MAGICal Christmas 2008 - December 20, 2008

[Diana Lyn]

Joyce and Family!

I'm Diana, Bruce is my DH and Emma and Julia are DDs. They'll be 5 and 4 when we cruise in December.

This will be our 6th Disney cruise, but 1st on the Magic. We'll be taking our 5th cruise in just 2 weeks from Sunday, not that I'm counting or anything!

I'm watching this Disney special on the Travel Channel right now with Julia.....it's making me really want to hit a park this weekend.

 

[Love Eeyore]

Thanks so much for the welcome. 2 weeks - YEAH!! (I already want to start counting down) It is so nice to hear that you all enjoy the cruises so much. I wish I would have done this with my children when they were younger. However, they can't complain much because we travel alot with Karate (dh and both boys are in it!!) It wasn't until last summer that my kids realized that there was more of Pennsylvania to see. How sad is that?? Now they'll get to see more of the world. I look forward to "chatting" with all of you.

 

[ShannonR]

Welcome Joyce and family!!!

I am Shannon and along with my DH Rick, we have three children: Morgan DD15, Mitchell DS12 and oops baby! Melissa DD4 (all at cruising time). This will be our 2nd Disney cruise. We have traveled to WDW several times and we weren't sure if we would like a "Disney Cruise". Let me just say, we were instantly hooked upon boarding the ship!!!

I absolutely LOVE the DIS board and equally love planning for the upcoming cruise and all the activities I hope we plan, as a group, to do; ie...Secret Santa I know 11 months sounds like an eternity away, but hopefully it will be upon us before you know it.

We live in the VERY south of Texas and for us, the temperatures are usually pretty warm in the winter(averaging 70-75 degrees However this winter, we have had many cold fronts come throught that has taken us down to the 40-60 degree range and I DO NOT LIKE IT AT ALL!!! I know we shouldn't complain, though, because we are originally from Michigan and it is in the negative degree mark with lots of snow right now .

Welcome again, and I look forward to getting to know you and your family in the months to come!!

Shannon

 

[Diana Lyn]

I absolutely LOVE the DIS board and equally love planning for the upcoming cruise and all the activities I hope we plan, as a group, to do; ie...Secret Santa I know 11 months sounds like an eternity away, but hopefully it will be upon us before you know it.

We live in the VERY south of Texas and for us, the temperatures are usually pretty warm in the winter(averaging 70-75 degrees However this winter, we have had many cold fronts come throught that has taken us down to the 40-60 degree range and I DO NOT LIKE IT AT ALL!!! I know we shouldn't complain, though, because we are originally from Michigan and it is in the negative degree mark with lots of snow right now .

Welcome again, and I look forward to getting to know you and your family in the months to come!!

Shannon

Speaking of planning things for the cruise. Amy and I were talking about doing an ornament exchange. Like every family bring an ornament and then we draw numbers or something and every family gets a different ornament?

I'm watching all this Heath Ledger stuff. So, so sad. He was a great actor.

 

[ShannonR]

That sounds like a great idea, Diana!! The more Christmas ideas the better, I say. By the way, every time I am viewing and/or posting and Melissa happens to be by me, when she sees your posts and the picture of your girls in their princess dress by the castle, she goes "ooh, pretty girls with pretty dresses! I tell her that she is going to meet them and play with them on the Mickey boat at Christmas and she gets SOOO excited. Too bad, 3 year olds have no concept of time, because she asks for them every day now and I have to explain to her that the cruise is still a long time away and that she has to be patient. I must not be living in reality: a 3 year old be patient? Yeah, right!

I agree that the news about Heath Ledger is so sad1 He was so young and I wasn't aware that he had any problems. Unfortunately his 2 year old daughter is too young to ever remember him.

Well, we are finally back to being healthy, but Mitchell and I have a lingering cough that is becoming VERY annoying. We feel fine, but the cough remains. The doctor said any true respiratory illness can take up to a month to disappear completely.

Talk to every one tomorrow!
Shannon

 

[DisneyZell]

Hello everyone and again, welcome Joyce & family! Today was the 1st day the kids were back in school. They had a teacher in service day, so it ended up being a 4 day weekend for them. It was good to have them back in school! I love the idea of the ornament exchange and/or secret santa. I would love to do it and I'm sure I can get my neighbors to do it as well. I was also thinking that it would be a good idea to put which cabin you will be in. Maybe put it on the 1st post so everyone can see it. Just a thought and it would be easier to drop off notes, little gifts for our fellow DISers.

Have a great night everyone! Deanna

 

[nzdisneymom]

I like the ornament swap, too. We were already thinking about something to bring for our fellow-DISers for either a meet-exchange or to leave in the fish-extenders! I like the idea of adding cabin numbers to our list, too - we're in 6116.

 

[tinkerbell_29]

Hi everyone! Welcome to everybody new! We just had a five day weekend thanks to the snow and Monday being a holiday. Several of the teachers were joking today that this has been the longest Christmas break ever. We've yet to have a complete week of school. I love the idea of a ornament swap/ secret santa plan. We had already been talking about little things we could bring with us to leave in fish extenders or give out at a meet.

Quick question. Where is a good place at the port to spend the night before. I finally convinced them it would make more sense to stay at the port instead of WDW. Especially since we are going to WDW after. Hope everyone is having a good week.

Our cabin number is 8586

Lissa

 

[nzdisneymom]

Lissa - we stayed at the Radisson before and used their park and sail capability, but for Dec. 2008 we will likely stay at Country Inn and Suites - we like that chain of hotels. In fact, I probably should go ahead and look for rates and see what packages they may have in terms of park and sail.

 

[alikat99]

I am sorry I guess I should have put our names: Angie, dh Pete, dd Ashley(10 at cruise time), and dd Madison(7).

Hi everyone!! I'm in the process of updating our first post with our newest families and I just had to comment!!

Great choice of your DDs names - my youngest's name is actually Madison Ashley!!!

 

[alikat99]

Welcome to all of our newest families!!! I have done my best to update the very first post of this thread with all the new families, names and ages of children that I found, and any birthdays/anniversaries that I could find too.

If there's anything that I missed, PLEASE let me know!!!!

 

[minnie1]

I have been reading about door signs. Is this something we make ourselves? Do they have to be something specific? My girls love to make crafts so they would love to make something. I just wanted some direction or some examples of what to make.

Also, can we hang a stocking or something on our door?
Thanks,
Angie

 

[Diana Lyn]

I have been reading about door signs. Is this something we make ourselves? Do they have to be something specific? My girls love to make crafts so they would love to make something. I just wanted some direction or some examples of what to make.

Also, can we hang a stocking or something on our door?
Thanks,
Angie

Yes, you make the door signs yourself. You just buy the magnet paper you run through your computer. I also made ones out of fun foam and just attached that magnetic tape on the back.

On past cruises, some people have made magnetic gifts for everyone on the thread for inside jokes or whatever. That turns out to be really fun and you get quite the collection of magnets. I'll try to find a picture of my door from the last cruise and post.

 

[DisneyZell]

Hi!
We will probably be staying at the Residence Inn at the port the night before the cruise. We stayed at the Radisson, along with our neighbors, but they had a huge bug problem in their room, so we are not staying there again. We also get Marriott points, so that is the reason for the Residence Inn. Love their breakfast too! Our cabin for the cruise is 6528 and our neighbors are in the connecting cabin of 6530. Also, what does everyone have for dinner? We are in the main seating. Thanks, alikat for updating the 1st post. It sure helps to see who is on our cruise.

Well, have to go take my youngest to kindergarten. Have a great day.

 

[stillwater]

We will probably be staying at the Residence Inn at the port the night before the cruise. We stayed at the Radisson, along with our neighbors, but they had a huge bug problem in their room, so we are not staying there again.

No bugs for me, thanks. December 2007 we stayed at the Country Inn & Suites the night before. Basic rooms, but clean.

 

[MorganR]

Hi everyone! My name is Morgan, I am 14 years old, and I am the daughter of Rick and Shannon! My mom set up this account for me so I could post too! I have to have all my posts cleared through her first, though. I am super excited for this cruise!!!

I am the planner of the family and love to be packed and ready to go NOW!! My mom says that is a little overkill, but for our last cruise, I had us all packed up in January for our March cruise! I already have lists of what to pack and things to do for this cruise. I think it's great that we are sailing over Christmas

I am a freshman in high school, my favorite class is Agricultural Science, and love animals of all kinds! I love to talk to my friends, am looking forward to making new friends on this cruise so if any of your sons or daughters that are near my age and who want to e-mail me, let me know! I will PM my e-mail address to you!

Morgan

 

[pogopossum]

well, it is rainy and cold, but no ice in this great non-ice ice event of 2008. it funny to watch the weather go into a frenzy in anticipation of coming events and then watch as nothing that they think is going to happen, happens. i know we will get an ice/snow event this winter, but this didn't look to be much from the beginning, and it was even less. i wish i was parked on a towel on the sand with a boat drink, where the lat numbers are single digit right now. we're less than 11 months from there now.

our boarding party has grown by three as some friends from church decided to take the plunge. they have a sixth grade dd. not sure if i should go much beyond that with details, if i get the release signed then i can divulge more.

here is our sign from our last cruise:

. there is a thread where people post their pictures: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=838817
ours is there somewhere, tried to search for it but haven't found it yet.

we used blue butcher paper with magnetic strips stuck on the back, and printed clipart pictures and sayings, then laminated it at our church. it worked well and we weren't limited by the size of magnetic paper. we are already planning the design of our door sign for this cruise.

for those that were wondering about dressing up as pirates, here we are on our last cruise:

, and we plan to hit party city again this halloween to get updates to our wardrobe for this cruise.

 

[Love Eeyore]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for the welcome. Wow, I can't believe how many cruises so have you have taken. I can't wait. It is going to be so magical!!!

 

[nzdisneymom]

I am so loving the activity here on the thread!

Morgan, welcome to the board!

We did door signs when we sailed the Med. I have them stuck on the back of our front door at home! Because this is a surprise trip for the boys, I'll have to make door signs in secret - they both helped me with the last ones (especially Zachary). Door signs are so fun! We made one for each port and added a new one each day.

One fun thing to do on the ship is take a walking-tour of the cabins to look at the door signs not only of those from the DIS but others as well. It's fun to get a lime-green-Mickey paint-chip from Home Depot to put on your door, too, to designate yourself as a DISer.

We're sailing in April and the small group for our thread wants to do fish-extenders -- so if there is anyone who wants some practice making one and could do one for me in time for me to get it by mid-March, please PM me and we can negotiate the price / fee.... I know I won't be able to get one done and I want one!

Our friends from GA went on their first DCL cruise last week (4-nights on the Wonder) - I loved looking at their pictures and reading their trip report - can't wait to go ourselves.

My boss says it is still too early to put in my leave request for the winter holidays but she knows we're going on the cruise. I think she's just envious that I plan our vacations so far out (ha ha).

Hope you all have a MAGICal day!

 

[minnie1]

Welcome Morgan!

I love looking at everyone's door signs. I have some ideas already but it is probably too early to start making them. Plus having a full course load in college plus 2 little ones doesn't give me much time now. I am crafy enough to make door signs but definately not someone who can sew a fish extender. I might just put up a stocking since it is Christmas.

nzdisneymom-I don't know how to quote but speaking of vacation requests. My dh always plans his whole year of vacation and puts in for it on Jan 1st. People are always laughing that we know exactly all our vacations for the whole year. I think it is great because it gives us all something to look forward to and know when the winter gets tough that a vacation is coming.

I hope everyone has a great week.

Angie