Jan 27, 2008 - 4 night Wonder...shall I start?

[Cruisin]

Okay don't laugh... What does CS stand for??

I think it stands for the Comfort Suites??

Thanks for the offer GEB@okw but I don't think we would be interested. We don't know what we will be doing yet in Nassau. Quite often we just stay on the ship.

Maybe someone else will want to share with you.

I would think that Jan 28 is the correct date. Usually Nassau is the first stop on 3 and 4 day cruises.

 

[Cruising canuck]

Thanks also for the offer GEB but we have 3 kids so you won't want our herd there.

I do have a ? for all of you , we are wanting to do the Atlantis water park and are wondering if any of you have done this excursion before. Could you give us any tips if is a good deal, what to expect, should we bother to take our 2 year old or arrange babysitting, etc. There will be 4 that we have to pay for so we want it to be worth it, it is quite expensive. Is there any alternatives that you have done?

Gord

 

[Cruisin]

Thanks also for the offer GEB but we have 3 kids so you won't want our herd there.

I do have a ? for all of you , we are wanting to do the Atlantis water park and are wondering if any of you have done this excursion before. Could you give us any tips if is a good deal, what to expect, should we bother to take our 2 year old or arrange babysitting, etc. There will be 4 that we have to pay for so we want it to be worth it, it is quite expensive. Is there any alternatives that you have done?

Gord

Sorry I can't help you with your questions. We have never done that before.

If you asked on the cruise board you would probably get a good response and could make a decision based on that.

 

[Cruising canuck]

Thanks Crusin, I'll do that

 

[jmh]

Hi All,

Myself, DH, and DS5 will be joining you on the 01/27/08 cruise!

We will be celebrating my DS's 5th Birthday!

This is not only our first DCL cruise, but our first cruise ever.
DS and I are REALLY excited!! DH not so much, but he's being a good sport about it and tolerating us!

 

[Cruising canuck]

Hey jmh, glad your sailing on your first cruise!! Don't worry about hubby once he eats his first meal there, he will be ready to book another cruise! The kids go there for the fun and I go there for the FOOD!!

GEB, we want to do the Atlantis waterslides too and I've been reading quite a few threads about it the last couple days and we think the thing to do is get Comfort Suite rooms. We are going to check with our TA thru Mouse Ears Vacations and see if she can get us a room. Much, much cheaper than doing the DCL excurtion and you get access to everything, and just a
$5 cab ride over per person.

Man the more you use Dis Forums the better it gets! There is an answer to every ? you could think of on here.

Gord

 

[momtobradley]

Hey jmh!
myself, DH, DS (soon to be5) and DD (1 1/2) will also be on the cruise with you! We'll be celebrating my son's 5th birthday also! Maybe we can all meet up

 

[jmh]

Cruising canuck thanks for the vote of confidence about DH enjoying the cruise. I'm hoping he will be one of those guys that reluctantly goes on the cruise and then is the first one to want to book another. I'm afraid that might not be the case though, as I still have to drag him reluctantly to WDW!

Momtobradley how cool is it that we will both be celebrating our son's 5th B-Days?! My Son's actual B-Day is January 13 and we were going to take the 4-day cruise that departs on that day. However, while checking out price quotes and availability of different rooms/ cruises on the DCL website, one of the secret porthole rooms came up as available for the 01/27/08 cruise, so I decided to book it.

There was a lot more room availability for the 01/27 cruise, so I was thinking it would be a lot less crowded than the 01/13 cruise (BIG plus in Hubby's book!- should I start referring to him as Grumpy? ) but I talked to a Supervisor at the DCL call center (due to another issue) and he explained that the ships usually sail at 100% occupancy. He stated that if the ship is undersold they offer good discounts to CMs to try to fill the rooms. I'd heard that before, I just didn't realize that they normally sail at 100% occupany.

Ouestion to those that have sailed before, does the always sailing at near 100% occupancy really seem to be the case? I thought I'd seen others post on the Dis about how crowded the ships are during spring break etc., if the ship usually sails at 100% what difference would that make?

 

[momtobradley]

I think it is great that we'll both be celebrating : ) We are also doing the 1/27 cruise due to cost. Our sons actual birthday is 2/6, but I think it will be a big surprise for him to be celebrating while on vacation. I have all kinds of little surprises planned for him Do you have a cabin number yet? Are you early or late seating for dinner? Would love to meet up with your family!!

 

[melissaknits]

I have about a million questions! I'd been surfing the boards on and off for a couple of days and was beginning to think we'd have the ship to ourselves!! DH found this thread and sent me the link. We're on this sailing, it's our first cruise and I am getting very very excited.

Connersmom911 - that is my favorite Disney quote of all time - Por favor, mantenganse alejado de las puertas! I want it as a ring tone for my cell.

 

[Cruisin]

Welcome Melissa glad to welcome you and your fellow cruisers aboard.

If you have any questions please ask away.

This is my 9th Disney cruise so I can probably help you with most things and I'm happy to be able to do it.

Who are you sailing with??

 

[jmh]

melissaknits,

This will be my family's first cruise too, so I probably won't be too helpful with your questions, but I just wanted to say "hi"
and welcome aboard!

 

[melissaknits]

I am cruising with DH, it's our tenth 'legal' anniv. Our previous trips are neatly divided between on property (meaning we were alone) and off property (meaning we had kids along, the one exception being a "quickie" in Feb 01 for my b-day). NO KIDS this time (love them, but they're all old and doing their own thing - really old - 30, 23,21,19!!). We also have a Port Orleans Riverside 'problem' - as in can't stop going back. I am hoping to change that this year before we sail.

We splurged and got a verendah on the boat and I am planning to fit in things like brunch and dinner at Palo - though am nervous about getting in since we can't book till 75 d. out...please tell me we'll get in!!...and trying to make heads and/or tails of shore excursions and etc.

Take Nassau for example. Never been. Is it worth the $$ to get into Atlantis? And should we do the whole day there, or just the ride over, tour, then maybe throw away some money, and head back to town for shopping and local flavor?? I am not sure I want to trade 'local flavor' for a full day at Atlantis, but at the same time don't want to "miss" anything (I sense there will be more than one DCL cruise in my future...[surprise,honey!] I know my husband reads these boards - LURKER!!).

And I want to know if the spa is really "worth it" - been considering a ginger lime salt thing for myself. It would be my first spa treatment ever, as in I have never even had a manicure or a pedicure.

Mostly I think I am just too excited to think straight! I want it to be January NOW!!

 

[jmh]

Mostly I think I am just too excited to think straight! I want it to be January NOW!!

That is too funny!! My 4 year old just tonight said "Mommy I want to go on the big ship right now", I told him "Mommy does too, but we have to be patient". Besides, the planning is half the fun, right?!

 

[momtobradley]

When is our 75 day mark? Nov 13th or the 14th? The counting of days confuses me!!

Also I am with you melissaknits, I have not a clue as to what to do while in Nassau?? Atlantis sounds really cool to see, but man is it going to be crowded with the people actually "staying" there (can't believe they let us in from the cruise ships knowing what they charge to stay there!!) and with other cruise ships that may be in port on the same day. Doesn't sound relaxing to me with the "crowd" factor. I DO want to shop My BIL has cruised disney before and been to Nassau and said he wouldn't get off the ship next time, lol. But two each his own, I want to see it and find out for myself

In regards to the spa treatments, I really want to do one Maybe scheduale it for the at sea day in the afternoon while my daughter is napping!!

I seriously CAN NOT WAIT!!!

 

[Cruisin]

melissa, we too have older kids, our son will soon be 24 and our daughter is 20.

If you don't want to miss your 75 days out window you could get yourself a countdown timer like I have that counts down the individual days. I've never made Palo reservations before so I don't know how hard it is to get in.

We did go to Palo brunch on our last cruise but our friends made the reservation. We plan on going to Palo for brunch on this cruise and I will be making a reservation in advance. Since I am a returning cruiser I can make the reservation at 90 days out from sail date.

Since it is your first cruise I don't know if you will want to miss out on any of the dining room experiences The menus and other special events will be different on each evening of the 4 night cruise, so you might want to give that some thought.

I have never used the spa before so I can't answer spa questions for you. I have taken a tour of the spa before though and always say that I am going to use the Rainforest room but so far I've not done it.

Nassau? Hmmm, well everyone has their own ideas there. Have you ever been to Nassau before? Quite often we stay on the ship because Nassau doesn't really interest us that much.

I think if you've never been there that you really should get off the ship and experience some of the local flavour (<~~~ u because I am Canadian )

We did the escorted Atlantis aquarium tour before and enjoyed it but you can do the same thing on your own. Now we just take a taxi over to Atlantis, hang around for a few hours either in the aquarium or the casino and then head back to the ship.

Are any of my answers helpful at all Or are they confusing you even more

 

[jmh]

Hi momtobradley,

Hope you got my email today!

 

[momtobradley]

Yes I got your e-mail I just want to give it the time it deserves to repsond. I've been so busy today listing stuff on eBay and now I'm dead to the world!! I will e-mail you back tomorrow for sure. It's really scary how much we have in common!!! But I am so glad that I'm going to get to meet you in January!

 

[jmh]

Yes I got your e-mail I just want to give it the time it deserves to repsond. I've been so busy today listing stuff on eBay and now I'm dead to the world!! I will e-mail you back tomorrow for sure. It's really scary how much we have in common!!! But I am so glad that I'm going to get to meet you in January!

There's no need to rush a response, I'm just glad to hear you got it and it's not lost somewhere is cyberspace like the last one!

 

[Cruisin]

I don't know for sure when the 75 day out date is but my 90 day mark is October 29.

that should maybe help you to calculate when the 75 day mark is.