MAGICal Christmas 2008 - December 20, 2008

[nzdisneymom]

Well, school has started which means these next months will fly by. This time next year we'll be doing the more serious cruise planning! Hope everyone had a fun summer.

 

[cgcw]

Cindy, school started for my kids yesterday as well.

Our live has gone from buzy to even busier. Not sure how that happens or how we'll manage everything, but somehow or another, it always gets done.

We are looking forward to this cruise. We are fortunate in that we have several trips planned between now and then. I just can't imagine anything more special than Christmas on the Magic.

 

[nzdisneymom]

We have a lot of stuff planned too between now and then -- see our sig line (hee hee). Life is way more fun when you have a trip planned!

Tell us more about your upcoming cruise.

 

[cgcw]

We have a lot of stuff planned too between now and then -- see our sig line (hee hee). Life is way more fun when you have a trip planned!

Tell us more about your upcoming cruise.

Cindy, you have even more trips planned than us!

We are cruising Thanksgiving week with friends we met on the last two DVC member cruises. We tried to get Amy & Diana to join us, but it didn't work out for them. We'll be sailing on Royal Carribean Mariner of the Seas. We are looking forward to getting away.

We have plans in the works for a couple more trips between now and this cruise. Sometimes I tell my children how lucky they truly are but I don't think that they really understand that not everyone has the opprotunities they have when it comes to vacations. My oldest sometimes grumbles when I say we're going to WDW again eek: ) and then I tell him to ask his friends how often they have been. That gets him quieted down in a hurry.

We actually went to Ohio this summer and had a blast. We met up with friends again from the last DVC member cruise. Diana was there, our friends we're cruising with in November were there, sadly, Amy couldn't make it.

We have a rather unique group in that we seek out to spend time with everyone and do it a couple of times a year. Who would have thought we'd make friends like that on the DIS boards. I'm sure you've heard about those internet people. Our get togethers have become so much more than DIS meets ever will be. I hope for that to hold true for this group as well.

 

[nzdisneymom]

We were in New Mexico last week meeting up with some of "those internet friends" that I met online when I was pregnant with Z who will be 10 in Sept. We got together to celebrate the 10 yr olds -- we did that a couple of times when they were younger, but haven't in a while. We had 7 families meet up in Albuquerque - it was a blast!

We're lucky that we live in FL and are DVC-owners so it makes those spur-of-the-moment trips more possible - like DH wanted us to go to WDW for Z's birthday which I had not planned for us to do - but hey, if DH says "let's go" then I'm packing! Season tickets, too.

We rebooked when we were on our Med cruise for April so we've made our own "land and sea" package since we were already going to WDW for spring break.

 

[alikat99]

We're lucky that we live in FL and are DVC-owners so it makes those spur-of-the-moment trips more possible - like DH wanted us to go to WDW for Z's birthday which I had not planned for us to do - but hey, if DH says "let's go" then I'm packing! Season tickets, too.

Ok, maybe I knew this already, but where are you in FL??? We're in St. Pete, and Diana will be a Floridian in a few short weeks!!!

 

[nzdisneymom]

Ok, maybe I knew this already, but where are you in FL??? We're in St. Pete, and Diana will be a Floridian in a few short weeks!!!

We're in Tallahassee. 4 1/2 hours from my door to WDW.

 

[cgcw]

We had some really nasty storms roll through here yesterday. The ground is saturated so many areas are starting to flood. Our tornado siren went off at least 2 time in a span of a couple of hours. The storms just kept coming and coming. My DS7 just got off the bus as it sounded the first time, and he was running home in a panic from the corner. My older DS was getting the rest of the crew up and into the safety of the bathroom. We've been through this so many times lately, we're becoming pros.

The brunt of the storm missed us, hitting east of our town. Many trees were downed and I've read there is a lot of damage. Some of the neighboring schools are closed due to either damage or no electric. I heard our schools power was out about 5 last night, but it seems all is well again, as the school is open this morning.

More headed this way today. I'm not sure where they are heading, east of us, so heads up.

 

[njmom23grls]

Greeting other 2008 cruisers! Dh and I just transfered our 2007 to this cruise in 2008 - nasty little thing called work - anyhow - we are a party of 5 - myself (Lisa) and DH (Mark) - and 3 girls - ages (by the time we cruise) 21, 14, and 10 . This will be our first Christmas cruise and 3rd disney cruise - we cruised over New Years in 2006 and had a ball! Looking forward to meeting everyone as our trip gets closer!

Lisa

 

[nzdisneymom]

Welcome njmom - I'm Cindy D. and we're a party of 4. This will be our 4th DCL cruise - we sailed Dec. 2005 (western caribbean) and July 2007 (western Med.), and we're sailing on the Wonder in April '08 (which we had not planned when we booked the Christmas cruise for 2008).

I have two boys who will be 12 and 11 when we sail...

 

[cgcw]

Lisa

This will be our first Christmas cruise and 3rd Disney cruise -- but the first 7 nighter we're doing. The other two have been 4 nights on the Wonder, for the DVC Member Cruises.

We have 2 boys -- they will be 14 & 8 at the time we sail. Where does the time go?

 

[alikat99]

Welcome to the group, Lisa!! This will be our first holiday cruise too, and I'm really looking forward to it (besides the fact that my 2 friends and their families are joining us [cgcw & DianaLyn])!!

This will be our 6th family cruise, 3rd 7-night cruise (we've also been on 3 4-night cruises). My girls will be 7 and 4 when we cruise next December!!!

I agree with you Cindy, where does the time go?!?!??!

 

[cgcw]

Welcome to the group, Lisa!! This will be our first holiday cruise too, and I'm really looking forward to it (besides the fact that my 2 friends and their families are joining us [cgcw & DianaLyn])!!

As much as I don't agree with things being done with DVC right now and as much as I don't spend nearly as much time on the DIS as I did in the past, I am very grateful to have made a couple of wonderful friends because of having both in common.

We are looking forward to spending an entire week with you & your family. Hopefully you won't be tired of seeing us by weeks end - not to mention having us on the other side of the wall from you. I'm sure my youngest will be knocking on that connecting room door quite often, just to see if you are home.


I hope that we all have a great time getting to know each other over the next 15 months.

 

[ShannonR]

Hello everyone! My name is Shannon, and along with my husband Rick, booked this cruise this afternoon. We have three children ages DD14 , DS11 and oops! DD3 . We just sailed on our very first Disney cruise in 03/07 and instantly fell in love. We are absolutely Disney crazy and can't wait to go again! We live in the VERY south of Texas so the weather in the Carribean is not all that different for us, but we can't wait to be on the big red boat at Christmas!!! I hope to get to know all of you as well as we got to know our last group of cruise mates! I still communicate via email to several of the women and my 14 y.o. daughter bonded with several of the girls her age from our DIS group. It was great! I hope there will be more boys my son's age on this cruise because on the last one, there weren't any Hope to talk to everyone soon!!!! Glad to be here and can't wait to get to DISing with all of you!

Shannon

 

[nzdisneymom]

Hi Shannon! I'm Cindy D. and this will be our family's 4th DCL cruise - we've done two on the Magic (the last one was the Med - fabulous) and we have one on the Wonder coming up in April. The Christmas cruise is a surprise for our two boys who will be 12 1/2 and 11 when we sail. Hard to think about that as the younger one JUST turned 10 about 10 days ago.

We look fwd to getting to know you.

 

[Diana Lyn]

Welcome Shannon!!

I'm Diana, I have 2DDs, 4 and 3 and will be celebrating my 36th (YIKES!!) birthday on Christmas on this cruise! I live in Florida, just south of Tampa. This will be our 5th Disney Cruise, but 1st time on the Magic.

 

[ShannonR]

Thanks for the welcome! I can't believe you all have had this thread going since the beginning of the year!?! and I'm just now joining in I hope I can get caught up on who's who .

Just a little about us: I am Shannon and I am a labor and delivery nurse in the very south of Texas and can tell you ANYTHING you want to know about illegal immigration and the Hispanic culture as a whole. We are about 10 minutes from the border of Mexico and have average temps of 90-100 degrees 9 months out of the year. We are originally from Michigan where we averaged 30-40 degree temps the majority of the year so I guess we trade pine trees and snow for palm trees and sun. My husband, Rick is an at home dad and is GREAT at it He is currently going back to school to further his education. Our oldest is Morgan (DD14) who just entered her freshman year of high school, thinks she knows EVERYTHING, hates her parents and is obsessed with animals. She loves her agricultural class, is in FFA and would be the president of PETA if we let her. She just announced to us recently that she is now a vegetarian due to animal cruelty . It's great having a teenage daughter Our son Mitchell (DS10) is our gifted child is on the straight and narrow at all times. He also LOVES sports and from the age of 4 has played virtually ALL sports all year long. However, this year decided that he only wants to play baseball and basketball. Thank God we now live in a warm state that has those two sports offered all year long so he can be playing all year. And then there is our baby, Melissa (DD3) She is by far our most entertaining and active child (I say that with a smirk on my face because in reality she is a wild red headed monster, ha!ha! ) She was a huge surprise and keeps us on our toes every day, but wouldn't trade her for a pot of gold .

We went on our first Disney cruise (1st cruise ever for that matter) in 3/07 and loved it!! We went through serious cruise withdrawl when we got back and knew we had to go again. We are so excited to be going at Christmas I am not quite sure what to do about the Santa issue yet , but I am sure I will think of something by that time I am looking forward to all the decorations and festivities that I am sure to be offered knowing DCL.

It may be a little premature, but I would love to get a list going of all cruise mates with names, ages and place of origin. I can then send to everyone interested so that we can get to know who's who and see the age ranges of the kids. I am a huge planner and LOVE to be prepared (type A, right?) Also, if anyone has kids the same ages as my kids and think that their child would like to e-mail my kids, let me know so I can send you their e-mail addresses. Morgan did this on the last cruise and it helped her SO much come cruising time. She and the other girls had a blast e-mailing for a couple of months prior to the cruise. They hung out the whole cruise and enjoyed each other's company in the activities.

Well, I guess I have rambled on enough for one night (I tend to do that from time to time, ha!ha! ) I hope to hear from everyone soon!

Shannon

 

[cgcw]

Shannon!!!

I'm the other Cindy on this thread. We live in a suburb of Chicago so we'll be anxious to get away from the winter cold when we do this cruise.

This will be our first 7 day cruise and we're sailing with alikat99 - Amy & dianalyn - Diana who we met and became fast friends with on our last 2 DVC member cruises. We had a lot of fun getting to know each other and our friendship, along with another friends, have moved to another level besides cruise friendships. It's something I never thought would happen (me, meet people over the internet ) but something I wouldn't trade today.

We have 2 boys -- they will be 14 - oh my, he's only turning 13 this weekend, and the other will be 8. I'm sure he'll be on the lookout for Morgan, but I'd be surprised if he was interested in emailing with her before the cruise. Something about her being a girl.


We are doing a 7 day cruise with friends over Thanksgiving on another line. I'm looking forward to getting away and spending time with our friends, while at the same time comparing that cruiseline to Disney.


I love the idea of keeping a list of who is who and who's traveling along with them. On our last member cruise, we did a lot of stuff along the way and most of us still keep in touch either by way of posting on that thread here on the disboards or even getting together. We've had some large group vacations which have been more fun than we could even imagine. It would be great to do that with friends from this thread as well.

 

[SnowWhite2]

Shannon - on another DCL cruise I'm taking in early 2008 we have set up a Yahoo group where we share our personal info - name, cabin number, cell phone #, etc. Each person has to be added to the group so only those on the cruise can see our info. I have no idea how to set it up but if you know how that would be a great way to get to know each other without everyone who logs into the DIS knowing our info. Anyone know how to set it up?

I can relate to your teenage daughter issues - my DD13 is just like yours - hates parents, thinks she knows everything but instead of being crazy for animals she is crazy about boys She has decided to go to the Lab for our Feb cruise since she knows two boys (of course) that are returning again and they are only 12. I am happy because I was not very comfortable with her in the teen area with older boys...she would be out of her league.

 

[Diana Lyn]

Shannon - on another DCL cruise I'm taking in early 2008 we have set up a Yahoo group where we share our personal info - name, cabin number, cell phone #, etc. Each person has to be added to the group so only those on the cruise can see our info. I have no idea how to set it up but if you know how that would be a great way to get to know each other without everyone who logs into the DIS knowing our info. Anyone know how to set it up?

I can relate to your teenage daughter issues - my DD13 is just like yours - hates parents, thinks she knows everything but instead of being crazy for animals she is crazy about boys She has decided to go to the Lab for our Feb cruise since she knows two boys (of course) that are returning again and they are only 12. I am happy because I was not very comfortable with her in the teen area with older boys...she would be out of her league.

Great, is this what I have to look forward to with two girls!?!?

I know how to set up a Yahoo Group, I'll try to get to it tonight.