July 22-26, 2007 (7/22-26/07) Wonder

[oklamomof4boys]

My son will be just a few months shy of being 9- maybe he will meet your son in the lab. he is a bit bummed because his brothers will be in the older part of the lab- but he's pretty outgoing so I think he'll be okay. This is our first cruise so maybe he'll show him the ropes! Your anniversary is on my birthday! I got our Palo brunch reservations when we first could, but I was amazed, I was able to get reservations for our friends a week later.

Our cruise is almost here- finally!

Carol

 

[noahsmom]

Carol,

You ds will LOVE the lab! In fact my ds was talking about it this morning. He's wishing that he was a teenager so he could spend more time in the stack. Then he said wanted to know if he'd be with the older kids in the lab this time because they spend more time on the sports deck. He was ok being in the younger group. Last year he spent a lot of time playing on the computers in the lab.

Kelli

 

[keenercam]

Hi, everyone! Welcome, Kelli!
I am glad there is finally activty on this thread. I have to wonder just how full the ship will be, but like we all have mentioned, maybe it's full but with not many DISers. :
I was also surprised that when I checked for Palo's and spa reservations a couple days after I booked at 2 or 3 am there were still openings. I was able to book everything we were interested in!

We are pretty much staying on the ship in Nassau. We have spa appointments that morning and Palo's dinner for Howard and me that night. Jenn will join us for brunch on the at-sea day, but I really didnt' think she'd be as interested in dinner.

I am really hoping she will meet some other college kids at the college get-together the first night at 10pm. She makes friends very easily and still keeps in touch with people she met on her other two Magic cruises.

Can you all believe we are now less than 3 weeks from our trip? We are flying in to Orlando Friday night and staying at Port Orleans French Quarter until Sunday. Howard and I are training for an 8/12 half-marathon so we'll go for a run (speed walk for me) Saturday morning and then we have brunch at Chef Mickey's. A day by the pool to get a base tan, and then dinner at Boatwrights, a carriage ride around Port Orleans and then going over to Pleasure Island. We rented a car for the weekend, rather than use Magical Express and then DCL bus to the port. We decided we want to get on board earlier rather than when the resort buses would get us there.
Is everyone else arriving on Sunday?

 

[oklamomof4boys]

We are getting to Orlando either the 15th or 16th. We are driving from Oklahoma and when we get to leave depends on my son's baseball team- is it bad to secretly hope they don't make it to the state championship game, delaying our vacation? We are doing several things before the cruise including Universal. But we are not going to WDW. This was a hard decision but we really didn't feel like we had enough time to really see everything there ( we've never been there- we go to DL just about every year). The older boys really wanted to go to Universal and the tickets are so much cheaper than WDW! We are eating at a couple of WDW resort restaurants- Whispering Canyon Cafe for my son's birthday and a breakfast buffet at Chef Mickey's. We are driving to Cape Canaveral the day before the cruise and staying at the Country Inn and Suites.

I'm not sure we are going to do much at Nassau. I would like to walk through the Straw Market just a bit and the boys want to go to the Pirate Museum. Then we are going to go back to the ship.

I'm getting very excited now!

Carol

 

[keenercam]

Carol -- not sure whether to wish your son luck or not! I hope your travels are uneventful and that your stay at Universal is wonderful! You may all need a very relaxing cruise after running around the parks for a couple days.
I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to relaxing by the POFQ pool on Saturday, maybe sharing a muffaletta sandwich with DH, MAYBE having some kind of frosty, vacation-only,sporting-an-umbrella drink!
Life is crazy between now and 7/20, but it will all be worthwhile!

 

[noahsmom]

What cabin category is everyone? We are 9 this trip, it's the 1st time without a veranda. I'm starting to get concerned about that. Every morning I get up and go sit out there while dh and ds wake up, it's so peaceful. Not sure what I'll do this time. We are on deck 2.

Our 20th anniversary is the day at sea so we have Palo reservations for both brunch and dinner. We shouldn't be hungry after that! Last summer was our first experience with brunch - OMG was it wonderful. If it wasn't for the chocolate souffle and calamari we probably wouldn't bother with dinner.

Is anyone making door magnets?
Kelli

 

[oklamomof4boys]

We have connecting category 10 rooms- since we've never been on another cruise, I don't figure we'll miss not having a veranda ( hopefully!). We are on deck 7- I wanted that deck since it was in between deck 5 and 9. I was going to make door magnets, then I read that not many people do that anymore. Then I thought I didn't really care what everybody else did. Then I started stressing about what to put on it- now I'm not sure I have time to make one!

 

[keenercam]

Hi, everyone! So glad my cruisemates are posting here!
In case anyone is interested, disneyshopping.com has some awesome specials, including a nice tankini wth a swim skirt for $19.99, kids bathing suits & beach towels dirt cheap! We were at the Disney store today and they had all sorts of cool pirates clothes, and since DD wont' dress up for pirates night, I bought her a couple of pirate-themed tee shirts, including one with Orlando Bloom on it-- most of their tee shirts were $2.99!!!!

We are category 10. This is a total budget trip for us because we were at Disney in January for the marathon for a week, I was there in May for the Minnie Marathon, we are going to Chicago in August, and back to Disney in October for the new Halloween race. This cruise is a total splurge for us to take DDalmost19 on her first cruise as an adult, and we figured we'll literally only shower, dress and sleep in the cabin. We have never done an inside cabin before.

Kelli - I have to tell you -- I am the first one up every moring. I LOVE going up to the buffet and getting a plate of fruit and a chocolate croissant and sitting outside, watching the water. Last cruise I even saw some dolphins! I think if you tell your family ahead of time that you might not be in the cabin when they wake up, you can still enjoy your mornings outside. I am even planning to "run" every morning. I was very seriously ill on our last Disney cruise, months before my 4th heart surgery, and I plan to make up for it this time with as much activity as possible!

 

[marisaleigh]

hi all. my name is marisa and i am thrilled to embark on this cruise--a first for me and my sisters, and number 2 for the parents.

i have some fears about the whole teen aspect (im 16), as i hear the teen-only lounge is often infiltrated by pre-teens. any advice?

hope we all have a lovely cruising time!

 

[noahsmom]

Hi Marisa,

Don't worry about the Stack being over run by pre-teens. There may be one or two times where kids from the Oceaneers Lab get to go up to the Stack. During this time the teens are elsewhere on the ship. The kids do not go up there when the teens are present. This is pretty closely monitored.

You will have a great time.

 

[keenercam]

Hi, Marisa! And welcome to the thread!
Noahsmom said exactly what I was going to tell you, based on the three Disney cruises we have been on. You will hardly see the younger kids, except at shows and meals and around the pools. Usually the teens are very well occupied and the Stack is off limits to the young ones.
BTW, not sure if you are planning any excursions on Castaway Cay, but our daughter LOVED the teen adventure outing when we went and she was almost 16. You might want to consider that if you are looking for something to do there.

 

[mickeynut674]

Hi All,
I cannot believe our cruise is only weeks away! My family and I have been through some pretty rough stuff and we came close to cancelling this cruise. My Grandmother, who is paying for the cruise and was the main reason for booking, passed away in June. We know that she'd be pretty pissed at us if we didn't go. So we are going. It's going to be bitter sweet, and part of me doesn't want to go. So now I'm trying to get myself psyched back up about going. I booked myself a massage and was going to cancel, but I'm keeping it DH and I are doing the Jet Ski's on CC and the whole family is scheduled to do the Ardastra (Sp?) gardens on Nassau ..my Grandmother would love it!!
DH, DS (3) and Category 8 ..all of us being on Deck 7!! We are spending the night before at Pop Century - doing Magic Kingdom during the day. This is my first time on the Wonder..it'll be a much needed break for everything

 

[keenercam]

mickeynut -- I am so sorry your family has suffered such a terrible loss, but I am sure your DGM would LOVE knowing you are all going and that you have such great stuff planned!

Wow! We leave 2 weeks from today! I still can't believe that we'll be getting to WDW very late Friday night. We've never done that before. But we are looking forward to a very early morning Saturday and doing all sorts of fun stuff that day before heading to the port on Sunday.

 

[mickeynut674]

We got are cruise documents today!!! Anyone else???
Thanks keenercam- nothing like some Disney magic to cheer us all up!!

 

[pop5]

Hi all, we got our documents also. Cant wait to go!!

 

[keenercam]

Our documents haven't arrived yet. Maybe today.
Our disneyshopping order is due to be delivered today, so wouldn't it be great if we received our great cruise gear the same day as we receive our cruise documents?
Wow! I can actually "see" our trip from here! We leave next Friday night! Only 11 days away! OMG!!!!!

 

[oklamomof4boys]

Woo Hoo! We got our cruise docs today! I was a little worried because we leave town either Friday or Saturday! My son's baseball team won Regionals yesterday and are on their way to State tomorrow. We have had a ton of rain around here and his coach was saying there was a chance that they would delay State a few days or a week. I told him the very latest Sam could stay was Sunday ( he would have to fly out with our friends on Monday) and he said, " No, he has to stay no matter what- we need him!"

Uhhhh- I DON'T THINK SO! I emphatically told him the latest he would have him was the 15th. Luckily DH and DS agree with me. I'm sorry but he is just 10 years old! Some things are more important than baseball. Luckily, right now everything is scheduled to run on time- pray we don't get anymore rain!

 

[keenercam]

Yay!! DH called to tell me we got a packet from DCL! So, I am sure those are our cruise docs. AND -- our Disneyshopping order arrived. Can't wait to see if we have some new stuff to take on the cruise with us.

Woo Hoo! We got our cruise docs today! I was a little worried because we leave town either Friday or Saturday! My son's baseball team won Regionals yesterday and are on their way to State tomorrow. We have had a ton of rain around here and his coach was saying there was a chance that they would delay State a few days or a week. I told him the very latest Sam could stay was Sunday ( he would have to fly out with our friends on Monday) and he said, " No, he has to stay no matter what- we need him!"

Uhhhh- I DON'T THINK SO! I emphatically told him the latest he would have him was the 15th. Luckily DH and DS agree with me. I'm sorry but he is just 10 years old! Some things are more important than baseball. Luckily, right now everything is scheduled to run on time- pray we don't get anymore rain!

I'll keep my fingers crossed that there is no more rain. Congrats to your DS!!!!

 

[keenercam]

YAY!! Docs are here! Looks like everything is in order!
Going to open the DS box now to see all the goodies I ordered.

 

[keenercam]

So, does everyone have their documents now?
Did anyone get an upgrade?
We didn't. Still category 10, deck 2. That's okay, we really don't intend to spend any time in the cabin. LOL!