January 13, 2007 - 7 Night Magic Western

[pdarrah]

Hi again everyone!

I'm afraid that I have been off-line for quite a while. The holidays were incredibly hectic and then we have been going through rounds of colds and flus in our family - it seems that as soon as someone recovers, someone else gets sick! Anyway, I was forced to give up the DIS for a couple months during all that. Hopefully, I am back now (at the moment, I'm the one with the cold so if I can just keep DH and DS from catching this one, maybe we can be healthy for a while!)

Welcome to all who have joined us here since I've been gone. It looks like we are going to have a great DIS group!

Antkim - Don't worry too much about being a newbie to cruising - once you've spent a year on the DIS you'll have far more knowledge about what is going on than even veteran cruisers who don't DIS! If you have any questions just ask. My DS will be 7 (and a half) when we cruise. He LOVES meeting new kids. On our first cruise, he made friends with a DISer girl near his age and they had a blast together. On our last cruise, most of the kids near his age already knew each other (a lot of large family groups) and it was harder for him to join in with them. I think that my DS and your's would be in different groups on board (5-7 is one group and 8-10 is another) but I have been debating maybe asking to move DS up since he has been in the 5-7 group twice now on our previous cruises at 5 and 6 years old. He also tends to make friends with slightly older kids when he has the chance - probably because he is someone advanced academically and older kids know what he is talking about! On the other hand, he is very good with smaller kids and likes to "help" them so staying in the 5-7 group wouldn't be terrible.

Once I get my life a little more calm, I'll start on our website for this cruise. It shouldn't take me too long to get it together since it should be pretty similar to the previous ones. Anyone who would like to be included in the "Who'd Going" section - please PM or email your info. In respect for people's privacy, I don't just take info that is posted here and put on the website - I need your specific request that you want it there! Feel free to send and much or as little info as you are comfortable with. I NEVER use last names on the site. The Who's Going section is really nice since it helps you get to know the DISers who are going (and maybe even learn what they look like if they post a photo) long before we meet for real. I always print it before we go and bring it with on the cruise as a cheat-sheet since I have tons of trouble putting names & faces together!

Hi John & Denise (skylynx) - it is so cool you're going on the same cruise with us again! Dan says we are going to have to UPS wine to the ship again - we did this for the last cruise with my parents and it worked great.

Pdarrah

 

[antkim]

"Dan says we are going to have to UPS wine to the ship again - we did this for the last cruise with my parents and it worked great."

Dan's my kind of man!

I would love to have my ds and your ds meet...A.J. can be a little shy at first but once he gets "comfortable" he has no problems! He is SOOO lookinf forward to the kids clubs and I think he is excited that he will be 8 and in the big kids section away from his pesty little bro!

Kim

 

[skylynx]

Speaking about wine...when we approached the security screen at the Port Canaveral terminal boarding Magic two weeks ago, there was a sign posted right before the xray machine that said "no weapons" (no surprise) and "no alcohol" (big surprise). John and I had packed two bottles of our favorite, special occasion-only Monterey County Chardonnay to enjoy onboard (fie on the $15 corking fee) as we have on all our other cruises, and were aghast that this time it appeared the surly security guard might pluck our vintages right out of our carryons. They did not, and we happily raced up the escalator, bags in tow, in case they changed their minds.

Now I can see not rolling up to the xray machines with a keg in a wheelbarrow, but two bottles of wine? And since you can UPS wine to the ship, what does that "no alcohol" sign really mean? We didn't ask at the time because we didn't want to draw attention that we did already, in fact, have alcohol with us. It seems the ruling on this is kind of fuzzy. Or perhaps these "rules", as Captain Barbossa says, "are more like guidelines."

If anyone has definitive experience with this, let us know. I have asked at least 3 different DCL folks on the phone; the question is always followed by a period of silence and then a very uncertain "um, I think it is okay" or "no, I don't think you can do that." So maybe this is along the don't ask-don't tell lines. Anyhow, the wine will be in our bags again, by hook or by crook. Though we originally balked at the corking fee, some simple arithmetic soon proved it was still better to have a $30 bottle of wine with a $15 corking fee than pay $40 for a bottle of wine that costs $8 in the grocery store.

OK, back to work!

 

[lildevil]

looking 4 teens for this cruise.!

 

[pdarrah]

Hi lildevil,

I don't think anyone has posted yet with teens - but it is still really early - there will probably be a lot more DISers showing up here as we get closer.

pdarrah

 

[sandym]

I have a teen DD13 but alas she decided to sit this cruise out. She got pretty seasick the last time and had lots of work waiting for her when she got back to school. It will be myself, DH and DS who will turn 7 while we are on the ship. We will miss our daughter but she will come with us next time.

 

[woody64]

Hey pdarrah and skylynx, where in Chicagoland are you? We are in Aurora-far west.

 

[pdarrah]

Hi Woody64,

I'm in St. Charles as I type this (work) and I live in West Chicago.



pdarrah

 

[skylynx]

Hi, there...we're in Bloomingdale!

 

[pdarrah]

Hi Fellow Cruisers! Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I have FINALLY started updating my website for our cruise. I haven't had a chance to check all the links yet on the "Usefull Stuff" and "Links" pages, but I have updated most of it.

If you would like to be added to the "Who's Going" page, please let me know. Even if you have posted info here on the thread, I won't add it to the website without you telling me that it is OK.

My email should be in my signature below. Or just sent a PM via the DIS Board. Or post whatever you would like in a message here (but please specify that you want it on the website )

If anyone has ideas for the website or knows of good links for stuff about our ports or Disney or the ship, please let me know and I'll add them.

Have a great day!

pdarrah

 

[cepmom]

pdarrah ~ just sent you an email to be added to the website. Thanks for doing all of the hard work...the website looks great.

for those of you that are flying in the day before ~ have any of you looked into hotels yet? I was looking at the new Residence Inn near the port ~ the rooms seem pretty reasonable. I am thinking about booking it now in case the rates go up as it becomes more popular.

We also need to get passports, but would rather wait a little for the kids at least where they will only be good for 5 years...might as well get the most out of them. Does anyone think they will raise the price for passports as the required date draws closer?

 

[antkim]

Well....bad news for me. I am regretfully cancelling our ressies!

Dh and I talked a lot about this and have decided that we will stick with our usual 1 week WDW and 1 week Madeira Beach for the next few years. Ds (7) was excited about the cruise until he realized that we would not be going to WDW also! I know he would forget about WDW once he realized how great DCL. Our biggest concern was our youngest ds(will be 3). After looking into so many great things to do/see on the different islands, we want to wait until he can thoroughly enjoy it as well.

So, bon voyage all! Hope you all have a BLAST and I hope to join you in the future!

Kim

 

[cepmom]

Kim ~ sorry to see you go!
Hopefully you will be able to book again in the future when your DS is older...maybe combine it with a trip to WDW and everyone is happy!

 

[pdarrah]

for those of you that are flying in the day before ~ have any of you looked into hotels yet? I was looking at the new Residence Inn near the port ~ the rooms seem pretty reasonable. I am thinking about booking it now in case the rates go up as it becomes more popular.

We also need to get passports, but would rather wait a little for the kids at least where they will only be good for 5 years...might as well get the most out of them. Does anyone think they will raise the price for passports as the required date draws closer?

For our past 2 cruises we stayed the night before at the Radisson at the port. It is a nice hotel and the shuttle is VERY convenient. It is also convenient to the Budget rental car place - just a couple blocks away. We returned our car on Friday (late afternoon) and just walked back to the hotel.

Since the Residence Inn is new I don't know anything about it yet. I am going to look into it for next time - but I don't even know where it is located. Definitely need to do some research. The Radisson is a little pricey (although they have occasional internet specials that help) and I don't feel like we really use the amenities since we are only there the one evening.

Although I believe they "could" raise the cost of passports - I doubt they will. There is already a pretty big uproar from the public about the requirement. If they raise the price as well it will probably cause a LOT of bad publicity and get the politicians involved. Not just from the travelers, but also from the cruise lines and the governments of popular islands, Mexico, Canada, etc. All of these are worried that the cost of passports will drive some people away from vacationing with them - an increase in the price would cause a lot of fuss!

pdarrah

 

[sandym]

We usually stay at WDW for the two nights before the cruise but this year we have two nights booked at the Residence Inn. We are thinking of doing Kennedy Space Center on Friday. Not sure if these plans will change but I wanted to lock in the $94/nt rate at the Residence.

 

[skylynx]

We usually stay the night or two before at Caribbean Beach or someplace like that, then hang out at Pleasure Island in the Adventurer's Club the night before the cruise. On our last cruise in Feb we stayed at Coronado Springs because we hadn't ever been there and got a great rate from AAA (a rate that beat our Annual Passholder rate by a mile). Don't know where we'll stay for this cruise, but we'll be at Wilderness Lodge the nights afterward.

We're going to Kennedy Space Center in a couple of weeks Saturday before our Wonder cruise...then will go to watch Magic sailaway and take pictures. I've always said the only way I could stand to watch the Magic sail and not be on it would be if we were getting on a ship the next day. And that's what we'll be doing! Otherwise, I don't think I could bear it.

I've been reading the threads on the Med cruise and figured for less than half of what the trip would cost us after you added in astronomical airfare to/from Barcelona in May or August, we could have some spectacular European tour and go to places we'd really like to visit (other than port cities). We were talking about those cruises the other night, and decided we'd much rather do either repo cruise than the actual Mediterranean ones. Then we decided we'd really just rather go to the southern Caribbean like the 10/11 day ones this fall. If DCL is going to run those itineraries again next fall, we'll be on one of them, by hook or by crook. At one of those islands (Antigua, maybe, or St. Kitts?) you can go on one of the actual ships used in the filming of Pirates of the Caribbean. That appeals greatly to my inner buccaneer.

Had to shell out the big bucks for both my kids to get their passports renewed-they've got a stepsister in the UK so even if they didn't need them for our April cruise, they'll need them soon enough. The passport fee wasn't as bad as the hefty fee charged by the USPS for the express pleasure of having our applications grudgingly accepted by a surly employee who kept glaring at us.

As we said when we returned from our last cruise, we've decided to operate under the assumption that we're actually always cruising, and just occasionally have to take really long, boring shore excursions.

 

[lildevil]

Im still looking for teens that are going on the cruise thx

 

[LuvEeyore]

Glad to read all of your posts about the 1/13/07 Western. DM(age 71) Myself (42) and my God daughter (age 12) will be on board. Maybe my best friend (God daughter's mom age 41) will be with us.

Mom and I were on 12/4/05 Wonder cruise and had a 'Wonder"ful time. On the last afternoon we were walking by the booking desk and I asked Mom if she wanted to get a quote for a seven day cruise since she told me earlier that day that she wished we had booked a 7 day cruise. She responded, "Yes, and we are going to book a 7 night Western and (dear god daughter) is going this time!!

We are looking forward to it. At this time we are planning on flying in on Saturday Morning so that DGD will only miss 4 days of school as she will be in 6th grade. She does not know she is going with us yet and I am trying to decide if I am going to tell her at Christmas (as this is her Christmas, Birthday, everything for 2006 present!!) or if I am going to give her small and inexpensive presents that are hints and then arrive at her house on Friday night and then ask her if she is all packed and ready to go.

Any suggestions about how to surprise her??

 

[pdarrah]

Lildevil - I don't think there are any teens here yet - but there will be a LOT more people coming to this thread as the trip gets closer. At least that has happened with both of our last DCL cruises. There are always some of us "early birds" and then in the last 2 to 4 months a lot more people find their way here. Don't give up - there is still a good chance for some teens!

LuvEeyore - If it were me, I would tell her at Christmas. That gives her 3 weeks to be excited and learn about the ship, brag to her friends, talk to her teacher about homework, etc. I always thing that planning for the trip is a big part of the fun. A last minute surprise might be fun also, but I suspect a girl that age would like to have 3 weeks to pick out her clothes (and shoes!) and pack and plan...

pdarrah

 

[oiler]

there will be 4 Canadians on board also Jan 13.
My wife and I and our Daughter Sydney 7 and son Tanner 5.
Firts time on DCL for us but we did do a Western tour before.
we're in 6068.
Catch you later