June 22, 2010 - 5-night to Key West

[JeanC]

Szek4 -- Welcome to the cruise! When does your son turn 11? Our grandson is going to be 11 on the day we sail. I'm planning to have his stateroom decorated and we have already ordered a birthday cake for dinner that night. Your son and my grandson are only days apart in age. They have to get together, along with other kids from our group who are close in age. Amazingly enuf, our grandaughter is also 14, the age of your daughter -- this is so cool!. We definitely need to set up a meet at the pool soon after we board.

Jean

 

[VegasPixie]

Hi Szek4! We also have a 12-year-old son (he'll be 13 in Sept, a little older I guess), as well as a 7-year-old and 16-year-old (both boys). Looks like its going to be a fun group! We'll definitely be at the pool meet up!

 

[mem22]

Hey everyone! I see the board is picking up and it looks like the kids are going to make some friends! Goofy pool at 3 is our scheduled DIS meet n greet! My DW ljm23 usually has this waiting for us when we get to our room

 

[brooklynfam]

so excited about our cruise. we will be celebrating our 10 yr wedding anniversary on the first night. we have a 19 month old son and an almost 8 yr old son who is counting down the hrs!!!

 

[brooklynfam]

im hoping they r showing toy story 3 in the theater since it comes out 2 days before!!!

 

[ljm23]

Toy Story 3 would be great, I would bet they would be showing it. They show new movies before they're even out in the theaters! Cool!

 

[VegasPixie]

im hoping they r showing toy story 3 in the theater since it comes out 2 days before!!!

Yes! We were thinking the same thing! Even my 16-year-old perked up at the news that TS3 might be showing on our cruise.

 

[NE14DisneyWorld?]

We are booked on this cruise! Cast includes me (51), DH (53 today), and DGD (9). This is our third Disney cruise, the other two were only 3 day cruises, so this is almost DOUBLE THE FUN!

We have done the fish extenders in the past and would love to participate in this group too, if you will have us.

Also, as I was reading this thread I noticed Vegas Pixie needed one more space for CS in Paradise Island. WELL...we are booking a room and there will be only three of us, so if you would like for me to add a person we could split the room four ways. Just let me know.

It will be so much fun!

Tammy

 

[ljm23]

NE14DisneyWorld? Glad to have you aboard! No-one has volunteered coordinate an FE exchange and I know I'd botch it up. But we are doing a DIS meet at the goofy pool at 3PM on the first day Should be a blast.
Now for a picture of the day:

We are SOOOOO excited, getting so close now!

 

[brooklynfam]

im interested in doing fe too. dont know exactly how it works its my first time.

 

[VegasPixie]

We are booked on this cruise! Cast includes me (51), DH (53 today), and DGD (9). This is our third Disney cruise, the other two were only 3 day cruises, so this is almost DOUBLE THE FUN!

We have done the fish extenders in the past and would love to participate in this group too, if you will have us.

Also, as I was reading this thread I noticed Vegas Pixie needed one more space for CS in Paradise Island. WELL...we are booking a room and there will be only three of us, so if you would like for me to add a person we could split the room four ways. Just let me know.

It will be so much fun!

Tammy

Hi Tammy! Welcome!!

That is so huge of you to offer the CS space; we went ahead and booked a snorkeling expedition, but thank you very, very much for your generous offer!

As for the Fish Extenders...I've only been a participant on another cruise (although I still have the old emails, so I know how she did it), so if you all are interested, I'd be happy to "officially" organize a Fish Extender exchange. I think the main thing is timing; right now we are right about 5 weeks from the cruise and I don't know about anyone else, but I totally need planning/prep time (pretty much for everything in my life ) so I would think it would be important to start getting a rough count now and maybe set a "firm" date of a couple weeks before the cruise? Does that make sense?

If that's cool, what I would need everyone interested in participating to PM me the name and age of each participant, and the stateroom number. Please do not post that info, just send it to me via PM. Then around two weeks before we cruise (unless we think it should be sooner, please let me know) I'll PM everyone who is participating a list of all the names/ages/staterooms. Everyone can decide when they want to deliver their goodies.

I would also suggest including the gender if you have a child whose name could be either (two of my boys have gender neutral names). Just in case there are, for example, princess vs. pirate type gifts, if ykwim.

Let me know!
Kim

 

[brooklynfam]

so how does it work?? i bundle of surprises per stateroom per night? i think i need a fe tutorial

 

[VegasPixie]

so how does it work?? i bundle of surprises per stateroom per night? i think i need a fe tutorial

Here are some threads that describe FEs, but basically it's just a gift exchange--doesn't have to be anything fancy. When we did it, we all got a list of names, ages, staterooms, etc, and I put together a little gift bag (ours had a "Nevada" theme with magnets, postcards, deck of cards, etc.). I delivered them the first night, but my kids received gifts throughout the cruise (in other words, everyone delivered them at different times). My sons really dug coming back to the cabin and seeing a gift; stuff like pirate tattoos or Disney stickers were received with a ton of enthusiasm by my boys! . But there are also some amazingly talented people here on these boards that make awesome crafts!

Some people have "Fish Extenders" which hang on the fish outside your stateroom and have pockets for the gifts (we bought ours on ebay), but you don't have to have one; I've seen gift bags left hanging on doorknobs, etc.

Anyways, check out these threads:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1219607&highlight=fish+extender

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1522535&highlight=fish+extender

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1672984&highlight=fish+extender

 

[VegasPixie]

Happy Monday!
Just wanted to post that so far we have 3 families participating in the FE group; 6 adults and 6 kids! If you'd like to join us, please PM me your info (stateroom, names, ages, etc).

I'm planning to send out the info (hopefully a firm number) to the group on the Monday after Memorial Day weekend, just to give everyone at least 2 or 3 weeks to plan.

Thanks,
Kim

 

[ljm23]

Here's a pic to brighten your Tuesday! Less than 5 weeks now!!! this is my son on the dolphin adventure in nassau.

 

[molette]

I would love to do FE! I am new to this but I have read up on it! I will send you a PM!

Anyone else worried about the oil spill?

 

[brooklynfam]

love that dolphin picture. what port adventures do u guys recommend? keep in mind i have a 19 month old who's a slow walker and my 7 yr old son is a little bit of a chicken.

 

[VegasPixie]

Anyone else worried about the oil spill?

That's interesting that you mention it; my husband and I were talking about that very thing. I think the damage from that leak is far worse than anyone realizes. Here's a news article that suggests the spill may reach the Florida Keys.

We're a little concerned about the Keys; hopefully we'll be okay in the Bahamas. But in terms of the bigger environmental picture, it's really devastating.

 

[chiefdragon]

We got all of our paperwork the other day. Super excited now. Put up our count down calendar at about day 48 out. DD is loving every minute of it. I am all for doing the FE, they sound like they are so much fun for everyone.

 

[JeanC]

We got our cruise "docs" (basically name tags for luggage) last Saturday. That's always exciting. Called yesterday and ordered the Birthday Celebration Package for our grandson's stateroom. He turns 11 the day we board the ship. I can't wait to see his reaction when he gets to the room after lunch. Really looking forward to the meet at the Goofy pool.

I have also been concerned about the possible effect of the oil spill on the cruise. In the news yesterday, they were talking about tar balls in Key West, but they weren't sure then if they were from the big spill. (Wonder if they have tar balls from some other source????). We are not doing any water excursions there, but I wonder if the oil spill will affect the ship itself in any areas where oil might be present. If Key West is a big problem, I suppose they would just add another day at sea? Or maybe a second day at Castaway Cay. Sure hope it doesn't get up as far as Port Canaveral.

Jean