March 17, 2007 7 Day Eastern

[dutch_girl_scout]

Welcome TiaMaria!! Glad to have you along, what a nice aunt you are. Saturday is the 17th, another month closer to cruising!!

 

[jenbrem1]

Wow - I just saw that on your ticker. Just over 9 months left. I'm sure it will fly by. It seems like ever since I had kids, time flies. We are going to get our passports next week.

 

[TiaMaria]

I'm pretty surprised that there are just several of us posting about this date with just 9 months to go! I would have thought there would be so many more since I keep hearing what a busy time of year it is to cruise.

Maybe we are the only DIS'ers booked!

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

Jen-Time does fly with kids. I was thinking of major things that happen each month for the next nine hopefully it will fly.

July-They start construction on our house for the addition.
August-GS camp, state fair, and back to school
September-Soccer and cross country season starts
October-Soccer and cross country continued, DH and I's 15th anniversary
November-Baby and Thanksgiving
December-Swim season and Christmas
January-Swim season
February-DD's birthday, packing and shopping for cruise
March-

Really not that far away. I have know idea where everyone else is for this thread, maybe spring break attracts first-timers. Hopefully that means we'll have no trouble getting our ressies in for Palo, excursions, etc.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

 

[TiaMaria]

Jen-Time does fly with kids. I was thinking of major things that happen each month for the next nine hopefully it will fly.

July-They start construction on our house for the addition.
August-GS camp, state fair, and back to school
September-Soccer and cross country season starts
October-Soccer and cross country continued, DH and I's 15th anniversary
November-Baby and Thanksgiving
December-Swim season and Christmas
January-Swim season
February-DD's birthday, packing and shopping for cruise
March-

Really not that far away. I have know idea where everyone else is for this thread, maybe spring break attracts first-timers. Hopefully that means we'll have no trouble getting our ressies in for Palo, excursions, etc.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Stacie,

How are you feeling these days? Getting close to baby huh? I must say what great motivation you will have to get back in shape - a cruise! From all your plans, it looks like time will just fly by for your family!

Anybody else out there for a St. Paddy's Day cruise besides just the few of us yet?

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

TiaMaria-
Is your name Maria?

I'm almost half way to baby. I'm feeling good, this week doesn't look near as busy as last week was, we had vacation bible school at our church and I was sharing carpooling with another family to take my DD11 to swim camp and back (90 miles away) each day. Today was our church picnic, which we're on the comittee for. Tomorrow, DS14 has to be at Driver's Ed at 8:00 then I'm going back to bed. Tuesday we're all sleeping in.

I didn't realize our cruise would be during St. Patrick's day. What day is it? Maybe the DISers (all three of us families) could make lime green DIS shirts. As far as getting back into shape, my husband has a recycling business, I keep joking that I'm recycling my stretch marks from the last two. Maybe it will all go away after this one.

I'm finding it hard to wait for Disney to release the 2007 packages, and for AAA to release their 2007 room rates. We were going to do the parks for a few days before the cruise. Are you visiting the parks before or after the cruise? Do you know where your staying?

 

[TiaMaria]

Hi Stacie

Actually my name is Maureen (Irish for Mary/Maria) and I am a rabid aunt of 3- therefore TiaMaria!

St. Patrick's Day is actually our sailing date - March 17th - so we will fit right in if we are wearing DIS green.

My sister and brother-in-law are letting me pull my (then) 2nd grade niece and (then) 4th grade nephew out of school 1 day early for spring break and we plan to fly down from St. Louis on Friday and stay overnight at the Radisson at the port.

Would love to do a few days before and after at WDW but - school and all for the kids - we don't want them to miss more than necessary. We are kicking around the idea of doing a couple of days post cruise - they are not due back at school until the Tuesday after the cruise...but we 3 may want some down time before jumping into school/work.

I also have another niece (8 years old - is in 2nd grade this year) from my brother, but he and my sister-in-law adopted her from Russia about 20 months ago and don't want her to miss any more school since she is still playing catch-up in reading and math. I offered to wait until summer next year so she could go with us, but with her being their first child, they are still in the "we want to experience all her firsts with her" stage. Understandable. I am now trying to convince them to either come with us or book with us for the next cruise which we intend to do once on board if not before. She is great - didn't speak a word of English when they brought her home in Oct '04 and went 1/2 day Kindergarten and 1/2 day 1st grade that year. Now she is in 2nd grade full time with her age group and we can't get her to shut up!

Anyhow, I'm hoping to make this a special time for my 2 little sweethearts since we all are Disney freaks. Our family has gone to WDW every other year since my niece was born. I have cruised many times on other lines, but this is my first (but I'm sure not my last) Disney cruise. They have never cruised, but believe themselves to be experts since they have both watched Titanic hundreds of times Won't they be surprised to see what it's really like?

 

[TiaMaria]

Is anyone else joining us? Still looks like plenty of cabins in my Catagory (5) still available. I was worried about space as this is such a peak time of year, but maybe most people are getting Spring Break a little later?

I know my second niece doesn't get hers until the first week in April.

Where are all the DIS'ers? Are we sailing with strangers LOL!

 

[jenbrem1]

You are such a great aunt! We are forcing my brother (my kids' uncle) to come along on the trip. He's single and 29 and thinks it's ridiculous that we think he would want to go. I've told him that there will be plenty for him to do without the kids.

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

I agree, you are a super aunt. Thanks for explaining your name, I always like to hear where people come up with their names. Mine is because I'm from a town founded by Dutch settlers, and I'm a Girl Scout, not real original but the user name is never taken anywhere.

We felt like Spring Break was the ideal time to go with our kids too. Last year they missed a week of school in early December for our land/sea, then had to go to school for four days before Christmas break. This year they'll miss three days (Wed, Thurs, Fri) prior to the cruise so that we can do the parks, but they are getting a 7-day cruise. We also will have the Saturday after the cruise, although we haven't decided whether to do the parks that day or not. It depends on how wiped out we are. We fly out EARLY Sunday morning (7:00, be at airport by 5:30?) so we might just hang out at the resort and swim and do laundry that day. The only thing on my list of stuff I have to do at the parks is the Muppet Show at MGM, we didn't have time last time so I gave it up. We missed the stunt car show thing too that DS wanted to see. I think this trip (at least I hope) will be more relaxed than the last. Last time we thought it was our one and only time we'd be at WDW so we had to see and do it all. We know now that we'll be back many, many times so the pressure is off.

 

[jenbrem1]

I love the Muppets at MGM! That was one of the highlights of our whole trip.

I think we'll spend the Saturday after the cruise at a hotel with a huge pool so the kids can relax and swim, since it sounds like the pools on the ship are always crazy busy. I'm sure we'll get a super early flight out on Sunday morning too.

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

We have room-only reservations at Beach Club before the cruise and Coronado Springs after the cruise. The pics of both pools look nice so hopefully we get pool time before and after the cruise, both my kids (Lab and Stack) had pool parties on the last cruise and that was the best time for them to swim because the pools were crowded. That was a three day though, hopefully there are more opportunities on the 7-day.

 

[SB's Mom]

My family just booked the March 17 cruise on our Disney cruise last week! It will be me, my DH and my DD (she's 8). This will be our 3rd Disney cruise!

We had a wonderful time last week on the Magic. . . except for the rain at St Maartin. . . .bumpy boat ride to the Dolphin Encounter. . .overcast in St Thomas. . . but WONDERFUL weather at Castaway Cay. . .

We enjoyed the thread for our cruise last week. . . it was great getting to know them on line and then finally meeting on the Magic. . . so of us linked our dinner reservations and that was great for our children.

Have a wonderful day.
Charlene

 

[Nala9824]

Hi Everyone -

Here's another family joining the cruise! We actually booked last January while on our prior cruise. This will be our family's 5th Disney cruise... we love it.

There will be me , my sister , her husband and their son (will be 11). Also along are our parents - Grandma and Grandpa ! All of the family (except me) are also mid-westerners (Kansas City area), but I live in New York City. I'm also hoping one of my friends (and her husband and baby daughter) joins us as well!

Still seems like a long time off... but I'm sure the summer will go quickly!

 

[jenbrem1]

Welcome!

It's exciting to have some more families. This will be our first Disney cruise so I look to all of you DCL veterans for your expertise.

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

Yeah, more DISers!!!!

It will be nice to have someone who has done the eastern before, Charlene, I hope you don't mind questions. Nala, have you been on an eastern too?

 

[SB's Mom]

I'll be happy to pass along any help I can.
There were thing I took this trip that really helped in the room that I didn't have on our 1st cruise.

Our family loves Disney vacations and cruising , so bring on the questions! If I can help, I have friends from last week that we can ask!

Have a great day!
Charlene

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

I'm not sure how many excursions we'll be doing this time around since we'll have baby. We're leaning towards going to beaches that have snorkeling for the kids, maybe jet skis, or a water trampoline too. I don't want my DS14 and DD12 to be bored and frustrated just because we have baby along. I wouldn't mind sitting in a lounger sipping iced tea and reading a book with baby while the others went to play. We've already bought a little pop up sun tent for baby so that he doesn't get fried in the Caribbean sun. I'm looking forward to the sea days too. We didn't have any on our land/sea, not having to cook or clean for a whole week just sounds wonderful!

 

[Nala9824]

Stacie -
Yes - our family has done both Eastern and Western. We like the Eastern because it gives us an extra sea day... we love the lazy days of hanging out on the boat, and some of the "sea day only" activities - such as the wine tasting and beer tastings. The wine tasting is a bit formal, but the beer tasting is a lot of fun... some members of the family that don't drink much tag along for the entertainment. I also try to sneek in a spa day on sea days... it's a bit more expensive on sea days, but very relaxing to get a massage with the gentle rolling of the boat!

We have so many tips I don't even know where to start... but one thing I recommend is checking out a recent Navigator (daily activity sheet) to give you an idea of the type of things going on. You can find some on the WDWINFO website - search for Navigators. (Sorry - for some reason, I can't seem to paste a link here.)


I'll try to think of some key tips and pass along... but feel free to ask any questions you want... don't worry - nothing's a dumb question! I had a million questions before my first cruise!

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

Here's the link to the navigators (you have to have a certain amount of posts before you can post links or pics):

http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/cruise-new/cr-stateroom-navigator.htm

I found the DIS boards to be WAAAY helpful. I found them right before our last cruise and would have been lost without them (wouldn't have had my extension cord, power strip, over the door shoe caddy, own hair dryer, Palo ressies, etc, etc, etc).

We have two staterooms this time, I guess that means double Palo ressies. DD has volunteered to babysit for us, maybe I'll see about the spa too.