MAGIC - February 17, 2014

[castlegazer]

Sorry Princess Nina! I had gotten used to no one checking in to this thread or being on the cruise that I forgot to check it.

WELCOME!!!!

Fish extenders are really fun, but we have a very small DIS contingent sailing on this cruise and mostly adults.... that being said, I am happy to set one up with you! I have done one every cruise I have sailed and have run one also.

My kids love it - I have a son who is 11 and a daughter who will be turning 9 for the cruise.

Do you need any more info on the process?


I will start the roll call for it now!

FISH EXTENDER PARTICIPATION ROLL CALL:

Castlegazer - 2 children (girl and boy), 2 adults

Princess Nina - 2 children (girl and boy), 2 adults? (is this correct?)

grandmakk - 2 children (boy and girl), 2 adult, plus 2 grandparents who I know want gifts too even though they say they don't

LA PIG 3 Children (2 boys, 1 girl) and 3 adults

 

[grandmakk]

Please count us in on the fish extenders. I will be traveling with my 2 grandchildren. Boy 8---girl 6. This will be their first cruise and I would love for them to enjoy this fun event. What do I need to do to join? Do you need our cabin number? Should they make up fun names? Thank you for organizing this. We are very excited!

 

[castlegazer]

Oh Cool!!

Hi Grandmakk!!! And welcome to the DIS.

For right now we just collect the names participating, then I will set up a Google doc that everyone on just this cruise will be able to access where you can input your cabin numbers.

From there on, it's up to you what you want to provide for the cabins participating.

To answer a frequent question I see asked by new cruisers and FE participants; single cabin gifts for the whole cabin is totally acceptable, or you can provide gifts to each person participating. It's totally up to you and either way is totally acceptable and will not be frowned upon at all.

I have a whole bag of gifts and a curio cabinet full of gifts we received on our last cruises, and I will see if I can get a picture of it to show the range and variety of things people gift. Everything from Oriental trading novelties to hand made cookies or bookmarks or even more elaborate gifts the like of which you see on Pinterest when you search for Disney Fish Extender gifts.

 

[castlegazer]

oh and by the way, I was thinking our sail date maybe wasn't very full, but according to Cruisefish, we are at 70% occupancy in most categories. Some rates are lower for sailing, but concierge has gone up significantly.

I was wrong about how to interpret the 70% number - it means there are 70% of each category available for booking, so our instincts are correct that there are not many sailing on this cruise date.

I would assume, once the videos go up of the new Magic, this will change rapidly. I am very excited for this re-make of my favorite ship!

 

[grandmakk]

CASTLE GAZER Thank you so much for the info. I just ordered my fish extender on ebay. I plan on surprising the kids at Christmas with it and some pillowcase autograph kits. There will be 2 adults in the cabin with my grandkids. We are traveling with my daughter, her husband and the 2 kids in one cabin. My husband and I in another. I will sign them up and get the extender gifts, but they will actually be in another cabin. Is this a problem? I am so excited for this. It will be so much fun delivering our gifts and of course receiving them. I have 2 questions. How many kids are there on average participating 10ish or 100ish? I didn't realize the adults participated. How many adults on average? Thanks for the pictures I look forward to seeing them. AND special thanks for organizing it.

 

[LA PIG]

Hi!
Just made final payment on this cruise, so we are officially onboard. We participated in the fish extender this summer on the Fantasy and would love to do it again. My kids loved checking their "mail" every day. There will be six of us in total (DH, Me, DSIL, DS 8, DD 8, and DS 6).

Thanks for organizing this! It really is a lot of fun.

Luciana

 

[castlegazer]

WELCOME LA PIG!!!

I know the PIF date is upcoming and its actually freaking me out a little.
We have always sailed during April vacation and this PIF right before the Holidays is like,

Congrats on getting it out of the way! Me, I will be slinking along to November when I need to get it all in so I can do my ressies.

Don't panic everyone else, the true PIF date for the cruise isn't till December, but you can't book stuff until PIF and we are Gold cruisers, so I want to get that done sooner rather than later.

I am taking my boyfriend who has never cruised and never been on a Disney cruise prior so, when I may have skipped Palo this cruise, we need to do it so he can experience it, etc.

Grandmakk, for this cruise I would predict no more than 40 kids. We're at just under 10 right now.

No worries about different cabin #s as you will fill in the info onto the document. But I encourage you to do it also with your husband! Yes, adults get gifts too if you want to. If you only want to gift the kids, totally fine!

It's totally up to you how you want to do it. As I said, one cabin gift, instead of say, 4, is totally fine too. It's no pressure how you want to participate at all. Just fun and a great way to have a little added pixie dust for the days!

It is fun LA PIG to check outside every day to see what comes! That's what my kids like best!

I am excited that we are a small sailing as we can do so much more with this than with the large exchanges on the Dream or Fantasy! I did a Dream one two cruises ago and it wasn't split up so I was exhausted trying to get all the gifts to the cabins before the cruise ended! BUT, I definitely got to know the corridors and length and breadth of that ship!

 

[castlegazer]

Pictures are out!!!!!

http://www.usatoday.com/picture-gal...-photos-of-the-revamped-disney-magic/3179477/

SOOOOO EXCITED!!!!

OK, and as promised I took a photo of some of my favorite past Fish Extender gifts beside the candy, cookies, door magnets, toys and pens we get:

Shown here are bookmarks, a picture frame, a magnet and a handmade notebook and pen.

 

[jandj524]

Just stopping by to say hi I will be sailing with my family, DH, DD 11, DS 10 on this magical cruise Not sure about the FE, but will let you know soon.

So excited to see the re-imagined Magic in person happy planning everyone!!

 

[ddixon1]

Hello!
I recently moved a Dream (concierge) cruise to this sailing. (Just purchased DVC points, and needed to save a bit of cash - but perish the thought of deferring the cruise!)

I'm hoping that I don't regret the decision, given the many described problems with the cabins out of drydock. ;(

I will sail with my DS9. I use that term loosely, as he tends to ditch me for the Lab/Club. I find myself resorting to demanding that he share meals with me, at the very least. I'm hoping that the Aqua Lab will entice hime to spend some time with his old mom.

I've sailed DCL 3x before, but have not yet participated in FE. How does it work? Do we deposit gifts daily, or once during the cruise? Daily seems overwhelming whereas once seems manageable.

I'd love to see if anyone would care to join me for brunch at Palo, as well.

Cheers!

 

[castlegazer]

Hi there ddixon and jandj!!! Welcome aboard!!!

The FE is just once per cruise.

It's really fun and thus far, it won't be much of a hassle at all given how few people are on our meet! And with final payment close, I can't imagine getting too many more people, but I may be wrong.

Have you been on the Magic previously? I wouldn't worry at all about the reports of the cabins being dirty and the water not working. I look at is this way as this has happened to me on a Magic sailing; DCL will take care of you and will move you if they can and can't fix it right away.

I haven't posted this on the main board, but we took a cruise on the Magic and I was trying to save money after my divorce and went from always sailing a verandah to doing a Porthole room. Well, turns out the cabin I got was right below the theater and was LOUD! It had hot water issues too - like we had none. So we spent one night there and I went to guest services and they immediately moved us to a new room .... it was a verandah! I was like, WOOOHOOOOO!!!!!!!!! My kids got stuffed animals delivered to them, and guest services checked on us every day to make sure we were ok. And I didn't rant or rave, I simply let guest services know about and asked to have it fixed while we were out during the day.

So, the moral of the story is, it's Disney! They will try very very hard to make you happy if things aren't up to snuff.

And it's a THIS or THAT to me versus the other ships:

THIS:
The awesome separation of the Aqualab area from the Goofy pool.

THAT:
The craziness of the pool decks on the Fantasy and Dream

THIS:
Adults can ride the twist and spout!!!

THAT:
Long lines for AquaDuck

THIS:
Avengers Academy

THAT:
Large clubs with tons of kids and not a lot of CM interaction

THIS:
Less Crowds!

THAT:
I didn't like dining on the Dream - felt crowded all the time to me

So, I am looking so forward to being back on the Magic even if she is a little old in the cabins - they actually are very nice inside, albeit maybe a tile in the bathroom floor is cracked in places, and there are scratches on the walls in some places. It's really nice to have new bedding and couch!

 

[castlegazer]

Hello!

I'd love to see if anyone would care to join me for brunch at Palo, as well.

Cheers!

I may not make final payment by November 4th, 105 days for Gold (my kds are Gold turns out and I am not until after this cruise), and really want to do Palo Brunch with my boyfriend. I think it will be more like the Final date in December for a our PIF - darn braces and teeth work for my kids right now plus Christmas is kicking my financial katookus!

I am positive we would be able to get a ressie on board, but given your offer....

We are very social, I think cool people - he looks like Robert Downey, Jr. and is hilarious like him too - and we would love to share a ressie if you can get one for 3!

 

[castlegazer]

New page: (by the way, I will note if there are teens, but only noting gender right now. Most, if not all, of the kids are right in the same age group at this point! Cool!) FISH EXTENDER PARTICIPATION ROLL CALL: Castlegazer - 2 children (girl and boy), 2 adults Princess Nina - 2 children (girl and boy), 2 adults? (is this correct?) grandmakk - 2 children (boy and girl), 2 adult, plus 2 grandparents who I know want gifts too even though they say they don't LA PIG 3 Children (2 boys, 1 girl), 3 adults ddixon1 1 Child, 1 adult ? jandj524 To Participate go to this link and fill out the survey:

 

[ddixon1]

Hey castlegazer!

Thank you for the warm welcome.

Okay, so I'm in for the FE. Sounds like a good cruise to give it a try.

Although it's just 1 adult (me) and 1 child (DS9).

And brunch sounds great. I'm silver too, and my PIF is 11/19/13. I'm happy to book a reservation for 3 - is it easy enough to do?

Oh and I noticed from your signature that we sailed on the Magic out of NYC together! 7/13/12 - 7/15/12. How funny is that? It was my first DCL experience, and I fell in love...

Thanks again! And I'm really looking forward to meeting everyone...

 

[castlegazer]

Oh that is so cool!!

I can't wait for the Magic to come back North!!!...if it ever does... That was so awesome to be able to drive down the morning of the cruise and get on!

That is actually the cruise we had hot water issues on! So we were in two different cabins for that short of a trip!

But it was so great! It gave us a mid cruising year cruise and then we stayed on Central Park for a couple days afterwards.

My Paid in Full date in December 4th... you prompted me to go check again and make sure.

But my ressie date is November 4th if PIF. And I just went to the DIS FAQs to understand this: According to DCL: "Silver, Gold or Platinum benefits are determined by the highest membership level Guest in a stateroom. Only one Guest in a stateroom party needs to be a Castaway Club Member for the entire stateroom party to be eligible for the associated benefits. However, benefits do not extend beyond the immediate stateroom party, so benefits associated with Guests traveling in other staterooms will be determined by the highest membership level Guest in each stateroom."

So I may be able to book earlier because we are being considered Gold level. But I can't because I won't be paid in full by that point.

You actually can't make ressies for Palo for anyone but your immediate party sailing, and only if they have the same CC level as you. But once you have the reservation, it's very easy and usually always works, to add a couple people to it once on board.

So once your window opens, I would say, book Palo for a table. Then we will go from there and see how it works out to have brunch together. But I feel confident, once you have a reservation, we will be able to eat together.

I will get one also if it's available once I have PIF.

I also have, for a past Magic cruise, gotten the private room in Palo for our DIS meet group, so if others want to do brunch together, let us know and we can work on getting the private room if it gets above 6 people.

 

[castlegazer]

Hi everyone! I have developed the Fish Exchange participant Survey. Theresults are protected from viewing so that is why I am asking in the survey for your e-mail address so I can send you access to the final spreadsheet once we close participation closer to the sail date. Please let me know if you see anything wrong on the survey. It's been a long time since I have done this. Here's the link to follow: Just fill out the info it asks for and then we should be good to go with a great, easy to use, list! I will place it at the bottom of the roll calls also.

 

[grandmakk]

Hi Castlegazer,
I feel very fortunate to have you on our cruise. Can you answer one more question? Are we supposed to put our names on the gifts or is it supposed to be anonymous like a secret santa? You have also convinced me to participate, your comment made me literally laugh out loud! We will hand out a kids gift from the kids and a family gift from grandma and grandpa. Is that acceptable? Thank you so much for taking the time to do all of this. This will make this cruise extra special for us all.

 

[castlegazer]

Aw thanks but it's just paying back for the fun we've had with it on prior cruises! Plus my kids would kill me if I didn't make it happen! On the NYC cruise Dixon and I were talking about, I didn't sign up to participate in the FE, but once on board everyone from the DIS was sooo nice, once I introduced myself, that they literally dragged me to the sail away party with free drinks, and gave me all the fun giveaways they had for it! Another woman on the DIS who became my friend to this day, on my prior DREAM cruise heard what I was going through with my divorce happening right as we were about to take the cruise, knew I loved to make bags for each cruise and have them signed for my kids by the characters, but I just had no time or energy to do it. She made a special bag for me so I could continue our tradition of this on the cruise. It was the sweetest thing and my kids loved it! It paying back for that type of fun and love I have felt on all my cruises!


To finally answer your question, as we get ready to win the WORLD SERIES HERE IN BOSTON, you can have it say your name or not, totally up to you!

 

[grandmakk]

Hi again,


Good for you I hope all is going well now. I have always believed in pay it forward. Once I get the hang of this I know I will be the one to run this on another cruise. Do we get to meet the people from our fish extender group or is this just ships passing in the night. I would love to give you a big hug, except for the Boston Red Socks comment. We live in Tiger country and we almost made it. lol

 

[castlegazer]

Everything is awesome now!!!!

BOTH PERSONALLY AND IN TITLE TOWN!!!! Yay RED SOX!!!!



I would love to say, yes, we will all meet, but I find with the shorter cruises, it's really tough to do.

A lot of times it's in the terminal prior to embarkation and then up on Deck 10 for sailaway. But we won't be coming in until very late this cruise - first time ever I am flying in the morning of - so the terminal is out.

We can say Deck 10 Starboard side, but again, then you miss out being right down in the action for your first cruise on Deck 9. Deck 10 gives you a great vantage point, but you won't be in the dance crowd.

We have done T-Shirts, wrist bands, etc, to identify each other, on previous cruises, but again, this is a short cruise, and when you're a newbie to DCL, you will want to spend the time getting to know the ship, not trying to make a scheduled meet.

Just my feelings on it... but if anyone wants to plan a meet, please feel free to. I just may not be there given the rush of the time.

You will know who we are - my daughter is very distinctive with platinum blond hair - and I will share a photo prior to the cruise of all of us so when you pass in the night, which is likely on the Magic as it's a smaller ship, you can know it's us!

Plus, we will know each other's cabin numbers to leave notes for an impromptu meet up at O'Gill's or something.

I am psyched that a lot of us have kids the same age... or grandkids , so we should try to get them together... but I just know it's really hard to do on embarkation day.

Speaking of meeting up, ddixon1, my boyfriend and I were talking last night, and I think we have decided to skip Palo. I am really sorry, because it would have been so cool to meet up, which we still can do - all of us can in fact, at a lounge or somewhere, but we were talking about the increased cost of $25/pp and it broke my tipping point for it.

I hate to take the time on the one sea day to get out of the bathing suit and get dressed to go stuff yourself silly. I just wanted him to see it, but he dislikes buffets because they are so tempting to eat too much, and we decided that we can go and have a drink at the Palo bar and that is how he can see it.

We'd both be much happier with that scenario.

Sorry again. But again, it's the thought of the short cruise and fitting everything in.

The good news is, we may be able to make final payment by the 4th - I have been really trying to do this with cash and not credit, but a little credit to be able to finally book at Gold level may be worth it - especially on my Disney Visa with no interest on Disney vacations.

That might have been an overshare, but it's good for people to know the perks of that card too. I am using my rewards from the card for all of our on board expenses.

P.S. My family is orignally from Adrian, MI!!! We are midwesterners by heart and the Tigers are near and dear to us... if we weren't soooo fanatic about the Sox... the red ones that is!!!!