than 2 hours away (long bus ride for a preschooler)

Thanks

cg

We did the dolphins last PC repo, and it was very interesting

I stayed dry and took over 100 pictures and Liam and Nancy got to interact with the dolphins

 

[RRBB]

Where is the Make-A-Wish fundraiser? I always sell angels for them at Christmas in the local mall. And when in Florida alone in the winter, volunteer at Give Kids the world - so MAW is near and dear to my heart!

MAW is visiting a good friend of DS's this weekend to plan his wish. (He's been battling leukemia, had a BMT and is doing well now.) According to his mom, his wish is to make a film with George Lucas. Now wouldn't that be a cool thing to do!

 

[A Litle Pixie Dust]

Just curious, we homeschool Liam and we follow our own curriculum.

Are you taking your DD out of school for the trip and your school/schoolboard requires you to justify each day as an educational outing?

We do not actually have to justify it but it is preferable if she does something. It doesn't have to be super educational - just something in that port (meaning - if we opted not to get off at that port and she played in the kid's club all day with video games etc...it wouldn't feel quite right counting it) She is registered through a private school here but regardless if she was through a private school or on our own, we have to account for 176 days of school in CA.

I get creative on the sea days Anything type of "talk" about the port or the canal or a galley tour etc... works. Her school only asks that she do something where she learns. We started school on August 2 to allow for extra "vacation" days on days where we just don't do anything but usually we get to count everything. I homeschool her M-T and she attends an art class and a writing class on Friday. So we don't actually have to take her out - just notify the "school" that she won't be there those Fridays but we don't need permission at all.

 

[ACDSNY]

Thanks. The wife is acctulay in her home town of Freeport Maine right now. When she woke up she called me and I told her what happened. She said the same thing I did, thank god the firefighters got there quick because I dont want to have to live with your parents. I then told her she was lucky she is in Maine and I guess could just stay if our place did go up. She said I had a great point and that she would just meet me at WDW on Oct 11. We can't take anything seriously. Oh well I guess that is just how her and I deal with things, sarcasm and bad humor.

Happy to hear everything is OK. I tend to deal with things the same way, you've got to laugh or you'd be crying. Laughing is much better for the system.

We had our own excitement today with our shihtzu. She went in for a routine teeth cleaning and now she needs 11 teeth pulled and some fillings on others.

Has anyone used garden grocers to get their groceries? How were they for service? Thanks so much

I hope you furry friend is feeling better soon.

We've used Garden Grocer 3 or 4 times with great results and no problems. I usually put our order in about a week or two before our trip.

It says they highly recomend incect repelent, and I am alergic to it, so no rafting.

My DH loves the new OFF Clip On so he doesn't have to use a spray type. We have an irrigated pasture next to us so it's a must around here in the spring/summer.

MAW is visiting a good friend of DS's this weekend to plan his wish. (He's been battling leukemia, had a BMT and is doing well now.) According to his mom, his wish is to make a film with George Lucas. Now wouldn't that be a cool thing to do!

That would be a totally cool wish to have granted!

Thanks everyone for helping me keep my hopes up on our missing doggies. I think I need to believe in a little more faith and pixie dust.

 

[DVCinderella]

My DH loves the new OFF Clip On so he doesn't have to use a spray type. We have an irrigated pasture next to us so it's a must around here in the spring/summer.

How effective is this if you are moving around? I had never heard of this, and thought it would be great for the shore excursions! However, I was reading the Directions for Use, and it states, "If you move, allow a few minutes for the unit to rebuild its protection." So I'm wondering if it's not the best repellent if you're on the go.