January 28, 2010 3 Night Wonder

[Hanover]

Anyone else going to be onboard?? I don't see a cruise meets started yet. We just booked this cruise today, taking advantage of the Kids Sail Free promotion. My DS 12 Keegan and I (Danielle) will be sailing along with our friends Beth and her DS 13 Jacob. It will be me and Keegan's 11th Disney cruise and Beth and Jake's 2nd. Beth and I will be sailing without our DH's and younger children for the 1st time.



** denotes that they will be part of a Fish Extender exchange

1/28/2010 3 Night Wonder Roll Call:

Minnie 116
Jennifer
DH
DD10
DS6
MIL

Jendon1997
Jen
DH
DD9
DD5
DS2
SIL
BIL


PrinceandPrincess
Kim
DS7 Ryan
DD3 Sara

**Kindra657
Kindra 28
DH Don 30
DD8 Ramiah
MIL Brenda
FIL Donald

**TJ Gorman
Tammy 39
DH Paul 44
DD15 Ashley
DS14 Jack

**Tigger0215
Julie
mom Cheryl


** Absybabsy
Amanda-- turning 45!!!!
DD9 Abigail
DH Ed

**DM Jackie (nannyJac)
DSiL Alley
DGD Anna(4)


**TDMathews
Tracy
Adult
2 kids ages 11/9

**Boxing Hare
Diane
DS10
DD8
DS5
DNiece 11


**Hanover
Danielle (will be 37)
DS12 Keegan
friend Beth
Beth's DS13 Jacob

 

[Minnie116]

We will be there!!! It will be myself (Jennifer) DH, DD(10), DS (6) and MIL. We can's wait!!!

 

[jendon1997]

We will be with you too. It will be myself(Jen), DH, DD9, DD5, DS2, SIL, and BIL. Cant wait. We will be at Disney World before and after the cruise. Saratoga Springs.

 

[dvcnewgirl]

We will be there!

 

[Hanover]

Welcome Minnie 116, jendon1997 and dvcnewgirl!

We will be staying at the Residence Inn in Cocoa Beach the night before the cruise and the Beach Club after the cruise before flying home.

I'm hoping the new slides will be open at Castaway Cay for our cruise. Looks like a lot of nice new enhancements coming to CC in the next year!

Did anyone book Alaska? We were very excited to hear the itinerary announced but when we got a quote for me, DH, ds8 and ds12, it was $8400 for a midship category 6 without insurance or transfers. We passed on that for now (that was as expensive as our Med and Baltic cruises!) and will hold out to get quotes for the Disney Dream in October when they come out.

 

[PrinceandPrincess]

Hi Everyone!

I will be traveling (Kim) along with Ryan (7) and Sara (3) This is Ryans 5th cruise and Sara's 3rd but their first with DCL!

Looking forward to it!

 

[dvcnewgirl]

Hi Everyone!

I will be traveling (Kim) along with Ryan (7) and Sara (3) This is Ryans 5th cruise and Sara's 3rd but their first with DCL!

Looking forward to it!

Our children are close. My daughter (Katherine) will be 6 1/2 and my son (Nolan) is 3. My daughter has been on many cruises this is my son's 3rd.

 

[PrinceandPrincess]

Hi Kristen,
We will meet you by the pool! I love cruising with the kids. Its my favorite type of vacation with them. Did you choose early or late dinner?

 

[Minnie116]

Jen, It looks like are kids are about the same age as well. My DD will have just turned 10 3 weeks prior to our cruise. My DS will be 6 1/2 so he will be in the same age group as your other DD. This is our 4th Disney Cruise. It is the kids 3rd. This time we opted for the Main dinner seating. We usually have the late (due to availability) and my kids usually fall asleep at the dinner table. So, we are excited to try the main seating.

 

[jendon1997]

DD10 cant wait to cruise. She has been on a few cruises and loves the kids club. I'm not sure if DD5 will stay in club. She probably would if sister and her would be together. Doesnt bother me if she stays or not. I just dont want her to miss out on fun stuff.

Hope my kids behave well. BIL and SIL have no kids. I can see them starting to avoid us after a few days!! Dont blame them!!

 

[kindra657]

We will be on the cruise! yay! gonna be at AKV for 5 nights before the cruise.

This is our very first cruise and we are way excited! DD is super excited too!

It's me, Kindra- 28, DH (Don-30), DD (ramiah-8), MIL (brenda- 53) and FIL (donald-55)

glad to be on here with you guys! for you veterans, give us newbies some good info and tips! i never thought i'd be doing anything disney and NOT know what i was doing!!!

 

[Hanover]

We will be on the cruise! yay! gonna be at AKV for 5 nights before the cruise.

This is our very first cruise and we are way excited! DD is super excited too!

It's me, Kindra- 28, DH (Don-30), DD (ramiah-8), MIL (brenda- 53) and FIL (donald-55)

glad to be on here with you guys! for you veterans, give us newbies some good info and tips! i never thought i'd be doing anything disney and NOT know what i was doing!!!

Welcome!

This will be me and Keegan's 11th Disney cruise and my friend Beth/Jake's 2nd DCL cruise. My biggest advice is to just take it all in and enjoy it. There's so much to do, there's no way you can do it all in one cruise. Our first DCL cruise was a 4 day and by the time we really figured out what to do and where to go, it was over. We definitely prefer the longer cruises, but any cruise is a good cruise and we'll take whatever DCL cruise we can.

I guess the best advice I can give besides taking it in is to look at old navigators to get an idea of what activities a 3 day Disney cruise has and pick out some you'd definitely like to do. Granted, all cruise activities are subject to change, but they keep a lot of the same ones. I would definitely suggest going to the shows and to each of the restaurants and not missing the sail away or pirate parties.

I'm an over packer, but I do try to cut down each cruise what we bring. I read somewhere to take out half of what clothes you think you need and bring twice the money and that's pretty dead on for DCL. For young kids I like to put their entire outfit rolled up including socks and underwear in large ziplocks and squoosh out the air. You can really get a lot of clothes in bags that way and when they get dressed, you know they'll match and can do it easily themselves. The bags come in handy for wet swim suits too. Don't forget to have your kids wear swim suits on embarkation day if they plan on swimming before your luggage arrives at your stateroom.

I'd also bring along a credit card and some future vacation dates for rebooking. We rebooked about 2 months after we got off our first cruise and missed the 10% discount and on board credit we would have had. Now we even like to book dummy/ghost dates and then transfer them to another date so we retain the credit and OBC.

If you have any specific questions, let me know.

 

[kindra657]

I'm not sure if I can think of any specific questions yet. We probably wouldn't have booked a Disney Cruise anytime soon because we usually do Disney pretty well on a budget (using our dvc membership) and the cruises are expensive. We got the 3 day cruise for free for adding on 100 points to our dvc membership. We invited my in-laws to come because the cruise includes 4 people. We paid for the extra person and the room upgrade.

Anyways, I don't even really know where to begin asking questions. The goals for our cruise: meet other fun disney lovers, have a fantastic time with the family, eat great food, see some terrific shows, party down during the parties, get some sun at Castaway Cay, and see my dd and rest of family have the time of their lives! I really hope dd makes friends on the dcl! I think it would be really neat for her to meet other people from around the country and maybe even get a pinpal

 

[Hanover]

Just booked Palo for the last night of our cruise! It's getting colder and colder here and being in the heat of the Caribbean will be extra nice in a few months.

 

[kindra657]

Just booked Palo for the last night of our cruise! It's getting colder and colder here and being in the heat of the Caribbean will be extra nice in a few months.

Amen to that!!

Do you know anything about the fish extenders? I don't even own a sewing machine but would LOVE to have one and participate. Do you know what options I have?

 

[Hanover]

Amen to that!!

Do you know anything about the fish extenders? I don't even own a sewing machine but would LOVE to have one and participate. Do you know what options I have?

Buttons are the extent to my sewing capabilities!

I bought an FE on Ebay a few years back and it's held up well. The person I bought it from is still making them and will customize the material, characters and number of pockets with in reason. If you do a search on Ebay for fish extenders, some should come up. I've seen people use little totes, stockings during Chirstmas time cruiseskl--- you name it for FE's. I've also seen some people get clear shoe sorters and just decorate with stickers. Anything that can hold items will work. We've always had a lot of fun with participating in Fish Extender exchanges.

 

[Hanover]

I checked on ebay and the lady I have used for 3 FE's (one regular one for us, one Christmas themed one for us and one for a friend I bought) is still doing them. Her name is Gradysmommy. I've seen lots more FE's onboard that she's done and they've all really turned out nice.

 

[kindra657]

Hanover, thank you for all the information! I looked at many FEs and wanted to try to make my own. I bought a beginner's sewing machine yesterday ($24 on sale), the materials ($13), and worked at it all day long and did it!! I am still amazed that I made something!

I'm getting so excited about the trip!! I don't think we are going to make Palo reservations though for 3 reasons: 1) we've never been on a cruise and our time is limited on only a 3 night cruise 2) I don't want to miss any of the 3 restaurants (especially Animator's Palate) 3) I reall don't want to dress up or have to pack extra attire for dressing up on vacation. we did that one year for Victoria & Albert's. It was nice, but I like to be totally casual on vacation. Do you think I'm really missing out by not booking Palo on our very 1st cruise?

We are also probably not going to spend much time on Nassau because 1) I will be nervous about my daughter being out in a different country 2) we could enjoy more on the ship considering we don't have an "at sea" day 3) I would like the beach, but we'll have our beach time on Castaway Cay, 4) we don't really have a lot of extra money for excursions. Do you think we should tour Nassau? If we did, Atlantis looks really cool and the resort has a sale going on (which includes the waterpark passes vs. paying BIG $ thru DCL).

Any ideas or information to help me be more comfortable with my current decisions or reasons why my decisions aren't the best would be great! We will be traveling with our in-laws and after spending 5 busy days in the parks, I think we will want to relax a lot during the day and have fun at night at the family night club or dance clubs.

Are there any things that cannot be missed? What 3 things would you suggest to a 1st time cruiser and Disney lover?

 

[Hanover]

Hanover, thank you for all the information! I looked at many FEs and wanted to try to make my own. I bought a beginner's sewing machine yesterday ($24 on sale), the materials ($13), and worked at it all day long and did it!! I am still amazed that I made something!

I'm getting so excited about the trip!! I don't think we are going to make Palo reservations though for 3 reasons: 1) we've never been on a cruise and our time is limited on only a 3 night cruise 2) I don't want to miss any of the 3 restaurants (especially Animator's Palate) 3) I reall don't want to dress up or have to pack extra attire for dressing up on vacation. we did that one year for Victoria & Albert's. It was nice, but I like to be totally casual on vacation. Do you think I'm really missing out by not booking Palo on our very 1st cruise?

We are also probably not going to spend much time on Nassau because 1) I will be nervous about my daughter being out in a different country 2) we could enjoy more on the ship considering we don't have an "at sea" day 3) I would like the beach, but we'll have our beach time on Castaway Cay, 4) we don't really have a lot of extra money for excursions. Do you think we should tour Nassau? If we did, Atlantis looks really cool and the resort has a sale going on (which includes the waterpark passes vs. paying BIG $ thru DCL).

Any ideas or information to help me be more comfortable with my current decisions or reasons why my decisions aren't the best would be great! We will be traveling with our in-laws and after spending 5 busy days in the parks, I think we will want to relax a lot during the day and have fun at night at the family night club or dance clubs.

Are there any things that cannot be missed? What 3 things would you suggest to a 1st time cruiser and Disney lover?

You are welcome! Congrats on doing your FE!

About Palo and it being your first cruise--I'd skip it too. You will have so much going on the 3 days and the regular restaurants are all good and worth the experience of trying out. The only reason we are doing Palo is because I'll be a platinum Castaway Cay member after our December cruise and it's a free perk. It was very hard to choose a day to go to Palo in January with Pirate night being the 2nd night and I don't like to miss that and didn't want to miss meeting our wait staff the 1st night. I really didn't want to miss the last night too but it was the best choice. Ordinarily, we don't do Palo dinner unless we are on a 7 day. Brunch is definitely worth it on a 4 day but it's not offered on a 3 day.

My opinion on Nassau--- I think it's "okay". We've done the dolphin excursion through DCL in 2005 and have also gone to the pirate museum and Atlantis on our own. I think if we did Atlantis again we'd go on the water taxi. We took a regular taxi in 2006 and the driver waited about 10 minutes until the entire van filled up. There was no air conditioning and it was super hot, it smelled like yucky sweat and he drove like a maniac. We had no seat belts and I was scared!! To us there wasn't much close to the ship unless you are looking for fake purses, color changing items from the sun at Del Sol or cheap t-shirts. The last 2 times we went, DS8 wanted to stay at the club and I went to the spa for a great deal they do in port for $125---an hour long massage/facial and then an hour in the rainforest room. To me it's much better than anything else there!! While I go to the spa and DS8's in the club, DH has taken DS12 out just to walk around the port and check things out in the straw market for an hour or two. The trip in Jan my DH and DS8 will not be there so my friend and I plan on doing the spa (we can't wait!) and then walking the boys around the local area just so they can check things out. I do not want to go further than that without my DH. I just read about some tourists getting robbed from another cruise line when they went further out on their own. I know it's highly unlikely but I don't want to take the chance. We'll probably spend the afternoon at the pools onboard.

You will not be busy like in the parks, but you will be constantly going somewhere on the ship to do something. There are so many fun activities. I will have been on 10 DCL cruises by then and I've still not done lots of activities I'd like to try. Just a reason to book another one! The cruises are more relaxing in my opinion that the parks but we're still exhausted each night. Check out some recent navigators on castwayclub.com and you will see just how busy you can be bouncing from activity to activity!

The 3 things that I would not miss are the sail away party, the pirate party and the shows. I would also not miss trying any of the restaurants.

 

[kindra657]

Thanks for all your info!! The spa idea sounds great!!! I think I may join you!

About the FE exchange...there aren't very many people signed up for the jan cruise yet....how should we keep track of who wants to do it? Maybe we could have a running list??

Example:

FE Exchange
Hanover: 2A 2C
Kindra675: 4A 1C
Minnie116: 2A 2C
Jendon1997: 4A 3C
PrinceandPrincess: 1A 2C
DVCnewgirl: 1A? 2C

all you guys want to do the FE exchange?? How do we want to make a list of those who are participating?