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

[Almagetty]

Do you remember any of the special things? I've been trying to list some possible holiday acitivities on the front page. Maybe you even have a copy of the navigators?

I don't have the Navigators. Off the top of my head, I remember the Tree Lighting Ceremony early in the cruise, the Caroling on Christmas Eve, the Catholic Mass in the Walt Disney Theater late in the evening on Christmas Eve, the Santa pictures on Christmas morning with a huge display of cookies and (I think) hot apple cider in the Atrium. I loved seeing the characters (and the ship) all dressed up for Christmas. I'll pick my family's brains and see if they remember anything else.

 

[IceSk8ersMom]

OK! drumroll please No one pass out from shock but FE list has been updated! Here is the latest...

Fish Bait:
3princessMommy/bigAWL
3princessgrandma
Bakerteam
BBQMommy
colkath2005
craftygramma
CrusinLattas
DisneyCamper
disneycruising
DVC4US
Evans Family
eve adkins
HFC1969
IceSk8ersMom
itutorfortravel
jenedpey
jgura
Kitster
Marcy Mouse
minneapolismickey
NaomiJayne
Ramzmich
riggins
SwimMama
thegales
tink&cinderella
tinkmischief
ucancallmetink
Vminick

The numbers for you inquiring minds:
33 cabins, 59 adults
7 & under - Boys 7, Girls 10
8-12 - Boys 10, Girls 13
13-17 - Boys 6, Girls 10

This is AWESOME! The more the merrier
I purchased enough FE for 50 cabins so the count looks good to me. In fact the last of the items were delivered today. Now, my dining room table looks like Christmas. It will probably look like that for the next three months, oh well.

 

[thegales]

We have our excursions a little more planned. Although, things will probably continue to evolve. These are all through DCL, so now I will explore doing things on our own.

St. Maarten - Afternoon Beach Bash Tour
Guadeloupe - Carbet Falls and Hindu Temple
Barbados - Harrison's Cave and Scenic Drive
Martinique - Beach & Snorkel at Bat Cave
St. Thomas - Full Day Caribbean Sail & Snorkel to Turtle Cove and Honeymoon Beach
Castaway Cay - Parasailing and Bike Riding

 

[IceSk8ersMom]

Welcome to the DIS, and to our thread. I will accept the Facebook requests when I get home tonight. As a reminder, we are trying to keep most of the postings about the cruise here on the DIS, and not on Facebook, to help new people find us and be part of the group. The FB page is if you want to make other connections, or post things you don't want in a public forum.

Please be sure to check out page 1 of this thread. BigAWL has done a great job of keeping all the relevant information updated. Are the three kids boys or girls? Have you cruised before? With DCL?

A very LONG time ago I joined the FB group. Today, when I was looking for it on my page list, it was gone. Did it change? Thanks for monitoring the FB page for us.

 

[IceSk8ersMom]

We have our excursions a little more planned. Although, things will probably continue to evolve. These are all through DCL, so now I will explore doing things on our own.

St. Maarten - Afternoon Beach Bash Tour
Guadeloupe - Carbet Falls and Hindu Temple
Barbados - Harrison's Cave and Scenic Drive
Martinique - Beach & Snorkel at Bat Cave
St. Thomas - Full Day Caribbean Sail & Snorkel to Turtle Cove and Honeymoon Beach
Castaway Cay - Parasailing and Bike Riding

We also plan on the Beach and Snorkel at Bat Cave in Martinique. I just hope there are no bats. LOL

 

[IceSk8ersMom]

Thanks for the welcome!
I am not sure how to respond directly (I am very clueless with internet) so hope you see this. My kids are 16 (son), 15 (son) and 13/nearly 14 (daughter). This will be our 3rd cruise. The first was 3 days, the 2nd was a 7 day Eastern Caribbean, and now the 11 day. Pretty soon we will just move onto the ship permanently! My boys are on Facebook but my daugther is not. I am interested in having them make connections with kids their age before the cruise - especially my daughter as she will be 1 month too young to go to The Stack. I hope they can participate in the Secret Mickey gift exchange - that will be so much fun! We are very, very excited about this cruise - we have loved every minute of our past cruises.
Liz

Welcome aboard! My DD is 15. I will PM you her FB information.
We plan on changing our permanent residence to the ship too. Maybe, we will be
neighbors

 

[IceSk8ersMom]

For those of you with teens do you think they might like to talk to other teens on our cruise on their own cruise meets thread?

DD and I were talking about this today and she thought it would be a great idea. So if you have a teen let me know if they would be interested in a cruise meets thread.

DD is in. This is a great idea!

 

[IceSk8ersMom]

We finally finished our homework. This is it, our list of excursions!
St. Marrten...Downhill Rain Forest Trek (still need to stay in shape)
Guadeloupe...Snorkeling Cousteau Reserve & Crayfish Waterfall
Barbados... Segway Adventure (DD and DH only)
Martinique...Beach and Snorkel at Bat Cave
St. Thomas...Mahogany Run (DH and Scott) and Scream Eagle for teens (DD, 15)
Castaway Cay...Extreme Getaway and The Wild Side (DD, 15)

Hopefully with faith, trust, and a little bit of pixie dust, this will work out.

I would love to see MVMCP, but we will not be able to see it this time. I hope for a precruise celebration at DL the weekend before. We can ride Nightmare before Christmas and It's a Small World, as well as see MVMCP, SoCal style.

I never considered a gift for the crew, but it is Christmas. It is a good idea. I am thinking international calling cards.

We are having a slumber party at my sister's house so we can book our excursions.

Good luck to all of you, who will be at your computers this morning.

Take care and talk to you soon.

 

[kritter]

Hi Everyone,

DH are considering joining this cruise now. Just worried about the kids being away from home for Christmas. But I think this looks like a FAB. cruise to take...........

 

[Kitster]

I have to agree with njmom23grls that it depends on what your family enjoys doing. We usually like to take DCL excursions unless it's a port we've been to several times.

Here's what we are doing:

St. Maarten - 12 Meter Regatta
Guadeloupe - Botanical Garden & Severin Distillery(DD & I may opt out of this and just walk around the port area)
Barbados - Turtle Shipwreck & Snorkel 11:15am
Martinique - Mangrove Kayaking 8:15am
St. Thomas - Buck Island Catamaran Sail 11:45am

!n 2004 we went to Meagan's Bay on St Thomas and that was a nice beach day.

Here are our plans for shore excursions. We'd love to join you in Barbados, but with B2B Disney tours, we HAVE to do the early snorkel. Harrison Cavern was closed the last time we visited, so we refuse to miss it this time


Day 1 - Port Canaveral
Day 2 - At Sea - No activities reserved
Day 3 - At Sea - No activities reserved
Day 4 - St. Maarten - Mountain Top Downhill Rainforest Trek - 8:00AM
Day 5 - Guadeloupe - No activities reserved
Day 6 - Barbados - Turtle Shipwreck & Snorkel Adventure - 8:15AM - 11:45AM -----Harrison's Cave and Scenic Drive - 2:15PM - 5:15PM
Day 7 - Martinique - No activities reserved
Day 8 - At Sea - No activities reserved
Day 9 - St. Thomas - Tramway on our own (email sent to verify they will be open that day)
Day 10 - At Sea - Palo Brunch - 11am
Day 11 - Castaway Cay - Watercraft Ski Adventure - (2) Single
10:00AM - 11:00AM
Day 12 - Port Canaveral

 

[VMinick]

Hello, kritter!

We'd all LOVE to have you join the cruise with us! I was worried about the kids being away from home on Christmas as well, but with all the fun activities being planned and with how magical Christmas at sea sounds, we're actually more afraid that they'll never want to do Christmas at home again!

We're going to bring their stockings and some small gifts to open. We'll also have a small tree in our room and Christmas clings on the verandah doors and mirrors. It will be festive and fun!

 

[kritter]

Hello, kritter!

We'd all LOVE to have you join the cruise with us! I was worried about the kids being away from home on Christmas as well, but with all the fun activities being planned and with how magical Christmas at sea sounds, we're actually more afraid that they'll never want to do Christmas at home again!

We're going to bring their stockings and some small gifts to open. We'll also have a small tree in our room and Christmas clings on the verandah doors and mirrors. It will be festive and fun!

Thanks, we are seriously considering it......

Are you going to leave gifts at home to open when you arrive back at home??

Is it to late to get signed up for the FE exchange??

 

[tinknsnow]

Hi all.

My family will be on this holiday cruise and boy, am I psyched to spend the holidays on a ship rather than at home worried about replacing light bulbs on the tree and in-law issues

Originally we had our usual midship Cat 3 on the NYE cruise but we bumped over here when it was canceled. Now we're in two adjoining Cat 5 rooms and I think it will work out just fine!

My husband and I have 3 kids-- girl 12, girl 9.5, boy 7.5. This is our first holiday away from home. Yippee!!!

My son is concerned about Santa visiting. Stockings for sure. Trying to figure out small gifts to bring along for the kids. And a small electric tree? Anyone doing a tree in their cabin?

My kids love the clubs. We like active excursions. And boy, do I love the spa... can hardly wait!

See y'all on board!

~Tracy

 

[egorss78]

Just joined this cruise as well, couldnt pass up the florida resident offer and onboard credits. Going thru the excersion options right now.

DH - Shaun
DW - Jen
DD - Jordan(Age 6)
DD - Savannah (Age 4)

 

[VMinick]

Yep, we're going to leave Santa's gifts (and possibly a few larger sized ones from us) at home. I was going to have a letter from Santa to put with their stockings onboard letting them know about those presents as well. I think the kids will love getting another wave of gifts once we're home! Even though they'll actually have less things this year (with the cruise being a large gift), it will seem like more because it will be spread out.

You can sign up for the FE until November 1st, so you have plenty of time to decide. It's our third cruise with DCL, but it will be our first time participating in the FE. I figured that will be another thing to add to the Christmas magic!

 

[VMinick]

Welcome to all the new cruisers! It's so exciting to see our list grow! I wish everyone luck getting the excursions that you want and hope that you are enjoying the planning! I know I am having a ball trying to decide what to pack, what to buy, whether or not I'm happy with the excursions we picked, etc.

 

[mickeyteachers]

I would like to make sure I am part of the fish extender gift exchange.

 

[Bakerteam]

I was able to get in at 12:10am.

 

[Ramzmich]

Was able to get on at 12:02. We signed up for everything we wanted except the St. John's teen wild ride and High Tea. High Tea completely gone.

 

[3princessMommy]

Hi All! Got in at 7:05am our time (12:05 ET). Took a while with a very slow internet connection, but an hour later we have the following ressies:

- Palo Dinner for 4 adults (don't like the day and time, but there wasn't much selection - figure I can change it when we get on board if we need to)
- Palo Bruch for 2 adults (There were no tables for 4. and I couldn't reserve a second table for 2.)

St. Maarten: Bubba Fishing & See and Sea Island Tour
Guadeloupe: Zoological Park & Caret Island
Barbados: Harrison's Cave & 5-star Catamaran and Turtle Encounter
St. Thomas: Magens Bay Beach Break
Castaway Cay: Castaway Ray Adventure (not the time I wanted, but oh well...)

So looks like we'll be racing to Rockin' D for some Palo ressies on the first day, but everything else seems set!