Jan 9, 2010 Western Magic

[Tatiana]

Welcome lizardman! Good to have you joining us!

 

[Tatiana]

Does anyone know what the bug situation is like at the ports for the Western Caribbean? My parents and I were trying to figure out if we should bring bug repellent and stuff like that.

 

[cmclaura]

Seems like we have more of a college age group on this forum but rest assured there will be plenty of kids of all ages on board the Magic.

We did the Eastern this year from January 17 and my daughter, who had just turned 15, had so much fun in The Stack that we hardly ever saw her. She'll turn 16 in December and we expect we'll have to drag her to do things with boring mom and dad this cruise as well.

We were extremely lucky in that Disney paired us with the most wonderful table partners ever, the nicest people with whom we had so much in common, and our daughters were just a year apart, so they got on like a house afire. I'm hoping that they do likewise this year as well.

Young kids will have fun and make friends in whatever children's group they go to and they may never want to spend time with parents! There is so much to do onboard. I feel there's never enough time to even try to do half of everything!

Laura

 

[newbydisney]

We have never seen any bugs ..I think it's too cold by their standard.

 

[newbydisney]

We got ours anyone else get theirs?

 

[DreamsComeTrue22]

got our packet today!! getting excited

 

[Tatiana]

We got our packet a while back... then again... we booked in April of 2008

 

[Angelia'sthree]

We are taking our first "big family" cruise~!

Me, Hubby and three daughters. Ages 13, 12 and 2 1/2
Mom
Sister, BIL and their two kids. Ages 9 and 2

Hope we have fun~!!

 

[taswira]

Hi everyone! I'll be joining you on this sailing, along with my mother. It will be my 12th DCL cruise (the graphic in my sig is for my 13th) and my mom's 2nd.

I've never had kids and my mom will be 87, so I'll probably have to hang out with her during the cruise unless she meets some interesting senior citizens, but hopefully I'll get to at least say hello to all of you.

Shari

 

[newbydisney]

Welcome Taswira and Angelia'sthree. We were starting to wonder if this ship was sailing 1/2 full!

 

[NYhorsefarm-mom]

We coming on the Jan 9th cruise. We recently moved from the Jan 23rd (scheduling issues). We are so excited. We were on the Magic in Jan of 2005 and we loved it (Eastern). Our kids are more excited than we are - DD9 & DD6 We have done other cruise line but Disney does everything better.

 

[Tatiana]

Welcome to all of you new to this board! Looks like the ship is starting to fill up! Great to have you here!

 

[newbydisney]

Welcome NY Horse Person(s) We always take this early sailing to be home in time for the Horse SHows in Thermal ( formerly Indio) California.

 

[tow-mater-1]

Look what happens when I'm away from the boards for a while. The ship fills up! Well here's a welcome to all the new peeps of this thread. That's what happens over the summer with 5 kids and only one computer, it's never mom's turn Well the kids go back to school in 13 days... not that I'm counting or anything heehee. I may be just as excited about back to school as I am the cruise. Ok, so that may be a slight exaggeration. Actually it's quite lonely that first week but I manage. Well, I'm looking forward to to chating and getting to know everyone.... in 13 days.

 

[taswira]

Today I received my "Welcome Back Aboard" letter from DCL with the "My Cruise Travel Kit" info package. Have others here received theirs yet? Seemed to arrive sooner than I recall from past Disney cruises. Makes the sailing seem that much closer!

 

[taswira]

I suddenly realized the reason it seems like I got that packet so early is because I booked so late! I have always booked about a year or more ahead, but this time it's just over 4 months out. I think I need to get my head on straight about this one!

Have a great weekend everyone!

 

[tow-mater-1]

Today I received my "Welcome Back Aboard" letter from DCL with the "My Cruise Travel Kit" info package. Have others here received theirs yet? Seemed to arrive sooner than I recall from past Disney cruises. Makes the sailing seem that much closer!

Hey we just got a call from our TA today saying that our package arrived. This is getting very exciting. AND we just booked our pre-cruise night stay at Pop Century. Now all that's left is our flight home and transfers!

 

[NYhorsefarm-mom]

I was just looking at Pop Century... Is that a good "on property" hotel? If you book a week at WDW and buy food and park hopper passes and souveniers and etc... is it cheaper than a cruise? We all want to go on the cruise but we are trying to determine if it would be wise to postpone the cruise and do something more economical.

 

[cmclaura]

NYHorsefarmMom -- trying to compare a visit to WDW to a Disney Cruise is apples and oranges. Both are great, but totally different. Good luck with whichever you choose!

 

[cmclaura]

Whirlwind week! Arranged trip insurance as we're DVC members and it's no longer a clickable option when booking.

Have some hopefully money-savings ideas for those who need them. Been wheeling-dealing to get the best rates for everything else (frugality now means more drinkies and extras on board!). A couple of weeks ago I was able to book airline tix from Philly to Orlando for the day before the cruise (tired of waking up at 4.30am to make the 9am flight day of sailing -- last time we were so exhausted we fell asleep and missing the sailaway party). Southwest was only booking til January 8, so squeaked in and got $79 fares.

Yesterday, they opened their reservation window til mid-March, so got the return trips -- again at $79 each. I will keep checking to see if they lower it at all (a few years ago we did PHL-MCO for $49 each!) before we go; with Southwest, you can bank the difference and use it toward another flight).

If anyone is looking to book with Southwest, they're currently having a sale which I think ends tomorrow (9/3). Prices may fluctuate before the cruise, but I like knowing I've got the lowest available. Last year I changed them 3 times as prices dropped....from an original $149 to $79, whew!

We're staying at the Orlando Vista on Apopka-Vineland the night before. Walking distance to Downtown Disney and only $62/night inclusive (AAA members get the upgrade of a balcony for free). It's ironic to me that I used to live just 15 minutes up Apopka-Vineland......

Has anyone ever been to the Disney outlet store that's nearby (I think just off Palm Pkwy)? I usually frequented the one off Kirkman near Universal Studios (used to be called Belz Outlets) when I lived in Orlando. Would buy things there for 1/3 of the price I'd see them for at the Parks!

Car rental is booked (and I will keep checking the rates, as I've had them drop before and if you adjust the reservation, you can save $$$; right now they've gone UP UP UP so I'm sitting pretty). We're using Thrifty as their Orlando operation is E-Z. Cape Canaveral not so good, but we wrote a letter last year about the lack of service and we have some gift certifcates to use against this year's rental.

Only thing left to do is book Palo dinner, Palo brunch, Palo tea, excursions, etc., when they open in October. Yay! Did anyone hear about the latest improvements they're making to Castaway Cay? Probably won't have all of it up in time for our cruise, but it should all be in place by June 2010.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cpt6kJrGFbA

Does anyone know if you can book a character tea (children's) in advance? Or the best way to do it once you get onboard? We missed that one last time and my daughter (16 but she still wants to do it; why not, everyone is a kid on a Disney cruise!) won't let me make that mistake again!

Is everyone getting excited??? I wish some more families with teens would sign on here!

Laura