MAGICal Christmas 2008 - December 20, 2008

[alikat99]

Yes, I know it's early, but it was booking day today and I just had to start the thread.

We have plenty of time to prepare for Christmas 2008!!!

Cruising for us will be myself, DH, DD (7) and DD (4), and we'll be celebrating our 10th anniversary!!!

-----------------------------------------------------------
Cruising families:
alikat99 - Amy, Chris, Emily (7), Madison (4)
Diana Lyn - Diana, Bruce, Emma (5), Julia (4)
nzdisneymom - Cindy, Gary, Nathan (12), Zachary (11)
psharrock - Paul, Rachel, Ben (10), Katie (8, turning 9)
DisneyZell - Drew, Deanna, Nick (10), Connor (6)
& Neighbors - Mike, Kim, Chris (12), Kathryn (8)
SnowWhite2 - Laurie, DD (14), DD (12)
njmom23grls - Lisa, Mark, Emily (14), Rachael (10), Sandy (60+)
ShannonR - Shannon, Rick, Morgan (14), Mitchell (11), Melissa (3)
Kborn - Keith, Tina, Josh (8)
tinkerbell 29 - Lissa, Nancy, Matthew
MrsMunchie - Shirley, Justin, Joseph (10), Audrey (8)
Lynne Y. - Lynne, DH, Justin
stillwater - Becky, John, Anna (13), Alexander (13)
minnie1 - Angie, Pete, Ashley (10), Madison (7)
pogopossum - Phil, Sherrie, Rachel (14), Jordan (7), DGP, DSGM, DSM
Love Eeyore - Joyce, Jim, Jesse (16), Tyler (13)
SnowWhite2 - Laurie, DD (13), DD (11)
xsjackson - Susan, DH, Alexis (18), Nick (16)
----------Jim (74)
----------Ginny, Matt (12), Emma (10), Natalie (8), Nolan (6)
----------Nancy, Zane (15)
----------Katie & Kevin, Lydia (7), Asha (5)
Az Pirates - Kerry & Sheila, DD(21), DD(18), DS(13), DD(10)
dee47 - Dee, Keith (12)
BearFan - Lisa Maria, Paul
hinsok1 - Kim, Brad, Kat (12), Matt (7, but turning 8 on the cruise!)
----------Bob, Char
----------Jan, Craig, Sarah (21), Erick (20), Paul (14)
----------Doug, Heather, Nathaniel (14), Benjamin (13), Jerimiah (11), Hannah (9)
perdy1234 - Mel & Curt
tinksmom - Joe (52), Tenya (48), and Carly (15)
PalatkaCruisers - Rick, Laura and Jessica (9)
KathyFP - Kathy (?), Greg and Marissa (10)
bigedwin - Ed, Michelle, David (13), Sophia (10)
DCLInauguralXmas - Denise, DH, DS (18), DD (16), twin DSs (10)
dbxazd - Robin, Ed, Ryan (8), Meghan (6)
gardengirlco - Jennifer, Mark, Kevyn (10) and Sam (3)



Celebrations:
Birthdays:
Diana Lyn - Diana's birthday (12/25)
ShannonR - Shannon's birthday (12/14)
MrsMunchie - DH Justin's birthday (12/20)
minnie1 - Angie's birthday (12/11)
minnie1 - DD Madison's birthday (12/29)
DisneyZell - Deanna's birthday (12/29)
pogopossum - Phil's birthday (12/2)
hinsok1 - Matt's birthday (12/24)
tinkerbell 29 - Nancy's birthday (12/17)
psharrock - Katie's birthday (12/25)

Anniversaries:
alikat99 - Chris & Amy's 10th anniversary (12/19)
hinsok1 - Bob & Char's 50th anniversary

Scheduled Activities or Meets
12/20 - 3 pm - DISmeet in the Promenade Lounge on Deck 3 - headed by nzdisneymom
12/22 - 9:30 am - Group Photo/Scavenger hunt/Ornament Exchange meet in the Promenade Lounge - headed by BearFan


ATTENTION CHRISTMAS CRUISERS!!!
Did that get your attention? GOOD!! I'm very proud to announce the opening of our Cafepress shop!!

Just a few disclaimers:
I have it set to make ZERO profit. I'm not making anything from this.

I'm just the shop keeper. You order directly from Cafepress. You pay Cafepress directly. They ship directly to you. If you have a problem with your order you take it up with them. (And from previous cruises, their customer service is awesome.)

I've added just about everything that is available to "basic" shops aka free shops. Our design doesn't work for the dark shirts, so I didn't add those item. Whatever shirts come in both Gray and White, I have left that as an option for you. The Ringer Shirts and Baseball shirts come with a red trim option that looks really cute with our design.

Some shirts have one logo in the front, some have little pocket logo and big back logo. I tried to make something to make everyone happy. If you want something tweaked, I can try to do whatever I can to please the group.

I think that's it---happy shopping!!!

Any questions or problems---just let me know!

It would be helpful if I included the link!! http://www.cafepress.com/christmascruise

 

[Diana Lyn]

Well if you're cruising, you know I'm gonna join you!

It will be me, DH, and DDs 5 and 4.

We'll be celebrating my birthday on Christmas!!

 

[cgcw]

We're in!!

Me, DH, DS14 & DS8

We've sailed twice now with Amy & her family & Diana & her family!!!

We are going to have a blast!!!!!

We're celebrating friends & Christmas!!!!

 

[cgcw]

Did anyone else book today?

 

[nzdisneymom]

We were going to do a 3-night this December, but when I saw this thread yesterday, of course I went to explore and we decided to postpone a year so we can go for a week instead of barely getting on the ship before it's time to get off.

We did Costa Maya in Dec. 2005 and were not excited about it - we had wanted to go to Cozumel. But I think things have improved in Costa Maya (at least more is known now than when we sailed before) and this time we can do Cozumel, too, and what sold DH is the double-dip at Castaway Cay! And also we'll be on board for Christmas day!!!

Oh - it will be me (I'll be 44), DH (he'll be 52) and our two boys who will be 12 and 11 at the time (yikes!!!! seems like they shouldn't be that old). I'm looking forward to getting to know y'all over the next 22+ months.

 

[alikat99]

Welcome to the group, Cindy!!! I think that you made the perfect choice to cruise for a week at Christmas. We look forward to getting to know everyone as they join our happy group.

Cindy (cgcw), Diana and I have cruised together twice now on the past couple of DVC member cruises and have become great friends. My DH and I are tossing around a vow renewal for our 10th anniversary onboard (Dec 19th is our anniversary). And, Diana's birthday is Chrismas day, so we're looking forward to celebrating that as well.

Cindy has 2 boys as well, and Cameron will be 14 at the time that we cruise, so I'm sure that your boys will fit right in with the group.

So, to you, and anyone else that joins the thread, please don't feel intimidated by our previous friendship and chatter, and just jump right in. The 3 of us are actually somewhat shy, but have gotten to know each other by these DISmeets threads, so we want to get to know you too!!!

Ok, I've "talked" WAY too much, so before I overwhelm you any more than I already have, Welcome to the group!!!

 

[cgcw]

Cindy

Amy covered it pretty well. I look forward to getting to know you over the next almost 2 years!

 

[nzdisneymom]

Thanks for the welcome!

We're DVC owners, too -- we own at Saratoga Springs - and part of what convinced DH to buy into DVC was that we can use our points towards cruises Although somehow I keep managing to spend them on WDW stays (LOL). We live in North FL so we're an easy drive to the WORLD for whenever we have a spare couple of days.

We did our one and only DCL cruise in Dec. 2005 - the week before Christmas, so we got to experience the holiday celebrations / decorations (we got back on Dec. 24th). We're still talking about that trip over a year later! My pc background is a sunset picture from the ship leaving from Castaway Cay.

We're have a Cat. 6 booked for the Dec. 2008 trip.

Oh, and to distinguish us two Cindy's -- just refer to me as Cindy D.

 

[alikat99]

Hey Cindy D, we're in FL too. We're on the other coast from Pt. Canaveral, so we're also a quick trip to WDW. It's about 1.5 hrs to WDW, and 2.5 hrs to Pt. Canaveral. We usually make a stop at WDW for the night before our cruises, then just head over to the port in the morning.

 

[cgcw]

ugh, oh, it looks like I might be outnumbered by FL residents if we don't have any more people join this thread. Cindy D & Amy are already there and I hear that Diana is thinking about moving south too. We're stuck in cold and boring IL. No Disney World in our back door.

But.....we're heading out bright and early in the morning to meet some friends we met on our last two cruises at Great Wolf Lodge in Sandusky, OH. If I count correctly, there should be 23 people total from IL, NY, MI, OH & TX. It's going to be fun and something we have been looking forward to for a long time. Amy, I wish you could join us, but another time for sure. Hey, how about Christmas, 2008. Cindy D, want to join us? We're a friendly group!!


Have a great weekend, everyone!

 

[nzdisneymom]

We found out our cabin # this morning ~ 6570. We've requested main seating for dinner. We aren't going to tell the boys about this trip for a while. I'd love to surprise them.

 

[cgcw]

We found out our cabin # this morning ~ 6570. We've requested main seating for dinner. We aren't going to tell the boys about this trip for a while. I'd love to surprise them.

I actually kind of mentioned the idea to our 12 year old and he said he'd rather stay home at Christmas.

I was thinking along the same lines as you, Cindy D, in that maybe I would formally announce the idea next Christmas. We're cruising this year Thanksgiving to some of the same ports, so hopefully he'll be anxious to go back. If that doesn't work, I'll have to pull out my ace card and tell him that Amy's husband is cruising too. That will change his mind in an instant as he thinks Chris is the coolest guy!

 

[alikat99]

I actually kind of mentioned the idea to our 12 year old and he said he'd rather stay home at Christmas.

I was thinking along the same lines as you, Cindy D, in that maybe I would formally announce the idea next Christmas. We're cruising this year Thanksgiving to some of the same ports, so hopefully he'll be anxious to go back. If that doesn't work, I'll have to pull out my ace card and tell him that Amy's husband is cruising too. That will change his mind in an instant as he thinks Chris is the coolest guy!

There ya go, Cindy! And, if you get that cabin switch, then he'll be right next to Chris. I've mentioned it to my mom and my sister, but they're in Norfolk, so I probably wouldn't have seen them at Christmas anyway. But, I haven't told my MIL and my BIL and I'm sure that they will be a tad disappointed that we won't be home for Christmas. But, I figure that we'll just have Christmas when we get home from the cruise (since Santa will just leave his presents at our house while we're on the cruise anyway ).

 

[nzdisneymom]

We had not told the boys about cruising this December - which works out well since we've changed it to NEXT December They are all about Disney Disney Disney (yep, I've got them brainwashed) and I expect that they'll still be all about Disney still. Right now I have us on a tight budget for our Med. cruise this summer which is all about the ports and not about the ship -- so it will be nice to have another cruise to look forward to that will be more about the ship (and that double-dip at Castaway Cay!!!!)

We've always traveled at Christmas - it's rare for us to actually be home during the school break. Or if we're home, we're in and right back out. And we usually know a year ahead what we'll be doing the following year -- but now that we changed our plans, I don't know what we'll do for Dec. 2007. Oh well, I have plenty of time to figure that out

 

[cgcw]

Yippee, yahoo!!! We were able to change over to a SPH cabin this morning! As my DH said, a little bit of sunlight to brighten our days!!

 

[cgcw]

It looks like we're going to have the ship to ourselves. We can't be the only 4 families booked.



Is anyone else going to join us???

 

[nzdisneymom]

We got the 2007-2008 school calendar this week - the kids' last day is Dec. 21st which means it's a good thing we changed from this Dec. to next Dec. to cruise because we would've had the age-old debate about taking the kids out or not... I wouldn't care about my younger DS as he'll be in 4th grade, but my older one starts middle school in August and I dont' know how middle school works about that. Anyway, it does make me hopeful that they'll get out on the 19th next year so that we'll get out of school and drive to the Port, spend the night and sail the next day!

 

[psharrock]

Hi All

Me, DW, DS 10, DD 8-9

We booked on the first day, but only just found this thread. We did our 1st cruise in Dec 06, and loved every minute of it.

It will be DD 9th birthday on board which will be great

Paul

 

[nzdisneymom]

Paul - welcome! This thread is just getting started but I think we're all excited about getting to know each other over the next year.

 

[cgcw]

Hi All

Me, DW, DS 10, DD 8-9

We booked on the first day, but only just found this thread. We did our 1st cruise in Dec 06, and loved every minute of it.

It will be DD 9th birthday on board which will be great

Paul

Hi Paul!!

Cindy D is right in that we are just starting to get our feet wet in this thread but it will give us time to get to know each other before we cruise.