June 1, 2008-Wonder Double-Dip

[MoSoccerMom]

Welcome! My husband and I are St. Charles Co. transplants-originally from So Co! (Oakville, actually-we both grew up there) Unfortunately I don't know anything about your '09 cruise question-we have never booked that far in advance. We have always booked about 6 months ahead of time, but have been able to get early seating all but once. Looks like you have a neat group!

 

[stlkeeler]

Thanks for the reply. My daughter drives up to St Charles to work at the casino everyday. It's a long trip!
When I booked this cruise, I knew I wanted to go again just because of all the fun trip reports. I want to try to go at lease once a year. So, onboard, I want to book another year in advance. Maybe someone else knows how to do this and get the itinery you want...
Linda

 

[MoSoccerMom]

Well, all I can say is that you are very smart for planning ahead to book onboard. This will be our 4th cruise in as many years and we have never once booked onboard! We would say we wanted to do some other type of vacation the next year, but then would decide later to do the cruise again. We could have saved a lot of money over the years.

 

[bigAWL]

We're also planning on booking onboard for 2009. I'll let you know if I find out any solid info or tips.

BTW, I don't really consider myself to be from St Louis, but I was in fact born there. My family lived there for about 7 years before moving to Virginia when I was 8 months old. I haven't been back much, so I don't know the area at all. My dad, who grew up in Kansas, has always been a big Cards fan, and it rubbed off on me (although, I now have a team in Washington DC to root for, too).

 

[owensjro]

Ok, for the fun of it I took a stab at producing a list of DISers on the cruise so far. If you have any additions, corrections, etc. please let me know:

June 1, 2008 - Wonder Double Dip

jjatwdw - Judy, Patrick, DS20, DD16, DS7
owensamo - Amanda, Jim, Hannah(6)
E&BMom - DW, DH, DD14, DS10
tam012864 - DW, child(10)
bigAWL - Aaron, Joann, Caitlin(6), Alexandra(4), Grace(1)
nextcruz - Carla, DH, DD(14), DD(10) + Cousins DW, DH, DS(14), DD(12)
MoSoccerMom - DW, DH, DS(11), DS(8)
TinkRN - Tricia, DH, DD(9), DS(7), MIL
Time4disney - Sherrie, DH
Namsupak
epcotrulz
stlkeeler - Linda, Beth, Kayla(6), Sheila, Cameron(9), Tyler(8)

Jim

 

[E&BMom]

Thanks for doing that!! You can add our names if you would like.....DW-Kim, DH-Tom DD-Emily and DS-Brian. ( By the way the person Jestocost who posts on this thread is DH)

We are all home today with a snow day!! At least it makes is a 3 day weekend!!! However I am a little worn out from shoveling. Wish I was laying out at CC instead!!

We have bought our plane tickets (good deal on Southwest) and we are staying a fews days before the cruises ( we are doing a B2B with the 3day after our cruise) at the parks. We fly in late Thurs. and go to parks on Fri and Sat. Has anyone else made their plans yet?? We are also trying to pick the days we are doing Palo and excrusions. Dh looked up old navigators for Double dips and it looked like there was Palo brunch on Nassau day. We'll see if that is really true. We get to make our ressies on march 3rd.

Have a great one. It looks like there are a lot of people from St. Louis on the cruise!! Go Cards!!

 

[MoSoccerMom]

Thanks for the organizer owensjro! Like E&B Mom, we are also home because of the snow today. It is a great time to check out these boards. I think we got about 6-8 inches, which is a lot for us! By the way, I am Robin and my husband is Chris, and of course DS #1 (11) and DS #2 (8).

Our plans:
We are flying on AA the morning of the cruise (6:45 am flight!). We have done this before and never had a problem, although I have to admit I was much more relaxed last year when we did a land & sea and I didn't have to worry about getting on the ship.

Thanks E & B Mom, I marked March 3rd on my calendar for booking. We still haven't decided if we are going to do anything in Nassau. Just an FYI for the new cruisers, you can book excursions, Palo, spa, etc. at 75 days before the cruise. If you have cruised before it is 90.

We are going to try Universal this time after the cruise, so when we get off the ship we are renting a car and driving there for 3 days. I hope we like it, they have some good information on these boards about the Universal parks, hotels and restaurants just like they do with Disney. Has anyone else been? Did you like it as well as Disney? I am also looking forward to having a car, as we have never had one in Orlando.

I think we have something like 120 days or so to go. . .

 

[owensjro]

Well, we got back last weekend from a 7N Eastern on the Magic so now I am in full swing for this next cruise. We actually had the June cruise booked first with my parents and decided to do last week's cruise on DVC points when we realized we couldn't wait that long

The cruise was awesome and we're very excited for the next one. CC was too cold this time around so being there twice in June is going to be great.

We're still deciding how we're getting down. My daughter has her dance recital Saturday which should be done by 2:30pm. If we drive down after that it's going to be tough but doable. If we fly down the cost ends up being an extra $1000 or so. We'll be staying at the Animal Kingdom Villas for 3 nights after the cruise.

Jim

 

[epcotrulz]

We booked the REAS package.

When can we book our ressies? Sat, Feb 16th at midnight?

 

[bigAWL]

I don't know if any of you St. Louisians (is that how you say it?) are near Kirkwood. But I hope you're all safe and sound.

 

[E&BMom]

We live just a few blocks from where it happened and know a lot of the people. It is so so sad. We were about 2 blocks away last night at school conferences when DD called and told us what happened. We ran home and on the way saw all the cars. The mayors wife comes into the little store I work at and we talk a lot. I also have met Officer Ballman at one of our neighborhood parties and he is so nice. He had young children. Very sad around here and a little uneasy about the kids going to school but know that is the best. Thanks for thinking of us.

 

[MoSoccerMom]

E&BMom-I am so sorry to hear that you knew those involved. How sad that Kirkwood and the St. Louis area lost good community servants and leaders. Our thoughts and prayers are with you.

epcotrulz-I think early March is about the 90-day mark and mid-March would be 75. Do you get to book earlier with that package? I don't know anything about it.

 

[E&BMom]

Just found out that that Officer Biggs was the uncle of DS friend. Sad

 

[RRB]

Hello all - my brother and his family suggested that we all go on the June 1 cruise, so I checked out all the posts to see who's going.

Randy

 

[epcotrulz]

BTW, epcotrulz = Dale & Jeff

 

[owensamo]

Hey, do we have a name or logo for our cruise yet? I was just thinking about starting work on my door signs, and didn't see anything on the thread yet.

Amanda

 

[RRB]

That was one of the really fun things to do. I made a door sign for all the members of our "group" (which was about 10 staterooms). One of the group had custom T shirts done with our group's logo. It was great!

Randy

 

[stlkeeler]

Just thought I'd check in with everyone. I'm still here and getting more excited by the day!

My DGD and I went to Michael's last night and started getting stickers to put on our scrapbook pages. I have never done any scrapbooking but I want her to be able to remember the great time I know she will have. Anyone have any suggestions for a novice and a 6yo? She loves crafts, so anything we can do together is a bonus.

Linda

 

[MoSoccerMom]

I don't have any scrapbooking suggestions, but I just thought of something that you should do for her while on the cruise as I was reading your post. I've read about it on these boards. Bring something like a pillowcase or a picture frame matte, and give it to your room steward on the first night. They will take it and have it "signed" by all the characters and I think leave it for you in your room when it is done.

 

[owensjro]

We did a t-shirt for our daughter's 5th birthday. All the characters signed it and then she wore it on her bday at WDW. Everyone made a fuss over seeing their name on her shirt.

Jim