January 13, 2007 - 7 Night Magic Western

[pdarrah]

Welcome Ideninge! Hi Everyone!

Life continues very busy around here. I keep thinking things will calm down, but they never do!

We had a great time last month being "local" tourists - we spent a long weekend in Chicago. It is only a 1 hour train ride, but we rarely do it - so we took a "trip" there and visited museums, parks, the zoo, etc.

We also took a short trip up to my family's cabin in Northern Wisconsin - got home last Monday. School started Wednesday and DS7 is now a 2nd grader! So far, he is getting along with his teacher MUCH better than last year - hopefully, it will be a good year....

On Friday, we are going to head up to the Wisconsin Dells after school and spend the night at the Wolf Lodge - it has huge indoor/outdoor waterparks. We'll come home Saturday afternoon, so that is a short trip!

Next on the slate, is the surprise Disneyworld weekend for DS. So far, we've managed to keep the secret. We'll go down on a Thursday after school (end of September) and come home on Sunday night. That Friday is a 1/2 day, so that is all he will miss. We'll go to MNSSHP on the Friday night, and then play around the parks on Saturday and part of Sunday. We have never done anything like this before, but DH was wanting to go to MNSSHP again and DS asked several time if we could (I told him "no" because we aren't cruising in October this year.) Then DH saw a really good airfare on SouthWest and Disney was offering a hotel discount (we did NOT get the free dining, but the hotel discount isn't bad) and suddenly DH said "why not - lets just do it"!

Anyway, all these trips are in addition to our crazy "normal" life and really cut into my DISBoard time! I did do a little bit of updating on our cruise website (www.bwdarrah.com/dcl) and it looks like most of the stuff on the Links page is still OK. I also updated some of the "Useful Stuff" page. If anyone has any ideas/suggestions/input on or about the website, please let me know.

The "Who's Going" page has grown a little bit, but most of those who have posted here have not asked to be included. If you are thinking about it, remember that you can include as much or as little information as you like. It is very nice having a list of the DISers who are going - it helps sometimes when reading this thread to keep different folks straight - it can help those with kids who are looking for others around the same age - it helps once we are on the cruise to help match faces/names . I always print it out and bring it with me! Remember, I never assume that you want to be included - if you give some of the information here in the thread, I won't just pick it up and add it to the website. If you want to be included, mention it when you post here, or send me an email or PM.

Have a great week everyone! It looks like Ernesto will miss Grand Cayman and Cozumel, but Key West seems to be in the direct path - hopefully it won't be too devestating...

pdarrah

 

[Ginny]

Hi, Pdarrah - I know how you are feeling about summer flying by but it sounds like you've had a great summer. We just had a Wolf Lodge open in Williamsburg and I keep meaning to take DD down there for a weekend. It looks like so much fun! And, your surprise trip sounds great, too! Enjoy Mickey's Halloween Party - that should be terrific. We have done the Christmas party but not Halloween at WDW.

Today, we received a big, thick DCL package. Has anyone else gotten one yet? I'm not used to getting things this early so it was a nice surprise. It had a planning guide and a letter welcoming us back aboard. It gave us the dates we can begin to make ressies once we are paid in full AND, also,when the final payment date is in October. This is a totally new and different pack than we have received previously.........but, then again, we haven't cruised DCL in almost three years so it would make sense that things change.

It looks to me that DCL has opted not to try to compete with Shirley and The Perfect Gift for Welcome Aboard Gifts as the DCL selection isn't as inspiring or magical as her baskets. The first time we cruised in September, 1999 they had a Disney Fairytale book and a special pillowcase you could order. It also came with cookies and milk for bedtime reading. I treasure that pillowcase still today. We ordered it for DD and then DH ordered me my own set. We got DH a really special DCL coffee mug and DH got a really neat canvas tote bag that was perfect for young boys. I do think that the Excursion Kit is cute but wish they had more selection all the way around.

But, I'm delighted to have gotten this pack and plan to fall asleep tonight reading all about the excursions!! Also, glad to have a head start so DH can order Tux!

Take care -

 

[pdarrah]

Hi Ginny - I got the DCL pack today also. It does have a lot more info than before - pretty much all stuff we know from previous cruises and the DIS, but nice to have anyway. I was surprised that they didn't say much about bringing Pirate gear for Pirate night.

It is hard to imagine Williamsburg with a Wolf Lodge -I assume it is nowhere near the historical area! I spent one year there (my freshman year at William & Mary) but haven't been back in 20 years....

pdarrah

 

[Colorado Mom]

We have not gotten anything yet. Kinda bummed when I open the mailbox and I don't see it in there.
But, maybe it gets sent to the travel agent, I can't remember from last time.

 

[sopandbass]

I've really enjoyed this summer and our DD has just started back at school and loves it. Life is good.

BUT...life would be better if we were on the cruise right now!!!

I'm going to start walking for exercise on Tuesday. Does anyone else out there need an accountability partner to check in from time to time and make sure we're each keeping up with exercise between now and the cruise?

 

[Colorado Mom]

I've really enjoyed this summer and our DD has just started back at school and loves it. Life is good.

BUT...life would be better if we were on the cruise right now!!!

I'm going to start walking for exercise on Tuesday. Does anyone else out there need an accountability partner to check in from time to time and make sure we're each keeping up with exercise between now and the cruise?

I am right with you on walking! Now that it has cooled down and the kids are back in school, I think it'll be easier to walk or go swimming.
Not sure I'd be a great accountablity partner though.

 

[pdarrah]

Hi fellow cruisers!

We had dropped to page 4!

My countdown says 120 days - less than 4 months to go!

I think it is time to start really prepping for this cruise. Just think, its only 30 days until repeat cruisers can book Palo and stuff online... It occured to me that i should really try to be organized for this trip before the holidays hit. There isn't much time after the holidays before we cruise!

I am trying to get to the gym more and try and get more excersize before the cruise. My goal is to get there at least 2 times per week. Sopandbass - I can TRY to be an "accountability partner", I've never done it before so I don't know how good I'll be....

Lets see if we can get this thread a little more active and start getting to know each other better. I'm going to try and keep posting, so unless you want a bunch of monologues from me (and I'm not very funny!) lets get some conversations going

Is anyone else dressing up for Pirate night? DS7 and I definitely are - I don't know for sure about DH, but I bet DS will probably push him into it. Here is a photo of DS and I last year. He has outgrown everything except the jacket - I'm thinking black slacks might be OK... DS was a pirate for halloween in 2004 (super convenient since we had already started his costume when we found out they were starting to have Pirate Night) He liked it so much he was a pirate again last year. I bought mine on ebay last year. I wore it to the MNSSHP at WDW before the cruise and again on Pirate Night. We're going to MNSSHP is about 2 weeks (surprise weekend trip!) so I can wear it there and again on the cruise.

pdarrah

 

[pdarrah]

Hello again fellow cruisers! (back to the monologue! )

Yesterday, I was thinking about Pirate Night costumes ... Well, what about Formal Night costumes! Anyone else planning to dress up to the nines? On our 2004 cruise, Skylynx and I both dressed up with lots of bling, tiaras and long formal black gloves! If all those little girls can be princesses - we can too! It was a lot of fun. Actually, some of the other ladies from our DIS meet thread also did it, but we didn't have much luck getting a photo. We tried to do a photo meet in between the dinner seatings, but it just didn't work. However, here is Skylynx and myself is all our finery.

Last year (2005 cruise) DS decided he wanted to dress up like daddy. I found him a tux on ebay ($25 total, even with shipping! ) and since my parents traveled with us last year and DF also owns a tux, I got a photo of my three guys all dressed up. DS loved wearing the tux, but wasn't too interested in having his picture taken

DS also performed at the family Karioke (probably spelled wrong) that night. He looked GOOD up on stage in his tux! Zip-a-dee-doo-dah!

So ... anyone else going to dress up this year?

pdarrah

 

[Colorado Mom]

Here at my home, we are back at school and I am back working, I am a nanny for a teacher. So less time to hang out at the computer for me.

I am curious what people are doing at the ports. We have looked at excurtions, talked about what might be fun and asked the kids what they are interested in. We don't have any must do's at this point and I am leary of the little boat that gets you off the ship and to land, my mind went blank and I can't think of the right word. I get very sea sick, worried that it might not even be worth getting off at ports.

We are thinking of doing the tux thing for the guys, prob no pirate outfits though.

 

[cepmom]

hey everyone!
sorry pdarrah....it must have been lonely for you !!


Dh and returned from our 3 night anniversary cruise on the Wonder a couple of weeks ago and just trying to get back into a routine now that kids are back to school. Also have been crazy busy trying to fundraise for DD16's dance team...they won a UDA comnpetition back in July and have been invited to compete at the UDA Nationals in WDW this February!! We did a car wash fundraiser this morning, have spent several weekends "canning" in front of the supermarkets/liquor stores, have a benefit coming up next month etc We need to raise approx $18,000 - $20,000 and we're getting there, slowly but surely.

While onboard last month, we (I) kept thinking "when we come back in January..." The time was so short on the 3 night, but knowing we would be back in a few months made it easier!

We all went to the Post Office last weekend and applied for our passports...that sure was a big chunk of money all at once!

I'm not sure if we'll do the whole pirate attire....the younger girls still don't know about the trip and I'm not so sure they woud like to dress up as pirates. Maybe once the costumes come out for Halloween, I can get a feel for how they feel about pirates! If not, then we'll just do the tropical attire and get some pirate accesories instead.

Still not sure about formal night either. I have a dress I'd like to wear, but I'd need to lose some weight first. Not sure if it can be done in time!! Let's all try to keep each other on track! I've been doing good so far....getting up almost every morning to do the treadmill and have lost a few pounds so far (need to lose 20).I was doing pretty good right before our 3 night cruise ~ lost 4 lbs, but then put 7 back on while on vacation
I should get on the dress thing soon though ~ I was hoping for some sales after New Year's but that may be cutting it too close for me.

What do young girls (ages 6 - 9) wear on formal night?? My girls are not really into the princess costumes and I don't want to spend a lot of money on a dress they will wear once. Again, I am hoping for some good sales once the holidays approach. Dh does not want to wear a tux, so he will be in a suit instead. DD16 has a few nice dresses from homecoming dances and semi-formal dances so she is all set for that.

Now ~ excursions....I am curious too on what everyone will be doing. I think we will be going to Paradise Beach in Cozumel. Anyone ever do this one before?

Grand Cayman ~ not too keen on swimming with stingrays, but we may find a snorkeling excursion to try. Any recommendations?

Key West ~ not sure on this one either...we may just stay on the ship that day or try snorkeling if we don't do that in GC

Looking forwrad to hearing from everyone!!

 

[CTPinkPrincess]

Hey all!

It's been a busy summer, we went to WDW in August for the free food, had a great time, but DH and I kept thinking about how much more relaxing the cruise is!

DD started kindergarten after Labor Day, and we've been trying to get back into the swing of things. She keeps asking to go back on the "Disney Ship", can't wait to go back to the club.

We also got the packet of information from DCL...thinking about renting DH a tux for formal night. I think I need to get on the ball and try to figure out which night would be the best for Palo, not sure if we're going to do any excursions - maybe just a little exploring on our own, which spa treatments... I can't possibly be expected to work with all this planning still to do!

 

[pdarrah]

Hi! Welcome back everyone!

ColoradoMom - I think you mean the "Tenders". (I assume this comes from "tender" as in "to buy this, you can tender cash or check" rather than "chicken tenders" or "tender to the touch"! ) It has been over 10 years since we last we on a tender (that was at Grand Cayman), but I remember that it was a very short trip - less than 10 minutes. My DH tends toward motion sickness and took dramamine before it and was fine. With any luck, we won't need to tender at Cozumel - the pier is supposed to be done next month...

We aren't planning any excursions in Key West. We visited a beautiful garden last time (2004) and might do that again. The only other thing we are considering is a Pirate Museum there that DS7 might like.

At Grand Cayman, we are going to go snorkeling and visit the sting rays with Captain Marvin. This is the 3rd time we have booked this trip, so hopefully we will actually make it there this time!

At Cozumel, we are going snorkeling with Eagle Ray Divers. We LOVED this when we visited in 2004 and had booked it last year (2005) and then Wilma changed our plans. Instead of canceling, we changed our reservation to January 2007! If anyone else wants to snorkel in Cozumel, I highly recommend Eagle Ray. If anyone else books this, we could all carpool a taxi to their marina...

We're back to school also. DS7 is now a 2nd grader and so far it is MUCH better than last year! Unfortuately, he had a very inexperienced teacher last year who just couldn't seem to cope. The class size was only 17 and it still seemed to overwhelm her. This year's teacher has been teaching for 32 years and seems to truly love her job. I was very impressed when I met her and DS7 thinks she it wonderful!

If you haven't looked at it in a while, our cruise website has some stuff to help with the planning. There are charts that help with which night it which (ports, dinner theme, formal/casual, etc) and the "Links" page has a lot of info on the ports. If anyone has any ideas of stuff to add to the website, just drop me a line. I am going to update the charts soon to the very latest info - I'm just looking for recent Western navigators. The most recent I have found are for June and I was hoping to find one from Aug or Sept...

Well, I better get back to "work" - I'm cleaning out my closet today and came to the DIS in order to procrastinate!

Thanks everyone for ending the monologue!

pdarrah

 

[pdarrah]

Hi Everyone!

Hope you all had good weekends! My Monday's tend to be crazy, so I wasn't online much yesterday. We have the usual morning rush to get everyone ready and out the door. After DS7 catches his bus, I head to work and Monday's tend to be busy (and my assistant doesn't work on Mondays ) I leave work early to pick up DS7 from the bus (my DM does it on Tuesdays and my next door neighbor takes care of Wed-Fri.) and take him to his Irish Step Dance class. He started this over a year ago and just loves it. It was all his idea and he doesn't seem to mind that the class is full of girls! Then we rush home and have dinner and DH, & and my mother all head off to choir practive. My father babysits and last night they went to an introductory meeting for a cub scout den that may be forming at DS's school!

Today, I came across a little bit of "news" that might be of interest "Mexican President Vicente Fox Quesada expected to re-open Punta Langosta Pier on 27 September." Before Wilma, the Disney Magic always went to this pier, so with any luck we won't have to tender!!!

pdarrah

 

[The Dis Family]

Hello everyone. We will be joining you on the Magic in January! It will be myself, DH, and DS17 on our 4th Disney Cruise and our 2nd Western Itinerary. Looks like this thread was started a while back, so I'll have some catching up to do on the posts . See you all in January!

 

[pdarrah]

Hi Dis Family!

I just updated the website with your "Who's Going" info. Welcome aboard!

Did you do the Eastern or Western in 2005?

Last night, we went to DS7's school Family Picnic. I'm sure that this is usually a lovely event in a normal September - BUT it is about 20 degrees colder than usual this year! It was COLD and spitting rain and we were all standing around eating cold "hot" dogs On the plus side, Radio Disney was there and the kids seemed to be having a blast. DS won a t-shirt for the new Everybody's Hero movie. They had all the kids pretending to be chickens and the 2 "best" chickens got t-shirts. I didn't see much difference in the various chicken portrayals, but DS was wearing his Mickey coat (Thanks Syklynx!!) so that might have given him an edge!

Also, strangely enough, we had a rooster running around our yard last week - we have no idea where it came from, it just showed up one day. After a few days, our next door neighbor caught it and took it to a friend who has a farm. Since you cannot legally have a rooster (or chicken or any other farm animal) in our town, there didn't seem much point calling animal control. The owner wouldn't have reported it missing and I suspect animal control would just "dispose" of it....

Strangness in the Suburbs....

pdarrah

 

[pdarrah]

Hi Everyone!

Well today Southwest FINALLY extended their schedule past January 9th! I have been watching for this for weeks. Of course, now I have to make too many decisions . After next week, I'll have a free "round trip award" flight - so I am only booking for DH and DS7 at this point. After previous experiences with better rates (i.e. Dings) appearing after I book, I always book Southwest as 2 one-way flights. That way, I can change only one leg of the trip if a special fare comes along. Well, this time, there is a cheaper fare for a roundtrip than for the 2 one-ways (I have only encountered this a few times before...) so I spend 2 hours debating with myself about it! I search the Transportation forum and look at last year's Dings (there were several in Nov/Dec/early Jan for flights throughout January between Chicago & Orlando) and finally get ahold of DH to get his opinion. He says just go for it with the one-way fares and we'll gamble a bit that better rates will appear later. Soooo ... I booked flights for the two of them at $236 each for the round trip. Since I am only paying $136 each for our trip next week that was really painful!!!

Oh well, it should be fun booking my "free" ticket when we get back - maybe that will make me feel better!

pdarrah

 

[cepmom]

hey pdarrah
looks like we were both witing on SW to open up for this trip. I decided to wait it out and see if another sale or Ding comes along.The price was way to high for me. DH will have a free ticket thanks to rapid rewards, but I still couldn't justify today's prices. I only paid $105 rt for our trip last month! Keeping my fingers crossed for both of us!

 

[pdarrah]

Hi cepmom!

You know what's funny about it? We have been flying to WDW for years and years (DH & I went twice a year even before DS joined us!) and about 10 years ago we used to think anything under $250 roundtrip was a good fare. Now I am bummed if I pay over $180 and don't think it is a good deal unless it is under $150.

Did you have any luck deciding on formal night dresses for your DDs? I certainly agree that you don't want to spend a lot on dresses they'll wear once! DS only got his tux because it was only $25 and I bought it a little big so that it would make it through 2 years. Do you have any kid's resale shops where you are? I have occasionally found really nice clothes at a resale shop here for VERY reasonable prices. Since most kids only wear their "dressy" clothes a coupld of times, they are likely to still be in good condition... The other option would be just to wear their nicest dress they currently own. The dress code isn't that strict and kids get a lot of leeway anyway.

pdarrah

 

[cepmom]

not sure yet on the formal night dresses. I did buy some pretty dresses for the girls at Talbots outlet and I think they would be okay for formal night, but if I come across some others and the price is right, I'll grab them. Then they can wear what I already have from Talbots for semi-formal night instead. The nice thing is they can wear the Talbots dresses for Easter too.

I'm trying to get DH to help me decide on excursions, but so far, he hasn't been able to commit to anything! I put off most of the planning for this trip while I was planning our trip last month, now I am starting to feel stressed! We can make our reservations next month already!

 

[pdarrah]

Hi again everyone!

Well, we've finished DS7's Halloween costume! Since we need it for MNSSHP on Friday, it had to get done. So far we've kept the surprise going - he doesn't seem to have a clue! There have been a few close calls, but with the trip in January for the cruise, we've been able to tell him that is what we are talking about

He is very into ancient Egypt and King Tut right now, so he wanted to be a Pharoh for halloween. My mother made the costume, my father made the crown and staff (DS7 painted the cobra & vulture on the crown) and I modified a wig (supposed to be a "princess" wig) into an Egyptian look. DS7 did the beads for around his neck and is still talking about making wrist bands...

Does anyone else have a kid going on our cruise that would like to exchange emails with a 7 year old? DS7 would really like to start "meeting" the kids on the cruise - although I would probably have to help with the typing since his spelling is very creative. I know I exchanged posts about this a few pages back, but I believe it was with one of the families who changed their cruise and are no longer with us on this thread... DS is pretty open to who he'll make friends with - he gets along well with both girls and boys and plays happily with kids from 3 to 9 yrs.

pdarrah