Magic Christmas Cruise 2010 (Dec 18th - 29th) - ***UPDATED - post #411 ***

[nzdisneymom]

Just wanted to pop in and say that we were onboard the Magic for a 7-night Christmas cruise and it was fabulous! So for you all to have many more nights - wow! It can't get any better than that!

I posted my trip report which includes some of the holidays happenings, but if you have any specific questions about holidays onboard, feel free to PM me. My TR is in my sig line.

 

[pfishgirl]

We are 1 Christmas Closer to our Christmas @ Sea !!!!!

 

[pillow]

Hi everyone. Our family is also booked on this cruise. However, I'm not sure if I'll be able to pull this one off -

#1 - the price - We have a secret porthole room booked, but the price is still up there. I could do 2 great vacations for what this one is costing. Also, the rumors are that DCL will be cruising Alaska in 2011 - might want to spend the $$$ on that one.

#2 - my son has already said that he would rather be at home on Christmas, not on a cruise (clearly he did not receive my travel gene).

#3 - my mother is giving me the evil eye already about not being home at Christmas time.

I actually picked up the phone today to cancel (I could use that deposit back), but I couldn't bring myself to do it.

What to do???? I suppose I'll sit on this reservation a while longer - maybe find a job to help pay the outrageous price!!?? Maybe bribe my son??!

Happy Holidays!

Jodie

 

[pfishgirl]

Hi everyone. Our family is also booked on this cruise. However, I'm not sure if I'll be able to pull this one off -

#1 - the price - We have a secret porthole room booked, but the price is still up there. I could do 2 great vacations for what this one is costing. Also, the rumors are that DCL will be cruising Alaska in 2011 - might want to spend the $$$ on that one.

#2 - my son has already said that he would rather be at home on Christmas, not on a cruise (clearly he did not receive my travel gene).

#3 - my mother is giving me the evil eye already about not being home at Christmas time.

I actually picked up the phone today to cancel (I could use that deposit back), but I couldn't bring myself to do it.

What to do???? I suppose I'll sit on this reservation a while longer - maybe find a job to help pay the outrageous price!!?? Maybe bribe my son??!

Happy Holidays!

Jodie

Awwwww.....

You "may" want to hang onto this cruise a bit longer.. no money is due for a while.. and then just move it later. If you got incentives, 10% off or an onboard credit, when you switch dates, you'll get the incentives switched too. If you cancel and book a 2011 from scratch, you'll get no real incentives.. Just a Thought

 

[pillow]

Awwwww.....

You "may" want to hang onto this cruise a bit longer.. no money is due for a while.. and then just move it later. If you got incentives, 10% off or an onboard credit, when you switch dates, you'll get the incentives switched too. If you cancel and book a 2011 from scratch, you'll get no real incentives.. Just a Thought

I've actually got another dummy date booked so that I can transfer the 10%. Gotta love that discount!

Who out there has done a Christmas cruise before? Can someone tell me why the Christmas cruise is better than the others? What extra touches are there? I need some amunition to convince my son!!??

Jodie

 

[Hanny&AlsMom]

Happy New Year!

All the best to everybody in 2009,

Carolyn

 

[1Grumpy John]

Happy New Year may this one be better than the last and the best of all the rest

 

[Hanny&AlsMom]

I hope that everybody had a fantastic Christmas and New Year! I love the holidays, but am always a little relieved when they're over (just so busy, it's nice to be able to relax again). I am going to try and figure out how to post photos, and I'll put up a couple. Anybody else have holiday photos to share?

 

[Hanny&AlsMom]

Just wanted to pop in and say that we were onboard the Magic for a 7-night Christmas cruise and it was fabulous! So for you all to have many more nights - wow! It can't get any better than that!

I posted my trip report which includes some of the holidays happenings, but if you have any specific questions about holidays onboard, feel free to PM me. My TR is in my sig line.

Thank you so much for thinking of us and posting your trip report here. It was awesome! I just got a chance to sit down and read the whole thing. It looks and sounds like you had a blast. I was already excited about cruising at Christmas, now it's even worse! I can't wait! Would you cruise at Christmas again?

Carolyn

 

[Dreamsoftravel]

I have been in Florida for the last two weeks and have been out of touch. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!! I hope everyone had a great holiday!

My parents just left for the 7-night St. Croix. I of course am wondering what they are doing every minute.

Can not wait to read the trip report for this past Christmas. I will have to work on that later, after I finish unpacking, doing laundry, and working on my thank you notes.

 

[Hanny&AlsMom]

Our cruise meet has been so quiet lately....where is everybody?

 

[DCLInauguralXmas]

We just finished the 7 night western christmas cruise on the magic with a one week extension in WDW. It was incredible! Yes, santa does visit but it is on Christmas day, they present it as Santa made his deliveries and worked very hard last night so he is coming to visit with us on Christmas and relax on our cruise. They didn't do the Mrs. Claus story that I knew of, but the decorations and the magic of the season were increase by the disney touch. We purchased a small cheap tree from Lowe and decorate it for out stateroom. You can purchase one from Disney, but it is around $100. I ended up shipping a box with our christmas decorations (window clings, the tree, ornaments, lights, garland, etc.), for Fish extender gifts and our pirate costumes to the ship and that worked out perfectly! We booked this 11 night Christmas 2010 while still on board. We cruised on the 1998 christmas cruise also! We are hooked on holiday cruises! I am looking forward to getting to know all of you over the next 23 months!

Denise

We are Booked!!!!

We were going to do the TA WB but DH twisted my arm and I finally said OK lets Spend Christmas at Sea..

So now I have questions, totally out of curiousity.. DS will be 20 and we included him, but we have 2 years to see if he will sail with us or not..

My question is.. Does Santa Claus visit you while on the cruise or is that an added bonus so when you get home there are still presents under the tree? Do you pack a Christmas Tree?

For those of you that have sailed on Christmas already in the past. Is Santa Claus on the ship or just Mrs Claus?

We did an early December cruise and only Mrs Claus was on the ship, reading stories. It was so awesome, even without little ones, to hear her stories in front of the HUGE decorated tree and watch it snow..

Thanks for the info!!

 

[Hanny&AlsMom]

We just finished the 7 night western christmas cruise on the magic with a one week extension in WDW. It was incredible! Yes, santa does visit but it is on Christmas day, they present it as Santa made his deliveries and worked very hard last night so he is coming to visit with us on Christmas and relax on our cruise. They didn't do the Mrs. Claus story that I knew of, but the decorations and the magic of the season were increase by the disney touch. We purchased a small cheap tree from Lowe and decorate it for out stateroom. You can purchase one from Disney, but it is around $100. I ended up shipping a box with our christmas decorations (window clings, the tree, ornaments, lights, garland, etc.), for Fish extender gifts and our pirate costumes to the ship and that worked out perfectly! We booked this 11 night Christmas 2010 while still on board. We cruised on the 1998 christmas cruise also! We are hooked on holiday cruises! I am looking forward to getting to know all of you over the next 23 months!

With the information that Denise gave me, here is the most recent version of our list:

Amy & Steve (amystevekai&bump)
Deb & John (EllaEnchanted) & (1GrumpyJohn)
Stacy & Andy (pfishgirl)
Carolyn & Trent (Hanny&AlsMom)
(Gecko1)
Jen & Eric (Dreamsoftravel)
and Jen's parents, Dennis and Susan
Denise & Dennis (DCLInauguralXmas)
and Denise's mom, Anita

 

[pfishgirl]

We just finished the 7 night western christmas cruise on the magic with a one week extension in WDW. It was incredible! Yes, santa does visit but it is on Christmas day, they present it as Santa made his deliveries and worked very hard last night so he is coming to visit with us on Christmas and relax on our cruise. They didn't do the Mrs. Claus story that I knew of, but the decorations and the magic of the season were increase by the disney touch. We purchased a small cheap tree from Lowe and decorate it for out stateroom. You can purchase one from Disney, but it is around $100. I ended up shipping a box with our christmas decorations (window clings, the tree, ornaments, lights, garland, etc.), for Fish extender gifts and our pirate costumes to the ship and that worked out perfectly! We booked this 11 night Christmas 2010 while still on board. We cruised on the 1998 christmas cruise also! We are hooked on holiday cruises! I am looking forward to getting to know all of you over the next 23 months!

Denise

I'm a little behind but Thank You for the answers to my Santa questions and Welcome to our little family..

 

[knewton64]

I'm a little behind but Thank You for the answers to my Santa questions and Welcome to our little family..

.....hello everyone. My name is kris & I will be traveling after all of you. I guess ya canconsider me an "adopted Cruiser" of your postings but.....I need your help please. I can't for the life of me get a sucessful linking of the cruise date to the dismeets boards; thus people can have easy acess to the site post a lot easier. Therefore is there one of your out there who can do this for me?? I have tried 4 different times & am not sucessful!!!!!!!
Thank you for the one who helps me

 

[Hanny&AlsMom]

.....hello everyone. My name is kris & I will be traveling after all of you. I guess ya canconsider me an "adopted Cruiser" of your postings but.....I need your help please. I can't for the life of me get a sucessful linking of the cruise date to the dismeets boards; thus people can have easy acess to the site post a lot easier. Therefore is there one of your out there who can do this for me?? I have tried 4 different times & am not sucessful!!!!!!!
Thank you for the one who helps me

Hi Kris,

This is a copy and paste of my request to IrishCowboy:

Please add the Dec 18th 2010 Christmas Cruise:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1975680

Thanks!
__________________

I think the link is the essential part that you're missing. There is likely so many cruise meets that it would be extremely difficult to find yours without that info. When I put in our request, I went to the very first page of our cruise meets thread, copied the address, and pasted in my request. I hope that helps! If I didn't make much sense, pm me and I'll try again. Or, you could go to the technical page, there is some great info there.

Carolyn

 

[amystevekai&bump]

Hi everyone!!

Sorry I haven't posted for a while, I have been going through one of those periods of 'Lets avoid the Dis as I haven't got a vacation for nearly two years and I am too sad to hear about all those lucky people travelling this year!!' ).

Now I'm back to my regular - ' Lets see what everyone's doing this year, to give me ideas for next year ' - which is my favourite mindset to be in!!!

Anyway, having now sorted out this years vacation - we are renting a cottage in Cornwall (which for those of you not familiar with it - its about an hour or so drive from where we live in Devon - nice beaches and hill walks, weather very changeable even in August!!) - but I can't seem to get too excited about this (I've tried every which way possible to swing a WDW trip this year but the Bank says NO!!) -But having sorted 2009, i am now back to planning Christmas 2010!!!

So after alot of rambling on (sorry! )- down to my latest question for you!! - Are any of you planning on visiting WDW after our cruise??

I was just wondering, as reading a lot of recent trip reports, the crowd levels seem a bit - and I am wondering whether it may be a bit much for my two boys (who as you know will be 6 and 3 when we travel). What are your thoughts?? Worth it?? or shall I try and squeeze all the parks in pre-cruise and have a few chill out days afterwards instead??

 

[pillow]

So after alot of rambling on (sorry! )- down to my latest question for you!! - Are any of you planning on visiting WDW after our cruise??

I was just wondering, as reading a lot of recent trip reports, the crowd levels seem a bit - and I am wondering whether it may be a bit much for my two boys (who as you know will be 6 and 3 when we travel). What are your thoughts?? Worth it?? or shall I try and squeeze all the parks in pre-cruise and have a few chill out days afterwards instead??

We usually go to WDW over spring break every year which is Easter week for us. The parks are mobbed, BUT I've used a resource that actually made it quite pleasant for us. Go out and buy the Schlesinger book - The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World. He has done statistical studies and has put together a plan for the optimum ride order to avoid wait times. In other words, you follow his plan and ride the rides in the order he suggests to avoid waiting in line. It really works! He also tells you which parks to avoid on which days, etc. When we went over spring break, we didn't wait in line for more than 20 minutes for ANYTHING! The downside is that you have to be at the parks right as they open in the morning, and sometimes there is a bit of extra walking involved. Its worth it though in my opinion to avoid those horrible lines.

If I were you, I would do WDW pre-cruise since it is tiring. It won't be as crowded then either. Then you can go on the cruise and relax!

We're still up in the air about this trip. I think it will depend on our budget and the state of the economy. Guess we have a while to figure things out. Oh, and I have to convince my son that it will be fun to be on a cruise over Christmas!!

Jodie

 

[Dreamsoftravel]

Hi everyone!!


down to my latest question for you!! - Are any of you planning on visiting WDW after our cruise??

I was just wondering, as reading a lot of recent trip reports, the crowd levels seem a bit - and I am wondering whether it may be a bit much for my two boys (who as you know will be 6 and 3 when we travel). What are your thoughts?? Worth it?? or shall I try and squeeze all the parks in pre-cruise and have a few chill out days afterwards instead??

If I were you, I would go before , the crowds will be alot less since it will be the week before Christmas. I do not think we will do Disney before or after. We will stay in town a day or two before heading home.

I wish we had a trip planned this year, but if I want to do this cruise, I must save, save, save! However, my parents are planning on taking my kids on their birthdays for the Disney birthday celebrations, without me. Actually, I am okay with it, I am all for any opportunity for anyone to go to Disney. I hope they remember to bring me back a treat from Mickey!

 

[amystevekai&bump]

thank you both for your replies!!

I think we are going to try and fit as much in as possible before the cruise - we are planning on a week at the poly before hand - I really want to see the MVMCP as we've never been over the xmas period before!!

I am then hoping to pop back to the Boardwalk for a few days at the end of the cruise, so I guess we could pop to a park just for anything we have missed the first week!!

Hence why we can't afford Florida this year - I think next year will end up being 4 years worth of vacation budgets rolled into one!!