MAGICal Christmas 2008 - December 20, 2008

[nzdisneymom]

Here's a picture of the Gingerbread House from the DCL Picture of the Day thread.

 

[BearFan]

I just found out that DH is scheduled to be out of town until Dec 20. Does anyone but me see a problem with that? Especially when we have a flight on the 19th. He has to "remind" work that come heck or high water he has to drive the eight hours back to IL on the 18th from Ohio. Terrific, finish shopping for presents, mail them around the globe, pack for the cruise, stock up on extra food for the two dogs, fit in two DR. appointments and 4 P/T appointments, oh, hmm wait what did I forget, oh yeah work full time for the next 9 out of 10 days, by myself!!!! How soon does the wine tasting begin on board?

Thanks for letting me rant, I feel better now.

Lisa Marie

 

[CrusinLattas]

Welcome Amy!

I don't think we would make a 2 pm picture. That is right in the middle of my little one's nap time and I think we are going to be doing the exchange that AM. Is it possible to include taking a picture with one of our other times - like our meet and greet or the exchange before the scavenger hunt? I just know how much there is to do that is planned on the ship and I hate to overplan - but then again, we don't have to do everything. I just didn't know if I was the only one with these thoughts.

Thanks for the link to the gingerbread house! I can smell it just looking at the picture - that was one of my favorite things on the last Christmas cruise was walking past the house and smelling all the gingerbread!

Tenya, I plan on taking off Thrusday to pack as well! I feel behind - usually I am packed by now! I am sorry that Carly is still not running circles! I know she likes to be active and dance, etc. Hopefully it will not slow her down too much at WDW!

I am so ready for the beach!

 

[gardengirlco]

I just found out that DH is scheduled to be out of town until Dec 20. Does anyone but me see a problem with that? Especially when we have a flight on the 19th. He has to "remind" work that come heck or high water he has to drive the eight hours back to IL on the 18th from Ohio. Terrific, finish shopping for presents, mail them around the globe, pack for the cruise, stock up on extra food for the two dogs, fit in two DR. appointments and 4 P/T appointments, oh, hmm wait what did I forget, oh yeah work full time for the next 9 out of 10 days, by myself!!!! How soon does the wine tasting begin on board?

Thanks for letting me rant, I feel better now.

Lisa Marie

Lisa Marie, I'm sorry you have to go through that stress pre-cruise. I'll cross my fingers for good weather for your DH's drive home.

I'm sure the bar will be open and ready for you as soon as you set foot on board.

 

[BearFan]

I'm sure the bar will be open and ready for you as soon as you set foot on board.

That'll be how everyone will recognize me onboard. I'll be the one in the MM Santa Hat with a drink in her hand!

Thanks for making me smile.

LM

 

[alikat99]

Ok, power post - here we come...

Did we ever decide when we are leaving fro the Dolphin excursion and weher we are going to meet?

I don't know that we specifically had a plan, but my plan is to head straight to Chankanaab after we can debark from the ship. I figure that I want to spend as much time as possible there before we have our dolphin excursion. For those that want to do the same thing, maybe we can make a meeting place and go as a group.

Hi there! I found individual packets of Tide - single load packets at my local Target with all the travel size products. I've never seen it at WalMart, but I would suspect that they would have something simular in their travel size product selection (my Walmart's travel size product section is about 1/3 the size of the one at Target).

Can't wait for the trip!

BTW - just an update on my mom......she's actually had a really good week. Her appetitie is increased tremendously and she's got some energy back.....we know that this isn't forever, but it does give us a little more peace of mind while we are on our trip (although I know this can change day to day) - but for right now things are (relatively) good. Thanks for everyone's thoughts and prayers for me and my family. It's really helped to be able to have "support" from all of you!

I also found the single packs of Tide at Target in their sample section.

I'm glad to hear that your mom is doing better, Robin!!! Prayers and hugs for you!!!

Hi Everyone!
I've been off all week trying to focus on keeping Carly positive. We saw her orthopedist Thursday. She's been cleared from his care. Nothing showed up on the MRI. Medical opinion is now nerve damage. She'll hopefully see a pain management specialist for testing before we leave. She still has a hard time walking and will be on crutches most of our trip.

I'm glad to hear that Carly has been cleared. Hopefully she'll be used to those crutches in no time!!!

Hey everyone! I've been lurking on here the past couple of days, just doing some research about the cruise. My husband and I are going to be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary by taking this Disney cruise with our 2 older children, ages 17 and 21. We did a 7 day Disney cruise in 2000, and loved it! So here we are again! I booked this cruise in January, so it's kind of hard to believe it's only days away!!

My name is Amy, and my husband's name is Rich. Our children are Ben, 17, and Allyson, 21. Our family are Disney lovers. We have been to Disneyworld 4 times, and Disneyland once. We are from Wisconsin, so that is not the easiest trip to make!

What a weird Christmas...we are not doing gifts at all for each other. This cruise is our anniversary/christmas gifts all wrapped into one big happy CRUISE!! I cannot wait. We are all so excited.

I have a question...do we need to bring our own beach towels? I cannot remember what we did last time.

Also, does anyone know what the dinner schedule is? (what night is formal night, etc.) AND...is there a pirate night or an island/tropical night?

Thanks for your help!

Welcome to the group, Amy!! My husband Chris and I are also celebrating our anniversary - 10yrs for us - on the 19th!!! When's your anniversary, and I can put it on the front page if you want!!!

Ok I'm really hopeful that wdw isn't as busy as they usually are this time of year. We were just able to get reserved seating for CP on the 19th. We had a choice of any restaurant and any show we wanted. Of course it may be that way due to the christmas party that night.

That's AWESOME, Lissa!!! We'll be at Artist Point at WL for dinner on the 19th. Since it's our actual anniversary, we wanted to have dinner, just us, in a restaurant that we've never tried at WDW. So, the kids are scheduled for the Cub's Den and we have dinner at AP.

Amy,
Welcome to the group!!!!!
Glad to see we have a family from 'sconsin coming along! DH and I are as close as you can be to WI without crossing the cheddar curtain. Where are you located? We're in Ingleside, IL, near Fox Lake. You can look in the first post on this thread for activities we're having during the cruise.

Hey, I know where Ingleside and Fox Lake are!!! I grew up in the NW suburbs of Chicago (Schaumburg), but we used to travel up that way on occasion too!!!

I just LOVE this one!!!

Ran to a Christmas party tonight, then stopped at Target for a few last minute items. I found Disney whiteboards in the $1 bins. Bought one for each room in our party!! They didn't have a big choice, but we got one Ariel, one High School Musical, and two different Cars themed ones. Now I just need to figure out how to hang them on the cabin doors!

Those sound really cute!!! I want one!!! I guess I'll just HAVE to go back to Target! DARN!!

Here's a tip - just have a light breakfast on Saturday morning - especially if you're not staying somewhere with a free breakfast - because as soon as you board the ship, there's food galore! Don't wanna be stuffed from a hotel breakfast when you're going to have access to a week's worth of DCL food

That is definitely one of our tips too!! We usually just grab something small - cereal, a doughnut, bagel, etc, so that we can enjoy the lunch buffet on the ship!!

Here's our plan--Emma gets out of school at 12:30. Julia is supposed to get out at 1:45, but I'm working her Christmas program at school and I think when that's done, I'll just take her home at lunchtime at 11:30. (Missing lunch and recess will kill a 4 year old, but it's for good cause!!) So by 12:45 we should be able to hop on the road.

We're going to stop at Disney World for a while. The DVC Member Mixers are on Fridays this year, so that works out well. We'll probably walk around Epcot, watch the CP from the walkway a bit, grab some dinner and then head out to the port.

We're hoping to do the same thing. The girls get out of school at 3pm, but I'm hoping to maybe get them out around 1:30pm or so and leave for WDW. We want to join Diana at the DVC Merry Member Mixer (had so much fun last year) and then we'll head over to Wilderness Lodge to check in and get ready for dinner.

I just found out that DH is scheduled to be out of town until Dec 20. Does anyone but me see a problem with that? Especially when we have a flight on the 19th. He has to "remind" work that come heck or high water he has to drive the eight hours back to IL on the 18th from Ohio. Terrific, finish shopping for presents, mail them around the globe, pack for the cruise, stock up on extra food for the two dogs, fit in two DR. appointments and 4 P/T appointments, oh, hmm wait what did I forget, oh yeah work full time for the next 9 out of 10 days, by myself!!!! How soon does the wine tasting begin on board?

I hope it all works out, Lisa Marie!!


WHEW!!! All done!!! So, if there are any other updates for the first page, let me know!! I know that we still are trying to plan the group photo, and I just saw that I don't have a time for the ornament exchange (I think), so if anyone has that info, let me know and I'll update it.

I'm busy around here with TONS of stuff for school, getting semester grades finished and printed, packing, decorating, shopping, wrapping, etc. After planning this cruise for almost 2 years now, I'm SO ready for it to get here, but I have SO much to do before it does!!!

 

[alikat99]

Ok, so one more thing - does anyone else get excited when they see that the countdown clocks are down to days, and soon it'll be in single digits????

 

[gardengirlco]

Ok, so one more thing - does anyone else get excited when they see that the countdown clocks are down to days, and soon it'll be in single digits????

I get excited and anxious at the same time because we leave Friday. Am I packing right now like I should be? Noooooo ...

 

[BearFan]

I get that same anxious feeling but then DH reminds me that we're going on a cruise not to the Moon. If you forget something, chances are (hey I'm thinking Johnny Mathis right now!) whatever you need will be available to buy somewhere along the way.

Lisa Marie

 

[BearFan]

Hey, I know where Ingleside and Fox Lake are!!! I grew up in the NW suburbs of Chicago (Schaumburg), but we used to travel up that way on occasion too!!!

Guess, what? I went to Eckerd College for two years then ended up graduating from USF in Tampa. Just like Walt said, It's a small world after all! Schaumburg, huh? You wouldn't believe Woodfield Mall now. It's enormous, but sadly, they got rid of the skating rink.

Lisa Marie

 

[alikat99]

Guess, what? I went to Eckerd College for two years then ended up graduating from USF in Tampa. Just like Walt said, It's a small world after all! Schaumburg, huh? You wouldn't believe Woodfield Mall now. It's enormous, but sadly, they got rid of the skating rink.

Lisa Marie

This is true, it is a small world!!! I used to work at Woodfield years ago, but it was after the skating rink was removed. It's not the same without it. We go home to Chicago every couple of years (I still have family up there), and it's amazing how much things are growing and changing!!!

 

[gardengirlco]

I get that same anxious feeling but then DH reminds me that we're going on a cruise not to the Moon. If you forget something, chances are (hey I'm thinking Johnny Mathis right now!) whatever you need will be available to buy somewhere along the way.

Lisa Marie

You mean I'd get to do more shopping? What a shame that would be.

 

[gardengirlco]

Can someone remind me what info everyone is putting on their business cards? I'm planning to get to make some. Family names and cabin number - anything else?

 

[Diana Lyn]

That'll be how everyone will recognize me onboard. I'll be the one in the MM Santa Hat with a drink in her hand!

Thanks for making me smile.

LM

Hey wait---that's how everyone will recognize me too!

I cannot believe we're down to 11 days!!! I have so much going on the next 2 weeks, the guy with the tray of Bahama Mama's better be on the other side of the elevator waiting for me when we board.

 

[alikat99]

Hey wait---that's how everyone will recognize me too!

I cannot believe we're down to 11 days!!! I have so much going on the next 2 weeks, the guy with the tray of Bahama Mama's better be on the other side of the elevator waiting for me when we board.

Wait!! ME TOO!!! I'm not one for running straight to the bar, but in this case, I'm SO gonna need a drink to get this vacation started!!!

 

[gardengirlco]

That'll be how everyone will recognize me onboard. I'll be the one in the MM Santa Hat with a drink in her hand!

Thanks for making me smile.

LM

Hey wait---that's how everyone will recognize me too!

I cannot believe we're down to 11 days!!! I have so much going on the next 2 weeks, the guy with the tray of Bahama Mama's better be on the other side of the elevator waiting for me when we board.

Wait!! ME TOO!!! I'm not one for running straight to the bar, but in this case, I'm SO gonna need a drink to get this vacation started!!!

That makes four of us ... sounds like a group photo op for the ladies.

 

[CrusinLattas]

Lisa Marie, Sorry to hear about your husband's schedule! At least he is up for you shopping! Just skip the packing and you will have time...smile!

 

[CrusinLattas]

I was thinking the exchange was going to be at 10 AM after the meeting for the hunt - but that may be a challenge depending on if people are eager to get hunting. I was also wondering if there would be a schedule conflict with the AM meeting and Character Breakfast - I don't have my navigator with me with times. Anyone else have a better brian for this today?...

 

[alikat99]

That makes four of us ... sounds like a group photo op for the ladies.

Sounds like a plan to me!!!

 

[BearFan]

Would people want to switch the times? We could do the ornament exchange at 9:30 and kick-off the scavenger hunt at 10? BTW, I'm pretty sure a a 2 PM photo would work for us, I think our high tea isn't until 3 PM that day. Gee, from the way it sounds, I wouldn't put it past any of us to be drinking a Long Island Iced TEA in Palo that afternoon instead of the conventional one!

LM