March 10, 2012 - Eastern on the Magic

[son3disfan]

Will DCL allow you to bring those bottles back on the ship and open them? I know there is a corking fee, but what if you do it in your own room? and what Kmart sells, is it only wine and beer or can you find vodka/rhum/spirits?

Again, TIA

Sauterelledesiles

KMart sold everything.....at fantastic prices.
We carried everything onboard. No corking fee if you open the bottle of wine in your room. Room service or your stateroom host will bring glasses to your room for you. Just ask!

 

[son3disfan]

Upgrades sometimes appear on your reservation, again on Disneycruiseline.com
Your room catagory will always be listed as WHAT YOU BOOKED. (ex- cat# 11C)
But, your room number might be upgraded to a different catagory. You need to look at the floor plans to see.
We have booked inside staterooms, and on three occasions been upgraded to ocean view. Our reservation always stated the Cat we booked ( inside).
I have heard people have been upgraded at the port as well.
I don't think upgrades are a regular thing.....we have been lucky I guess.

Also the water onboard is filtered water and tastes the same as bottled water. The Evan is regular sized bottles(500ml?)
We bring a few empty bottles in our carry on and fill them up on board to bring with us on excursions.
The water is very expensive to purchase on board.

 

[son3disfan]

Hi,

I need 4 more posts before I can PM to give our info for participating with the FE, so I'll post questions in different posts!!!

This will be our first Disney cruise and even though I'm not blonde, I'm confused with the dress code for the dinners, mostly for the men in my party, which is everybody but me!!! Please help me get it all straight!

We will have one night of Formal Dining, DH will need jacket and tie, or is tie optional?, Sons (11, 9, 5) will also need jacket, or is dress shirt and tie ok?

Do we have semi-formal? if so, what is the dress code?

Then, there is cruise casual: I know it says no shorts, are bermudas considered shorts? otherwise, it's pants for the men/boys. if shorts are not allowed, are jeans permitted? how about t-shirt (I'm mostly asking for the boys), will it fly or should we really condition them that they will be wearing polo shirts (or dressier) for each and every dinner?

Thanks for your help!... here comes another post with another question!!!

Sauterelledesiles

Ok, here is the schedule for our cruise:

Saturday- sail away party on deck at about 5 pm ( after drill)
Sunday-day at sea - Formal night in dining room then "Villian" in theatre
Monday- day at sea
Tuesday- st. maarteen
Wednesday- St. Thomas - pirate night (party on deck - fireworks!)
Thursday - day at sea -Semi formal night
Friday -Castaway cay day! "Then till we meet again " in theatre

Formal night : some choose to dress quite formal , suit / gown, others with a dress or shirt and tie. Honestly, it really depends on what you are comfortable in. We like to dress up ! Boys won't wear a suit but DH WILL. kids will wear ties.

Semi-formal night: think of Sunday best ( church clothes), but again, I have seen everything! My boys wear their dress pants with a collared shirt. Cotton dockers were everywhere on our last cruise on semi-formal night.

Regular dining is again , whatever you want it to be - not really fancy but you are asked to not wear shorts or tanks / bathing suits. I ask my boys to wear cotton collared shirts, ( American eagle type) and their good jeans or cotton pants. There are lots of jeans in the dining rooms lately. Even t-shirts. Whatever you feel like wearing, it is not really enforced.
The only place that dress code is really enforced is Palo. And lately, a tie is not even necessary there either.
I think Disney understands people are on vacation, and might not want to bring a bunch of suitcases to hold all the clothes needed! We enjoy dressing up a little bit, as we don't really do it all that much at home. So whatever works for you.

Pirate night is a lot of fun. You can dress up " piratety" for dinner and enjoy the part on deck. Some families go All out in really great costumes this night. It's alot of fun.

Hope that helps out.......

AlsoI wanted to add....I am a mom of three boys....And wanted you to know......there is special place in heaven for the mom of three boys! lol!

 

[3Goofy's]

I'm pretty sure pirate night is St. Maarten night?

We will dress up a bit, but the debate goes on re a jacket for dh or not. DS will wear shirt and tie for both Formal and semi formal nights. If he had a jacket, maybe he'd wear it, but I'm not getting one for him for a couple of hours only. Regular dinners, they will each wear pants and a polo shirt, or dress shirt. We will all be repeating our evening clothes once because I just can't see myself packing that much evening wear.

 

[MammaC]

Hi all!

Traveling with me will be DH (we're both early 40s), and DSs, 11 (turning 12 in April), 9 and 5 (turning 6 on 3-23). We will be celebrating DS#3's birthday during the cruise.

Yay! This is our first cruise too and our DD will be turning 5 on Friday the 16th (our Castaway Cay day)! So much fun to celebrate a birthday this way! Maybe we can have the kiddos together for some birthday fun!

I'm looking for other families with kiddos around 4/5/6 or so on the cruise. We only have one child and she can be a little shy -I would love to meet others that she can spend a little time with to feel more comfortable...

Getting excited!!! We are flying into Orlando late Friday night and I'm working with my TA to figure out where to stay. Does anyone have any recommendations/suggestions?

Happy planning everyone!!

 

[schwenksvillemouse]

Yay! This is our first cruise too and our DD will be turning 5 on Friday the 16th (our Castaway Cay day)! So much fun to celebrate a birthday this way! Maybe we can have the kiddos together for some birthday fun!

I'm looking for other families with kiddos around 4/5/6 or so on the cruise. We only have one child and she can be a little shy -I would love to meet others that she can spend a little time with to feel more comfortable...

Getting excited!!! We are flying into Orlando late Friday night and I'm working with my TA to figure out where to stay. Does anyone have any recommendations/suggestions?

Happy planning everyone!!

Our DD will be almost 6.5 at time of cruise. We also fly in late Friday night and we're staying at the Marriott Courtyard by the airport.

 

[schwenksvillemouse]

Hi,

I need 4 more posts before I can PM to give our info for participating with the FE, so I'll post questions in different posts!!!

This will be our first Disney cruise and even though I'm not blonde, I'm confused with the dress code for the dinners, mostly for the men in my party, which is everybody but me!!! Please help me get it all straight!

We will have one night of Formal Dining, DH will need jacket and tie, or is tie optional?, Sons (11, 9, 5) will also need jacket, or is dress shirt and tie ok?

Do we have semi-formal? if so, what is the dress code?

Then, there is cruise casual: I know it says no shorts, are bermudas considered shorts? otherwise, it's pants for the men/boys. if shorts are not allowed, are jeans permitted? how about t-shirt (I'm mostly asking for the boys), will it fly or should we really condition them that they will be wearing polo shirts (or dressier) for each and every dinner?

Thanks for your help!... here comes another post with another question!!!

Sauterelledesiles

We have done one Disney cruise and two RCL cruises. I have found the RCL cruises to be more "dressy" for adults. Not as many kids on these cruises. For example I didn't see anybody in shorts on the RCL cruises in the dining rooms.

On the Disney cruise it was much more causal which is to my liking. I do get dressed up for formal night - not a suit, but jacket and tie. Semi formal night I lose the tie. As the cruise wore on I got more causal and was in shorts a couple nights. Lots of people in jeans and shorts in my limited experience.

Pirate night is fun. I was surprised at how few people actually dressed up as pirates. After reading these boards for years I thought most everyone did. We came completely prepared for all four of us. As it turned out we were in the major minority. Hardly anyone dressed up fully. Lots for a t-shirt or bandanas, but not all out. Lucky for us our tablemates, who we just met on thh cruise, dressed up fully too. We had fun walking around and hanging out in the bar pre and post dinner. We got lots of great comments form other cruisers.

 

[KBennett]

Hi Everyone!
We are very excited to being joining all of you on this cruise. We were hoping we weren't too late to join in on the fish extenders? I haven't had a chance to scroll through and catch up so if someone can let me know that would be great! We have 3 DD's 12 , 11, & 8 and this is our second Disney cruise. We can't wait!!

 

[mtambrino]

Yay! This is our first cruise too and our DD will be turning 5 on Friday the 16th (our Castaway Cay day)! So much fun to celebrate a birthday this way! Maybe we can have the kiddos together for some birthday fun!

I'm looking for other families with kiddos around 4/5/6 or so on the cruise. We only have one child and she can be a little shy -I would love to meet others that she can spend a little time with to feel more comfortable...

Getting excited!!! We are flying into Orlando late Friday night and I'm working with my TA to figure out where to stay. Does anyone have any recommendations/suggestions?

Happy planning everyone!!

Our DD will be 5.10 on the cruise and can be shy as well at first. I know she would love to meet some kids her age too. Are you planing to go to the meet and greet on the day of embarkation? They could meet then?

 

[KBennett]

Yay! This is our first cruise too and our DD will be turning 5 on Friday the 16th (our Castaway Cay day)! So much fun to celebrate a birthday this way! Maybe we can have the kiddos together for some birthday fun!

I'm looking for other families with kiddos around 4/5/6 or so on the cruise. We only have one child and she can be a little shy -I would love to meet others that she can spend a little time with to feel more comfortable...

Getting excited!!! We are flying into Orlando late Friday night and I'm working with my TA to figure out where to stay. Does anyone have any recommendations/suggestions?

Happy planning everyone!!

We are staying at the Residence Inn in Cape Canaveral. We've stayed there a few times before and have been very happy with it. It's extremely close to the Port.

 

[papertraveller]

Hi everyone,

I can feel the excitement starting to build. It's getting cold up here in the Great White North, so we're ready for a Caribbean getaway!

I have updated the FE list on page 2 (and the roll call too). I am missing information for a few families (two just need to send me emails, and the other four are just MIA). I have sent a PM to everyone requesting the missing info.

I'll give everyone until next weekend to see if I get some updates, and I'll send out the draft FE list then. I know it's helpful for everyone to know numbers, and ages of the kids.

As proposed previously, our cut-off will be Feb. 10. That gives everyone 30 days to finalize their gifts.

Here's hoping you are all well. Happy planning!

 

[papertraveller]

I have just taken a look at the numbers. The 11 family groups for which I have information have 40 people.
The four groups that I have yet to hear from represent 17 people (one group's numbers aren't clear).
That's why we'd love to hear from you to confirm your information.

Cheers

 

[MammaC]

Our DD will be 5.10 on the cruise and can be shy as well at first. I know she would love to meet some kids her age too. Are you planing to go to the meet and greet on the day of embarkation? They could meet then?

Yes!! That would be great! Thanks!

Question for those of you who have cruised with DCL before -do I need to bring beach towels? We aren't planning any big excursions and will most likely spend some time on the beach whenever we are off the ship...

Thanks much!

 

[son3disfan]

Yes!! That would be great! Thanks!

Question for those of you who have cruised with DCL before -do I need to bring beach towels? We aren't planning any big excursions and will most likely spend some time on the beach whenever we are off the ship...

Thanks much!

No beach towel necessay for Disney excursions, they are provided ( and asked that they are brought back) and they are also supplied on Castaway Cay.

If you are going out to a beach, on your own in the ports, then yes.

 

[finishline413]

we started packing!

 

[barnettcrew]

Please add us to the list:

DW, DH, DS16 and DD14.

Looking forward to our first cruise !!

 

[barnettcrew]

We are staying at the Country Inn & Suites in Coco Beach. Anyone stayed there before and have comments and how far is the drive to the port.

 

[sauterelledesiles]

Hi all... what a surprise I get when my husband emails me (from business trip) to let me know his reservation (there's 5 of us, so 2 rooms, 2 reservations) has an outstanding balance of $52. We paid everything in December. And we even got minimal refunds last week or the week before. WTH? Has this happened to anybody else?

Of course, by the time I received the email, DCL was closed. I did send them a message via the website.

And, just to make things more confusing... the website info still states we are in good order and do not owe DCL money.

Can somebody make me feel better by suggesting a plausible cause for all this before I go nut?!?!?

Thanks for being there and I am looking forward to meeting you all!

 

[papertraveller]

Please add us to the list:

DW, DH, DS16 and DD14.

Looking forward to our first cruise !!

Welcome! I will add you to the list this evening.

And in the meantime, if you are able to bring the number of your posts up to 10 soon, please PM me with an email address, as well as stateroom number if you know it.

I will be sending out the draft FE spreadsheet to all participants this weekend.

 

[barnettcrew]

Started "TO DO LIST" for cruise today ..