MAGICal Christmas 2008 - December 20, 2008

[minnie1]

Just wondering where everyone has been this weekend. I know Diana and her family are sailing the ocean blue with Mickey. I guess everyone had a pretty slow weekend like us.
The kids just came home early from school today. We are getting a snow and ice storm. Hopefully my class will be cancelled tonight since it is not until 7p.m. and it is supposed to be real icy by then.

 

[nzdisneymom]

We're here - just busy with school projects and dealing with sickness and the beginning of allergy season which seems early this year - but I see the pollen already floating in the air.

I need a vacation

 

[minnie1]

Cindy,
I know what you mean with school projects and sickness.
This is the first time in more years then I can count that we are not going to WDW in Feb. We always go this time of year to get away from the cold weather but with me back in school I can't take off and miss classes.
I keep saying to dh, we should be in WDW right now and not in this snow storm.
We now have to wait 6 months until WDW. Atleast we get some mini vacations to the New Jersey shore starting in May, but it is not the same as getting away to WDW.

Atleast my class got cancelled tonight. I feel like my kids getting all happy because I have a "snow day".

 

[tinkerbell_29]

Still here just jamed pack with school stuff and everyone being sick. I'm ready to take a mental health day I need a break. Spring break is not unitl April 14th I'm not sure I can make it. Hope everyone is having an ok week.

Lissa

 

[alikat99]

Hey everyone! I'm here, just keeping busy with work and cheer stuff with Emily. Plus, my mom was visiting this week, and just left this afternoon. AND, Emily was sick last week, and Madison has been running a fever for 2 days (she's finally past it - I hope).

 

[hinsok1]

I just need to share this news with someone who understands how I feel right now!!!

We have been trying to plan something for my IL's 50th Anniv and they just called to say instead of getting the family together locally. . . they want to do a family cruise over Christmas on the Magic!! I can't stop jumping up and down . . . they won't let us tell the kids yet . . . still a possibility we might do a land trip in the Caribbean if the college age kids can't get out of school in time for the trip . . . I can't stop grinnin DH and I are leaving in 25 days for a NCL Western Cruise . . . this somehow totally overshadows that excitement . . . We went on the Magic last Feb and nothing quite competes.

Ok . . . I think I have gushed enough. Thanks for listening I hope I'll will be officially joining this thread in the near future!!!

 

[nzdisneymom]

hinsok1 - what a wonderful gift -- and I bet the college age kids will be out in time -- since we don't sail til the 21st of Dec. Our local college and universities are usually done by the week before that -- are the college kids on quarters or semesters?

FWIW, we haven't told our boys (ages 12 and 11 at sailing) about this trip - we are hoping to keep it a surprise.

 

[DisneyZell]

Just checking in again...we are at snow day #4 today so the kids are home with me today. Of course DH is traveling right now, so I had the pleasure of getting up this morning to snow blow the 7 inches of snow we got overnight. Not only did I have to clear the driveway, I had to make a path for our little terror of a puppy so he wouldn't get lost in the snow (he is an 8 1/2 pound Maltese). DH lately has seemed to miss the biggest storms and leaves me with all the fun work! I just have to tell myself that in 9 days we'll be heading down to Orlando and hopefully some sunshine. My goal this weekend is to try out my new embroidery machine. I will then attempt to make a fish extender for our cruise...I even found some Disney Christmas fabric on clearance for 70% off! Let's hope I can do it!

Hinsok1...hope you're able to come on this cruise, it should be so much fun.

Hope everyone has a great day. And, Happy early Valentine's Day! We'll be doing our valentine's today for the school party tomorrow. Anything to keep the boys from fighting!

 

[minnie1]

We too are on a snow day today. If I would have known I would have kept the valentines to work on today. We got 3 inchs of snow and now it is raining. So now it is complete slush. I would have rather kept the snow.

Hinsock1-I hope you and your family get to join us. The college students should be out in time. I am a returning college student and I get out next December by the 15th. Let us know.

 

[Az Pirates]

Checking in...
I tend to be Dis obsessed and probably spend way too much time on the boards as the cruise gets closer; but this far out, not so much yet.
I'll have to work on that.

All you snow day folks have a cup of hot chocolate for me... I like lots of whipped cream.
It's just not the same when it's 75 degrees outside.

We've lived either in AZ or CA for years now and the kids sometimes Boo Hoo about never living where it snows.
In fact DD #1 went out of state for college and living somewhere with 4 seasons, and possibly even an occasional snow day, was on her positives list.
Not sure it is anymore.

She finishes up with finals on 12/12 btw, so hopefully a good sign for you hinsok!
The younger kiddos will most likely miss a day of school so we can fly in on Friday though. No more red eyes for us if we can possibly avoid it.


Dee, organizing a brunch is a great idea. I've been to a Dis group tea on both previous cruises and really enjoyed it.
I've actually never been to brunch at Palo yet, but I hope to remedy that on this cruise.

LEAVE THE SHIP IN ONE PIECE FOR WHEN I BOARD on the 27th.

Hi Kay
Too bad this cruise didn't work out for you. I'd love to cruise with one of "those lanyard people" from our PC trip.
But New Years on the Magic sounds great too!


Have you answered this poll yet?
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1717894
I aspire to move up someday, but am still at #1 for now.

 

[ShannonR]

Hi Everybody!!!! Long time no talk. We have been soooo busy with basketball and baseball (both are in tournaments right now, so we are having a lot of changing uniforms in the car when going from one game to the next EACH night! ). Thank God DH is an at home dad! I have also been working a lot (just got done working 7 nights in a row, where do all these pregnant women come from )

To all you that are experiencing heavy snow and ice, I feel sooo bad for you! I DO NOT MISS THAT LIFE in any way, shape or form! It is 80 degrees and sunny here today! I have never once regretted my decision to move south and leave the snow behind me! All my friends who were born and raised here always wish for the four seasons, though, and I constantly tell them they have NO IDEA what they are wishing for. I guess it goes to show that the grass is always greener on the other side, right?

I have only one child left that has a Valentine's party at school (DD3 ). I got her the cutest Valentine's outfit and crown. She is so excited! The other two are too old to participating in such activities (or so they tell me ) I will get off of work and head straight to the party!

I haven't started working on my fish extender, yet, because I always seem to get sidetracked by life. I will get to soon, I keep telling myself and DD14. She wants everything done and packed TODAY! Still no concept of time, I guess, even at 14 years of age.

I hope everyone has a GREAT Valentine's Day!

Shannon

 

[tinkerbell_29]

Shannon I'm an adult and still want everything done and be packed today and leaving tomorrow. If you ask my mom the only thing I have patients with is my students. The though of ten more months is killing me. I at the least wish DCL would put up the shore excursions for Costa Maya. That way I can plan.

Looks like our V-Day party will be cancelled. It is snowing outside not like we didn't get enough in January. Is winter ever going to be over?

Lissa

 

[hinsok1]

I haven't started working on my fish extender, yet, because I always seem to get sidetracked by life. I will get to soon, I keep telling myself and DD14. She wants everything done and packed TODAY! Still no concept of time, I guess, even at 14 years of age.

Ok - I have to ask . . . and sorry if it is in a previous quote, I haven't gone back and read that yet . . . . what is the fish extender?

 

[MorganR]

happy valentine's DAY

 

[Az Pirates]

happy valentine's DAY

Right back at ya!

And to everyone else too.

Ok - I have to ask . . . and sorry if it is in a previous quote, I haven't gone back and read that yet . . . . what is the fish extender?

A fish extender is a sort of mail pouch that you hang on the fish that is on the wall outside your stateroom door.
Often Dis meet groups organize gift exchanges and folks can leave stuff for you in your fish extender.

Here are a couple of threads about them:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1219607
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1672984

And as a special Christmas Cruise tie in... the picture of the pink Mickey fish extender in the first thread is of Amy's door on a previous cruise.
(alikat99)

Very cool, eh?

 

[SnowWhite2]

Hello everyone! I'm back from my trip on the Magic and have gotten over the bug that I picked up on my way home.....UGH. It was a wonderful trip as always. We had a very relaxing time as we did not get off the boat at St. Martin and only left to do the Paradise Point ride at St. Thomas. Just hanging on the ship was wonderful. We did Palo brunch and dinner and it was fabulous. We did brunch last time and it was OK. But this time was on par with others experiences. Have to do it again. Ducky Williams was on our cruise and what a wonderful guy. He had an adult lecture about his career at WDW as an illustrator (not animator) and was a wonderful speaker. It would be great if he was on our Christmas cruise. He is not to be missed.

Fast forward - back to reality.

I'm ready to start planning for our Christmas trip. While on board, I booked my parents for this cruise also. They have come on our first three trips and declined to join us this February. They are getting off of the Mariner today. So they don't know yet that I've booked them. It was supposed to be a 70th BD for mom and a 50th anniversary for them with the entire family except my DB and family keep backing out on every trip we plan. I told DB that he has to have M&D for Christmas this year because we are going away. He agreed and then told us his BIL was coming to town, but that won't interfere with M&D coming for Christmas. I'm really concerned because I wouldn't put it past him to invite them over for my mom's bday which is C-Eve. That would really tick her off. And it would be my fault for some reason. SO I've booked them on the cruise with us. I've already invited them but they were still 'thinking about it'. Well, now they have until 90 days before to think about it until I have to make the final payment.

I'm excited about this being a double dip to CC. I do nothing on CC but lay in the lounge chair and sleep or watch the people AND eat at Cookies. I've never been to Serenty Bay so maybe this time I'll have to make a trip.

And I'm looking into booking a dolphin encounter at Cozumel. I've never booked on my own so I'm a little scared about being ripped off. But I've chatted with another diser who did it and it was a great time.

Anyone else making plans?

Have you all cruised before? Our Dis group for the Feb cruise was a tad quiet. We only had 25 pages of posts on the week we left. I didn't run into many of them on ship but we did have a Dis tag which worked OK. It was just sort of a weird situation. I think there were many shy people and a bunch of newbies who weren't sure about what was happening.

This group seems much chattier (if that's a word). Sorry I've rambled on but I'm getting over my post cruise depression with planning for the next one

 

[hinsok1]

Ok - I can now officially become a member of this post! We are officially booked on the Dec 20, 2008 cruise!!! DH is hassling me about already posting . . . we are booked on a NCL Dawn cruise March 9, 2008, and he feels I am more excited about this one . . , but hey - this one is Disney!!! Though the NCL one is without kids, with a stop in St. Thomas where we honeymooned . . . so it will be great. We're on a roll call on CruiseCritic.com, but they just don't have the chatter the Disboards do!!! We only have about 6 posters . . . about 14 so far that will be at the meet and greet . . . I am really looking forward to spending the next 10 months with this crew!

I promise I will read through the past postings over the next month or so . . . so I can get to know everyone

So down to the details . . . we will have DH (44), me (42), DD (12), DS (7, though will turn 8 on 12/24). We will be joined by DH's parents, and his sibilings families. two sets of BIL & SIL, 5 nephews (20)(14) (14) (13) (11) and 2 nieces (21) (9), seventeen people overall. I will need to introduce the rest of the crew to the Disboards . . . .

 

[dee47]

Would the Tween crowd be interested in their own thread? We did it for the 06 X-mas cruise and they had quite a friendly group going by the time they met on board. My DS would love to start chatting, esp. since I told him there seem to be quite a few kids his age on this cruise.

Let me know if there's interest and he'll start the thread

 

[nzdisneymom]

Hinsok1 - welcome to the board. I had to LOL about your DH giving you a hard time about posting already - look at how long ago our thread started!!!

As for a tween thread, gosh, I'm so torn - my boys will be 11 and 12 when we sail but we're keeping it a secret - so obviously they wouldn't be able to participate - yet if there is enough interest, I'd hate for them to be "left out" of getting to know some kids ahead of time. My younger son would probably eat it up - he posts on vmkfansite and potcforums for virtual magic kingdom and also the pirates of the caribbean forums so he's used to msg board posting. My older one is not so interested in posting. Neither one are interested in email.

 

[hinsok1]

Would the Tween crowd be interested in their own thread? We did it for the 06 X-mas cruise and they had quite a friendly group going by the time they met on board. My DS would love to start chatting, esp. since I told him there seem to be quite a few kids his age on this cruise.

Let me know if there's interest and he'll start the thread

I think DD would enjoy that . . . she is a little shy . . . I'm a little worried that she will the the odd man out with her cousins . . . she will be 12, and the other three she usually hangs out with will be 13, 14 and 14. With the Stack and other stuff only for the 13-18 crowd . . . she might get left behind . . .. though she might hang with with the one that is 11 . . . I'll try to get a feel today to see what she thinks . . . she has never posted to a board before . . .