January 13, 2007 - 7 Night Magic Western

[sopandbass]

15 weeks!

 

[skylynx]

Welcome, Vulcandream...you are most surely in for an incredible cruise experience. Glad to have you along!

 

[blacksmithcrm]

Now the cruise has really sunk in - I just paid off the balance for it!
Oh well, no pain ,no gain!

 

[cepmom]

Now the cruise has really sunk in - I just paid off the balance for it!
Oh well, no pain ,no gain!

just paid mine too!! Getting ready to make all my reservations on the 14th/15th.


pdarrah ~ which snorkle trip are you doing with Capt Marvin's? I was thinking the 1/2 day. I don't think we'll get out of the boat for the stingrays...those things freak me out!! But I am looking forward to snorkleing.
How was your surprise trip to WDW?? I bet your DS was thrilled. Hope you had a good time.

Anyone besides pdarrah going to snorkle in Grand Cayman with Capt Marvin's? I think I'm going to book that this week.

 

[Ginny]

Good Morning, All -

I have been off the boards with the usual September "back to school" whirlwind and a week of training for work thrown in but am so excited that we are counting down the weeks. I was able to pre-book some of our ressies this weekend so I jumped in with both feet.

We've decided to purchase tickets ourselves for the little conch train in Key West and then go visit the Pirate Museum and a few other sites at our own pace.

In Grand Cayman, we booked with Nativeway Sports and will go to Stingray City and a couple of snorkle sites. We booked with them in 2003 and loved the boat, the crew and the personal attention. Of course, we got the recommendation from the Dis Boards and it was right on as usual.

In Cozumel, we really wanted to do the Jeep Tour (because I mixed up our ressie on the 2003 trip) but we read several trip reports over the past couple of weeks about the impact of the Hurricanes on road wash outs that have made this a much rougher trip for those with back problems than before.

In 2003 (after we missed the Jeep Tour), we ran back to the excursion desk and they had only 4 seats left on the Fury Catamaran through DCL - so we booked it and had a great time. After we got back, we spent Christmas Eve in Carlos and Charlies with our children. It started out such a bleak day and ended up being a wonderful one with many terrific memories. So, we plan on redoing the catamaran and island party

On Castaway Cay, we booked the usual float and then parasailing again but this time DD wants to try it alone (vice tandem when she was 8).

I also booked Palo's for Brunch on the At Sea day on Monday and Dinner on Thursday night.

Except for the Rain Forest (which you can't book online), we are going to limit our SPA time. Maybe each get a massage but that is it. I really want to have time with DD and also use the adult pool while DD is in the clubs. We haven't done many of the adult only activities in all the cruises we've taken.

I would love to do a DIS Meet. I think they are so much fun and I love running into folks again at different activities. We have a family that have become very close friends through our 2002 Halloween Cruise and then a group of Dis'ers (4 families) met on the Christmas 2003 cruise that still remain in touch!

 

[crickee]

Hi All,

I thought I get on this thread to find out who else is going in January. We are WDW veterans, and have visited DL several times, as well as a trip this sping to HongKong DL. This will be our first cruise and the whole family is excited (well, except for my husband who I believe will have to have his cell phone surgically removed before the cruise). The cruise was supposed to be a combined Hannukah and Christmas present for the family and was to be a surprise. I decided to tell the kids this weekend thought, so that they could help plan our activities. They are quite excited.

Our party includes:

Myself, age 44, but I will be a birthday girl on this cruise - I'll turn 45 on the 18th.
DH, age 44
DD, age 9 going on eighteen! She's already asking about shopping opportunities on the ship.
DS, about to turn 7. He is a bit nervouse about going to the Oceaneers Club on his own. He wants to be with his sis (I'm not sure why, as they fight nonstop). So he may want to hear that other boys his age will be there. His name and Mike and is looking forward to the Pirates in the Caribbean Night (he is bringin his Capt. Jack Sparrow costume with him).

We've started looking at the different excursion offerings and I feeling confused at this point. There are too many choices!

Well, that's is for now.

 

[Colorado Mom]

15 weeks?? WOW!!!

we are very excited here! I'll go tomorrow and pay off our cruise, that will make it more real
This will be our second cruise, I am looking forward to seeing the differences between the ships and relaxing more on a 7 day instead of a 3 day. I am trying to get the kids interested in the clubs but so far they aren't interested at all.

 

[pdarrah]

Wow I'm offline for a few days and it gets busy around here

Skylynx - I don't think anyone TOOK a picture of me with the sombrero - at least I don't have one...

Blacksmithcrm - I'm glad the website helped you! If you want to be included in the "Who's Going" page, just let me know. So what does a modern day blacksmith do? We've watched blacksmiths at "living history" museums, but I've never encountered any others...

Sopandbass - It seems to me that Key West doesn't have that many really exciting excursions. There is history/museum type stuff, some watersport stuff and "adult" stuff (i.e. drinking at all the bars on Duval street!). THere is also some touristy stuff like the Pirate museum, a butterfly place & I think there is a Ripley's Believe it or Not. Last time, DH & I went and visited a gorgeous tropical garden (and DS stayed on the Magic). This time we are considering just going to the Pirate museum, getting a piece of key lime pie & heading back to the ship. The only other thing that tempts me there is a dolphin viewing trip - there seem to be several operators that take you out to see wild dolphins.

Vulcandream - Welcome You're going to have a great time! If you have the Passporter book, you'll be well prepared - but if you have any questions, this is a great place to ask. Also, check out our cruise website for other information and a list of "Who's Going".

Cepmom - We are booked on the 1/2 day (10am-1pm) with Captain Marvins. This is our THIRD try at this excursion! My DS has been looking forward to this since 2004... If you decide to book the same one, maybe we can all walk over there together.

Ginny - Welcome back! September is a crazy month isn't it? I've pretty much planned what we want to do. Key West doesn't require me to book anything. I booked 1/2 day trip with Capt. Marvin for Grand Cayman and I have been booked with Eagle Ray Divers in Cozumel since last year. We can't book our Palo stuff until 90 days out. Are you in Concierge or doing the Romance at Sea package so you can book earlier? I REALLY want to do more of the adult type things this time - try the Rainforest Room, spend more time at the adult pool, etc. Do you have any suggestions for good time/places for a DIS Meet? We were thinking of trying to have one in the terminal before boarding - but we should probably try and have one on the ship as well for those who don't get to the port insanely early.

Crickee - Welcome to you also! How cool that you have been to so many Disney parks! We have only been to WDW and DL in California. The cruise is very different from the parks, but just as much fun. I hate to say it, but your DH can probably still use his cell thru Sunday at Key West (unless you hide it from him ) My DS is 7 (nearly 7 1/2) and LOVES meeting new kids on the cruise. The Oceanears Club is one of his favorite places. If your son would like to exchange emails with mine, that might make him more comfortable with the club. DS is already exchanging messages with a 7 year old girl who will be on the cruise, so maybe we can get all the DIS kids in that age group talking together. It is hard to narrow down what to do among all the choices - keep in mind that it is impossible to do everything and you probably don't want to schedule every waking minute I found before our first cruise that reading trip reports helped me figure out what we would like to do. I have a couple of recent Western reports linked to the "Stuff" page on our cruise website ....

Colorado Mom - You've probably already said, but what ages are your kids? Will they be in the club or the lab? My DS absolutely LOVES the club, but I know not all kids do ... I have seen some trip reports where the parents made a "rule" that the kids had to pick at least one activity/time each day at the club to give the parents some grown-up time. We've never needed to do that since our problem is getting DS to leave the club occasionally to do stuff with us!

Oiler - We received the PM for Darrah (DS) and I will try and get back online tonight so he can reply ...

-----

This is turning into a very long post, so I'll try and get back later this evening to give a quick "trip report" on how the surprise WDW weekend went!

pdarrah

 

[pdarrah]

OK - I'm back - hopefully I can get this posted before DH gets home... Since it is Tuesday, DS is with Grandma & Grandpa. Gma picks him up from his bus every Tuesday and they have their time together. Then Gpa leaves work a little early and joins them and they all go to McDonalds. EVERY Tuesday! There is NO WAY I would go to McDonalds every week Clearly something happens to people when they become grandparents!

We had a FANTASTIC weekend! DS definitely was surprised. He actually didn't even notice we were driving to the airport. For longer trips we usually take a limo since the parking cost vs. limo cost is about the same, but for this short 3 day trip, parking made more sense. When we picked him up from his bus, DH told him that we were going to a party at a friend's house and since it was a long drive to get there we needed to get an early start (the reason DH was home early). He swollowed it hook, line & sinker. We pulled into the parking garage and parked and he still hadn't noticed anything odd! I had made a T-shirt for him (using DIS designs from the forum where they do that) that had Mickey & Minnie in front of the castle and said "Mickeys Not So Scary Halloween Party" on it. I handed that to him and said he might want to take it to the party. He STILL didn't get it. I tell him to read it - he does and looks at me strangely. DH opens DS's door and gets him to climb out. We all walk to the back and get the luggage out. DS looks more and more confused. "Who's going on a trip?" he asks. "We are!" we answer and suddenly the grin appears He finally GETS it and is totally shocked! He then spent the entire walk into the airport, check in, security and walk to the gate trying to find out who all knew about the surprise.

We had a good flight down. Clearly Thursday night is not a big tourist time - there were less than 6 kids on the whole flight and the flight was not full. All went smoothly and we checked into All Star Sports around midnight Orlando time. Friday morning, we went to Typhoon Lagoon for a few hours. We got there about 9:40 so we had about 20 minutes of the "extra magic hours" time there. We stayed till around 1:30 and it never got all that crowded. We managed to get a short nap for all of us and then DS and I put on our costumes (DH wimped out and wore a DIS designed T-shirt) and we drove to the MK for the halloween party. We prefer driving since the buses at the end of the night can be crazy. We were on our way in around 4:30 so we had a couple hours to do rides and have dinner before the party. The party was sold out, but by skipping the 1st parade, we had a great time. We got TONS of candy, saw a magic show with Merlin, went to a dance party with Stich, Pluto & Donald, saw the fireworks, the 2nd parade and DH & DS went on Space Mnt at about 2 minutes until midnight! We had a great time. Saturday was spent at Epcot and we went back to the Magic Kingdom on Sunday until it was time to fly home. We were back in our own home by 10pm. It was exhausting but fun!

pdarrah

 

[pdarrah]

OK - one last post and then I am going to collapse into bed!

I was just looking at trip reports and found a fun one for the 11-day Southern (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1237123). One thing that struck me was that they had a DIS Meet one morning early during the cruise at breakfast. They met at the sit-down breakfast restaurant between certain times (I think it was 9:00-10:00). This sounds like it might work - not too noisy, not too late at night, not too many other events going on. It might conflict with a character breakfast, but by running an hour it would allow early character breakfast folks to visit late and late character breakfast folks to visit at the beginning and then leave early.

What do you think? Would Monday morning work (Key West day) or maybe Tuesday (Day at Sea)? Or are none of us morning people and we can't stand the tought of being sociable first thing in the morning?

pdarrah

 

[blacksmithcrm]

Hey Ginny

Just noticed where you're from - It took me an hour and a half this morning to get from Leesburg to Tysons C (about 17 miles for those lucky enough to live elsewhere) . - May the Gods take pity on the traffic-bound souls in NOVA!

This is why I really need a cruise!

 

[cepmom]

pdarrah~
Sounds like you guys had an awesome trip to WDW! I'm glad your surprise went well! Now, how did you go about making the t-shirt for him? I would like to make t-shirts for my girls for the cruise and was going to order them from disneyshopping.com, but they are sold out of the right sizes. Did you ask someone on the design board to make the design for you? I'm so bad at that sort of thing.

We have decided to go with the 1/2 day on Captain Marvin's. I was going to book last night online, but then thought I would call today to make the reservation instead. I had a couple of questions before I booked. I'm going to try to get the morning time slot, so we'll walk over together....do they have more than one boat for each time slot? maybe we'll be on the same boat too.

I'm up for a morning breakfast meet if anyone else is. The last couple of cruises, we never ate breakfast in the dining rooms, only the buffet. We thought we'd like to try the dining rooms at least once on this cruise. Key West day, I was hoping to get in for the spa villas, but not sure what time yet. I may just wait until we are onboard to book this one, since I read somewhere that sometimes they offer a discount on port days.

that's it for now...I really need to get my butt off the computer and get some stuff done around here...the laundry is piling up and there's no food in the fridge.

Talk to you all later

 

[skylynx]

Hello, All

Maybe the thing to do is to pick a breakfast time as well as schedule an informal gather at sailaway. I think it's kind of integral to "meet" at least briefly either in the terminal or at sailaway to recognize faces at the beginning of the cruise. If you miss finding the Disboarders at sailaway or get there late, it's probably where you were going to be anyway, so you won't have lost any valuable cruise time trying to find the meeting place!

Anyone who doesn't make the early meet can go to the breakfast, if they like, and still get a chance to meet fellow Disboarders. We can notify the head server at the restaurant we pick of our gathering, and ask him or her to seat folks who identifies themselves as Disboarders in the same place.

What do some of the rest of you think?

 

[Colorado Mom]

happy to able to say our cruise has been paid off!
Now we just need airline tickets and to figure out what to do in these places we are visiting.

I have 2 boys, one is 14 and in 8th grade and the other is 11 and in the 5th.

 

[pdarrah]

We haven't paid in full yet DH wants to wait until early next week. Since it will go on the DisneyVisa, it should go through quickly and all will be paid up before the 90 day mark....

Did anyone notice that disneycruise.com is now showing the all aboard time for Cozumel as 9:30pm? I finally found a little time and updated the itinerarly information on our cruise website (www.bwdarrah.com/dcl) on the "Stuff" page. The Excel spreadsheet and JPG versions of the chart have also been updated. I'll try to keep updating these as we get more information. I do have the sunrise/sunset time and such on there. The charts are made for late dining, but it is easy to just switch the show and dining to make it work for early seating. If you use the Excel version, you can edit it however you like. I also didn't shift the dining time for each rotation so it may be off by a bit - maybe I'll fix that the next time I edit the chart....

Cepmom - Although I have done some of my own designs (some are shown on the design board) for this I used a design someone else did over there. If you have something in mind for your DD's, I could try and put something together for you. -- I have no idea if they have more than one boat, but I suspect that if we arrive together we have a good chance of being on the same boat. (Actually, I designed a t-shirt for this excursion last year! I'll try and find it and post it here...)

pdarrah

 

[familycruiser]

I have just put 1/13/07 on hold and I have a couple days before I have to pay. I've reserved the last 2 cat. 6 stateroom available...they said this would be a guarantee and no room assignment yet. Have you all sone this before and has it worked out? Haven't taken DCL before so I'll have lots of ???s! THis is really a great source of information. Traveling will be myself, dh, dd(8), ds (5), and my in-laws in a seperate stateroom.

My kids will have a couple days off school so this would be a good week to go for us but...I am concerned about the weather in Jan. Have heard that the water in Key West and CC can be too cold for swimming in Jan/Feb. Do you know if this is true? I know weather is always somewhat unpredictable. Also hear that seas can be extra choppy and this time and sometimes the ship can't stop in Cayman since we have to use tenders?

I have held this through DCL right now....will I get a better deal transfering this to a TA?

I'm nervous about booking this so late since I see so many of you have been planning for so long...I usually like to plan and research for a while too. If we don't go in Jan then we can't go until Nov. 07 (atleast the ports will be warmer).

Thanks for your input.

 

[cepmom]

Hi familycruiser!!


can't answer any questions about the weather...this will be our first cruise in January. We've been two other times in August.

As far as transferring your reservation to a TA, I use Dreams Unlimited and right now they are offering stateroom credit (how much depends on which category staeroom you book) if you transfer or book a new reservation with them. I have been very happy with their service so far ~ this will be our second cruise booked through Dreams.

There's lots of great information on this board....just spend some time reading and you'll be able to get everything planned in time! Pdarrah's site is a great planning tool too...be sure to check it out (the link is in her signature)

 

[pdarrah]

Welcome Familycruiser!

Although I can't say much about the weather in January, I can tell you why we are cruising then! For the last 2 years (2004 & 2005) we sailed in late October. In 2004, we were able to do the Western route, but Grand Cayman had been so badly hit by hurricane Ivan that it was totally closed to all cruise ships (and all other tourists). In 2005, we tried another Western and ended up doing an Eastern due to Hurricane Wilma. Then we got chased around a bit by Alpha & Beta! We decided that we were going to totally avoid hurricane season this time. Since that runs through November (and the effects on hit ports can last several months beyond November) we decided to aim for January or February. Since our DS has both Friday Jan 12 and Monday Jan 15 off from school, this was a good week for us.

We did cruise many, many years ago in late February. That was also a Western (on Carnival) but we sailed out of Miami and went to Cozumel, Grand Cayman and Jamaica. The weather was fine for that and we had no trouble swimming then. However, we were not as far north as the Bahamas, so that doesn't tell us much about the water temp there! Reading the boards here, I have gotten the impression that swimming at Castaway Cay in the winter depends a lot on where you are from. We are northerners from near Chicago and have a family cabin in Northern Wisconsin - we swim in a spring fed lake there that never makes it over 70 degrees even in the middle of August! I have read that the coldest the water ever gets in the Bahamas is 72 degrees. For southerners, that is probably too cold to swim, but for us in January it is probably OK. I always figure that being able to tender to Grand Cayman is ALWAYS a risk - bad weather is possible at any time of year. The only time we have been there was in late February and there was no trouble with the tenders.

I have never done a "guaranteed" room on DCL, but we did way back when on Carnival (I'm not sure you could select a specific room back then...) It really wasn't a big deal. A few weeks before the cruise, we were assigned a room. It would only be a problem if you REALLY want a specific location.

Our first DCL cruise we used a TA - and were totally unhappy with the service. Our second DCL cruise we booked on board and kept it with Disney. We rebooked on board for this cruise and a month or so ago I transfered it to Dreams Unlimited because the on-board credit was so tempting and I read a lot of good comments about them here and our friends Skylynx & Impala highly recommended them. So far, I have been very happy with their service.

I wouldn't worry that you are starting "late" with your planning - it is still over 3 months away! If you decide to go ahead with it, if you are a first time DCL cruiser, the earliest you can book excursions, spa stuff or Palo is 75 days in advance - so you have nearly a month to plan. Also, most things can be even be booked on board - some of the most popular spa things or excursions might be filled, but most is still available.

I some of this rambling helps!

pdarrah

 

[skylynx]

Welcome, familycruiser!

We cruised last February on the Eastern Magic...the weather was not brilliant. We had some rain nearly every day, although it was interspersed with sun so from our photos, you'd never know the weather was lousy! I thought the water at Castaway Cay was a bit brisk (and I'm a New Yorker originally and used to Fire Island ocean water temps). However, it was still ok for snorkeling once you got over the initial chill. Didn't seem to bother any of the kids...maybe I'm just getting older!

We've used Dreams Unlimited three times now, twice for rebook on board transfers and once for an original booking on Wonder, and have been very pleased all three times. I have to admit the transfer of our DCL rebook onboard reservations to Dreams was done purely to get the extra shipboard credit...but that $100 in addition to our rebook onboard credit of $200 was pretty tantalizing. Because we are able to view our reservation on the DCL website as well as the Dreams Unlimited one, I had no worries that something could go wrong (or at least not something that couldn't be fixed pretty easily). To me, the Big Issues are the price, the shipboard credit, and the cabin we booked. Because I can see on the DCL site we're all paid up and in the right cabin, I know Dreams did their job properly. Plus, they've always given us a nice little extra "gift" in our stateroom (DCL memory box/photo album). Because of these little extras, I couldn't justify NOT transferring our reservation to Dreams. The last three times our cruise docs have all arrived around the same time as everyone else's (and it appeared they were sent directly from DCL anyway, not rerouted through the TA). Since you now fill out so much of the precruise paperwork online, even missing documents seems more of an inconvenience than a show stopper.

Like us, you can probably think of plenty to do with an extra $100 in your shipboard credit booty!

 

[pdarrah]

Have a great weekend everyone! We're about to take off for our last trip to the family cabin this weekend. It'll be closed up for the winter, so we won't be back up there until next spring It is in Northern Wisconsin, so I don't think we're going swimming this time - but the fall color should be great!

If anyone wants to be added to the Who's Going list, just post, email or PM and I'll take care of it as soon as we get back.....

Also, if anyone has found any good websites while they were researching our cruise, we could link them to our site if you send them to me....

Pdarrah