June 6, 2009--Anybody going?

[Principessa]

Don't worry too much about pants. I have worn everything from jeans to capris to shorts in the dining room (NOT short shorts, more like bermudas). He could wear jeans and be just fine. There may be people that look down on that, but I've never noticed anyone giving me the evil eye for the way I was dressed (although I could just be clueless and in my own little world).

I haven't started packing but have a list and have a few things laid out on the guest bed. I'm with you 'though. Haven't completely unpacked from my last trip this weekend.

Nobody responded to the lunch at Topsiders at 11:30 on Sunday. We're still planning on that if anyone wants to meet up for a longer visit then.

Suz

Ok, I am in for Topsiders at 11:30am. I see people want to meet at breakfast, but if that is your character meal you won't want to give it up. Maybe we should have two options on Sunday?



How did the Cars evening go? I'm trying to get my people to realize the cruise is soon and we need to get excited! They are pretty low key, unlike me!!!

Very cute -sounds like a fun night.


My guys will be flying solo- so I see Sonny's BBQ in their future, while I go out scrapbooking with the girls, need to get my albums caught up before this cruise if possible so I can start this one when we get back.

Hey, that's exactly what I did on Friday night! Don't laugh but I am on day 6 of our 11 day 2005 WDW trip....I vowed to myself that I would finish this album before returning to Disney. Guess I'll be scrap booking all week instead of weeding and gardening...

I found this link to make fish extenders - good luck!
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=30302583&postcount=609

Oh, scrap booking after I make the FE! Got some fabric and heat bond. I would sew it, but I still can't find the power cord to my sewing machine - misfiled during our house move 2 years ago. I'm revealing myself to be organizationally challenged!

I just spent at least 45 minutes trying to get DS13 to tell me what clothes I can buy him that he will wear. He wants all navy and grey, no prints no, designs. Sigh. Gotta buy it before I can pack it! He had a growth spurt and has nothing to wear.

Packing done? I wonder how hot it will be? anybody been on this eastern route before and can tell us? Will it be super cold air conditioning in the dining areas?

Oh, we will be staying in the MCO (Orlando airport) Hyatt the night before.
I couldn't decide if we would want to be at a hotel out by the port so I just went with the hyatt to get more points on our frequent stay plan. Not sure if we will try to go to DTD that night for dinner.

Someone mentioned reserving the shuttle for the next morning? Does the Disney transfer shuttle take reservations? I've just read the thread about going to check in before 8:30 am and maybe getting Keys etc. then and not having to do it at the port. Anybody know about this reservation idea?

What are you doing today to get ready?

 

[lrensin]

We're also staying at the Hyatt on Friday night. We get in around 1:30 and plan to spend the afternoon at the pool. If anyone else is going to be at the Hyatt, we should try to do an afternoon meet by the pool. That might make it easier for us to find eachother on the boat the following days.

You can get a transfer through the cruise lines from the hotel to the ship in the AM. My travel agent said to get on the earliest one possible. And, to make sure that you put your Disney Cruise luggage tags on your bags AFTER arriving at the airport, before going to the hotel. I'll check her message and see what other suggestions she gives.

Let me know what time you're getting in to the hotel and if we can meet up.

~Lia

 

[mousecraszy]

We'll be staying at the Radisson at the Port before the cruise as well. We are scheduled for the 10am shuttle over to the terminal. We worked on magnets today and will work on FE's next. I've started a little packing.

I don't know if anyone has posted this but the Space Shuttle Endeavor will be launching the morning we arrive back into Port Canaveral. It is currently scheduled to lift off at 7:19am on June 13, 2009. Hopefully it will stay on schedule. Our DD11 is excited about this.

Our DD11 is counting down the days. She has the countdown on a dry-erase bulletin board which she updates daily. She is looking forward to meeting all her peers!!

 

[CRUIZEN MAMMA]

Hey, that's exactly what I did on Friday night! Don't laugh but I am on day 6 of our 11 day 2005 WDW trip....I vowed to myself that I would finish this album before returning to Disney. Guess I'll be scrap booking all week instead of weeding and gardening...
QUOTE]

I would never poke fun of a fellow scrapbooker- I'm trying to finish up our 2006 Smokey Mountain/ Hot Air Ballon vacation and Trip to Sea World, but in my defense I put that on hold when we took Our 07 1st Cruise On the Wonder and I'm proud to say that album is done and I'm caught up on my son's school album( that is until this year is offically over).

Started clothes sorting and packing the special things we'll need for the cruise like snorkel equipment. Had no luck getting the FE supplies I wanted to start my FE gift so I may have to resort to plan B . SO glad I have a 3day weekend comming up to I can tackle some of these other projects.

DS wants to know if there are fellow pin traders out there- he bought some pins this weekend just for trading- which is hard for him as he'd rather just buy ones to add to his collection.

DH wants to know if there are any runners out there- he's hoping to do the 5K run on Castaway Key- and if he has a running buddie - I'm off the hook!!!!

See you all in 19 days

DOttie

 

[Suz D]

All of us! We are bringing lots of pins to trade at WDW and on the cruise. We have found the pin trading to be excellent on the cruise. Less competition and they restock their lanyards more often.

 

[Principessa]

We're also staying at the Hyatt on Friday night. We get in around 1:30 and plan to spend the afternoon at the pool. If anyone else is going to be at the Hyatt, we should try to do an afternoon meet by the pool. That might make it easier for us to find eachother on the boat the following days.

You can get a transfer through the cruise lines from the hotel to the ship in the AM. My travel agent said to get on the earliest one possible. And, to make sure that you put your Disney Cruise luggage tags on your bags AFTER arriving at the airport, before going to the hotel. I'll check her message and see what other suggestions she gives.

Let me know what time you're getting in to the hotel and if we can meet up.

~Lia

Yes, that sounds like a great idea! It will be fun to meet on Friday.
I think we will be checking in around 3:30pm. Our flight arrives at 2:30pm, if we are on time. Maybe 4pm would be a good time to meet? Can you PM or do you have to have a certain number of posts now to PM? As a reminder, I have one DS13. I'll scroll to page one to see your kid(s) ages.
I could just come out to the pool and what...wear a rose over one ear?

I am seriously considering your idea of sitting by the pool at the hotel for the afternoon, it never occurred to me before, but now that I think of it, maybe we shouldn't run out to Downtown Disney on a travel day. I like to run around a lot but my DH and MIL do not. And it seems that I would need to rent a car to go there, and I haven't looked to see if it's 30 minutes away or more....I'm so organized, Everytime we go to WDW I am not driving so I have no concept of how long it takes to get there.

I'm getting way too excited about this !
Irene

 

[Principessa]

We are staying at the Raddison the night before. We are leaving bright and early Friday morning and driving down. DD and I will probably head over to DTD for a little shopping and Rainforest Cafe and maybe some DW resort tours, all depending on what time we make it in. We are booked on the 10:30 shuttle to the port.

I wonder if the Raddison is near the airport as well?
How far is DTD from the Radisson?

I found this link to make fish extenders - good luck!
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=30302583&postcount=609

Thanks for this link! I have material and dowell rod, I just need to get off the computer and go sew!

DS wants to know if there are fellow pin traders out there- he bought some pins this weekend just for trading- which is hard for him as he'd rather just buy ones to add to his collection.

DH wants to know if there are any runners out there- he's hoping to do the 5K run on Castaway Key- and if he has a running buddie - I'm off the hook!!!!

See you all in 19 days

DOttie

Ok, pin trading! I have tons of pins and never want to trade them. Maybe you guys can teach me how to trade, I do think I have a few from DLP and I'd love to trade them to someone special (fellow cruisers!) They must be slightly hard to come by. I'll go find them now!

And YES, DH is a runner! You are off the hook. Nothing he'd like more than to run 5k!

All of us! We are bringing lots of pins to trade at WDW and on the cruise. We have found the pin trading to be excellent on the cruise. Less competition and they restock their lanyards more often.

Now I'm excited about pins! I forgot there would be pins on board! I'm going to go turn in my coin jar to get pin money!

 

[CRUIZEN MAMMA]

And YES, DH is a runner! You are off the hook. Nothing he'd like more than to run 5k!

I know they cordinate it as soon as the ship docks at Casataway Cay 7 or 8 am? - Maybe your DH and Mine can set something up at the meet when we board, I know my DH plans to hit the on board gym during sea days.

 

[AStamm]

DS is also a pin trader and will be well stocked with his traders. It's funny to hear the trading on board was good for other people--we thought it was the pits on our 4-night cruise back in July 2007. Not that DS is a serious trader or anything, but we saw the same pins night after night on the CMs so it got a bit boring.

 

[lrensin]

I'm also planning on pin trading. I bought all of my kids a bunch of pins that were on sale so that they could trade them and I wouldn't have a coronary when they did. Unfortunately, I think my kids will have a hard time giving up anything they have, even if it means getting a better one.

Is anyone planning on doing budgets for the kids? I'd like to give my oldest some sort of Disney gift card that she can use on the boat so that I'm not constantly being asked to buy her things and so that she can budget for the week (throwing in some math skill review). Do they have something like that on the boat?

Thanks!
~Lia

 

[lrensin]

Yes, that sounds like a great idea! It will be fun to meet on Friday.
I think we will be checking in around 3:30pm. Our flight arrives at 2:30pm, if we are on time. Maybe 4pm would be a good time to meet? Can you PM or do you have to have a certain number of posts now to PM? As a reminder, I have one DS13. I'll scroll to page one to see your kid(s) ages.
I could just come out to the pool and what...wear a rose over one ear?

Love it! I've got three kids - almost 10 DD, 5yo DS, and 3 1/2 yo DD. We'll be by the pool with my parents and I have no doubt that we'll be hard to miss (my children are not quiet). But, as we get closer, we will have to figure out a clue to find eachother. Maybe we can find some Disney pins on-line that we can wear.

I am seriously considering your idea of sitting by the pool at the hotel for the afternoon, it never occurred to me before, but now that I think of it, maybe we shouldn't run out to Downtown Disney on a travel day. I like to run around a lot but my DH and MIL do not. And it seems that I would need to rent a car to go there, and I haven't looked to see if it's 30 minutes away or more....I'm so organized, Everytime we go to WDW I am not driving so I have no concept of how long it takes to get there.

WDW is about 30 minutes from the airport. Not too far for a night there.

 

[Krisanm67]

Is anyone going to be staying at the Raddison Resort Friday night? We are driving in from New Orleans and will be staying there the night before the cruise.

I am flying in from AZ on Friday morning and we are staying at the Hyatt. I think we are visiting relatives for dinner that night, or in the morning for bkfst. We have an Aunt that lives in Cape Canaveral. There is the possiblility that we will visit her when we get back from the cruise. If that is the case I'll be seeing some of you at the pool - maybe. Depends on if our flight is on time too and all that. We are getting so excited I can't wait to meet everyone

 

[Krisanm67]

DS is also a pin trader and will be well stocked with his traders. It's funny to hear the trading on board was good for other people--we thought it was the pits on our 4-night cruise back in July 2007. Not that DS is a serious trader or anything, but we saw the same pins night after night on the CMs so it got a bit boring.

We got some pins to trade too. Our collection is small, but the kids got started a year or so ago at Disneyland and they are excited to trade again.

 

[degrapevine]

Hi, all!

Less than 3 weeks to go ... I'm working on my packing lists, trying not to overpack. I know we can double up on daytime outfits on the Sun/Mon Sea Days and Thurs/Fri Days since we'll be in swimsuits and coverups most of the time. I'm also going to have the boys double wear their Dockers for dinner and bring along some Shout wipes just in case! With 5 of us, I really need to limit what we bring, even though we're driving over. If for some reason we're running low, I'll just have to do a load on Thursday. Anything to not have to lug tons of suitcases on board!

We are also huge pin traders (except for DH - He says it's not "manly" to wear a pin lanyard!) and each of us have a "theme" lanyard at home on display w/30 or so pins each. Plus a bulletin board full of extra favorites. We've started second "trader" lanyards to wear to the parks since our first ones weigh a ton! I bought a lot of 50 pins online a little while ago for $75 from Pinfinder. All good traders, no scrappers or Sedesmas, and even a few we wanted to keep. The rest, we'll trade for what we like with CM's. The Officer Pin Trading night(s) are usually the best, although sometimes if you can get "in" with a CM in one of the gift shops/at Guest Services, they will go the extra mile for you if you are looking for something specific. On our cruise last year, one of the CM's helped DS11 finish his monorail pin collection!

I just made some purchases on eBay to finish up our exchange gifts and need to start working on our door decorations. The next 3 weeks are super hectic in our house (I'm having 40 people over on Saturday for a pool party/cookout to celebrate our new pool) and I'm going to really have to do some good time management! Better not be spending too much time on the DIS - Although I think every minute I spend on here saves me 2 in great tips/planning ideas. Have a great holiday weekend, everyone!

Rose

 

[Suz D]

Is anyone planning on doing budgets for the kids? I'd like to give my oldest some sort of Disney gift card that she can use on the boat so that I'm not constantly being asked to buy her things and so that she can budget for the week (throwing in some math skill review). Do they have something like that on the boat?
Thanks!
~Lia

I don't know if they have gift cards on the boat or not. If I had to make a guess I would say No as pretty much everything is just billed to your room and then you would apply the gift card to your room bill.

Lia,

When our DD was 11 we gave her charging privs on our KTTW (key to the world or room key for those who aren't familiar with that acronym ). Then I made a "checkbook" and wrote a balance at the top (she had saved $50.00 and we doubled her earnings which we thought was a VERY generous amount). So she started with $100.00. She kept the little checkbook with her at all times and when she made a purchase she wrote it down in the checkbook, did the math, and determined her balance. We'll do the same this time but give her charging privs at WDW and a total balance for the whole trip.

She's not a big spender so it works out great for us. This is the first cruise where she will have "freedom" on the ship so we thought she might like to get a smoothie or something (limit one per day LOL!) and NO buying for friends! She's saved about $75.00 and we'll probably double that or a little more again. Whatever she has left she gets to keep.

Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait! My dad is coming today so I'm driving up to Pittsburgh to pick him up at the airport. Jeff is coming home early to watch Bobbie so I'll be able to run errands up there and get some last minute things. I'm feeling very stressed out and yet content and excited at the same time. How does that work??

See you guys soon!

 

[Suz D]

Just a quick bit of info. I take Meclazine on a regular basis for dizziness (note...diZZiness NOT diTZiness). My insurance no longer covers it because it's available OTC. I called Sam's club today and got a quote for the chewable Meclazine 25 mg. She quoted me $3.47 for 100 pills! I know it's available free of charge down by the docs office on the ship, but if you want to start taking it before (the first night is always a little rough), Sam's is obviously the place to buy it!

Suz

 

[lrensin]

I don't know if they have gift cards on the boat or not. If I had to make a guess I would say No as pretty much everything is just billed to your room and then you would apply the gift card to your room bill.

I think I just read somewhere that you HAVE to use your room card to pay for things. If that's the case, then I'm going to have to come up with something creative - especially for the little ones. Libby (my oldest) I can keep in check with threats of no DS. But, I had planned on using actual cash to help my 5yo and 3yo understand and budget.

On a totally different note, what kinds of things do you usually get for the Fish Extender exchanges? Also, it's just once, right? Not every day? Sorry for so many newbee questions.

 

[degrapevine]

Lia,

Yes, the KTTW (room key) is the only form of payment accepted onboard (other than for tips). You are also unable (grr!) to limit your child's charging abilities to a set amount. I like the idea of telling them that their card has a "credit" on it (decided by you, of course) that they can use to buy things onboard and at CC. You can carry around a small notebook or an index card with their starting amount and subtract as you go. Or you can still let them know how much they have to spend, but print up pretend dollars with your family's name on it and let them carry that around and then "take away" what they spend. I'm sure the 3 and 5 yr. olds aren't going to be shopping without you, so you can have more involvement in their spending. As for Libby, unfortunately, it's either all or none. I require my boys to bring me all their receipts at the end of the day and they know how much they are allowed to spend. They've never gone over and they know if they did, their charging privileges would be gone.

The FE gifts I've received (and given) in the past have included: Candy/food from your area (saltwater taffy from NJ, etc.), souvenirs from your area (cards, magnets, keychains), "emergency kits" for the cabin (safety pin, suction cup, bandaids, highlighter, air freshener, ziptie, etc.), sand/beach toys, pirate stuff, luggage tags, door magnets, and (my final night gift on short, multi-gift cruises and my only gift on this cruise) ... a CD of songs from the Sailaway and Pirate Parties and other DCL inspired music (and the horn!). It's really whatever you want it to be. And yes, we are just doing one gift per stateroom on this cruise. Any more and we'd be running all over the ship all week! You don't have to deliver them all in one day, either. Spread them out (maybe one deck a day?) and you won't spend all your time delivering gifts.

Less than 3 weeks to go! It's getting closer ...

Rose

 

[lrensin]

Or you can still let them know how much they have to spend, but print up pretend dollars with your family's name on it and let them carry that around and then "take away" what they spend.

I love this idea!!! Total fun project!

The FE gifts I've received (and given) in the past have included: Candy/food from your area (saltwater taffy from NJ, etc.), souvenirs from your area (cards, magnets, keychains), "emergency kits" for the cabin (safety pin, suction cup, bandaids, highlighter, air freshener, ziptie, etc.), sand/beach toys, pirate stuff, luggage tags, door magnets, and (my final night gift on short, multi-gift cruises and my only gift on this cruise) ... a CD of songs from the Sailaway and Pirate Parties and other DCL inspired music (and the horn!).

Thanks so much for the info. I found some great Disney stickers at Target today, so I'll have to go back and figure out a way to include them. Love the CD idea, too.

I'm definitely getting excited. Everywhere I go I think about what I can bring with me on the trip. Found a cool book of games for the kids for the bus rides or other down-time. Any excuse to shop....

 

[scubadad]

Anyone interested in a Shark dive in St. Maarten? We need 6 divers and Dive Safari will do one for us on Tuesday, from 1 PM to 4 PM. (They usually do these on a day when we're not in port.)

I did this one several years ago and it was a real blast. Not as scary as it sounds.

Scubadad