Inaugural 3/31/12 Fantasy Cruise

[sdlong329]

Thanks for the heads up about the weather. I am not fond of driving in snow or ice being a native southern Californian though we do go to Squaw Valley in the winter for skiing.

Aspen wants to visit Penn State, University Park, Lehigh in Bethlehem, Gettysburg and Bucknell in Lewisburg on this trip.

I have friends who transplanted from the Philly area to Coronado / San Diego. Apparently, Californians can't drive in rain!

A few friends and neighbors have kids in Lehigh. That's about 45 minutes north of us. There is a regional airport (ABE / Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton). Depending on your airline, you can fly into ABE ... but if it involves a stop in PHL (Philadelphia), it's best to drive from PHL instead.

If you are flying into PHL for Penn State (University City), there is no need to fly to Lehigh ... it's a 75 minute drive by car.

Lewisburg is in between Lock Haven and Shippensburg (two other College towns). That's in the middle of what we call, COW COUNTRY. If you have time, try to visit Lancaster County for a day ... take in the local tourist sites.

 

[birkner]

I have friends who transplanted from the Philly area to Coronado / San Diego. Apparently, Californians can't drive in rain!

A few friends and neighbors have kids in Lehigh. That's about 45 minutes north of us. There is a regional airport (ABE / Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton). Depending on your airline, you can fly into ABE ... but if it involves a stop in PHL (Philadelphia), it's best to drive from PHL instead.

If you are flying into PHL for Penn State (University City), there is no need to fly to Lehigh ... it's a 75 minute drive by car.

Lewisburg is in between Lock Haven and Shippensburg (two other College towns). That's in the middle of what we call, COW COUNTRY. If you have time, try to visit Lancaster County for a day ... take in the local tourist sites.

I actually live in northern California but love the Coronado area. My youngest DD Samantha went to the University of San Diego. We often would visit and stay at the Del in Coronado. My joke is that Californian's only visit weather, not live in it!!

Thanks for all of the help in trip planning. It is good to know some alternate options for us if we are not driving.

We are driving from NYC as we are also visiting Hamilton and Colgate. My nephew Rob is a graduate of Lehigh and still lives in te area so we will see him as well. Rob graduated in 2002 or 2003 after playing 4 years of football for Lehigh. Lehigh also helped him started his business, viddler.com.

I wish we had time to visit but we are on a tight schedule for college visits. My husband's family lived in that area in the 1700's and I would love to explore.

 

[truck1]

Sounds like you have a good school system, I mostly hear stories about how hard it is to take kids out of school for any reason!

Prob depends on the school. Weve never had a problem with either of our kids schools. When we go to the initial parent teacher meeting, I make it a point of telling the teacher that we will be going to in this case the Fantasys inagural, and when, they say no problem. I just remind the teacher about 2 weeks before, so that they will send the missed work home with our kids, and we do a little at at time before the ship leaves.

 

[rotary2808]

My parents never had any problems taking me out of school, I went to a private school. We didn't start cruising until after I graduated, but our WDW trip always fell right after Thanksgiving and right before exams, but it was never an issue.

It not only has to do with the school, but the student too. The faculty will be more willing to work with a student with no issues, than one who might be failing a class.

 

[lbgraves]

I am glad that this cruise is during the kids' 3 week spring break because they will be missing 8-10 days of school in July/August for our Alaska cruise. I don't like to them to miss more than 10 days for trips in a year to allow for sick days. It is not normal for us to have two cruises in the same school year but it has just worked out that way this time. Thankfully I know who DD's 6th grade teacher will be and she already knows. I just have to find out who DS will have for 7th grade and let them know before school gets out this June. I will talk to the principal at some point this year too.

 

[denise]

I'm glad parents are having an easy time with pulling the kids out of school.
I agree the places the cruises go to are a true learning experience no book could ever teach.

I have never had to pull my DD out for a cruise but did to send my DD to Japan for a martial arts/high school program. (2005) My daughter was a sophomore then and was chosen to go to high school in Japan and also take martial art classes through her martial arts studio. (she was a beginner then and had just advanced from her white belt to gold) She had to have every teacher sign off including the vice principal and principal for her 2 1/2 week trip. Everyone was more then willing to sign off except her math teacher. She didn't want to do it! All she could say was that my DD would fall behind. I said this was a chance of a lifetime that will never happen again and I had to go to school and beg!.She finally agreed but gave my daughter so much work to do while gone. Needless to say my daughter didn't have time to do math work because of the schedule she was on, plus it was the kind that all needed to explained as it was all new to the class. I think the math teacher set her up to fail. All the other teachers told my daughter to have fun and the only work they wanted was for her to tell the class about her experience when she got back! When my daughter got back I paid for a tutor to catch her up in math. She passed the class and moved on to a new math class. She is still doing martial arts and is working towards her 2nd degree black belt in mixed martial arts!!! She is also helping teach martial arts to little children. She still talks about her trip to Japan and how great it was and how lucky she was to be able to do it and how much she learned from it.
So I say....pull the kids out of school....you will not regret it nor will they!

 

[Relaxin']

Terrie,

Saturday mornings are just not the same without your countdown.

Patti

 

[calypso726]

GOOD AFTERNOON LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, BOYS AND GIRLS! YOU SET SAIL IN 57 WEEKS! THAT IS 399 DAYS!

​

 

[calypso726]

Terrie,

Saturday mornings are just not the same without your countdown.

Patti

Here ya go Patti! Apologies DISers, had to work this morning...blech. Better late than never

 

[Relaxin']

Thank you Terrie. I now can go on with my day.

Patti

 

[Scotty69]

Hi everyone hope you are all have a great weekend. Sorry I have been away for a while. Just been real busy with work trying to pay for my Cruise Addiction. Thanks Terri for the count down I love seeing it whenever i do get on. I can't believe this thread is already up to 29 pages. Goes to show I have been gone to long. Anyhow this next 13 months and change can't go by fast enough. we really do look forward to meeting everyone. Take care and have a great rest of your weekend.

Dave

 

[birkner]

Since I am doing pins and lanyards for the 2011 WBTA cruise, thought I might as well do them for both cruises.

I am going to make a pin for the DIS group for this cruise as soon as we can get a logo narrowed down for the cruise.

If you are interested in pins or lanyards for the cruise, please send me at PM message with the amount of pins or laynards you want.

Cost for the pins is approximately 4.5 Euros per pin. I need to get a firm count soon so I can get a firm price from the manufacturer of the pins. I will need to order at least 100 to get around the price I mentioned.

Payment after the pins are made will be through PayPal and I will deliver them aboard ship at the same time I hand out the lanyards.

The lanyards will be free to all DISers. Of course, any contributions to the lanyard fund will be welcome.

Any questions or concerns, please feel free to PM me. I also posted this info on FB.

 

[birkner]

Thanks to everyone who has responded so far. I am off to do some shopping this afternoon and promise to PM or respond in one way or the other by Monday.

 

[HallsofVA]

I posted these in the Fantasy building blocks thread on the main page:

There is a video that was posted recently of the Celebrity Silhouette as it's being built at MW, and it has some great shots of the Fantasy in the foreground, especially the front cover over the 9A forward facing porthole rooms, and the section of Deck 9 that goes on right above it (I think).

Here is a link to the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YC46PbhKCVg&feature=youtube_gdata

I grabbed a couple of screen shots of the best Fantasy views that you can find generally at the following points:

0.12

1.07

2.04

(esp. 2.06)

2.56

 

[birkner]

I am getting absolutely swamped with requests from both cruises that I am on for pins and lanyards, so it may take me a day or two to get back to everyone.

 

[birkner]

Just a reminder when you PM me about lanyards or pins, please let me know which cruise you are on as I am doing both lanyards pins for this cruise and 2011 WBTA.

Thanks again!!

Noel

 

[birkner]

Because so many people have asked about lanyards and pins what did they look like last year on the 2010 WBTA, I decided to post a picture. Our MV lanyards will be wider and have a water resistant pouch.

Someone on my WBTA has offered to help me with a logo for the 2012 MV so I will post what she comes up with so we can get some ideas flowing. If anyone else wants to start working on a logo, it would be much appreciated.

 

[Goofy559]

Wow. These look amazing. Thanks so much for coordinating! I can't imagine how much work this must be.

Lisa

 

[birkner]

Wow. These look amazing. Thanks so much for coordinating! I can't imagine how much work this must be.

Lisa

You are very welcome. Doing this is something I enjoy so I am very pleased when people enjoy the pins and lanyards.

 

[Lynn G]

Noel, those lanyards and pins look great!