Jan. 22- 29 , 2011 Western Caribean Cruise on the Disney Magic!!!

[clawmachine]

Welcome Lynn!! Glad you joined us! Seems like a happening group to me!
That's cool that we already have 3 families who are from (or partially from) this same metro area! Well, I don't know if you consider Hagerstown to be Baltimore Metro but it's only an hour from us, so I do. We head out that way a lot. Maryland is definitely a great place to live in that respect - you can get to mountains, country, beach, or city, and all in the same day!

Just in case anyone thinks I have a crazy screen name, it's because since I was a very young girl I was completely fascinated by those arcade crane games (we always called them "claw machines") and have become very good at them by now. My DH and at least one of my 3 kids plays a lot now too. Every year we go to Wildwood, NJ for 9 days and every year we can barely fit in the van home because we win like 120+ toys in the claw machines, lol! And yes, you betcha I already verified that the arcade on board has a claw machine, lol!!I also love the movie Toy Story so it just worked perfectly to incorporate "the Claw" into my DIS avatar. I'm hoping to make a door magnet that looks just like that but we'll see how much time I have to fool with it.

Have a great night everyone! It's "only" 95 here today but the humidity is still so bad I had to change my clothes after just walking a half mile to pick my kids up from school! Bring on January, lol!

Colleen

 

[Tinkerkell123]

we are booked..........

verandah room 7586

I just did the going on a DISNEY CRUISE dance in my living room!!!

YIPEE!!!!!

It will be
ME......Lynn........age 42 4th dis cruise
DH......Mike.........age 40 3rd dis cruise
DS......Joe..........age 17 3rd dis cruise celebrating his BDAY
DD......Allie.........age 14 4th dis cruise

CANT WAIT!!!!!

Welcome aboard! We are ion 7592! Pretty close to each other... When is your DS's birthday? Alex, DD, will turn 11 on 1/28...

 

[Tinkerkell123]

And yes, you betcha I already verified that the arcade on board has a claw machine, lol!!I also love the movie Toy Story so it just worked perfectly to incorporate "the Claw" into my DIS avatar. I'm hoping to make a door magnet that looks just like that but we'll see how much time I have to fool with it.
Colleen

Oh, my gosh! My kids LOVE those machines. The DS is always SO disappointed when he doesn't get an animal. Maybe you can give them some "claw" lessons!!

 

[canadakath]

Ok, is it just me or is there WAY too much complaining about the Kids Sail Free Promo? I mean, this IS a DISNEY CRUISE right? Shouldn't there be alot of kids? I mean seriously, going on a FAMILY cruise line with kids! What were they thinking!
Everyone is complaining that there will be SO Many kids but the promo is for veranda suites only so it isn't like every cabin will be filled with 1 adult and 3 kids! I think more kids gives the kids more new friends to interact with. RAWR! Some people!

Just to clarify, I am absolutely NOT complaining about the KSF promo - tried to take advantage of it myself! We prefer to travel on "off"times as I have no qualms about taking my kids out of school but prefer the slower pace of everything. I was just hoping for some insight as to how busy the Nursery might be from those who were on KSF last year - bit of an obsessive planner that's all (not that anybody else here is!!!)

Anyways, I was working on 2 hours of sleep yesterday after getting called in to work Tuesday night, so sorry if my intentions did not come across!

 

[canadakath]

Whoever asked: no, the manatee and sea lion encounters at Chankanaab are not offered through Disney (yet) BUT that is a good thing, because if they were, then Chankanaab would most likely not allow you to book directly with them (at a cheaper price!) due to exclusivity arrangements they make with the ship. This is already true for the dolphin encounters or so I've been told. I was able to book the manatee one online directly with them and state that I was on DCL and it went through just fine.

Thanks for the info! I did not realize you could not book directly if they are on the DCL list of excursions. Not sure yet what we will do in Cozumel, but the manatee one looks cool.

 

[clawmachine]

Free claw lessons for all, of course! Grin. However, I have to say my number one rule for optimizing your winnings is to go to a place where there are a lot of machines to choose from, and that won't be possible on the ship. Hopefully DCL doesn't do this but a lot of the newer machines are computerized and actually set to "pay out" AKA grab tightly, only so many times in a random pattern...kinda like a slot machine. I'm a purist, I guess, and just think that is terrible! The Wildwood boardwalk is so chock full of claws that we simply move right along if the arcade owner has chosen to set them so that it is next to impossible to win.

I've got my own real machine in our basement and if you ever happen to be in Ellicott City, you can come in and play ours - I guarantee it is not set to make you lose!

(oh, and sad to say, this truly is my *only* talent. LOL!)

 

[dizzi]

OMG.............
That is so cool that you have one in your basement.......

Oh how i miss having a basement!!!!!

One of the few things i miss from living up north.

 

[dizzi]

Tinkerkell123 35
clawmachine 23
Lokkabear 21
goofycruise 8
SSR Lover 7
dizzi 5
GiddyRhino 4
FabFivePA 4
canadakath 4
Lisa46xx 3
MomDad&2boys 3
WDdaughter 3
ganandem 2
DVCconvert 1
boundfordisney 1
mikesmom88 1
IrishCowboy 1
Tower 1

This is how many post everyone has made so far.
I always look i find it very interesting

 

[clawmachine]

Thanks, dizzi - that's interesting! I don't think anyone who knows me would be surprised I'm #2, lol!
Oh and canadakath, please NO WORRIES! You sound just like me but rest assured your post did not come across negatively at all, and I was just agreeing with you.

 

[FabFivePA]

YEY Lynn... glad you're joining us!!!
How many cruises have you been on?

canadakath, your post didn't come off the wrong way at all, everyone was referring to the post on the main board.

Claw machine in the basement?!? Coolest thing ever!! lol
I've had Sebastian and a toy story alien figure (my 2 favs) on my computer for over 10 years... they've outlasted about 3 computers and survived several moves. LOL

So this fish extender thing, LOL, how does everyone have room to pack all this stuff and then get all the stuff back home?!?!

 

[SSR Lover]

Well, on our cruise last year I had packed everything up before we left home. Each child got a ziploc bag with their gifts in them and I stuck all the baggies in a Target bag and packed them in a suitcase. I got a can of Old Bay Seasoning for each of the couples in our exchange, (which was 7 or 8, I think) and they didn't take up too much room either. Most of the things we received were small (postcards, candy,lanyards) so I wound up just sticking them in our carry-ons or in the front zipper part of our suitcases. The biggest thing I received was a can of LL Bean pancake mix (which were the best pancake's I've ever had, by the way) I had no problem fitting that in either. We are driving this time, so I am not too worried about space or keeping things from getting damaged, since we will have our bags with us the whole time. It really is a fun activity. The kids really enjoyed it and my husband was even surprised that we received gifts too (I hadn't told him about it before hand). For some reason, though, he felt the need to tell me I couldn't buy a new FE for this cruise, so I have to use the old one I was planning on using the old one anway, so I'm not sure what that was about. If you go on ebay and so a search for Fish Extenders you will find a few people who sell them, if you are the non-crafty type like me.

Julianne

 

[Lokkabear]

Just to clarify, I am absolutely NOT complaining about the KSF promo - tried to take advantage of it myself! We prefer to travel on "off"times as I have no qualms about taking my kids out of school but prefer the slower pace of everything. I was just hoping for some insight as to how busy the Nursery might be from those who were on KSF last year - bit of an obsessive planner that's all (not that anybody else here is!!!)

Anyways, I was working on 2 hours of sleep yesterday after getting called in to work Tuesday night, so sorry if my intentions did not come across!

I was in NO WAY talking about you! NO WAY! NEVER! I was refering to the thread on the main boards of people threatening to cancel their trip because of the KSF offer! I mean cummon! Its DISNEY! People traveling with kids usually have no problems with extra kids in my experiences but it seemed like the people complaining were traveling without kids. I really don't know what people expect from a FAMILY CRUISE LINE! Sorry, this subject just irritates me.

On to happier topics! I get to buy new luggage because there is NO WAY I am going to fit what I want to bring in what I currently own...lol.

AND!!! I still dont knwo what I am doing for FE's!!! lol

Chrisse

 

[Lokkabear]

And that game sounds really fun........would love to play

I learned another game from a friend of mine recently it is somekind of rummy, but each hand is differnt....like one hand is a straight and a run the next hand is 2 straight the next hand 2 runs etc pretty fun too.

I think I have played a game simmilar to the one your talking about. The one I played was call Oh $#!t! and if you didn't get what you were supposed to that hand, you had to do it again. I know that probably didn't make much sense but I am going to see if I can find it online and post it from there. I really used to LOVE that game and there was alot of swearing there too...lol.

We are finally getting some nice weather but I still hope Jan come soon!!!

 

[dizzi]

I have some Fe gifts already
We had changed from one cruise to another last time and the one we went to did not do FEs so i still have them

 

[Tinkerkell123]

I think I know what I am going to do for FE's this cruise. Got some really good ideas from the ones we got last time! We had a small rolly bag that was packed with our FEs. I figured it would be extra space for when it was time to pack to leave the ship...

I am doing stuff that is more compact/flatter this time but I am sure we will still need that whole rolly bag for them.

Claw machine in the basement!! My kids will be SO jealous!! I didn't know some of them could be programmed to "pay out". Is there a way to tell if it's one of those machines?

We have all got to get together to play that card game! It sounds really fun!

There is a thread going on today that is talking about people getting mad about having drinks pushed on them at the pools & Castaway Cay... I wish I didn't have to wait 4.5 months to have someone push them on me!

 

[clawmachine]

hey everybody! It's actually not that hard to buy a real arcade game for your basement. I bought my claw machine for about $600 including delivery about 12 years ago when I was single and lived in a townhouse. It is very large but somehow they got it down 13 cement stairs! We have WAY too many toys and way too little $$ to justify any more purchases like that right now, but my goal is to someday turn the basement into a sort of pseudo arcade. Hoping by the time my kids are teens we can have a "cool" basement so Mom won't be worrying about where else they are instead. (wishful thinking?) Our basement is really not that large, but if it were possible, ultimately I'd like to add a skee-ball lane, wave-runner thing, coin falls, and maybe even a Whac-A-Mole, lol! All my favorites! There are big auctions every year where you can buy used games and you can also find them locally and through ebay, craigslist, etc. The big expense really, is paying someone to come fix them when your children stuff a rubber insect up inside the coin chute and break it!! (just happened!)

Anyway, enough about that! As for the FE's, I guess I have a bunch of stuff and will just have to decide once we get the final breakdown, as to who gets what. We will know that by mid-December, right Kelli? I considered shipping the FE stuff to the cabin, but knowing me, I'd worry incessantly the whole way down there that it might not make it. We'll probably just try to pack as light as we can and do laundry mid-week if necessary...

 

[clawmachine]

p.s. Kelli - I do not know how to tell if a machine is "fixed" but I'd be suspicious of the newer style ones that are very computerized-looking, especially if you notice it grabbing one time and then very loose the others. As much as I play them, I did not even realize the new machines could do this until a few months ago- I just came across the info on the net one day randomly. It's just WRONG!!

 

[dizzi]

Has there been any talk of matching first day tshirts yet?

This is something we did for our first cruise.

And then our next ones our Family just matched.

I had come up with a shirtwe were going to use for our last cruise and then we ended up cruising on the wonder and it wouldnt work.

Unless we come up with something as a group i think we will use the last one i came up with.

 

[dizzi]

This is the shirt.........Of course i have to change the dates

 

[dizzi]

. We'll probably just try to pack as light as we can and do laundry mid-week if necessary...

getting every one straight in my head.....
Is this your first cruise....
How many kids??????

DONT DO LAUNDRY mid week.....

uggh