MAGICal Christmas 2008 - December 20, 2008

[psharrock]

Palo last night was fantastic, although the dress code was not adhered to very well. One table had guests wearing t-shirts and jumpers.

We saw Bolt for the first time and thought that was very good. The theater was packed, so not sure how everyone is going to fit into the smaller theater when Bedtime Stories is released on Thursday.

I hope everyone is having a fantastic vacation.

Paul

 

[corinnak]

I am having so much fun with the digital scavenger hunt - I am concerned that I'm not going to be able to attend the gathering tomorrow, though, as we have a few things going on. Why are those Sea days so busy, too???

 

[nzdisneymom]

It's our last night and I have about 10 minutes of internet time left. What an amazing trip. psharrock, I'm so sorry we never got to meet. And KathyFP, I think I missed you, too. And some others - but wow - what a bag full of FE gifts we have to take home! We'll think of so many of you when we use our pencils and notepads and enjoy our candy

Hope you all have a safe trip home. We're heading to the Space Center for the day on Saturday and then to visit relatives before getting home.

I posted a "live from the magic" thread on the trip reports thread - feel free to pop over and add your comments and experiences.

Special thanks to Amy for coordinating the Dolphin Encounter. It was a highlight of the trip for us -- both boys are still talking about how very cool that was to interact with the dolphin.

 

[KathyFP]

I feel bad that we did not get to meet very many Disers. We were is such an "awe" moment when we got on board that we forgot the first meet and greet. Ornament exchange was when we had our character breakfast.

For our first cruise we had a blast!! Our tablemates were wonderful, but in amazement with how much we knew and planned for our first trip. This board helped prepare us for our first experience. I know that our experience was so much better because of all we learned.

For those who we did not get to meet....for those who had late dinner......for those who attended the 6:15 Randy Kalmon show...I was up on stage.

Now even though I don't know who you are, you now know who I am.

 

[CrusinLattas]

We had a fantastic trip!!! Sorry we missed meeting some at the first meet - I forgot to change my watch! I wondered why they were closing things up so early. The trip started off a bit challenging - For some reason I guess customs was taken over by the grench. None of my f/e stuff, staff gifts, kids stocking candy or even the invitations I printed for the character meals at wdw made it to the ship. I was a bit upset, but you all saved the day with such a generous amount of f/e gifts I was able to put things in stockings and share candy with the crew! Thank you all!

We thought the trip was magical! I look forward to posting Picts when I get home.

I really enjoyed traveling with you all! We are booked for next year NYE cruise and the 11 day Christmas in 2010 so look us up if you are going too! We also joined DVC so yeah!

I'll post some pics in a week or so!

 

[psharrock]

Have a fantastic time at the contemporary.

We have arrived at Kissimmee, after a very boring 50 min drive from the dock.

We need a good nights sleep, as we had been woken up between 3am and 5am every morning with deck chairs being moved on Deck 9

Paul

 

[minnie1]

All I can say is... Oh My Gosh!!!
We had the best time ever on our first Disney cruise.
We have gone to Disney World so many times that I don't really ever get to see that "awe" moment with my girls. With DCL it was such a moving experience for me. I actually found myself tearing up quite a few times.

Thanks for all the FE gifts. The girls loved checking our stocking every time we came back to the cabin to see what was in it.

We loved everything about the ship and the cruise that I really can't tell your our favorite part. (Although I must say that having my dh win me a massage at the spa was really wonderful. I have never seen the man dance so much). It was such an amazing time and I enjoyed meeting some of you at the meet and greet and the ornament exchange. Ashley and Madison had a great time meeting and getting to know their pen pals and some other kids from the disboards.

We checked into OKW this morning and we were able to get into our room right away at 10am. The girls have already gone swimming (like they did not swim enough on the cruise). We are now going to take a walk around DTD.

Have a great day everyone and I can't wait to read some of your trip reports.

Angie

 

[nzdisneymom]

We were back at the Country Inn and Suites by 8:20 and spent the day at the Kennedy Space Center. We're tired now and wondering why no one has come to turn down our bed And why I had to pay the bill when we finished our late-lunch. And why our luggage didn't just magically appear at our door.

Seriously, we had an amazing trip! Can't wait to read about all of your adventures and hope if you post a trip report or pictures somewhere that you'll share.

Special thanks to those who coordinated events - Lisa Marie, the digital scavenger hunt was "way fun" (and I did go up and look at the compasses on Friday).

And for those who designed the t-shirts, and especially to Diana for setting up Cafe Press, it was so awesome to see folks with our shirts! I had someone in the laundry room ask me where we had gotten them as they had seen so many of us with them, they thought they could buy them onboard. My family wore them "as a family" on both Monday and Thursday! Wow - that's never happened before - matching clothes on board!

My trip report is in my sig if anyone is interested.

 

[HFC1969]

We are home in good ol' St. Louis...


Now its countdown til the next DCL..

 

[BearFan]

Hello everyone!
You need to read Cindy's TR. She did a terrific job. We went back to Orlando on Sat after waiting about two hours to get a car. We booked through Thrifty/Dollar and I kid you not, when we got there they had 6 cars for 27 people in line. The ONE GUY at the counter told the ONE DRIVER not to pick any more people up because they didn't have cars. That left people at the port from the Magic as well as the Glory when some groups with children split up in two places without knowing what happened. Paul got the last car on the lot. It was a minivan even though we rented a mid-size. They had people drive to the Orlando airport to pick-up more cars but they weren't back yet. We volunteered to take people to the airport since we were driving past anyway and had room. We ended up taking an older British gentleman there but first had to go back to the port to pick his wife up from the parking lot of the Glory. We had a pleasant ride back and made a couple of new friends. We went to Downtown Disney/PI for the day and checked into the Comfort Suites on Turkey Lake Road for 2 nights. We were staying there on points. Can I tell you, the place was an absolute dump. The room we had had mold on the ceiling, the toilet was loose from the floor and the seat was broken. This morning at the breakfast bar there were mobs of people and food everywhere. Yuch!!!!! The floor, counters, tables, chairs, everywhere you could see. Topsiders looked less crowded in comparison. Soooo, we checked out and headed back to Cocoa Beach for tonight to see the Wonder off and go back to the Doubletree. We'll head back to Orlando in the morning and are staying at the Hampton Inn on points for the next 3 nights. We head home on Jan 1.
I just wanted to say that we had a terrific time with all of you and I hope that we can be in touch because it would be a pleasure to cruise with you all again.
Happy New Year!!!

Lisa Marie
(cryin' in my beer tonight after today's football game)

 

[nzdisneymom]

Lisa Marie - I wish I had known you were planning to stay at the Comfort Suites on Turkey Lake -- I would've counseled you to consider other options. We stayed there in 2000 and it was terrible - we would never go back even if it had a complete renovation.

I'm glad you were able to help out the other couple going to the airport - I wonder what happened with Thrifty/Dollar and their car supply. I would have been absolutely upset, especially if we were waiting at the port and not knowing what was going on.

We watched the Magic leave from port on Saturday night - we had a great view from our 4th floor room at the Country Inn and Suites as she moved through the channel. We watched the Carnival ship leave just before the Magic. It was cool.

 

[BearFan]

Hi everyone!
It was terrific meeting you all. Thank you all who participated in the FE exchange. We love everything we got. We've already begun thinking about our next possible cruise. Are any of you considering doing the westbound repositioning cruise back from Barcelona in Sept, 2010? We have until tomorrow to book it with DVC at the reduced point rate and are seriously thinking of doing it. We did the last one back from Barcelona last year and had a great time. The points are cheap!!!! We can get an ocean view for 452 points for the 14 day! That comes out to about $37 dollars per person per day. Outrageous! It'll be our silver anniversary and we want to redo our vows on the ship. We'd love if you could be there, the more the merrier!
Happy New Year!!!!!

Lisa Marie (and Paul) Smith

 

[tinkerbell_29]

Hi everyone! We are finally back home got back late yesterday traffic was horrible. Our stay at the AKV was horrible. Villa was awesome but everything else wasa nightmare. Were actually now consdering selling those points. Stayed the night of the 1st at OKW and loved it. NYE at the MK was insane we will never do that again. The fireworks were amazing though and made the day some what worth it. I will have the group picture posted by tomorrow evening. Thanks for all the FE gifts we have enough candy to last forever. WE are looking at booking a cruise this summer using points. Not sure i can wait until 2010 to get back on the magic.

Lissa

 

[nzdisneymom]

Lissa - sorry to hear that things were not so good at AKV -- what happened? Glad you guys made it home safe and sound.

 

[BearFan]

Lissa,
I have to agree about NYE at Disney. We were at Epcot and it was the worst we've ever seen it. We made it back to our rental car just as they did fireworks and watched it from the back of a minivan. How romantic, huh? I'd have to say that we'll never go to Disney again at this time of year. We'll stick to early December and enjoy the holiday festivities without the enormous crowds. As far as a Christmas cruise goes, well the very best part of it was being with all of you and I mean that sincerely. We loved meeting all of you and hope we can keep in touch. The crew seemed out of sorts to a large extent, probably due to the fact that we heard that they recently had a 75% turnover in staff. And unfortunately, as some of you know, we had a horrible time with our dinner companions. Thank goodness we had our old friend as a server or we would've been moved that very first night. I won't say we'd rule out a Christmas cruise again but we'd have to think long and hard about it first.
The happiest of New Years to all of you and yours,
Lisa Marie & Paul

 

[dbxazd]

Lissa,
I won't say we'd rule out a Christmas cruise again but we'd have to think long and hard about it first.
The happiest of New Years to all of you and yours,
Lisa Marie & Paul

Lisa Marie - DH and I agree - I think we will have to think long and hard before we do this over Christmas again. Not that we had horrible service at all over our cruise, it's just that we had just about the same experience in December 2007 for more than half the price!!! Excuse my ignorance, but what troubles did you have with your dining companions? We (family of 4) had a table by ourselves - we had early dinner - 5:30 seating.

Sorry that I missed meeting a lot of you......but I'm glad to get a chance to chat with all of you before, during and after!

Robin

 

[ShannonR]

Hi everyone!!

Glad to see everyone got home safe and sound! DH and I just looked at our pictures today. I will post the dolphin encounter pictures as soon as I find the time. I had to work the night I got home and have worked each night since. That vacation went by WAY TOO QUICK. For the long 18 months of planning and anticipation, 2 weeks is not enough.

We would have to agree about WDW at Christmas time. We arrived at Port Orleans on the 27th and were EXHAUSTED by the time we checked out on the 30th. The crowds were horrible. We haven't been there at Christmas time since before we had kids and now I know why. NEVER AGAIN!!!

Thank you to everyone for making the cruise part of our vacation so wonderful!

Take care,
Shannon

 

[KathyFP]

The only thing that I regret aboutour Christmas cruise was not getting to meet all of you.

We had a fantastic time. Our table mates were great and all of the staff that we encountered were exceptional.

Our only disappointment was the Kids club. DD did not really like it. Felt like the kids were clicky and the activites were not so great. She ended up making a friend and hanging out with her the last couple days.

 

[HFC1969]

Lissa,
I have to agree about NYE at Disney. We were at Epcot and it was the worst we've ever seen it.

We have always agreed with your statement here; DCL operates very well full; the parks do not.

As far as a Christmas cruise goes, well the very best part of it was being with all of you and I mean that sincerely.

Ditto! My DW loved the FE exchange..

The crew seemed out of sorts to a large extent, probably due to the fact that we heard that they recently had a 75% turnover in staff.

Lucky for us our first night I recognized that our head server was from the Wonder cruise we did back in May. She wasn't ours on the May cruise but when she realized we were repeat cruises and remembered her she took our service over the top! She also said they are doing alot of switching around preparing for the new ships. Promotions and preparations for promotions.


And unfortunately, as some of you know, we had a horrible time with our dinner companions.

We learned in May... Always request a private table. We had some folks who didn't have a clue what it was to be social or dress properly.

However..Don't give up! The DCL at Christmas is the best family time we have ever had. Thats why we are booked for 09!

 

[tinkerbell_29]

Lissa - sorry to hear that things were not so good at AKV -- what happened? Glad you guys made it home safe and sound.

We got to AKV shortly before 10am on the 27th. Knew we couldn't get in our villa yet but went ahead and checked in anyway. The person checking us in tried to charge us even though it was listed as we were staying on points. This happened several times before we got a manager to handle the problem. We headed off to AK to see the few thigns we wanted to see there. Abouit 3pm we headed back thinking our villa would be ready. Nope not yet. We know that villas are not guarnteed unitl 4 so we set down and waited patiently. 4 o'clock no villa finally at 4:50 I went to the DVC info desk and said something to the perosn there. She went back and got our villa number for us. The villa was beautiful but no supplies what so ever were left for the dishwasher or the washing machine and no extra toilet paper. Check out was just as abd as check in with them still trying to charge us. This hotel is not ready for DVC members and needs a lot of help.

Lissa