MAGICal Christmas 2008 - December 20, 2008

[xsjackson]

Welcome. You will probably recognize us from Xmas 06. I will miss the 10 days - it was a blast. Like you we have invited as many of our family members as we can. Six rooms and counting!

We are also going to add 5 days at the end of our cruise at WDW. Staying at POP and adding my inlaws as a christmas/anniversary present to them!

My sister and her mob, and I mean that kindly, are taking the auto train to the cruise and back from WDW. What fun. Our dad and my freshman at PENN are going to add to her 5 for the trip to Orlando. It's nice to have one person in our crowd with a big suburban!

 

[xsjackson]

Welcome! to all the newcomers. I am Shannon, and along with my DH Rick, we have three children: DD15 Morgan, DS11 Mitchell and DD4 Melissa . I have volunteered myself to coordinate the Secret Santa Gift Exchange and would love if EVERYBODY participated!!! I have only gotten 6 people to respond so far . I hope we have more, so this can be really fun!

Shannon

We will participate and we are a roup of 6. Ha! take your 6 and match it. I can't seem to get my sisters on the disboards???? But I will speak for them.

What did you have in mind?

and no.... I'm a school teacher and my daughter graduates from highschool Thursday and we finish up at the junior high the 18. The only good thing is its only 50 degrees here come afternoon. It still feels like school.

 

[tinkerbell_29]

Welcome Everyone new. My names Melissa I am traveling with my mom and and my brother. No kids all adults. I'm getting excited about this trip just realized yesterday that at the end of June we will have to make dining reservations for WDW after the cruise. I think were going to do Cali grill for New years eve. Completely off topic but YEAH!!! only one more day of school left! I'm ready for this year to be over I mad eit through my first yera of teaching without killing anyone. Besides it's hot here to hot for school I need the beach. Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

Lissa

 

[nzdisneymom]

Welcome new folks - you guys are swelling our DIS-Board representation on the cruise - YAY! We can have a fabulously big Meet!

For the new folks, I'm Cindy D., wife to Gary, mom to Nathan and Zachary. This trip is STILL a surprise for the boys (7th and 5th graders)... we plan to put them in the car after school on Friday and drive to the Port that evening. We're staying at the Country Inn and Suites - we already have our reservation. This will be our 4th Disney cruise. We met Tinkerbell29 and her family when we sailed on the Med cruise in July 2007 (hard to believe that this time last year we were beyond excited and neck-deep in planning).

Hope you all have great summers ahead of you.

 

[minnie1]

WELCOME to all the newcomers.
This board is getting so big and I can't wait to meet everyone. I can't believe we are almost down to 6 month count.

Traveling with me is my dh, and dd's (10 & 7). Also traveling is my brother, SIL, and nephew(5). We are so excited.

We too are visiting WDW after the cruise. We are staying at OKW until Jan
2nd. My dd turns 8 while we are at WDW so we will be having a party for her at OKW and I am going to take them to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique for her birthday.

Kids have one more week of school and then dance recital and we are free for the summer.

Angie

 

[bigedwin]

Hello!
We are Brand New to this Boards.
We are Also going to the 12/20/08 DCL costa Maya cruise.
We have been on DCL 4 times this will be our 5th.
This is the first Holiday Sailing we do.
Our small group is 2 Cabins - 3 Adults And one (13 Y old Boy) and one(10 Y old) Girl.
We are also counting the days...
The days for us to be able to book excursions, PALO, SPA.
We are flying on friday and Staying at the Marriot Rescidence Inn in Cape Canaveral.

Im Glad we found this Postings It is fun to see all the nice groups getting ready for a FUN Vacation!

Thanks
Ed & Family

 

[minnie1]

Okay, I'll admit I'm a little crazy when it comes to planning and keeping things on time and whenever I am thinking about something that needs to be done by a specific date I start having crazy dreams .
Well last night I had my first cruise dream. I dreamt that we got to the port and we had forgotten to pay our balance by the due date and they had cancelled our reservation and would not let us on the boat. My brother & SIL got on the boat and me and my family had to watch as the boat sailed away .
The dream seemed so real that I woke up upset. Isn't that just so funny? Anway I guess that is my way of not forgetting things along with my calendar.
Just thought I would share my crazy cruise dream.
Everyone have a great week.
Angie

 

[scoutsmom99]

Greetings from the September Double Dip thread We just noticed today that our Costa Maya stop was replaced with Grand Cayman. It still lists Costa Maya on the public DCL pages, but when logged into the DCL site with the DCL confirmation number the itinerary shows Grand Cayman. It appears the October Double Dip is going there as well. Just wanted to let you all know.

 

[alikat99]

Hey everyone - it's been FOREVER since I've been around here!!! Life has been SO busy around our house with cheer competitions, end of the year parties, etc, etc, etc. But, we are really looking forward to this vacation.

We are DEFINITELY going to be involved in the "fish extender" exchange, along with the ornament exchange!! I don't remember who I need to contact, but I definitely want to be in!

Also, for everyone that is new that hasn't been updated in my first post, let me know, please. I'm hoping to get that all updated in the next couple of days.

And, has anyone started to think about t-shirt logos. I know that we talked about it in the past, and Diana mentioned using Cafepress (the same ones we used for our DVC cruise in 06).

And finally, I just got an updated confirmation the other day from DCL for a payment that was made and it still has Costa Maya on it. But, I did log onto DCL and found that my itinerary also says Grand Cayman. Now, I have to say that I have been to Grand Cayman, and I'll be excited if we go there again!!!

 

[BearFan]

Hello Everyone,
I started researching any info I could find on the rebuilding of Costa Maya. I'm a children's librarian and I really enjoy the research part, even on a day off. I guess you can take the girl away from the library but you can't take the library away from the girl! Anyway, I found some recent photos online. It looks like good progress is being made but maybe they're just as far along as they intended to be, especially with that latest Category 1 hurricane going over the top of them last week. Have a look and see what you think...
Lisa Marie
BearFan

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2843753860033290230uNxbEp

 

[Buckeye Gal]

Greetings from the September Double Dip thread We just noticed today that our Costa Maya stop was replaced with Grand Cayman. It still lists Costa Maya on the public DCL pages, but when logged into the DCL site with the DCL confirmation number the itinerary shows Grand Cayman. It appears the October Double Dip is going there as well. Just wanted to let you all know.

Hi there MAGICal Christmas Cruisers...it's another Double Dip Delighter here from the Sept DD group.

Just wanted to update you with hot off the press news. MAYBE MAYBE things will change for you guys as you get closer. I'll keep my fingers crosssed for you.

One of our Sept 27 Double Dip cruisers just made these postings:

Just received a phone call from DCL.... Officially changed - Costa Maya has been changed to Grand Cayman.

Received the call about 30 minutes ago around 7pm EDT. I was told that DCL is canceling all the Costa Maya ports, for our cruise and all the following special cruises too. The port is still too damaged for us to go there or dock. All they offered was if I wasn't happy with the itinerary change is to move to another cruise itinerary and date.......

I also just got an email from Dreams Unlimited stating it's official for our Sept cruise. Personally, I'm disappointed in the itinerary change, however, I'm very sad for the native islanders. No doubt they really need us there for their economy. Very sad.

 

[minnie1]

We too just got the email from DU about the itenerary change. We are not too upset about the change however I really did want to see the ruins in Costa Maya because the excursion didn't take as long. Oh well, I guess we just go with the flow and have fun no matter what.
Angie

 

[DisneyZell]

We got the email as well...we were planning on doing a ruin tour as well, but it's not the end of the world. Last time we were in GC we did pretty much all there is to do there....Hell, Turtle Farm, & 7 mile beach, so we may just end up staying on the ship. Who knows, though. WHen I saw the title of the email DU sent, I was afraid we weren't going to Castaway Cay twice. Now then I would be really bummed! Have a great night everyone.

 

[Diana Lyn]

We got the email as well...we were planning on doing a ruin tour as well, but it's not the end of the world. Last time we were in GC we did pretty much all there is to do there....Hell, Turtle Farm, & 7 mile beach, so we may just end up staying on the ship. Who knows, though. WHen I saw the title of the email DU sent, I was afraid we weren't going to Castaway Cay twice. Now then I would be really bummed! Have a great night everyone.

It's a good thing Christmas is a Sea Day because I'd really hate to go to Hell on Christmas!

It's been a while since I've checked in, but I'm still around and starting to look forward to this cruise even more.

Welcome to all the newcomers, I'm Diana and I'll be traveling with Bruce my DH and Emma and Julia who will be 5 and 4 when we cruise.

 

[alikat99]

We've always done the trips to Stingray City with Capt Marvin's at GC, and I could do it again and again!!! But, I'm not sure that the girls would love it again. I do want to go to Hell though, just to send a postcard from Hell!!

 

[nzdisneymom]

Just wanted to chime in that we won't be disappointed about not going to Costa Maya (been there before, not overly excited about going back) but we would have been disappointed for not going to Cozumel... so whew - I won't mind a trip back to Grand Cayman. We did a DCL excursion when we were there and the one thing we didn't do was stay in the port area for some shopping after we got back from the tour - so this time I would like to do that.

As for dreams, I find that the more I read on the board here or at another cruise site, I dream more about being on a cruise.

We're staying in a hotel this week and just where the pool is, when the wind blows across it, it makes it like a wave pool - the kids said it's like being on a cruise ship.

 

[tinkerbell_29]

ok so we are not going to Costa Maya instead we are going to the Grand Caymans. Matt will be upset he really wanted to go to Costa Maya for the ruins. Oh well he will live. I do feel sorry for the natives there they could probable really use our money.

 

[BearFan]

I am certainly not holding my breath to see where we end up in December. Things can change on a moments notice. We went on a DCL cruise that was a regular western, Key West, GC and Cozumel, when Cozumel got hit by a huge hurricane. DCL decided to switch that port to a Nassau stop. Boy, oh boy, you've never heard the outcry. People were unhappy with a capital U. There were so very many complaints that the itinerary was switched to Costa Maya on embarkation day. There were many happy people on that ship and I was one of them. No, Costa Maya was not what I considered a one for one switch with Cozumel because of shore excursion opportunities but it was a much better choice for us rather than Nassau. Before I get flamed for dissing Nassau, because I'm sure I will in some matter, we have had a terrible experience in Nassau on DCL and know many others who have, too. Some folks just love it there and I say, good on ya , but it's not my cup of tea. Grand Cayman is an alright port as far as we're concerned, but you know, been there done that(Hell, Turtle Farm, Stingrays). I'll be slightly disappointed if we go again and will probably just stay onboard but we'll see in December.

 

[Diana Lyn]

Before I get flamed for dissing Nassau, because I'm sure I will in some matter, we have had a terrible experience in Nassau on DCL and know many others who have, too. Some folks just love it there and I say, good on ya , but it's not my cup of tea.

No flames from me, Nassau is not a substitute for Cozumel by any means. We've gone on 5 4-night cruise and we've gotten off the ship twice. Not my cup of tea either! I guess we should really wait until we get halfway through hurricane season to see how these places do first.

 

[pogopossum]

I am certainly not holding my breath to see where we end up in December. Things can change on a moments notice. We went on a DCL cruise that was a regular western, Key West, GC and Cozumel, when Cozumel got hit by a huge hurricane. DCL decided to switch that port to a Nassau stop. Boy, oh boy, you've never heard the outcry.

we are also not fans of "the mexican border town of the caribbean".

we have been diverted to cozumel twice, and there is talk among the troops of staying aship when we get there this time.

my thoughts are to rent a vehicle and do some exploring on the island. but if we went back to nassau, i know that we wouldn't go ashore.

i'm also playing wait and see, based on forecasts for the hurricane season, you never know where those things will go.