June 5, 2005

[b&bdiscruisers]

wild4wdw: My daughter actually started that thread last year! She's: I luv disney cruise.


Bethipooh4: My husband was born & grew up in Kinston, NC! Very close to where you live. He knows your area well!
We're staying at the Radisson Fri. & Sat night, & possibly even Thurs. --not sure about Thurs night yet. We would drive there after hubby gets off work, it takes less than 3 hours to drive from Clearwater, Fl to there.

 

[Buckeye1]

Hi everyone,
Signing in from the Northwestern Chicago suburbs. We will be cruising then onto shades of green for five days(our first time cruising). Our group consists of my husband, daughter 7, son 4, sister & her husband, son 8 & daughter 6 and rounding up the back my mom & dad. The rest of my family will be coming from the Columbus, Ohio area. I too am interested in any kid friendly excursion that anyone has to suggest.



Can't wait to see the beach. We still have six inches of snow.

 

[CruisinDragons]

Hi! I am also on the June 5th Disney Wonder. I am with the group that is on the post from Buckeye1. I have a husband, son(8) and daughter (6). We will be with my sister and her family and our parents. This is our first cruise ever. We are very excited. We are flying in from Columbus, OH on the 4th. It sounds like I need to get my reservations at the Radisson soon! We will probably visit the space center. My husband has been there before and enjoyed it. We are in a category 5 room with our family on either side of us.

We are also staying 4 nights at Shades of Green. My husband is Army National Guard. We tried to stay there two years ago but they were closed for reservations and were bumped to the Contemporary for the same price (boo hoo). We have heard good things about SOG and are excited to try it out.

I am excited to talk to other cruisers. Would love to get any info that any one finds helpful.

 

[gabang]

Hi All
Another Buckeye family joining the cruise. (I work at OSU) DD (9) and I will be doing the land and sea vacation starting out at the POR before relaxing on our first cruise. DD is hoping to find another girl her age on these boards to correspond with before the cruise. We're very excited about this vacation since we have been planning and saving for a year now... Final payment next month!!!

 

[sharonk]

Wow! My DH is going to be thrilled to be surrounded by so many Buckeyes! We live in Cincinnati now, but he spent many of his college years in Columbus.

For those of you staying at Shades of Green....I'm so jealous! We were at WDW for a few days in November (DH had a business trip there) and I checked it out. I'm not sure how it was before the renovation, but it looks really, really nice now. I've heard the rooms are huge...even bigger than the Contemporary.

So, has anyone decided on what excursions they're doing at Nassau? It seems like there's been a lot of negative comments about Nassau in general on these boards lately. I'm anxious to see it for myself.

My DH and I will probably leave the kids in the Club in the morning and do the walking tour and go to the pirate museum. Then, we'll check out the public beach. If the beach seems nice, we'll take the kids to the beach for a few hours in the afternoon.

Can't believe we're only 4 months away!

Sharon

 

[gabang]

We're planning on doing the Dolphin encounter.

DD says she wants to do the swim but since it's not included as one of the Disney excursions (plus I'm not sure how she'll react to the salt water in her eyes during the foot push), I think we'll stick with the swim. Plus it gets you in to the beach and lunch -if I'm not mistaken. I plan on asking my TA the next month. Anyone heard anything about this excursion?

 

[232271]

We are on this cruise and have son 10 and daughter 12.

We are doing the check into Comfort Suites for the day at Nassau, using the link below we got it for $164 + a few fees, and you get to use all of the Atlantis facilities!!

they still have rooms available for June 6th! So anybody interested should check into it. MY SIL said Atlantis was really neat!! and the slides were awesome!

www.smartertravel.com/hotel/mb.php?id=1417&ctid=i1417c3p3

 

[232271]

We're planning on doing the Dolphin encounter.

DD says she wants to do the swim but since it's not included as one of the Disney excursions (plus I'm not sure how she'll react to the salt water in her eyes during the foot push), I think we'll stick with the swim. Plus it gets you in to the beach and lunch -if I'm not mistaken. I plan on asking my TA the next month. Anyone heard anything about this excursion?

according to disney, lunch is included:
Blue Lagoon Dolphin Encounter (5.5-7 hours)

You'll flip for this unique chance to interact with a friendly dolphin! After entering waist-deep water, a trainer will instruct the group on how to interact with these marine mammals. Then, you'll have the opportunity for a one-on-one encounter with a dolphin. Bring a camera to record this unforgettable experience. Beach games, water sports and lunch at Sea Garden Grille are also part of this day of total relaxation at Blue Lagoon.

This excursion is not a "swim with the dolphins" experience.

Adult Price: $113.50 (ages 10 and above)
Child Price: $88.50 (ages 3-9)
Departure Time: 9:15 am

for $165 booking through this, you can swim with dolphins, but that is alot more than the child's rate to do what you already have planned.

www.dolphinswims.com/swim.html

 

[littleB07]

It's ironic that alot of us are from Ohio! Were staying at the Wilderness Lodge before we leave for the cruise. My family and I are also not sure what excursions we should do in Nassau. Has anyone done the stingray excursion?

 

[Wild4WDW]

I'm torn about what to do in Nassau. DH really wants to go to Atlantis but in order to do it right you would need to spend approx $250. Most posts that I have read weren't that impressive, but some people say how great it is. We have a DD15 and DS11.

232271: I think I will check out the link you listed.....In the long run $250 is not going to make or break us, and we may not ever be in Nassau again.

One Quick Question: The check-in time posted for Comfort Suites on the choicehotels.com website is 3:00pm. Will they let you use the facilities before 3:00pm?

 

[Bethipooh4]

wow, I lose the internet for a week and miss out on all these posts....
I am really looking forward to SOG as well, believe it or not, I never knew it existed until recently. DH is retired AF, hard to believe we're retired. But we are still stationed in NC as a contractor for the base. Seems like a group of us will be at SOG

Little bo7, we are also curious about the stingray excursions, I have heard that the stingray excursion at Blue Lagoon is still closed from hurricane damage, but another stingray excursion is offered at a different place. Its either that one or we may also do the dolphins. I guess I have to ask the boys. I would love to maybe get a room at the comfort inn and have access to the Atlantis. Guess we need to sit down and start planning.

I made our final payment today!!!! Remember, if your trip is paid off you can prebook 90 days out now for your excursions.

DS( 15 at cruise time) wants to do the teen junkaroo jam in Nassau, he did that last year and loved it. He also wants to do the banana boat ride at CC.

 

[4cruisinKids]

The pirate museum in Nassau sounds like something my boys (11 and 8) would go for--SharonK, do you have any more info on it? We don't think we will be doing any organized excursions because we are planning to leave the twins (3) on the ship in Nassau and want to be available in case there is a problem.
Sounds like quite a few folks are heading to SOG after! We stayed there about nine years ago and it was nice then, I'm sure it is even better now. We found it very convenient to ride the bus to the Polynesian and then take the Monorail to the park. Our son (we only had one then!) was two and the Monorail was his favorite part. We also enjoyed being able to easily take a break during the day if the little guy needed it. We aren't going to WDW this year because the twins are too little to enjoy it but when we do we will definitely stay at the Shades. This year we are heading to the Resort on Cocoa Beach so "the boys" can visit the Space Center and "the girls" can hang out at the beach!
As I sit here with a sick kid on a rainy cold day in Ohio--June 5th can't get here fast enough!

 

[sharonk]

There's more info on the pirate museum at www.pirates-of-nassau.com

I think it's $12 per adult, and kids under 12 are free. It's supposed to be within walking distance of the dock.

It sounds like our boys will love it too. We were originally planning to leave them on the ship while we explored Nassau, but we might change our mind and take them with us. They love pirates!

SharonK

 

[Buckeye1]

Does anyone know how to find out what movies are going to be playing on board? If there is a new movie that is playing while were on the ship, we were going to try not to see it before we left.

We were also thinking of doing the glass bottom boat in Nasua since our DS4 is such a Nemo nut. Has anyone heard or experienced this trip. Thanks in advance.

PS Don't forget the second week in March is when you can book character dinners if yo're going to the workd after the cruise.

(this is me turning blue because it is only 19 degrees in Chicago right now )

 

[CruisinDragons]

First let me say that I love these boards and have become addicted. I look every day to see if someone on our cruise has posted or if some one new has joined in.

I have been reading other posts and it seems that people don't usually get their documenst until 1-2 weeks before their cruise. Some don't see theirs until days before ! As an over planner, the thought of this terrifies me. I need at least a month to completely memorize every bit of information that comes in our packet. Is there anyway to get your docs earlier?

Hope to hear more from everyone soon!

Only 12 more days until my DH returns from deployment

 

[gabang]

Hi 232271, Thanks for the post. I think we will stay with the Encounter and not try to do the swim. I really do think we'll have a great time on this excursion. Thanks for the info!

 

[Bethipooh4]

Hi Everyone,
Hard to belive we can actually make reservations in a few weeks.

Karin, if I remember correctly, last year our documents came about 3 weeks before we sailed. I agree with you, the sooner I have them in hand, the better I will feel. I hope your hubby has a safe trip home, we are looking at a Sept. deployment for mine.

I have been reading alot about the Pirates tour as well, and am considering this. DS will be 8 and I think he would love it. We were looking at the stingray excursion as well, but hate to spend that much money. We are sailing the summer of 2006 on one of the week long cruises with 2 stops at CC with a group of friends (14 of us) and I need to start saving money. LOL

 

[Buckeye1]

Less than 100 days until we sail. Starting to pray we get ressies for Cindy's breakfast on my daughters birthday...

Thought I would post so maybe we could get off page three and have some more people join us.

Hey Karin, only 2 more days until DH is home...Yeah

 

[sharonk]

I'm trying for Cinderella's castle ressie's too! We've never even tried to get them on past trips because we just had the boys (and the first few times we took my daughter, she was too young to care.) Now that my daughter is 3 and 1/2, she has been asking if she can meet CInderella in the castle, so I'm going to try for breakfast ressies. Wish me luck!

Sharon

 

[Bethipooh4]

Hi everyone, I just realized we are in double digits until the cruise!!!!