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

[ucancallmetink]

DVC4US (Leilani, right? I don't have my cheat sheet in front of me so forgive me if I'm wrong!)~

Please add DH and I to the private wine tasting list. Thanks!

 

[3princessMommy]

So, we are doing the final planning for all of our excursions, and we are a bit bummed by the selection in Martinique. There doesn't seem to be much on offer there for a family of 7 ranging in age from 3 to 67.

Has anyone found any fun options in Martinique that you'd be willing to share? Otherwise, we may just stay on the ship (which will be a disappointment to me since I speak French!).

 

[HFC1969]

Another introduction

This will be our first cruise and we were originally booked on the 7 day Wonder cruise, but switched to this one when the Cat. 12 gty became available. Cruisers will be myself (Ed), DW Jennifer and DD (11). We spent last Christmas at WDW, but are looking forward to trying something new this year. We will be finishing off the trip with New Years Eve at WDW before driving back home.

Welcome aboard... We are from just west of St. Louis...

How long of a drive is that?? Just curious..

 

[DVC4US]

DVC4US (Leilani, right? I don't have my cheat sheet in front of me so forgive me if I'm wrong!)~

Please add DH and I to the private wine tasting list. Thanks!

Darcie - yes LeiLani is correct. I have added you guys to the list.

We are are at 12 people so I don't think it will be a problem reaching the minimum of 15.

 

[DVC4US]

Another introduction

This will be our first cruise and we were originally booked on the 7 day Wonder cruise, but switched to this one when the Cat. 12 gty became available. Cruisers will be myself (Ed), DW Jennifer and DD (11). We spent last Christmas at WDW, but are looking forward to trying something new this year. We will be finishing off the trip with New Years Eve at WDW before driving back home.

Welcome Aboard!

We have quite the contingent of mid-westerners on this cruise. We have DISers from Illinois, Missouri, Minnesota, and Iowa. (These are the ones I know of) Any other mid-westerners out there?

 

[DVC4US]

Welcome aboard... We are from just west of St. Louis...

How long of a drive is that?? Just curious..

Mike - I'm sure jenedpey will answer too, but I just thought I'd give my 2 cents. DD and I drove to WDW in July and it was a 20 hour drive from our house which is 5 hours northeast of St. Louis. This was drive time only and did not include stops. With stops (which we tried to keep to a minimum) it took us about 23-24 hours. It's not a bad drive, just long. I would do it again at Christmas if we had the time. Hope this helps.

 

[HFC1969]

23-24 hours

I think I could do it ....

Not sure if I had my lovely family along..

I would imagine that going is easy... it would be the trip home that would be

I am always curious about that drive... SWA wasn't to bad... I think we are a little less than 225 per ticket.. So that would be 1000 with taxes. Not to bad I guess.. We have paid A LOT more..

Our cars are horrible on mileage so it would be close if we drove..

For 2011 I hope to fly the family myself. I have figured it at about 5 hours 45 minutes from my airport. Just waiting for DS to get a few more lessons under his belt to share in the duties..

 

[ucancallmetink]

Jeff and I are looking into an excursion with Shore Trips for our call in Guadeloupe. It's called the Jungle Safari Tour. It requires at least 4 people for the tour to take place and I'm wondering if any DIS'ers would be interested in this one, too. The tour looks amazing! Not sure if I can place a link, but if you Google Shore Trips it's pretty easy to find.

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

 

[tinkmischief]

Jeff and I are looking into an excursion with Shore Trips for our call in Guadeloupe. It's called the Jungle Safari Tour. It requires at least 4 people for the tour to take place and I'm wondering if any DIS'ers would be interested in this one, too. The tour looks amazing! Not sure if I can place a link, but if you Google Shore Trips it's pretty easy to find.

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

We might be interested! I will take a look...it could be the AZ tinks do Guadeloupe Tour

 

[ucancallmetink]

We might be interested! I will take a look...it could be the AZ tinks do Guadeloupe Tour

Sounds like the perfect tour to me! Let me know what you think...

 

[Kitster]

Hey all. DH and I are on the Dec. 11 Western Carib cruise (free DVC buy in cruise, so it CANNOT be rescheduled) aboard the magic. We are now considering booking a back 2 back cruise.........this one. Should we?

We celebrate his BD on the 17th and our 5 year anniversary is the 28th of Dec....AND our honeymoon cruise was the 1st 11 night Southern Carib cruise aboard the Wonder. Decisions, decisions.........

 

[jenedpey]

Mike - I'm sure jenedpey will answer too, but I just thought I'd give my 2 cents. DD and I drove to WDW in July and it was a 20 hour drive from our house which is 5 hours northeast of St. Louis. This was drive time only and did not include stops. With stops (which we tried to keep to a minimum) it took us about 23-24 hours. It's not a bad drive, just long. I would do it again at Christmas if we had the time. Hope this helps.

Agree with DVC4US. We are about 3.5 hours North of St. Louis, and usually approach it as a longer days drive to Atlanta and then a shorter drive into Orlando. Total time from home to Orlando is right around 18-20 hours drive time depending on construction and traffic (and weather when doing the drive at Christmas). For the cruise, we will actually just leave after school on Thursday, and do a long day on Friday to get into Port Canaveral. While we have definitely run into traffic problems, etc while driving, flying isn't any better and you at least have more control of your own schedule when driving compared to being at the airlines wishes.

 

[ucancallmetink]

Hey all. DH and I are on the Dec. 11 Western Carib cruise (free DVC buy in cruise, so it CANNOT be rescheduled) aboard the magic. We are now considering booking a back 2 back cruise.........this one. Should we?

We celebrate his BD on the 17th and our 5 year anniversary is the 28th of Dec....AND our honeymoon cruise was the 1st 11 night Southern Carib cruise aboard the Wonder. Decisions, decisions.........

Looking for someone to justify the decision? I'll gladly step forward.

Yes. You should. I mean, is there really a more magical way to celebrate the holidays?

 

[BBQMommy]

Frankly, not doing the B2B would be a crime with all those celebrations.

Caryn


(BTW - back in my hometown with family and talked with my cousin who just visited Germany last month and mentioned Papenburg. Seems he visited the plant and saw the Dream. He is bringing pictures over tomorrow. He said it looked amazing. I was surprised to learn that the boat is being built 60 miles from water and that it will get led through a series of REALLY narrow canals to get to the open water. Excited to see his photos. He is not a Disney guy, but knew exactly what an Aqua Duck was )

 

[VA Girl]

So I'm trying to book at the 105 day mark like I'm supposed to but it will only let me book Palo and St Maarten but not Barbados and Guadeloupe. What's up with that? Anyone else having problems or is it just me? GRRRRR!!!

 

[discruiser]

So I'm trying to book at the 105 day mark like I'm supposed to but it will only let me book Palo and St Maarten but not Barbados and Guadeloupe. What's up with that? Anyone else having problems or is it just me? GRRRRR!!!

Having the same problem. I think I was able to book Palo and Martinique. It looked like I was booking Guadeloupe and Barbados, but they weren't showing up in my cruise plans. I logged off and tried logging in on another browser, but now it's telling me my reservation is currently unavailable and to try back in 20 minutes. Grrr.....

 

[VA Girl]

Same with me...it looked like I was booking Barbados and Guadeloupe but nothing would show up for me to confirm. It kept saying my reservation was unavailable and that I should check back in 20 minutes....so I did....still won't log on. Seriously way too tired for this.

 

[discruiser]

Same with me...it looked like I was booking Barbados and Guadeloupe but nothing would show up for me to confirm. It kept saying my reservation was unavailable and that I should check back in 20 minutes....so I did....still won't log on. Seriously way too tired for this.

I was finally able to log back on but still can't book for Guadeloupe and Barbados. May just give up and try again in the morning. I'm happy to have gotten Palo brunch at least.

 

[3princessMommy]

Once you get everything all worked out, could you let the rest of us know if any of the excursions are sold out? We have planned our excursions very meticulously, coordinating with my parents to juggle the different kids' ages, of course this will all fall apart if any of our choices are sold out at the 90-day mark when we get to book.

 

[tinkmischief]

Sounds like the perfect tour to me! Let me know what you think...

Looks like a blast! not sure the rest of my group is on board so i won't be offended at all if someone else takes you up on it first

OK! So far the fishy list consists of:
3princessMommy/bigAWL
Bakerteam
BBQMommy
colkath2005
CrusinLattas
DisneyCamper
DVC4US
HFC1969
IceSk8ersMom
jenedpey
minneapolismickey
NaomiJayne
riggins
SwimMama
thegales
tink&cinderella
tinkmischief
ucancallmetink
Vminick

That is 25 cabins, 44 Kids over the age of 18 , 15 kids ages 1-7, 15 kids ages 8-12, 9 kids ages 13-17