LadyLt
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2002
- Messages
- 266
These trip reports are a couple of months late. But better late than never? I thought someone might be interested if they are going next January, or going with a large group. In addition, I had some trouble finding good information on the Tulum tour before my cruise. I thought someone here might like the information in my Day 5 report.
Preparations and Getting There
In December 2001, I took an Eastern Caribbean Cruise on the Disney Magic with three friends. We had so much fun; we decided to go back for a Western Caribbean in January of 2003. We started asking other people to accompany us and it quickly grew into quite an undertaking. The majority of the cruisers were active members of the DisneyDollarless group and the group was dubbed DDLdoesDCL.. The planning for this cruise went on for almost a full year. The cruise group grew, shrunk, and changed in membership. We had our own Yahoo group set up just for cruise planning and getting to know each other. But it was a year of excitement and preparations. By the time we actually sat sail, we had sixteen cabins and approx. 45 people. With this large a group, we did not plan a lot of group activities. It was more a case of knowing other people and running into them all around the ship. We did all plan on meeting for the Sail Away Party and then planned smaller dinner/brunch meetings and excursions together.
Last summer, I saw the T-shirts that the Disney Catalog was offering for family reunions and school groups. Everyone seemed to love the idea and we decided to order matching shirts to wear at the Sail Away party. We selected the Fab Five and Lori suggested the wording DDL Magical Cruise Western Caribbean January 18-25, 2003. Kelli (of Kelli and Keith fame) offered to order the shirts and send them out as she lives in a non-sales tax state.
An interesting part of planning this trip was that we all felt that we knew other by the time of the trip from e-mails. But few of us had any idea what the others looked like. Sure some of us had been together at WDW before, but there were more new friends who could have walked by that we would not know. Five days before we sailed, I was working the Front Desk at the Polynesian. It had been a long, hard morning. It was time for my break and I was ready for it. I noticed a woman who kept standing just beyond my station and kept staring at me as I finished my last guest. I was getting aggravated that she would not just stand between the ropes and wait for the next cashier. You guessed it, she was Kelli! She had come by the Polynesian just to meet me before she and Keith went to tour the parks. I fell in love with her. She is so much fun. But she had a lot of fun telling people how happy I was to see her that first time. LOL
I need to add that my cabin mate for the cruise was Margaret Lewis of San Francisco. On Friday afternoon, she and I drove over to Cape Canaveral and checked into the Radisson. I paid for a suite so that my daughter and her boyfriend could join us that Friday night after they got off work in Orlando. There was a group of us going to stay the night before the cruise in Cape Canaveral. I had been to a wonderful restaurant in Titusville that served fresh seafood. So I suggested a couple of months earlier on our Yahoo group that we take a trip to Dixie Crossroads for shrimp. So twenty of us made arrangements to drive the 30 miles from Canaveral to Titusville. This sub-group began our weeks tradition of eating till we could barely stand. It was a good chance to get to know some of the faces. Later than night, Christi and Neil joined Margaret and I at the Radisson to get ready for our exciting adventure beginning the next morning.
Preparations and Getting There
In December 2001, I took an Eastern Caribbean Cruise on the Disney Magic with three friends. We had so much fun; we decided to go back for a Western Caribbean in January of 2003. We started asking other people to accompany us and it quickly grew into quite an undertaking. The majority of the cruisers were active members of the DisneyDollarless group and the group was dubbed DDLdoesDCL.. The planning for this cruise went on for almost a full year. The cruise group grew, shrunk, and changed in membership. We had our own Yahoo group set up just for cruise planning and getting to know each other. But it was a year of excitement and preparations. By the time we actually sat sail, we had sixteen cabins and approx. 45 people. With this large a group, we did not plan a lot of group activities. It was more a case of knowing other people and running into them all around the ship. We did all plan on meeting for the Sail Away Party and then planned smaller dinner/brunch meetings and excursions together.
Last summer, I saw the T-shirts that the Disney Catalog was offering for family reunions and school groups. Everyone seemed to love the idea and we decided to order matching shirts to wear at the Sail Away party. We selected the Fab Five and Lori suggested the wording DDL Magical Cruise Western Caribbean January 18-25, 2003. Kelli (of Kelli and Keith fame) offered to order the shirts and send them out as she lives in a non-sales tax state.
An interesting part of planning this trip was that we all felt that we knew other by the time of the trip from e-mails. But few of us had any idea what the others looked like. Sure some of us had been together at WDW before, but there were more new friends who could have walked by that we would not know. Five days before we sailed, I was working the Front Desk at the Polynesian. It had been a long, hard morning. It was time for my break and I was ready for it. I noticed a woman who kept standing just beyond my station and kept staring at me as I finished my last guest. I was getting aggravated that she would not just stand between the ropes and wait for the next cashier. You guessed it, she was Kelli! She had come by the Polynesian just to meet me before she and Keith went to tour the parks. I fell in love with her. She is so much fun. But she had a lot of fun telling people how happy I was to see her that first time. LOL
I need to add that my cabin mate for the cruise was Margaret Lewis of San Francisco. On Friday afternoon, she and I drove over to Cape Canaveral and checked into the Radisson. I paid for a suite so that my daughter and her boyfriend could join us that Friday night after they got off work in Orlando. There was a group of us going to stay the night before the cruise in Cape Canaveral. I had been to a wonderful restaurant in Titusville that served fresh seafood. So I suggested a couple of months earlier on our Yahoo group that we take a trip to Dixie Crossroads for shrimp. So twenty of us made arrangements to drive the 30 miles from Canaveral to Titusville. This sub-group began our weeks tradition of eating till we could barely stand. It was a good chance to get to know some of the faces. Later than night, Christi and Neil joined Margaret and I at the Radisson to get ready for our exciting adventure beginning the next morning.
