July 22, 2012 5 Night Bahamian Cruise

[Gr00vyChc]

I gave up on the Duct Tape FE, I guess I'll just order one.

I tried to book a cabana on the family beach too..but they were sold out, although I think the Serenity Bay cabanas were still available.

I'm gonna start on working on the magnets tomorrow. Our neighborhood Staples didn't have the magnet sheets, so I'll have to go to a bigger store.

@Cheri- are you guys booked as a GTY? I didn't know that was available on this cruise.

LMK when our meet and greet will be and we will be there! We can't wait to go on our cruise.. Still haven't finalized our post cruise vacation, but at at least the cruise part is a go!!!

What are your pre or post cruise plans? WDW? Universal Studios? My DD8 doesn't want to go to WDW anymore..she opted to go to Universal instead to go to Harry Potter (this is only her 2nd time to go to HP).

 

[TempusFugit]

Meet and greet : just let us know what works for everyone. We are going to drive up (from Miami) as soon as we can to get on the ship earlier than later. When is the sail away party?...is that a dinner/night time event or the obvious of immedately after we sail???

If I remember correctly, the Sailaway party is right around castoff, 4:15 or so and goes on around the pool deck and one above. I think it's pretty quick, less than an hour but afterward most first-seating folks are heading to get ready for dinner. With that in mind maybe we shoud shoot for getting together right before that. Anyone have other suggestions as to when or where?


As for other plans, DW and I are heading down early to spend a day at the World just to unwind so we're in vacation mode when we embark.

 

[LBollengier]

I gave up on the Duct Tape FE, I guess I'll just order one.

I tried to book a cabana on the family beach too..but they were sold out, although I think the Serenity Bay cabanas were still available.

I'm gonna start on working on the magnets tomorrow. Our neighborhood Staples didn't have the magnet sheets, so I'll have to go to a bigger store.

@Cheri- are you guys booked as a GTY? I didn't know that was available on this cruise.

LMK when our meet and greet will be and we will be there! We can't wait to go on our cruise.. Still haven't finalized our post cruise vacation, but at at least the cruise part is a go!!!

What are your pre or post cruise plans? WDW? Universal Studios? My DD8 doesn't want to go to WDW anymore..she opted to go to Universal instead to go to Harry Potter (this is only her 2nd time to go to HP).

I would just die if my kids didn't want to do WDW anymore!! No, I take it back, I'd just go without them!! I also have Grandkids now... Another excuse to go to WDW!!!

We are staying at the BLT pre-cruise! Looking forward to not rushing down and being worn out the first day!

Excursion wise- We booked the Atlantis Snorkel the Ruins & Aquaventure for all 4 in Nassau. We'll all snorkel in the morning then probably DD12 and I will go to the aquaventure and DH will take the newly 18 year old to the casino!

We booked a Cabana for the 2nd day at Castaway, I wanted one for both days - but was not able to get one the 1st CC day at day 105! All booked by Concierge or platinum CC members I guess... This is our first cruise as gold so I was just happy to be booking at day 105!! I'm telling Gary we need to book 4 more cruises ASAP so we can get Platinum, he doesn't think it is funny!!

We are also doing the wave-runners the 1st CC day and parasailing the 2nd day... Faith at 12 is mad she has to ride with somebody on the wave runners!

I only wish there were Zip lines in one or both of the stops! LOVE ZIPPIN'!!

BTW, I just talked a lady into making a pirate dress for Faith and I noticed she has a Fish Extender in her listings... If you haven't looked on Etsy, they have cute things and are not as limited as ebay with the Disney name...

http://www.etsy.com/listing/79964913/disney-fish-extender


I am going to try the magnet sheets again!! I found them for $28.99 for 20 SHEETS with free 2 day shipping on Amazon...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001EHFMAG/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i01

 

[Gr00vyChc]

Well, my DD loves Disney...but we live less than 30mins away from Disneyland and we've had APs for years! Not only do we go to Disneyland often, but we go to character breakfasts at the hotels etc. We also just spent last Christmas in WDW....We ordered room service for Santa - the cutest thing!

2 summers ago, we took her to Disneyland Paris!

So, her itinerary this vacay is to go to the Wizardry World of Harry Potter and visit Winter the dolphin in Clearwater, FL (from the movie Dolphin Tale).

Anyway, as soon as we get on the ship, our goal is to get on the Aquaduck (as many times as we can) and then after that, we're good

 

[LBollengier]

LOVE DISNEYLAND!!! Now I undertand!! We were in WDW January and in April but I never seem to do everything I want to!!! We recently bought a DVC at Grand California on resale and are deciding when to go there, we need to book it pretty much at the 11 month period from what I am hearing....

We have been wanting to go to Disneyland Paris for years!!!!! How was it? Do you need to learn French?? I am ashamed to admit it but I remember none of my French from high school.... Except for a couple lines from a song... My brain seems to be unable to learn and retain much in the foreign languages department.... Need to go where they speak English or at least Texan!!

We have APs for WDW, want to get there more!!! We live near the original Six Flags but hardly ever go there... When I go there I spend the whole time wishing I was in WDW or DL!!!

We did 2 days at Universal/Harry Potter in Dec 2010, we loved the Forbidden Journey ride!! We managed to ride it several times by going in the single riders line! Have they added anything since?

 

[Gr00vyChc]

Disneyland Paris was ok. I think Disneyland Anaheim is cleaner and nicer. No, you don't have to speak French because the CMs speak English.

We were contemplating booking a DCL Med cruise, but decided against it because it was our 1st time to go to Italy and we wanted to spend more time there instead of a day at different ports. We were Italy for 2 weeks and since my daughter has never been to Paris, we spent another week there after Italy.

We're planning to go back to Spain next summer for vacation. We've been in the south of Spain before up until Madrid, so next year, we'll do a week in Barcelona and surrounding area and another week in Germany/Austria.

We'd love to cruise with Disney every year, but there's just sooooo much of the world we want to see yet Beautiful Laguna Beach is about 10 miles or so down from us...so we have beaches here. But there's nothing like the beaches and the calm, clear, turquoise blue waters of the Bahamas and
Caribbean

 

[Gr00vyChc]

AP's for WDW? That is awesome! How often do you go if live in Texas? We don't own a DVC...how do you like it? Is exchanging it for different resorts easy? We own a Marriott timeshare. Every other year, we cam exchange it for hotel points which is great!

Grand Californian is a beautiful hotel. I've never stayed there, but I'd like to check it out. I'm planning to have my daughter's 9th birthday sleepover party there. It's the newest (?) of all the Disney hotels.
We'll be staying at the Disneyland Hotel for a weekend in a couple of weeks from now because that weekend is our biggest fundraiser for our school and every year, it's held at the Disneyland Hotel grand ballroom. So we just stay for the weekend and enjoy the hotel amenities.

 

[Ceisen]

I gave up on the Duct Tape FE, I guess I'll just order one.

I tried to book a cabana on the family beach too..but they were sold out, although I think the Serenity Bay cabanas were still available.

I'm gonna start on working on the magnets tomorrow. Our neighborhood Staples didn't have the magnet sheets, so I'll have to go to a bigger store.

@Cheri- are you guys booked as a GTY? I didn't know that was available on this cruise.

LMK when our meet and greet will be and we will be there! We can't wait to go on our cruise.. Still haven't finalized our post cruise vacation, but at at least the cruise part is a go!!!

What are your pre or post cruise plans? WDW? Universal Studios? My DD8 doesn't want to go to WDW anymore..she opted to go to Universal instead to go to Harry Potter (this is only her 2nd time to go to HP).

Not to sound clueless but other than having a guaranteed reservation, what does GTY stand for?
We are trying to book at the Swan and Dolphin and go to the Magic Kingdom the weekend after the cruise. If you daugther does not want to go to WDW or Universal some of my friends that live closer and go to WDW all the time,rave about the new Legoland but I am pretty sure that you guys also have that in California too.

 

[Gr00vyChc]

Not to sound clueless but other than having a guaranteed reservation, what does GTY stand for?
We are trying to book at the Swan and Dolphin and go to the Magic Kingdom the weekend after the cruise. If you daugther does not want to go to WDW or Universal some of my friends that live closer and go to WDW all the time,rave about the new Legoland but I am pretty sure that you guys also have that in California too.

I think GTY stands for guarantee room. Did you book a guarantee cabin? I wanted to book a VGT (verandah guarantee?) but those were not available on this cruise.

I just told DD that I think we should go to at least Magic Kingdom after our cruise. DH is playing golf, so that would be a good time to bring DD to Magic Kingdom, just Mommy and me time. Her recent obsession is riding Space Mountain, so we'll go to Magic Kingdom after all.
Yes, DD has been to Legoland here quite a few times and we have passes to San Diego Zoo, Zoo Safari and Sea World. We're kinda spoiled being so close to everything here. We even have the Wonder here that sails to the Mexican Riviera...but we want to go to CC of course!!!

FE- I will try to make my own out of fabric using "no sew" glue? Has anyone tried that? I'd like to try making it before buying it (even though I'll probably spend more than if I had just bought it in the first place!)

Are we doing the gift giving thing for the FE's? I hope our gifts won't get stolen, as I've read on the boards

So, when are we meeting? I hope to see some of you at the terminal when we check in

 

[tamihong]

Yes, the gift giving is for the FE's.

I too have been reading about the thefts and while I am understand things like that happen, I am trying to not let a few mean-spirited people spoil the fun my kids will have in returing to the cabin and finding a little something just for them.

For those of you that have booked already (come on May 8th), what time is your port arrival? We are so hoping for an early time, but as with the excursions, we will see.

The Hong's are arriving in Florida, from Illinois, earlier in the week. We are driving over to CC on Saturday and staying that night in a hotel. So for us, we could board anytime. If you see three Chinese and a typical middle-aged bottle blonde gawking at the Dream when you arrive, that's us and it means we didn't get an early port time, lol.

I will be soooo happy when we can do the online registration. Then I can stop worrying about that and start worrying about packing.

Anyone interested in planning the meet-n-greet??????

 

[TempusFugit]

We were lucky and got an early boarding time 11-11:30 I believe. I'll be heading over to book tastings as soon as I'm aboard. Gotta have priorities right?

As for meet-n-greet, not much to organize other than the general consensus is in agreement. I mentioned earlier that first day would be best to get any last min cabin changes for the FE deliveries. After the Sailaway party might be too close to dinner so what do you think about right before? Everyone should be on by then. I have no idea where though.

Any suggestions?

 

[Gr00vyChc]

We were lucky and got an early boarding time 11-11:30 I believe. I'll be heading over to book tastings as soon as I'm aboard. Gotta have priorities right?

As for meet-n-greet, not much to organize other than the general consensus is in agreement. I mentioned earlier that first day would be best to get any last min cabin changes for the FE deliveries. After the Sailaway party might be too close to dinner so what do you think about right before? Everyone should be on by then. I have no idea where though.

Any suggestions?

Yay we got 11-11:30am also!! We'll see you at the terminal!
Meet and greet BEFORE Sail Away will be perfect! 3pm do you think? Where? It will be nice so the kids can meet early on.

FE gifts- do we bring a gift for each family (all family members?) I'm sorry, I dunno how FE works.

 

[Ceisen]

I am a little confused and am wondering if you all that have taken the cruises previously with younger kids can you help. My husband and I are wanting to make dinner reservations at least one night without the kids. The one yr old is no problem because he can sleep in the nursery but it is our 4 year old that i amconcerned about That late at night he is going to want to go to sleep and chances are he is not going to want to sleep away from us especially at a camp. Did any of you have a similar dilemma? Do you know the ration of counselors to kids especially at night? Are the 12 year olds mixed in the same room as the 4 year olds? And any of info you have as to how this "camp" works
Also have any of you taken the glass bottom boat in CC. Is it worth it?

Meet and greet 3 ish sounds good whatever you alll think works for us.

Thanks so much

 

[Gr00vyChc]

I am a little confused and am wondering if you all that have taken the cruises previously with younger kids can you help. My husband and I are wanting to make dinner reservations at least one night without the kids. The one yr old is no problem because he can sleep in the nursery but it is our 4 year old that i amconcerned about That late at night he is going to want to go to sleep and chances are he is not going to want to sleep away from us especially at a camp. Did any of you have a similar dilemma? Do you know the ration of counselors to kids especially at night? Are the 12 year olds mixed in the same room as the 4 year olds? And any of info you have as to how this "camp" works
Also have any of you taken the glass bottom boat in CC. Is it worth it?

Meet and greet 3 ish sounds good whatever you alll think works for us.

Thanks so much

I believe the Oceaneers Club is 3-7year olds and the Oceaneers Lab is 8-11years old. How late were you planning your dinner? Can you make him take a nap in the afternoon so that he doesnt get too sleepy early?

Check this out: http://www.justforkidsdcl.com/#

Sorry, we've never done the glass bottom boat on CC.

 

[Gr00vyChc]

Pre and post cruise hotels booked! Airline tickets booked!

Just playing the waiting game....

 

[LBollengier]

I was hoping Gary would move our airline return trip time out a little but I thought I'd better sign in and get our check-in time!!

We were also able to get 11-11:30AM Yay!! We'll be ready to go get on the ship because w will have already been at WDW since Monday!!

I ordered pirate outfits for me and for Faith... Hoping they will fit on us a few future cruises as well!! I told you I'm working on Gary to get some more cruises up to Platinum!!

Gary said he wasn't totally adverse to a minor pirate costume!! Not sure exactly what that means but - hey, it's a start!! LOL

 

[TempusFugit]

Great to hear the earlier check-in times are still available!

Around 3 will work out great. Everyone should be onboard then and it still gives us an hour +/- before the Sailaway party. We've done DCL cruises before but never on the Dream. Any suggestions for a meeting locale? I'll look over the deck plan and see if anything stands out but please chirp up if you have ideas.

 

[Gr00vyChc]

I was hoping Gary would move our airline return trip time out a little but I thought I'd better sign in and get our check-in time!!

We were also able to get 11-11:30AM Yay!! We'll be ready to go get on the ship because w will have already been at WDW since Monday!!

I ordered pirate outfits for me and for Faith... Hoping they will fit on us a few future cruises as well!! I told you I'm working on Gary to get some more cruises up to Platinum!!

Gary said he wasn't totally adverse to a minor pirate costume!! Not sure exactly what that means but - hey, it's a start!! LOL

Woot!! I don't think we'll be dressing up for Pirate Night, probably just my DD if I can find her a costume that I like.

I did order a matching dress (Mommy and Me) at Saks the other day. I'm hoping I'll like it so we can wear it for pictures- DH will just wear a matching color.

 

[tamihong]

6 more days until we register

3 pm for the meet time sounds good.

 

[Gr00vyChc]

6 more days until we register

3 pm for the meet time sounds good.

Yay I hope you get to book whatever you want!!!