Magic Christmas Cruise 2010 (Dec 18th - 29th) - PART II

[colkath2005]

I need to figure out what mock packing is. Do you put placeholders for everything in your case, then switch out for the real item at last minute?
[/QUOTE]


I have just put in what i dont need between now and then and made a list of what needs to go in later. I also figured out what I needed for the cruise only then put that in a seperate case although this is because we are staying in Florida before and after the cruise for just over a week.

So I now know how much space I have in the cases, exactly what else I need to buy, and most importantly a new list to cross off items I buy and pack.

If anyone does anything different I would be interested.
Can you tell im getting excited now.
Colette

 

[Marcy Mouse]

Hi Caryn,

I think what Melissa means is that she has 12 people who want to split the FE list. We would split the total group of 63 cabins into two groups of 31 & 32. For those that want to split they would only be in one of the groups but those that do not want to split would be in both groups. At least, this is the way I understand it. I know it's confusing but hopefully this helps.

ok so I'm trying to understand the fish thing? If we have 62 rooms (est) and out of those say 25 want to split off into their own group that would leave the other group of 37. That I understand fine but the tricky part is how many out of the group of 37 are gonna do both groups?? if 20 out of the 37 decide to do both groups wouldn't that bring the 25 no split up to 45 because you would now have to add those to their group??????

 

[itutorfortravel]

Today I ironed 9 outfits for DD to take on the cruise and put each one into its own little plastic bag! The bags keep the clothes from wrinkling in the suitcase and the outfits in bags make dressing each day a snap

She's the easiest to pack for early on. I probably won't start on mine and DH's stuff for at least another couple weeks.

I have started a box like someone earlier mentioned, where I throw stuff that I know we will need, like sunscreen, shoe organizer, binoculars, etc.

I have started remembering things I need to take / do as I am doing other stuff. I need to start writing them down as soon as I think of them because by the time I remember that I need to remember something, I have forgotten!

 

[mickeyteachers]

I thought I was the only one who put my sons clothing in plastic bags for each day of the cruise. It really has helped in the past. I thought this year I may use my shoe organizer and put the clothing for each day in the shoe organizer. I need to make sure he is organized. He could care less if he wears matching clothing.

 

[colkath2005]

Ok getting confused with the FE too.

The way i see it if we have 60 cabins and 12 people wanted to only give their group we would put 6 in each group of 30. Which would mean in each group 6 would give to the 30 people in that group and 24 would give to both groups meaning people who split would give/recieve 30 gifts and no split people would give recieve 54?.
Colette

 

[bigAWL]

Would someone more clever than me do something for me? Go to the disneycruiseline website and search for our cruise, using 2 adults and 2 children, 7 and 9, as a base and choose Cat 5 for your stateroom. Then, where you can choose your stateroom, go look on the map. Right now, there are two fives available, 7586 and 7086. We are in room 7576 and there is this little bump out line thingie right at our number. Can someone please tell me what this is? I really need something else to obsess about.

The deck plans I have make it look like the wall between cabins is thicker there, like maybe it's a bulkhead. I'm not sure what that means for someone in those cabins. But it does look like there's no bump into the next room, so I'm guessing there's probably no steamer trunk in those rooms.

 

[bigAWL]

Double post... or maybe I'm just trying to pad my post count.

 

[miatamel]

The deck plans I have make it look like the wall between cabins is thicker there, like maybe it's a bulkhead. I'm not sure what that means for someone in those cabins. But it does look like there's no bump into the next room, so I'm guessing there's probably no steamer trunk in those rooms.

The steamer trunk spreadsheet (that is so funny...there's a spreadsheet for everything here on the Dis) shows my room to have a single trunk. Oh, well, as long as there isn't a lifeboat sitting right on my verandah, I don't care.

 

[bigAWL]

Actually, I do want to clarify one thing about the planned kids meet(s).

DW, Joann wanted to plan a meet for kids at the Mickey pool at 3pm on embarkation day. I think a couple times she has said the port side of the pool, but she meant starboard (as I have it on the front page). She has trouble with left and right - you can't expect her to get port and starboard right. (just kidding, sweetie!)

As for the FE. It seems to me that splitting into two equal groups makes sense. Half the split voters in each group and half the non-split voters in each group. Each group gives gifts to everyone within their respecting group. Anyone wishing to do more has the option to give to the other group as well.

If there are 20 split voters and 40 non-split voters (hypthetically), there would be 10+20=30 cabins in each group. Each person would get the 29 gifts from thier own group (30 if you want to give yourself a gift), plus as many as 20 more from the non-split voters from the other group. No one is left out, and no one has to give more or fewer gifts than they want to.

 

[bigAWL]

The steamer trunk spreadsheet (that is so funny...there's a spreadsheet for everything here on the Dis) shows my room to have a single trunk. Oh, well, as long as there isn't a lifeboat sitting right on my verandah, I don't care.

Could be a trunk. That was just my guess. I have never seen a room with no trunk, but I hear tell that they do exist.

 

[DVC4US]

ok so I'm trying to understand the fish thing? If we have 62 rooms (est) and out of those say 25 want to split off into their own group that would leave the other group of 37. That I understand fine but the tricky part is how many out of the group of 37 are gonna do both groups?? if 20 out of the 37 decide to do both groups wouldn't that bring the 25 no split up to 45 because you would now have to add those to their group??????

Ok getting confused with the FE too.

The way i see it if we have 60 cabins and 12 people wanted to only give their group we would put 6 in each group of 30. Which would mean in each group 6 would give to the 30 people in that group and 24 would give to both groups meaning people who split would give/recieve 30 gifts and no split people would give recieve 54?.
Colette

Hi Guys,

I know it can get confusing but I'll try to help out. This is how I understand it will work but if I am wrong someone please correct me.

To make it simple - we have 10 people on the list letters A-J. Let's assume letters A,D,G,H only want to be on one list and the others want to be on both. Here is what the two list would look like:

List #1
A,B,C,D,E,F,I,J

List #2
B,C,E,F,G,H,I,J

Letters A & D are on List #1 and letters G & H are on list #2.

Hope this helps out and will make it less confusing. Again, if I have this wrong someone please correct me.

 

[bigAWL]

Ok getting confused with the FE too.

The way i see it if we have 60 cabins and 12 people wanted to only give their group we would put 6 in each group of 30. Which would mean in each group 6 would give to the 30 people in that group and 24 would give to both groups meaning people who split would give/recieve 30 gifts and no split people would give recieve 54?.
Colette

The split people would also receive 54, because they are also receiving gifts from those from the other group who are giving to everyone. They would just not receive from the 6 split people in the other group.

 

[momssurprise]

Wow! We are cruising through the pages now! Expect it will be busy through cruise time.

I admit to not fully understanding the FE thing, even tho LeiLani and Aaron and others did a good job explaining. I chalk it up to my incompetent brain and TRUST fully! Can't wait.

Zip Locks. Oh my. Baaad memories. I KNOW this is a good method, but my evil step mom made me pack this way for many, many years of summer camp. Even when I was into my early teens. Humiliating!! I will have all manner of toiletries and other junk in ziplocks (love em!) but no clothes.

 

[Marcy Mouse]

I think the big thing with splitting into 2 groups is that some people have already bought enough for all.

So if we have 63 rooms and you split it 32/31 you will still have to find out how many want to be in both groups.

So instead of finding out who want to split - I think it is better to find out how many don't want to split and then start with them in each group

Example 63 room 33 don't want to split - then you get 15 that want to split (so they go in one group and you have 15 that don't care or don't respond.

Group 1 - 33 no split 15 split
Group 2 - 33 no split 15 that don't care or don't respond

So group 1 is made up of the 33 that don't want to split and the 15 that do
and group 2 is made up the the same 33 (so that they are in both groups) and the 15 that don't care or don't respond.

The big thing is that if you get a large number that don't want to split and are in both groups the spliters are still looking at about 48 for their number


Am I making any sense???

 

[cquick]

Double post... or maybe I'm just trying to pad my post count.

Ha Ha! Padding your post count is totally unnecessary for you! It will be fun cruising with you again.

 

[cquick]

I think the big thing with splitting into 2 groups is that some people have already bought enough for all.

So if we have 63 rooms and you split it 32/31 you will still have to find out how many want to be in both groups.

So instead of finding out who want to split - I think it is better to find out how many don't want to split and then start with them in each group

Example 63 room 33 don't want to split - then you get 15 that want to split (so they go in one group and you have 15 that don't care or don't respond.

Group 1 - 33 no split 15 split
Group 2 - 33 no split 15 that don't care or don't respond

So group 1 is made up of the 33 that don't want to split and the 15 that do
and group 2 is made up the the same 33 (so that they are in both groups) and the 15 that don't care or don't respond.

The big thing is that if you get a large number that don't want to split and are in both groups the spliters are still looking at about 48 for their number


Am I making any sense???

I didn't vote because I am in the group that is happy either way. I think the person who is organizing the FE gift list is the one who is doing all the hard work and he or she should be able to make the decision....and we will all be glad to go along with it!

 

[cquick]

I vote split, 30ish rooms is a pretty good size.

Only question I had was had it been decided if each room would delivery items everyday, or just a couple days thru the cruise.

What do you mean, deliver gifts every day? I only plan to deliver one gift to each stateroom once.

 

[cquick]

I am highly impressed! I have never thought of doing this.

Like most of you... I am a list maker. Without my 'list' I would never remember to do anything. For the trip I seem to have a lot of list going on: a need-to-buy list, a packing list, birthday list, Christmas list & my spreed sheet with all our cruise plans. I think because we are surprising the kids I have more lists going...trying to keep from forgetting anything to important. Normally my oldest DD is my back up memory. lol

I am not a listmaker....or a scrapbooker....or a daily planner. I like to wing it day by day, except for prepurchased excursions!

 

[eve adkins]

I didn't vote because I am in the group that is happy either way. I think the person who is organizing the FE gift list is the one who is doing all the hard work and he or she should be able to make the decision....and we will all be glad to go along with it!

OMG....I am usually very quick about understanding things but I seriously have zero understanding of the whole FE split...I guess I'll just wait to get a list and deliver from there. The more everyone tries to explain it the more confused I get!!

 

[3princessMommy]

Sounds like the plans for the FE are really coming together!

Someone had a question earlier about whether we were going to have assigned days to do our deliveries. If possible could we please not have assigned days to do the FE's? I'm just thinking that all of us are going to find things we want to do with our families and if it happened to be that our assigned day was one where we had a lot of things planned, the FE could become a stress point and take some of the fun out of it.

On our cruise last Christmas our group did not have assigned days and we still got gifts over a nice consistently stretched out period of time. The only rule we made for FE's was not to deliver on the first or last night because people would be trying to unpack / pack. Personally, my FE is one of the first things that goes outside my cabin (LOL) so I am fine with getting stuff the first night, but I do agree that the last night might not be the best time to be getting things to pack at the last minute.

Just wanted to add my input on assigned days based on prior experience.

I fully agree that we should not assign days to distribute our FE gifts. Lord knows that I can't stick to a schedule and I'll just stress myself out if I feel like I must distribute all my gifts on a designated day or time. I do a agree that we shouldn't distribute on the last night. I don't mind the first night, except if some folks upgrade at Port, they will not be in the proper rooms and we won't know that till the DIS meet. So probably best to leave off the first and last day from distribution (IMHO).

ok so I'm trying to understand the fish thing? If we have 62 rooms (est) and out of those say 25 want to split off into their own group that would leave the other group of 37. That I understand fine but the tricky part is how many out of the group of 37 are gonna do both groups?? if 20 out of the 37 decide to do both groups wouldn't that bring the 25 no split up to 45 because you would now have to add those to their group??????

So, 32 want to split and 30 don't.

Group 1 = 16 splitters + 30 nonsplitters
Group 2 = 16 splitters + 30 nonsplitters

This means that each group has 46. Everyone receives the same number of gifts they distribute.

OR

32 want to split and 30 don't

Group 1 = 16 splitters + 15 nonsplitters
Group 2 = 16 splitters + 15 nonsplitters

But in this scenario, the nonsplitters will still give gifts to everyone in the other group, meaning that they will receive 16 less gifts than they would in the first scenario despite distributing to everyone. But each group would only have 31 people.

I think I just made this more complicated.... So I agree with cquick, the organizer can decide and we will all just be happy to participate!

Ha Ha! Padding your post count is totally unnecessary for you! It will be fun cruising with you again.

No, he's decided that he has to stay well ahead of me, so when I start posting too much he has to pad his count so I don't pass him!

And yes, Sweetheart (BigAWL), I do have trouble with right and left - so don't ever ask me for directions. You might end up overboard!!!