Magic Goes Texan! Eight Crazy Nights (3/1/2013 Bahamas)

[slatterie]

How come the photo package is so expensive? Is it worth it?

 

[slatterie]

Would it be of value to get and utilize a Disney Gift card(s) for purchases outside of what has been paid for? I have seen some suggestions to do this - what is the advantage of doing this?

 

[slatterie]

How do you handle seasickness? Drammine(sp) or one of those wristbands? I used to never get queasy (loved roller coasters, etc.) but now that I am older I'm not as strong as I used to be. I am sure after a day or two I'll get used to it but just checking to see what others have done?

 

[slatterie]

Thanks again to everyone for the info - I dont expect my questions to be answered most I get figured out.

I will admit this is my first cruise. I have never been interested in taking one but since I out outvoted to just do WDW I hope to be pleasantly surprised.

Looking forward to seeing everyone's FEs...got in too late and not creative at all.

 

[slatterie]

http://s1201.beta.photobucket.com/user/dis_vickxo/media/DCL%20June%202nd%20Navigators/disneycruise034.jpg.html?sort=4&o=1

I dont understand why this info could not be provided before the trip but I would guess this is what will be the schedule for our sailing.

 

[threewilmingtonwalls]

When we pass out our FE's to everyone, are we supposed to say who they're from, or is this like a "secret santa?"
Thanks, Elaine

It's totally up to you!

 

[threewilmingtonwalls]

Ok here goes (sorry to spam the board) -

Tipping. As I understand it we are auto-charged the standard rate and then provided envelopes at the end with cards in there to give to our servers and room person with the opportunity to add additional funds if we want. Then we are to personally hand them out? What if we do not see them on the last day? Do we leave them in the room or is there a drop off/Guest Services place to put them.

Can we get extra envelopes to hand out to others if we feel that we want to give them something as well?

Hi and WELCOME!

 

[sdaniel]

Ok - there are 6 of us...myself, DH, DD (almost 5), my parents and my niece (5.5). DH and my dad will not be attending the Disney shows - not their thing. DD has been to some kids shows (Imagination Movers, Yo Gabba, Sesame St, Disney Ice, etc.) where niece has not.

That being said how "interactive" are these shows? I see that show lengths are just over an hour so they are not too long. However DD gets antsy if she has to sit through a bunch of dialogue so I am hoping that there is a lot of singing/dancing or I'm afraid we will have to skip them (or leave early). But did I read it correctly that these shows are also shown in your room TV? We may just move the girls to one of our rooms and watch from there. Do they have popcorn for room service?

We've never had a problem with our kids (even when they were < 5) sitting thru the show. All the shows are pretty fast and upbeat with quite a bit of singing and dancing. The quality is really good too.

You are right, the shows are shown on the room TV so that is an option. Not sure about popcorn, but Mickey Bars, milk and warm cookies are so much better anyway

 

[sdaniel]

What if you want to skip a dining night and just buffet/room service it? I'm thinking the day at WDW we are going to be too tired to dress up to go to dinner or not make our dining time. Do we contact someone to say we wont be there?

Also our DD and niece are very picky eaters and since we are on the later rotation they will probably eat before our scheduled time and will not want to sit at a restaurant. I guess we can take them to the kids club to play while we eat? We are going to try to switch to an earlier time.

And are the restaurants all closed for pirate night with only the pirate buffet available?

We always try to tell our server the night before if we're going to miss a dinner seating. It's not required to do this but I just feel it's common courtesy. We're probably going to do the same thing on the WDW day - we might even just eat at the park before we leave.

The kids meal choices at dinner are usually pretty good - they have standard items (nuggets, mac and chez, pizza, ?) plus other items that rotate. If you want the kids to eat earlier and then drop them off the kid program that works too. Disney does have 'Dine and Play' for the late seating if you want your kids to eat with you. From a prior post:

Here's how it works: You arrive in the dining room and inform the server that your child would like to participate in Dine and Play. The dining room team brings the child's meal first while serving the adults at a more leisurely pace.

About 45 minutes after seating begins, Youth Activities Counselors arrive in the dining room and sign in the child to their respective groups in Disney's Oceaneer Club or Disney's Oceaneer Lab, eliminating the need for you to escort the child to Deck 5.

Adults are then able to enjoy the full dining experience with the knowledge that their child is having a great time in a safe, fun and comfortable environment.

 

[sdaniel]

How come the photo package is so expensive? Is it worth it?

Pick your answer:

Because they can? Or because it's Disney?

Our last cruise I think we purchased maybe five pictures total. If your kids do the princess / character thing then you might purchase more (of course, you can just use your camera to take the picture and save the $$$). They do have backdrops setup in certain areas with 'professional' photographers who can take family portraits if you want. Just a note, we were sorely dissapointed with the quality of these pictures on our last cruise - YMMV.

 

[sdaniel]

Would it be of value to get and utilize a Disney Gift card(s) for purchases outside of what has been paid for? I have seen some suggestions to do this - what is the advantage of doing this?

Sometimes you can get deals on them at different stores. I want to say it was buy $100 get $10 free? Free money.

 

[sdaniel]

My wife is starting to work on our FEs (4 of them) tonight. I thank God I married someone who can sew!

I'm starting to work on some door signs. With four cabins I figure I need to start earlier than my normal one week out.

We've been brainstorming on the FE gifts. We've got the adults gifts designed. We're waiting to see how many join FE #2 to plan the kids gifts. Looking pretty slim right now. Guess we'll just wait and see.

All of this is being done after the kids go to bed - I don't know if I mentioned it earlier, but we are surprising the kids with this trip. We're just telling them that we're all going to a beach house for the weekend in Galveston (we're only 3.5 hours away). Hopefully we can keep it a secret until we get to the port!

So, anyone else working on cruise stuff tonight?

 

[McPheronsLoveDisney]

 

[McPheronsLoveDisney]

Would it be of value to get and utilize a Disney Gift card(s) for purchases outside of what has been paid for? I have seen some suggestions to do this - what is the advantage of doing this?

I use disney gift cards as savings for the trips so we have purchased gifts cards overtime to pay for onboard activitiesand extras (in our case a lot of disneyland trips) instead of just cash/ saving cash or use of credit card. That way we have no worries on our Disney adventures. We do this mostly for visiting the parks because you are able to keep track of exactly what you have spent and what the balance is.

 

[virgilatmit]

Has anyone received their luggage tags yet? I'm asking because I saw friends of mine have received their tags for the Feb 25 Wonder cruise out of Miami. I guess we'll be getting ours soon as well (4 days?)

 

[funforall]

My wife is starting to work on our FEs (4 of them) tonight. I thank God I married someone who can sew!

I'm starting to work on some door signs. With four cabins I figure I need to start earlier than my normal one week out.

We've been brainstorming on the FE gifts. We've got the adults gifts designed. We're waiting to see how many join FE #2 to plan the kids gifts. Looking pretty slim right now. Guess we'll just wait and see.

All of this is being done after the kids go to bed - I don't know if I mentioned it earlier, but we are surprising the kids with this trip. We're just telling them that we're all going to a beach house for the weekend in Galveston (we're only 3.5 hours away). Hopefully we can keep it a secret until we get to the port!

So, anyone else working on cruise stuff tonight?

We love to do mystery trips with the grandkids too. We were going to do that on this trip but we revealed to them at Christmas so they could help with the planning (that way we get to spend more time with them.) They are older -13,13,14 so they can help with the fe and gifts. We are in group 2 also, we will pobably do the fe this week end and explore options for the gifts

 

[Melinda79]

My husband and I are on this cruise with our 2 daughters that will be 7 & 3. This is our 2nd Disney Cruise. The first one where both kids can go to the kids club so I am excited to find out how different the cruise will be with some alone time. I have enjoyed reading all your post as the anticipation of the trip is getting almost unbearable!!! We are so excited and so ready!

 

[McPheronsLoveDisney]

My husband and I are on this cruise with our 2 daughters that will be 7 & 3. This is our 2nd Disney Cruise. The first one where both kids can go to the kids club so I am excited to find out how different the cruise will be with some alone time. I have enjoyed reading all your post as the anticipation of the trip is getting almost unbearable!!! We are so excited and so ready!

We just went through that in November 2012 on the fantasy. We were able to have a lot more time together. It was the first time both my boys able to enjoy the oceenars lab & club they had an absolute blast! Both hesitant at first but than they wanted to be there a lot more. We usually had to drag them out at night when we did some of the adult only things. It was nice knowing they went together instead of separated by the nursery which we did not use as much when we sailed in March 2011. Also the counselors are AMAZING they showed my 3 year old the ropes (stuck by his side) for the first couple of trips because he wanted to use the computers and he got the hang of it fast... never wanted to leave.

 

[Brooksmakingmemories]

Has anyone received their luggage tags yet? I'm asking because I saw friends of mine have received their tags for the Feb 25 Wonder cruise out of Miami. I guess we'll be getting ours soon as well (4 days?)

Ours came in the mail today!!!

 

[angiet1975]

Has anyone received their luggage tags yet? I'm asking because I saw friends of mine have received their tags for the Feb 25 Wonder cruise out of Miami. I guess we'll be getting ours soon as well (4 days?)

Got ours today