JULY 19 Cruisers- Less than 3 WEEKS now Yipee!

[bothofus]

WELCOME whp960!!
We too have cruised the Eastern route(April 2002) and very excited about the Western!My kids would be happy to exchange email,they are already"chatting" with a few kids on July 19 cruise.I will PM you with their Email addresses.
I see you are from Andover,I was born in Wakefield and my Mom's side of the family all lived in the greater Boston area,and now they have all retired and live on the Cape.As a child I spent every summer on the Cape with all of my family- cousins,aunts,uncles...Great memories!
As far as excursions go,we are booked for the dolphin swim in Cozumel and the Stingray City snorkel in Grand Cayman with Captain Bryan's. We booked these both ourselves, not through Disney.The most popular Stingray City tours outside of Disney's seem to be Nativeway,Captain Marvins and Captain Bryans,I checked out all 3,Cap. B seemed to be my best choice, let me know if you need any website info for any of them.
Kristine

 

[Michellepooh]

It's nice to see that there will be other Massachusetts people on the July 19th cruise. We are from Lowell. The cruise can't seem to come fast enough! We have booked the Chankanaab Sea Lion Discovery excursion in Cozumel and the Island Tour in Grand Cayman. I can't wait!!

 

[tezb]

Not sure what you mean?? The countdown clocks I see say 37 days.....

 

[beaniema323]

I'm sorry, it was a problem with our computer here. Someone had changed the date to July instead of June! I just wish that it was July. Hopefully we will be able to get away from some of this horrible wet weather that we've been having all spring...

 

[beaniema323]

whp960-
Welcome!

I saw where you are cruising with friends from Maryland. We are also from Maryland. We live in Salisbury, 30 miles from the ocean. Where are your friends from?

We are really looking forward to this cruise! It's going to be great.

I have a DD14 and a DD10. If your kids would like to start talking to them let me know and I can send you their e-mail addresses.

Tammy

 

[bothofus]

Just got our rental car booked for Cozumel,I think all my plans/reservations are made and now is the hard part,WAITING! How are everyone else's plans coming along...36 days to go

debkay- did you get the PM I sent you, trying to exchange our kids email addresses,let me know.

 

[DDluvstitch]

Beaniema323
We are the friends from MD! - me, DS(12), DD(9). whp960 and I went to high school together back in CT and have planned this trip together since early fall. We live in Annapolis. We also know of two other families from Annapolis who conincidentally are on the same cruise.
We are trying to decide which tour to take to Stingray city. You mentioned you researched and found Capt Bryan's to be more to your liking. Can I ask why? Do you know if Capt Bryan's offers a video of your trip like Capt. Marvin's does? We are trying to decide between these two.......

thanks!

 

[DDluvstitch]

bothofus - oops, guess you were the one who researched Capt. B and Capt M for the Stingray tour.......we are trying to decide between Capt. B and Capt. M -
what helped you to make your decision?

thanks!

 

[catjammies]

Not sure who asked, but I've searched the world over & found "Nativeway.com" -- or something like that -- to be the cheapest & seems to be recommended by those who've used them.

We'll be there in Cayman (July 19th cruise).... Who will be there with us????

 

[beaniema323]

DDluvstitch-

We are going with friends from Annapolis also. We've been planning this for well over a year now. We had alot of other families from here in Salisbury who were all hyped up about going, but when the time came and we booked, we were the only ones to go through with it.

I found out earlier that the family that we are going with are friends with "Disneycruiseluver"! It's a small world isn't it?

Anyway we booked "Captain Marvin's" for the 1/2 day Stingray tour. Our friends in Annapolis had heard that it was good...probably from "Disneycruiseluver"!

Looking forward to meeting you. Only a little over a month!

Tammy

 

[tezb]

We too are trying to decide between DCL, Marvins and Bryan's. Have booked w/ Capt marvins for 7/22 @ 11:15am..the 2 hr one. Capt Marvins and Bryans both offer picture/video option BUT it is not guaranteed. I emailed the person Capt Marvins uses and they said they cannot always guarantee that they will be avail. to tape the excursion. If you want them there for sure, they can do a private taping of your family for 200.00. I don't want it that bad. Anyway hoping that we will get the video made avail to us that day. Also, Nativeway looks good and cheaper but they do not offer any prof. pictures or video taking....I emailed them and asked already. The catamaran sounds nicer than a cabin cruiser but only DCL and Capt Bryans use catamarans. Help us decide too!!

 

[DDluvstitch]

Beaniema323
It definitely is a small world, since one of the other families
we know going from Annapolis is DisneyCruiseluvr! - guess I could get some advice closer to home!
I think we are going to opt for Capt marvin's as well since we are taking a catamaran cruise already (Fury) and Capt. Marvin's seems like they take a smaller group out on each trip. But there really doesn't seem to be any significant data by which to make a decision. I'll bet they are both very enjoyable.

 

[bothofus]

Sorry for the repetition here but I wanted to let anyone interested know one more time that we do indeed have 3 extra dolphin SWIMS booked in Cozumel- This differs from the excursion you can book directly with Disney as Disney only offers the dolphin encounter.If anyone here is interested in these swims,let me know, here on this thread or through PM or email link under my post. FYI the cost is $119 per person,ages 8 and up only, Wed.July 23 @ 3:30 pm at Chankanaab(sp?)
I will hold on to them a few more days,if I don't hear from anyone I will go ahead and cancel, Just wanted to give my fellow cruisers first "dibs" as I know this is sold out.

DDluvstitch- It looks like you've made your choice for stingray city,I think Cap.Marvins should be great,just to answer your question,we decided on Cap.Bryans for many of the reasons others on this thread have already stated,prefer the catamaran boat,should be able to get the professional photography,the timing and price of the excursion worked well for us ,and I read many trip reports with positive comments regarding Cap. Bryan-that said, the info on Cap Marvins is pretty much the same except the Catamaran.Bottom line seems to be ,We are ALL gonna have a blast at Stingray City

 

[debkay]

bothofus,
Just wanted to let you know that I sent you a PM with DD email.

I see from the above post that you are booked with Capt. Bryan's for Stingray City. I changed our Rum Point Beach adventure to DCL 7:30am Stingray City. If it was only our family booking, we would have booked Capt. Bryans. Since my Mom & Sisters family are with us on their first cruise, we all decided to book with DCL.

Can't wait to meet all the July 19th cruisers!

 

[debkay]

Hi everyone on the July 19th cruise!
When anyone receives their cruise documents, let's post so all others know that they are coming! Seems like they can arrive anytime now.

 

[lancerguys]

that sounds like fun. okay, I have a quick question. I want to do an excursion. but the thing is, we havent booked it yet. we were thinking that we would rather wait until we board the ship to take care of it. but now, I am having second thoughts of waiting until the ship for fear of it being sold old and also I dont want to wait in line. what do you think? should I book it now????

debkay....where in michigan are you from? my dad was originally from Allen Park, right near Dearborn. that's where almost all my family lives. also, my aunt lives in muskegon and my uncle lives in farmington hills. I just wanted to see if there are any connections.

p.s. I just wanted to let you know that I received our trip documents about 20 minutes ago. sure makes it seem close!!!!

 

[tezb]

Lancerguy..you got your docs already? We are on the West Coast so maybe we'll get ours soon too!

bothofus....we are booked w/ Marvin's for the 11:15 but still on the fence about Capt Bryans. Like the Catamaran idea and want the video. Hard to decide. Help!! Wish I could get a guarantee of the video..do you know if Capt Bryan's always has someone? Capt Marvin's usually does but not always on the 2 hr tours.

 

[tezb]

bothofus....how long is the dolphin excursion. We are family of 5 but if only 3 of us do it, can the others just go to watch? This is a great excursion. My neice did it in Nassau once and bought their video. Very nice and looked fun! I have 3 boys, maybe I'll let them do it. Let me know if tix are still avail and I'll ask them also. How far is the location from the ship?

 

[bothofus]

Hi tezb...The dolphin swim takes place at Chankanaab Nat'l Park which is "a 10-15 minute taxi ride from the port" according to their website.Check-in time for the swim is 3:00 and it runs from 3:30-4:30,I believe the first half hour is learning/instructional and the second half hour the actual swimming/iteractive part.You can get more info here www.dolphindiscovery.com and they take the video and professional photographs.My husband and 5 yr old daughter plan to watch and take pictures/video as well,I'm trying to find out where they watch from, honestly don't know if it is from a good,fairly close spot or not? hope so! The 3 extra ressies I have are booked through www.shoretrips.com there is also info on their website. They allow cancellations up to 11 days prior to your trip date,10 days on, no cancellations or refund UNLESS cruise ship does not make the port.
As far as stingray city and Cap.Bryans, I know some have bought the video,don't know for sure if it is always available,just know I want one,and NOT for $200

 

[tezb]

bothofus...thanks for the reply. Do you have any other interests yet? I will check w/ my boys and see if they want to do it. I would like the 3 of them to do it ...my youngest is 11 and it says 8-11 yr olds must be accompanied by an adult. Maybe I'll email them too. My oldest doing it is 17 1/2.

I agree I want the video but NOT willing to pay 200.00 to guarantee it either for Stingray.