June 16, 2013 - 4 night Dream

[Madzac]

How about we extend it one more week... deadline to sign up on our list end of day 4/7/13. That will be just over 2 months from the cruise date. At that point we will close our list so we can start working on items.

Indyshelley, fireworks fan and porterfam3 all indicated interest but havent posted again or lately, and havent sent me any info. Any of you lurking out there? Please PM or email me if you would like to join in! Or anyone else new! It is going to stay a pretty small group it looks like.

 

[Madzac]

One more question... have any of you or do any of you fly southwest airlines? I booked our flights on air tran. I have never flown southwest because honestly with kids it makes me nervous to not have assigned seating. Well AT and SW are merging and I got an email the other day that now the first flight of our way down is a SW flight. I had paid extra to select our seats on AT, but for the SW flight we are stuck just checking in at 24 hrs. Because we booked on AT we arent given the option to buy the early bird check in. I am just worried about my younger kids sitting with us. I am sure my older ones would be ok for the hour and a half, but the little two would not. Anyone with expereince?

 

[lambermm]

Did u try calling the airline directly? Maybe they can add early bird seating on for you since you have already paid to select your seats on AT. Or dis they refunded the money you paid to select seats?

 

[avarysmommie]

I'm fine with waiting since we also put a number cap on it I just went ahead and bought enough for 10 so I hope we get more families that want to join in the fun!

I have read some stories on the boards that have large groups of 35-50 and that was giving me panic attacks but 4 is too small.

Come out lurkers or any newbies that are sailing June 16

 

[thebrinkerbunch]

Our family is booked on this cruise. We are very excited, and are counting down the days. Please bear with us, we are still learning the in's and out's of this forum, but look forward to meeting new friends, and learning new things from all of you veterans. We have so many questions so we can make this the most memorable experience we can for our children. So any hints, tips, pointers and things to do or not do would be very helpful. We have 3 children ages 5, 7 and 15. I am sure we will be posting questions in the future, but just wanted to introduce ourselves and say hello to the rest of the families that we will be traveling with.

 

[lambermm]

Welcome thebrinkerbunch!

Your not alone. This is the first cruise for most of us. I have been doing a lot of research so I will attempt to help answer any questions you may have. Hope you plan to join in our Fish Extenders group also. If you don't know what it is there is tons of info if you do a search for Fish Extender on these boards. But in short it is a gift exchange among people on your cruise.

 

[Hazelwoodfamily]

Our family is booked on this cruise. We are very excited, and are counting down the days. Please bear with us, we are still learning the in's and out's of this forum, but look forward to meeting new friends, and learning new things from all of you veterans. We have so many questions so we can make this the most memorable experience we can for our children. So any hints, tips, pointers and things to do or not do would be very helpful. We have 3 children ages 5, 7 and 15. I am sure we will be posting questions in the future, but just wanted to introduce ourselves and say hello to the rest of the families that we will be traveling with.

Welcome, glad to see another family with an older child. We have two DS one that is 5 and one turning 13 on the trip.

 

[Madzac]

Welcome! !! Happy to see another family join in! Let me know if you want to join in on the fish extender. This is our first cruise too!

As for the airline stuff. ..since one leg is SW and one AT we are stuck. They won't let us add the early bird. I hope it will work out!

 

[Madzac]

Added thebrinkerbunch to our FE list! We are up to 5! Happy to have you all join in Sarah!

 

[Hazelwoodfamily]

What is everyone planning on have their kiddos wear for pirate night?

 

[avarysmommie]

DS is wearing his Captain Hook costume from Halloween & DD is wearing a pirate tutu. We aren't dressing up, however I have a cool scarf with some skulls on it that I will wear.

 

[Madzac]

Our boys were pirates for Halloween and I found some matchiing ones for the girls on ebay. We adults won't dress up but my dress I plan to wear is tropicalish and I will wear the bandana tthey give us. Can't wait!

What did you all decide on excursions? We are still trying to decide if we will get off the ship in Nassau or not.

 

[thebrinkerbunch]

Our daughter fell in love with dolphins last summer. We figure that since swimming with dolphins is a once in a lifetime opportunity, that is something we are going to do in Nassau. I think we are going to do it at Atlantis, but that is the only excursion we are going to do. Can anyone give us any personal experiences or stories of which is better for the dolphin experience; Blue Lagoon or Atlantis?

 

[Allison Rasp]

One more question... have any of you or do any of you fly southwest airlines? I booked our flights on air tran. I have never flown southwest because honestly with kids it makes me nervous to not have assigned seating. Well AT and SW are merging and I got an email the other day that now the first flight of our way down is a SW flight. I had paid extra to select our seats on AT, but for the SW flight we are stuck just checking in at 24 hrs. Because we booked on AT we arent given the option to buy the early bird check in. I am just worried about my younger kids sitting with us. I am sure my older ones would be ok for the hour and a half, but the little two would not. Anyone with expereince?

We are going to be flying on SW. We paid $10 extra per seat to get early boarding. We are planning to stand in line so we can get on early. I would imagine that someone would give you their seats to accommodate small children. Maybe check with SW to see what they can do. Good luck.

 

[Madzac]

Thank you! SW won't do anything since we booked on airtran. We will just hope for the best!!

OK all today is 75 days for new cruisers. Have you all logged in to your reservation yet? Its now open to book excursions, special dining, nursery etc. You can also do online check in. When you fill out the forms it unlocks your port arrival time choices. I stayed up until midnight and was able to get an 11am arrival. Everything was open then. I didn't book any excursions but it looked like except the cabanas on CC theywere all showing availability. I didn't look at palo/ remy.

We ended up buying a day pass at t he hilton through island marketing. Sounds like a small beach and pool but its walkable. Since we haven't been before I was too unsure about getting further out.

The dolphin swim sounds amazing when our littles are bigger!

 

[lambermm]

We also got checked in early this morning! We also grabbed a 11am Port Arrival Time. We didn't book any excursions. We are thinking about getting a taxi and going to Atlantis. We stayed at Atlantis last August so we are familiar with the resort and I really want a Key Lime tart from the Starbucks over there. I know we will have plenty of treats on the cruise but that Key Lime tart was wonderful.

Anyone else going to WDW beforehand? IndyShelley, did you say you were? We are trying to figure out what transportation we want to take from WDW to the ship.

 

[Madzac]

Ohhh key lime tart..now that sounds amazing!

We are doing WDW this trip. We were there in Oct. The new fantasyland was in soft opening then and we loved it. Belle's tales was a huge highlight of the trip for us.

Oops that should say we arent doing wdw this trip!

 

[Hazelwoodfamily]

We also got checked in yesterday at 1 am. We are doing the stingray feed at CC. We did not book anything for Nas. We have an 11 am check in.

 

[avarysmommie]

I checked us in yesterday too! 11am I don't think we will get off in Nassau and probably won't do anything at CC either. I might do the 5k if it is early in the morning. Does anyone know if we can bring our own floats or we have to rent theirs?

 

[lambermm]

I am planning on doing the 5K also