halloween cruise/ Magic: October 28th-nov..4th 2006

[kritter]

I like the idea of a van....
But you should try southern elegance...That is who I booked my transportation through....The owner is great to deal with...

 

[buckifan]

Insurance is an absolute MUST! We have been displaced by a hurricane twice now on DCL. The first time that $200 insurance investment led to a $2700 payout for accomodations all over Florida. Would not think about sailing without it now. People on that particular cruise bought through AAA and were pleased with the results, I would just use that, it's easy.


Missyoh8

I was beginning to think the insurance we purchased was a big waste of money after reading all of the posts from people that never buy it......thanks for sharing your experiences. I'm very glad we have the insurance now! I'm sure we could have gotten it cheaper, as we purchased thru Disney, but we are amateurs at cruising. We'll know better next time!

 

[missyoh8]

Funny thing about the insurance that trip we had to use it........we had cruised previously and never thought of "wasting" our money on insurance. That particular trip we got it because we were traveling with my in-laws who have had numerous health issues and we made sure to buy insurance as we were leaving the country (many of you might want to check if your health insurance is good outside of the US). That was the trip we ended up getting hurricaned all over Florida. We stayed in some very lovely hotels and ate very well though! Insurance paid for everything and we got a 4 day cruise, and 40% back from DCL and 25% our next cruise..........so we actually ended up having a very economical and exciting tropical vacation.

This will be our fourth DCL cruise and we are just hoping for a "boring" trip this time. Last year as we were sailing out to sea the Captain came on anouncing our Eastern cruise had turned Western due to a hurricane in St. John. We still had a ball............so much for all of excursions we had planned.

Have a great night all.

Missyoh8

PS Bucki we went to mass last week at St. Michael on Saturday night.......did not see anyone that looked like your kids and I looked! I know I can't say anything in front of them but I thought it would be funny to be able to whisper to you who I was!

 

[captaincrash]

Hello everyone...

... yesterday something wierd happened and I could no accesss the DIS. I wuuz busy too as my older daughter had to be picked up on account of her tummy disomfort and slight fever. She was all fine 2 hours after I brogt her home but boy o boy was it a busy afternoon and evening.

BTW... I love those doorsigns that were shared. I actually missed making door signs for our last sailing. But I'll have em' fer this one!

And our little poll is up to 53 voters! yea!

Cheers

 

[kritter]

Hello everyone...

... yesterday something wierd happened and I could no accesss the DIS. I wuuz busy too as my older daughter had to be picked up on account of her tummy disomfort and slight fever. She was all fine 2 hours after I brogt her home but boy o boy was it a busy afternoon and evening.

BTW... I love those doorsigns that were shared. I actually missed making door signs for our last sailing. But I'll have em' fer this one!

And our little poll is up to 53 voters! yea!

Cheers

Wonder why you could not access it??
How is your daughter today???

 

[buckifan]

Missy,
We are rarely at the 5:30 Sat Mass. I think the last one we went to was August, as we had a Mass for my Grandpa. We are always at the 8:30am Sunday Mass, if you can make it up that early! Last week, Drew and I went to the 12:30 Mass also, because we have a new Mass for youth twice a month at 12:30. It was really cool. They had a band called Station 14 play. We have a new youth director that is really lighting our youth activites on fire! He was formally in the band Oswald and the Herringbones. Remember them? They won the MTV basement tapes contest back in the 80's. He eventually found his way back to the Church. He worked for EWTN and co-founded the Dead Theologians Society. We are so lucky to have him. You should bring your kids to the Mass for youth sometime, I think they would really enjoy it. I know St. Brendan's has a Mass for youth on Sunday eves also, but we've never been to that one. I've heard the youth love it as well.

 

[Princess Olivia]

Hi Everyone!
My day has been long and crazy. Olivia competed in her first (of 2 this month) dance competition. It was an hour and a half away and we left at 7:00 am. It's now 7:25 and we just got home about a 1/2 hour ago. The good news is they won GOLD!!! I am the farthest thing from a stage mother, however I will admit it was fun and the girls were fantastic!! They danced to (an edited version) Nicest Kids in Town from Hairspray. They had 60's costumes with pink or green bouffant wigs, blue eyeshadow, bright pink lips and lots of glitter. It really was cute (she just turned 9).

We took Tiffany Town Car in Oct. They were great. Meet you at the airport with a sign. Take all your luggage, were very nice and they were very reasonable in price. Got that (again) from my beloved Passporter.

Still sort of lost on costumes for Halloween. I also have decided against me in a pirate dress. I did see some really cute pirate T-shirts (for girls/women) I can actually still wear a child/girls 14/16 so there are more options!! That's a possibility. If the kids want to be pirates I'll get them costumes. Cameron is for some reason a scary costume kid. I don't allow him to have them but he BEGS every year for something horrid like the Grim Reaper or the bloody Scream mask (he'll be 8 in April) and sulks when he has to be something normal. This year I'm sure will be another challenge. He saw a costume he wants on line of a walking shark with two legs sticking out of it's mouth. It is pretty humorous to see but it's completely inappropriate for the cruise.

BTW, LOVED the book The Red Tent. I would highly reccomend it.

Crash- copied all of your camera info for later this year when I buy my new one. You're way better than any salesperson! Any chance you can help me turn off my stuck ON ipod? I'm even having trouble resetting it. Any idea why this might happen?
HELP! I hear Revenge of the Sith for the hundred millionth time in the family room

Good Night
Jen

 

[captaincrash]

Hi Everyone!
My day has been long and crazy. Olivia competed in her first (of 2 this month) dance competition. It was an hour and a half away and we left at 7:00 am. It's now 7:25 and we just got home about a 1/2 hour ago. The good news is they won GOLD!!! I am the farthest thing from a stage mother, however I will admit it was fun and the girls were fantastic!! They danced to (an edited version) Nicest Kids in Town from Hairspray. They had 60's costumes with pink or green bouffant wigs, blue eyeshadow, bright pink lips and lots of glitter. It really was cute (she just turned 9).

We took Tiffany Town Car in Oct. They were great. Meet you at the airport with a sign. Take all your luggage, were very nice and they were very reasonable in price. Got that (again) from my beloved Passporter.

Still sort of lost on costumes for Halloween. I also have decided against me in a pirate dress. I did see some really cute pirate T-shirts (for girls/women) I can actually still wear a child/girls 14/16 so there are more options!! That's a possibility. If the kids want to be pirates I'll get them costumes. Cameron is for some reason a scary costume kid. I don't allow him to have them but he BEGS every year for something horrid like the Grim Reaper or the bloody Scream mask (he'll be 8 in April) and sulks when he has to be something normal. This year I'm sure will be another challenge. He saw a costume he wants on line of a walking shark with two legs sticking out of it's mouth. It is pretty humorous to see but it's completely inappropriate for the cruise.

BTW, LOVED the book The Red Tent. I would highly reccomend it.

Crash- copied all of your camera info for later this year when I buy my new one. You're way better than any salesperson! Any chance you can help me turn off my stuck ON ipod? I'm even having trouble resetting it. Any idea why this might happen?
HELP! I hear Revenge of the Sith for the hundred millionth time in the family room

Good Night
Jen

Well Jen....

Let me begin by conveying thanks for the compliemts on the camera insanity. As many of you here already suspect - I can write way more than anyone probably wants to read if given a little encouragement (when I have the time). So... if you get to wanting to actually mak a purchase - let me know again as the models change so quickly that on any given month there may be something better for less that I could not have mentioned back in March of '06.

AND... on the IPOD thing. Since I don't actually own one I would recommend you walk it into an Apple store. I assume there might be one in your area. And if not simply try telephoning them to ask what to do. Otherwise, short of live line help I would say try a mall happer while wearing safety goggles... .... OK... maybe I'm just kidding about the hammer... but you can still wear goggles into the Apple store when you go.

AND... on the costume thing I would encourage you to simply let your inhibitions go unleashed! You know... this is a family oriented Disny haunted sailing and no one from church is going to see you in what ever you pack for pirate nite and costume fun on Halloween. So just shop the oncepts and check Ebay for bargains... if getting a bargin is your thing. It certainly is "our thing" simply as a matter of routine as opposed to total necessity. And we look on getting a good deal as a common sense for the most part. Consider - I recently picked up a black tux set for about $5 on ebay. It certainly "Looked" better than $5 and was far cheaper than RENTING a tux. PLUS... with two young kids if they want to smear macaroni and melted cheese on my lapel I won't pause to worry a stitch! Shipping on the tux was $10... so it was a $15 set. What a bargain eh?... except the pants did NOT fit at all... and my wife had a huge laugh watching me deal with the pants on the cruise. She was saying ... "that's what you get for NOT trying the tux on before the cruise!" ... and the entire cruise she was snickering at me every few minutes during dinner.

Oh well... I am getting the pants altered BEFORE the next cruise so I can use them with slight dignity. OR... if altering them costs more then $15 then I'll simply buy a pair of tux slacks in my size for probably that much! Yeah... to me the tux is more of a "costume" than a clubby thing for an exercise in being stuck up formal. My daughter is ALL SMILES when we dress up (and kiss and dance). So I simply love pleasing my girls (mom included) because they do such a good job in pleasing me.

OK... enuf of dat...

With all the talk of using limos and shuttle services for relative reasonable prices you all have me rethinking our transfer plans. We usually rent cars from Budget or Avis for the utility and agility it brings us... but it would be fun to do a limo or not worry about the driving for a change.

AND harty CONGRATULATIONS to OLIVIA.... on her gold medal dance performance. I was JUST talking with neighbors at the park an hour ago about dance activities for our young kids. I had not considered it much since we recently tried a tap class for our 4 year old and she did not show huge interest. Oh well ... maybe we should try agin when she is a bit older.

So.... gotts run in a few minutes. I'm gonna go browsing the regular forums before we run for the evening. We're off to Disneyland for the morning and afteroon tomorrow... so I'll post a mini-report on the park with a few photos on Monday. Yeah.... some of you may be grumbling that my mini-reports are bound to be novellas... and maybe it will be too... but MAYBE I'll reign it in and keep it to a few dozen lines too!

Cheers!

And on the

 

[captaincrash]

Wonder why you could not access it??
How is your daughter today???

Hey Kristen....

We're doing much better today. "J" had a surgical dental appointment on Friday but because her thursday discomfort was in her tummy - the anestesiologist advised we reschedule. I am glad we were not involved with a revenue grubby doc and we deferred the work.

So... we're sort of resting today in anticipation for tomorrow's park visit. This morning I went to our church for a special speaker session (and lunch). It cost me $5 to attend but lunch was rather good... lots of the unhealthy stuff that my dear spouse frowns on if I bring it home! So... the discussion was quite enriching and very very informative. However, I'll hesitate on the actual subject matter since it might be viewed as off topic and politcally inflammatory in a PUBLIC forum. If anyone cares to learn about it - and if anyone wants to chat about it I'll entertain an exchange of private messages or we can start a seperate thread .... on another site! OK... maybe we'll start a new thread on the DIS ... or at least until a monitor wipes it off the forum for being completely OFF TOPIC!

And on the asscess thing... I vaguely think there was a server failure in the srtring of links to the site server. As I have had technical support people from Adelphia explain it to me that way. I am not very technical so I can't explain how access failure occurs. But it did for me the other day for an extended period. If I had called adelphia o enquire and complain I could have gotten a service disruption credit good for one days worth of internet service (save a buck n' change)... but I did not get around to doing it. Hey I got better things o do with my time than to wait on the phone for 5-10 minutes to recover $1 in service credits.


OK.... a lurkin' I shall go now....

TTFN!

 

[buckifan]

I just read on another thread that the new "big thing" on Castaway Cay may be the actual pirate ship from Pirates of the Carribean movie. This is per a CM. Don't know if it is true or not.

 

[buckifan]

Hi Everyone!
My day has been long and crazy. Olivia competed in her first (of 2 this month) dance competition. The good news is they won GOLD!!!
Jen

Great Job Olivia!!

I love the show Hairspray, I bet they were adorable!!

 

[captaincrash]

I just read on another thread that the new "big thing" on Castaway Cay may be the actual pirate ship from Pirates of the Carribean movie. This is per a CM. Don't know if it is true or not.

just woke from a nap... having a pirate ship at CC would be great! Especially for a character like myself. Heck, I might even go ashore in MY pirate costume... well... maybe THAT would be a litttle too heavy for day time on the beach.

 

["Ginger"]

Hi All
Been reading your post. WOW!!! You've all been busy.

I love sailing on Halloween, the hallways for the staterooms are so much more festive with doors signs and decorations. I've seen wreaths, ghost, spider webs, light strung, smashed witches, skeletons, paper streamers, candy, balloons, lots of great door magnets, etc. You can just go wild with it as long as it doesn't obstruct passage in the hallways.

Heather those are great doors signs.

Capt. sounds like you're going to do alot of costume changes and alot of packing.

We've gone on 8 Disney cruises without insurance, so far we've been very lucky. Only once have we had to use the ships Dr. and our health insurance covered it.

 

[captaincrash]

Hi All
Been reading your post. WOW!!! You've all been busy.

I love sailing on Halloween, the hallways for the staterooms are so much more festive with doors signs and decorations. I've seen wreaths, ghost, spider webs, light strung, smashed witches, skeletons, paper streamers, candy, balloons, lots of great door magnets, etc. You can just go wild with it as long as it doesn't obstruct passage in the hallways.

Capt. sounds like you're going to do alot of costume changes and alot of packing.

We've gone on 8 Disney cruises without insurance, so far we've been very lucky. Only once have we had to use the ships Dr. and our health insurance covered it.

Ginger....

Now you've got me thinking... decorate the door with a door sign was one thing. BUT... add to my door with Halloween deorations? NOW we're talkin'! What do you think if I bring a storbe which flashes in black light AND a fog machine? I could bring spider web cotton to stretch out in the passageway in front of our hall way too complete with stuffed animal spooky Mama spiders
to go wth the little baby plastic ones that come with the webbing. Ya suppose the crew will tolerate this sort of nonsense? And, of course I'll have to convert my toga sheet into a make shift ghost costume since my "special costume" is not a spooky halloween one at all. Seriously, I don't own a strobe (but can get one)... but I do have a string of Halloween lights and spider webs which I saved from last year's Halloween costume party which threw. And... I can BORROW a fog machine... but that would be sort of bulky... and smoke on a ship cannot be very well received by the captain. Oh... wait a minute ... as my daughter sez... I AM the Captain! LOL! So as Ginger states above .... "You can just go wild with it as long as it doesn't obstruct passage in the hallways". I can bring a little yellow tape to stick arrows on the ground to help guide folks pass my Halloween decorations in the passageway. What do you guys think?

Seriously though... Ginger, I don't recall if anyone has asked yet but did many adults dress up in costumes? AND what sort of costumes did you see? I recollect that Disney would not want anything too wild or scary. But I am curious since I would not want to use MY costume if it did not quite fit. OF COURSE, I could call Disney directly... but it's more fun to ask you here... eh?

And on whether I'm packing a lot... I guess I should say I'm packing no MORE than my dear spouse.... HEH hee hee. And HER costume (that I bought her) is really far les bulky as it's this teeny little skin tight number... Yeah... and it's not what some of you may be thinking out there (shame on you!). It IS indeed skin thight and about 1/15th the volume of MY costume. Not counting the toys that go with the clothing part of the costume to "finish it".

BTW... how does everyone feel about having a semiprivate DIS costume party the day of our trick or treatin'? I figure we were going to do it on the day BEFORE actual Halloween (as I recollect am I wrong) since DCL will probably schedule something on the actual Halloween day for the ship. We therefore get ta use and enjoy our costume/Halloween gear that much more. It only need be a cocktail and snack sort of gathering. In afact we can even hold it in one of the lounges... for convenience too? How does the promenade lounge sound? I have emerging concepts brewing between my sneaky ears... any other sneaky party planners out there? Come out, come out where ever you are.

Forgive me.... I'm getting pretty silly since we're getting ready for a Disneyland park visit. See this is what happens when I have a park visit and I don't take my medication and plan on sneaking out of my padded room at home! LOL!

And on the insurance thing... we are as you - we've had several cruises and not taken the insurance ... and had no need before. So judging from the number of people being disembarked enroute that we've heard of.... and judging from what we have seen the ships' captain do in the past I feel it is a managable situation. If I need a $10,000 chopper evac so be it. That would be cheap compared to 100,000+ air evacs I've heard of from Hawaii to the mainland with relatives who were unhappy with care there and were seeking care in Los Angeles. Of course, this is perhaps an extreme example that has little in commmon with a cruise ship evac.

But think about it... 10,000 for a ship board air evac (the single most costly trip related component) would be just a little more than what we paid for the cruise and likely travel to get to and from the ship. After that you shold be able to get US medical care and your regular health insuance should cover that. Or at least it is for my case since we are coming in from California. OK.. maybe it's not a little more - rather it's a multiple. But still.. it seems to be a manageable expense. Not like buying a luxury car or anything like that. OK.. I'm getting silly again. No offense intended toward anyone who believes strongly one way or the other. I'm just waiting for my pasta to cook - as we're havig ravoli from Costco for our ride down to or inside the park. gotta go check on it.... and now I'm heating spaghetti.... and as I was saying.... I guess the trip insurance also reimburses the lost portion of a voyage and incidentials along the way... so I guess trip insurance COULD come up with a LOT of benefit. Well.... in any case it is too late for ME since I rebooked last year. You have to add it within a certain time frame of initial booking... eh?

I'll probably be going soon... Well... I'm still editing this and it's 9AM... Mom is still asleep and me n' the older daughter are patiently waiting for her to stir from her "beauty rest"... have a wonderful day everyone.

 

[missyoh8]

On the insurance front........

I suppose the more I think about it the more I think we probably would not get insurance if it were just us (without the Grandparents). I don't know at the same time our portion is so little (maybe $125 for the 5 of us). We were so fortunate the first time we bought it I guess that covers us buying it everyother time we cruise! Heck, I bet more than $125 a hand playing black jack in Vegas so it is just what you want to gamble........the chances are that you will never need it.

Have a great day.

Missyoh8

 

[tchrmom]

Hello!



Hope everyone had a good weekend! Ours was pretty uneventful..............
We did buy a new dishwasher (oohhhhhh..........Aaaahhhhhhh)

The one we have is working fine, but it is the one the builder put in.......so enough said.

Looks like I'll be home with Kel tomorrow. I've already callled for a sub. Sore throat, fever and throwing up.................My guess is Strep Throat. That's ok, 'cause with that 24 hours after your first dose of antibiotic, and your a whole new person. ( We KNOW this form LOTS of experience!)

Olivia competed in her first (of 2 this month) dance competition. The good news is they won GOLD!!!

YEAH, Olivia!!!!!!

Happy Sunday night to all......
Fran

 

[Princess Olivia]

Captain and Buck- Thanks for the congrats on Liv. She has been dancing since she was 2.9 years of age. Buck I'll send you a couple pictures once I get them downloaded. The costumes are great.

Can you imagine if they put the Pirates of the Caribbean ship at CC? THAT would be incredible.

Kristin.........OH KRISTIN....wake up my friend. Are you ill today?

 

[Tluvs2talk]

Welcome Michelle- My birthday is in October also. I will be celebrating my 41st birthday October 30th while we are on the Cruise. This is our 2nd Disney Halloween cruise and lot's of people dressed up for Halloween. We along with many wore our costumes to dinner.

We decorated our door and stateroom for Halloween and got a lot of complements. It was the best Halloween I ever had.


We have been on13 cruises and started taking insurance out on the last 5. We did use it for lugguage that was broken on a cruise and was happy to be able to buy more lugguage with the check CSA sent us.

Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Teri

 

[kritter]

Captain and Buck- Thanks for the congrats on Liv. She has been dancing since she was 2.9 years of age. Buck I'll send you a couple pictures once I get them downloaded. The costumes are great.

Can you imagine if they put the Pirates of the Caribbean ship at CC? THAT would be incredible.

Kristin.........OH KRISTIN....wake up my friend. Are you ill today?

Congrats to Olivia,, NO NO NOT ILL just working on stuff around here he he....

 

[buckifan]

Jen,
I'd love to see the pix of Olivia. Kylie loves to dance as well. She's been in classes for three years now. She just got her costume for her spring recital (end of May). It's pink and silver with pink feathers all over the sleeves. It's flashy and she LOVES it! She also has an ice skating recital at the end of April, but we don't have costume for that one yet.