June 8, 2010 WONDERful 5 Day Key West Cruise

[dredick]

Hello Everyone,
My husband and I will be on this cruise to celebrate my grad school graduation and are very excited as it will be our first cruise ever!

WELCOME!!!So happy to see our cruise growing!!! I'll add u to our cruise roll call on the 1st page. Any other info would be great for me to add

 

[wdwluvrs]

22 weeks to sail-away. Welcome KyRob and Winstons Mama.

 

[KyRob]

WELCOME!!!!!!so happy to have u and your friends & family joining " Why is the RUM gone" cruise!! This is my 2nd cruise, I know some, but we have several cruisers that can help w/any questions! If you would like, post the names of your group (and how they break up) and I will add you all to our roll call. This will help later when we make plans to meet and/or do a gift exchange. Thanks!!!

Room 1-Todd, Robbyn, Sydni (15)
Room 2-Mike, Lynne, Marti (11)
Room 3-Rickey, Sherrie
Room 4-Lee, Penny
Room 5-Ron, Denise, Travis, Jake (I will have to check on their ages)

 

[dredick]

Room 1-Todd, Robbyn, Sydni (15)
Room 2-Mike, Lynne, Marti (11)
Room 3-Rickey, Sherrie
Room 4-Lee, Penny
Room 5-Ron, Denise, Travis, Jake (I will have to check on their ages)

Thanks! I have you updated on roll call

 

[auntyaba]

Welcome to our new cruise buddies. I have not been monitoring the site for a while LIFE got in the way but I am looking forward to June and can't wait to hit the deck feet first of course. Hope everyone is surviving the weather, we just had 2 weeks of almost constant snow and temps barely above 0 so the keys, bahamas and castaway cay sound really good right now.

 

[wdwluvrs]

20 weeks to Sail-away. Auntyaba we had the same Temperatures here in western NY zero or below for close to two weeks with snow.

 

[BethA]

I have not checked this site for a while and rather than read everything, wondered if there was going to be a FE gift exchange.
Anyone traveling with a son close to age 14-brandon wants to take a friend, but I hoped we'd find one here. Last cruise he made some great friends.
beth

 

[KyRob]

Hi all!! I'm getting more and more excited every week. Love the countdown WDWluvrs.

BethA, no boys of that age in our group. My daughter feels the same as your son...she wants to take a friend. I feel sure she will meet some teens her age, she is pretty outgoing. If not, she will just have to enjoy the time with good ole mom and dad!!

Is anyone doing an Atlantis excursion while in Nausaau? We are trying to decide between the one offered by the cruise line or doing our own thing. I've read on here where some folks have booked a room at the Comfort Suites and they get full use of the Atlantis waterpark. Any thoughts??

 

[BethA]

We will probably do Atlantis, but not sure if we will go with the Comfort suites or not.

 

[owensamo]

I've been considering trying to talk Jim into an Atlantis tour, but I was looking at either Discover Atlantis or the Beach Day. While I think we could enjoy the water park, I don't know if we'd enjoy it enough to make it worth the extra expense! I think I'd rather just enjoy the resort, the shops, the aquarium and maybe the beach, and take a peek at the waterpark and see if we think we'd want to do it next time. Our DD will be 8 and I know she'd prefer playing in the sand to waterslides - at least this year!

Amanda

 

[wdwluvrs]

We are unsure about excursions as yet we may do the history city tour in Nausau. and the old town trolly in Key West, then just walk around Duvall street. we may be staying at Port Orleans French Quarter the night before at WDW.

 

[LETSGOFAM]

We are trying to figure out if there will be a semi-formal dinner night. In the past we have taken 7 night cruises with a semi and formal both. On the website it says the dress code is cruise casual for the carribean and bahamian cruises. So does that answer my question? I like the family pictures of us all in our dress clothes but don't want to shop/pack for stuff if I don't need it. As for our excursions, Atlantis is $800. for our family to do the waterpark - not sure if it's that worth it. We have a 17 year old son, a 14 year old daughter and a 10 year old daughter so of course making friends right away definately makes the cruise more fun for them. In between lots of skiing we are on the count down now for our cruise!

 

[owensamo]

We've never done a 5-night, but on our previous 4-night cruises there has been a dress-up night - not specifically formal or semi-formal, but dressier than cruise casual. We usually pack something that's semi-formalish, though my DD will wear formal dresses to church so we pack whatever she thinks would be fun to wear in the dining room . We like to be able to get family portraits done, so we usually dress up a little more than it may call for - however, I've seen full-out formalwear on dress-up night on 4-night cruises before, so I wouldn't be uncomfortable in anything!

If you're planning Palo, you'll want some semi-formal wear anyway, so you can always just pair that with some different jewelry or a wrap and let it do double-duty.

Amanda

 

[LETSGOFAM]

Thanks that takes care of my wardrobe issue! I"ll bring some fancy clothes for the one night.

 

[wdwluvrs]

19 weeks to sail-away

 

[moburg]

I sailed the Wonder back in 2007 and loved it. So I've been helping with tips for a friend and her extended family who will be on this cruise.

I've already steered her towards the DISBoards in general and several planning and tip threads, including this one. Hopefully, she'll get signed up and on the lists to meet up with some fun folks!



I just want to stowaway in their luggage! It's going to be several years before I can do another Disney Cruise.

 

[matthias14]

I would like to know what is the difference in the Magic vs the Wonder? Disney's website only mentions that the decor is slightly different, and the names of a few of the rooms are different (like Lumiere's vs Triton's and Sessions vs Cadillac Lounge). However, the menus posted for Lumiere's and Triton's are exactly the same according to Disney's website.
So if both boats have the same menus, show the same movies, provide the same activities, have the same live shows, the same spa services, same youth clubs, same pools, etc, etc...

I guess to explain my question better, I have always been under the impression that they are pretty much the same. However, in reading through this message board I have read, on other threads, quite a lot of postings like "I have sailed the Magic 3 times, but this will be my first on the Wonder...". Which makes me begin to think there might be something that I don't know about.
Please, forgive me if I am reading moburg's comment the wrong way. But to use that post as an example of what I don't understand, moburg posted "I sailed the Wonder back in 2007 and loved it. So I've been helping with tips for a friend and her extended family who will be on this cruise...".
You are qualified to help a friend b/c you sailed the Wonder...what if you had sailed the Magic? Would you no longer able to help with tips for the cruise? Is the Magic really that different from the Wonder?
I have not yet sailed on both boats. So I am curious, what makes such a difference that so many people make sure to point out which boat they have sailed, or will be sailing?

BTW, my parents, sister, wife's parents, wife, daughter, and myself will be sailing on June 8th. Our first time on the Wonder

 

[PurdyBertnie]

I will try to clear it up a little i don't know much myself as I have only done the Wonder (this is our second cruise)but I think the boats are basically the same except for the restaurants/clubs for example on the wonder the "Fancy" dining room is Tritons where on the magic it is Lumieres (I'm sure I spelled that wrong lol) and the buffet on one boat is call Topsiders and the other is called Beach Blanket Buffet, I forget the names of the clubs but I think those differ as to the boat. The magic typically only does the 7+ days (at least from what I understand) while the wonder does mostly 3 to 4 or in this case 5 day cruises. I think this is all changing with the Med. Cruises and the new boats coming, but I understand that the basic layout of the boats is the same with the exception of different names for things.

To more experienced cruisers please feel free to correct anything I got wrong.

 

[moburg]

I will try to clear it up a little i don't know much myself as I have only done the Wonder (this is our second cruise)but I think the boats are basically the same except for the restaurants/clubs for example on the wonder the "Fancy" dining room is Tritons where on the magic it is Lumieres (I'm sure I spelled that wrong lol) and the buffet on one boat is call Topsiders and the other is called Beach Blanket Buffet, I forget the names of the clubs but I think those differ as to the boat. The magic typically only does the 7+ days (at least from what I understand) while the wonder does mostly 3 to 4 or in this case 5 day cruises. I think this is all changing with the Med. Cruises and the new boats coming, but I understand that the basic layout of the boats is the same with the exception of different names for things.

To more experienced cruisers please feel free to correct anything I got wrong.

I have noticed, at least from pictures, that the portholes in the Navigator's Balcony Suites (we had one on the Wonder), are different. On the Magic, the open air portholes in the Navigator's Suites are round. On the Wonder, they are larger, rounded rectangles.

But pretty much the decor is what is different. The statue in the main lobby, the characters hanging off the stern, etc.

 

[wdwluvrs]

Welcome to the cruise group Matthias14. Owensamo, Amanda Have you gotten much snow we have heard most everything closed there yesterday. It is currently 1 out here...