JANUARY 27, 2007 "PAL MICKEY" Western Magic ROLL CALL

[GSCM_DisneyScout]

Since infants under 12 weeks old are not allowed on the cruise, and since the countdown clock now reads 3 months, 2 weeks, 2 days, that sounds like an EXCELLENT decision! Good luck and take care!

Trust me, the day I found out I was pregnant, I did a countdown calendar to make sure the baby would be old enough to go on the crusie. 12 weeks prior to the cruise is November 4th, so I've even got some leeway. But yes, it is cutting it close.

Elijah will be at least 14 weeks and 4 days old when the Disney Magic leaves Port Canaveral with us onboard. Mom and I went shopping today for outfits for him.

Kim

 

[WeCantWait]

The end is near! After much discussion with the doctor, I am scheduled to go to the hospital Tuesday, October 17th at 8:15 am to check in and prepare for an induction. It's quite possible that I will go into labor on my own before then. I know I'm certainly ready.

My cruise cast will be complete.

Kim

Oh how exciting!! Both of my children were induced. I wish for you a quick painless (yeah right) birth. You will be in my thoughts. I look forward to meeting our newest cruise meet member.

 

[ThePhantomsGirl]

Kind of a cool way to increase our membership in this thread!

May it be a wonderful day for you!!

 

[taswira]

Kind of a cool way to increase our membership in this thread!

Well, not exactly, because the baby has ALWAYS been listed, with an estimated delivery date of 10/22/06! Finally there wll be a personal appearance though!

 

[jjw5nh]

Finally booked the airline. There used to be this nice direct flight that left at 7:00pm and got into MCO by 8:30. Unfortunately they moved it to noon. We didn't want to make the kids miss another day of school so we will drive to Charlotte for a different direct flight. Anything to avoid an Atlanta layover.

Booked Friday night at the Residence Inn based on recomendations I've read on the DIS boards.

The final piece was how to get back and forth to the port from MCO. I refuse to have stress on any vacation so the choice was simple. Limo. We did this on our last cruise and the kids had a blast on the drive overwhile DH and I sat back and relaxed.

Next challenge.... Deciding on excursions.

The cruise may last for only 7 days, but the anticipation lasts for months. Priceless.

Happy cruising.

 

[WeCantWait]

We were finally able to book our Shore Excursions/Palo/Spa after an extremely frustrating day today. We made our final payment to Expedia 3 weeks ago, trying to avoid any problems with booking excursions. One of the main reasons we decided on a Cat 3 was because we wanted to be able to book everything 105 days out as opposed to 75 days out since we are first time cruisers. I was affraid we wouldn't be able to get everything we hoped for. Anyway, when I tried to book today I was getting a message that we didn't pay in full. Expedia had sent us a confirmation email thanking us for for our final payment so I never imagined we would have a problem.

We called Disney and we were told that they never recieved the payment from Expedia. We then called Expedia and they told us that when we gave them the payment, Disney was not open and somehow the payment had not been made in the following three weeks. Both myself and my husband were furious. We were told the soonest the payment could be made to Disney would be Monday morning. After several calls to both Expedia and Disney, we were able to get some help from Disney. They had us make our payment again to Expedia and then have Expedia call a supervisor at Disney to give them our payment. Finally we were able to access the booking. Thank goodness were able to book everything we wanted.

We are getting closer!

 

[VA_mouseman]

Airfare is booked! I'm going down early for Lotusphere (Sunday the 21st) and the wife and kids will fly down late Wednesday night. After the conference, a few days at the parks and we'll stay at BWV. Next up ... reviewing shore excursions.

 

[binky1]

How frustrating!! I paid directly to Disney so I knew that we had paid in full but then yesterday when it came time to make reservations, my account wasn't working either.... I managed to get my kids registered but then I couldn't do anything else. It turns out that because I was using Firefox my computer wasn't letting me in.... I quickly called down to Technical Assistance, still in his pyjamas, who solved my problem. We managed to get everything we wanted as well - we would have also had to wait until 75 days.....

It's getting closer, it's getting closer

 

[WeCantWait]

How frustrating!! I paid directly to Disney so I knew that we had paid in full but then yesterday when it came time to make reservations, my account wasn't working either.... I managed to get my kids registered but then I couldn't do anything else. It turns out that because I was using Firefox my computer wasn't letting me in.... I quickly called down to Technical Assistance, still in his pyjamas, who solved my problem. We managed to get everything we wanted as well - we would have also had to wait until 75 days.....

It's getting closer, it's getting closer

It's a good thing we were able to book 105 days out. I have a feeling if we would have had to wait until 75 days out, and then had problems, we probably would have missed out on a lot.


This is so exciting!

 

[Cruising canuck]

Just a ? to you seasoned Dis cruisers, when is the best time to arrive at the port? We are booking a town car and I just needed to know when I should have them pick us up.

Gord

 

[ThePhantomsGirl]

Just a ? to you seasoned Dis cruisers, when is the best time to arrive at the port?

Before the ship leaves?

Sorry, couldn't resist. The terminal usually opens around 10 a.m., although the staterooms aren't generally ready until 1:30 p.m. I've heard varying times as to when they let you board, ranging from 11:30 to 1:00 p.m.

I think it would really depend on if you need to make reservations, if you are the type that likes to get on board as early as possible, even if you can't get into your staterooms, etc. (for some of us it makes it feel like our vacation starts earlier that way).

If you are meeting up with others from this thread - meeting in the termimal and saying "hi" is always fun. If you have children that get really restless, perhaps a bit closer to boarding time. (although I've heard the terminal is fun for kids) Personally, I'm the type that will be there on the early side, rather than the later time.

 

[taswira]

Good answer, Holly! And you had better be the type to get there early, because I'm driving us and I don't plan to hang around the house that morning killing time - hahaha. As you said, the sooner the arrival at the port, the sooner it seems the vacaton has started.

The only time arriving early can be a pain is if for some reason the ship is late clearing customs, making the previous sailing's guests late clearing off the ship. When that happens, it means "hanging around in the parking lot" until the terminal opens for us. We can not enter the building until ALL of the previous guests are out. On only ONE of my ten prior sailings I had to wait until nearly 11:00 to enter the terminal. That's the only time that ever happened to me, thankfully.

 

[Cruising canuck]

Okay, okay, I set myself up for that one! Chalk one up for Holly!

Okay I will have the car come about 9:30 so we can be there between 10:30 and 11:00. The first time we were there check-in went pretty smoothly but I would like to be closer to the front of the boarding line this time.

We both like to be early for things if the rugrats co-operate we may achieve it this time (high hopes). We like to have plenty of time exploring the ship and that will give us some extra time to meet with y'all also.

 

[taswira]

The letter I received from DCL today made a very good point about Passports. Those who don't have one and decided not to get one since the deadline was moved to 2009 may want to consider the info in DCL's letter.

The deadline for air travel is still January 8, 2007. This means that all travelers, U.S. citizen or not, traveling to or from the U.S. by air on or after January 8th 2007 are required to have a valid Passport to enter or re-enter the U.S. In the unlikely event of a family emergency during your cruise where you needed to return to the U.S. by air from a foreign port, you would already have the appropriate documentation you would need IF you have a valid Passport.

I have had one since I was 16 and can't imagine being without one. Sure, they are expensive, but odds are they will increase in price again before that 2009 deadline! It's something to think about.

 

[GSCM_DisneyScout]

I'm off to the hospital! I'll post pictures of Elijah when I can.

Kim

 

[taswira]

Best wishes to you and Elijah! We're looking forward to seeing the pics of your new addition.

 

[msaseifert]

Hi everyone - just thought I would say hello on this dreary rainy (at least in Virginia) cold day. Of course there are a thousand things I could be doing right now but instead all I can do is cruise the DIS - the second best thing to actually cruising . I am so hopelessly hooked on this board

 

[binky1]

It's cold and dreary here (Ottawa) today as well and yes, I must admit that I'm hooked on these boards as well. Is that a bad thing?!? But to be honest, I've learned a ton of things that have made me even more excited and alot less anxious about our upcoming cruise.

Take care everyone!!

 

[GSCM_DisneyScout]

Elijah Thomas Wesley was born Tuesday, October 17th at 3:15 pm at Howard County General Hospital.
He was 7 pounds, 4.6 ounces and 20 inches long.

He and I are both home now and we're both doing fine.

Take care,

Kim

Now I just need to figure out how to post pictures...

 

[GSCM_DisneyScout]

Until I can figure out a better way to do this, here's a link to a few pictures of my kids. (I still need to get one up of Joshua.)

http://worknotes.com/MD/Hanover/Wesley/gallery1.stm

Kim