March 17, 2007 7 Day Eastern

[SB's Mom]

We have a 2 year old pekinese. She is our DD's (stacy) 8th birthday present. We picked her up after our June cruise! She is totally house trained and very good natured.
(Stacy wants to always carry her or hold her)

Our Eastern cruise in June was great. The hardest part for me was the 2 days at sea. I was so ready to see land on Tuesday! When we arrived at St Maartin. . . it was raining! Some shore excurisions were shortened and others were completely cancelled. Our excurision was to Anguilla for the Dolphin Encounter. We were told that the excursion was still going but the 45 minute boat ride would be rough. It was VERY rough. The dolphin time was great. . . it was raining so we didn't get much beach time. . . lunch was ok. . . then we had to return (45 minutes) back to St Maartin. Very, Very rough ride back! DD got sick (on me!) and one guy got hurt when the boat was thrown around by the waves.

Some friends did the 2 Flags tour and enjoyed it but said their kids were totally bored!

Disney did a great thing in filling in the day with activities on the boat. They showed the movie CARS several times that day and had many activities to choose from on the boat.

In St Thomas, we did an island tour and shopping. Stacy was thrilled but she made it through. Like many of the Carribean islands, it was very poor except in the tourist areas and the shopping stores.

Friends went to St Johns and said it was beautiful. . . while others went to Maagens Beach for the day. . .and others did a catamaran and snorkeling excurision.

At CC, we parasailed! It is so wonderful. . . Paul and I had parasailed 2 years ago but DD wasn't old enough. Since she was "finally" 8 she got to parasail with Paul. She loved it! She convinced the boat captian to dip me 3 times before bring me in! It was great!

The a/c was expensive but here (as in other areas also) in south Alabama it is very needed! With our extreme heat the past few weeks and the high humidity . . . it would be terrible without it.

Have a great day tomorrow
Charlene

 

[DW4US]

We're booked for Spring Break 2007 also! We originally booked for June 10, 2006, while on the 10-Day Christmas cruise (awesome!), but we had to cancel due to my DD's (16 & 13) dance recital. You know what they say about best laid plans...never pays to plan 2 years of vacations ahead of time. Anyway, we couldn't let the great re-booking savings and the stateroom credit go to waste so the "had" to rebook. We waited and waited for dates for 2007 knowing that summer would be out with the rumoured repo, so that left us with Spring Break. Only draw back with Spring Break is that we won't be able to work in any park time , but I guess you can't have everything.

We are a family of four: Me, DH, DD16 & DD13 (DD14 at cruise time). This will be our third Disney cruise, all with the eastern itin. We love at sea days and St. John has the best beach and snorkeling ever!!!

Looking forward to "talking" to everyone here!

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

Patty-- This is turning out to be a midwestern cruise!
We're letting the kids miss a couple days of school so that we can have some park time. We're flying down on Wednesday, so they are missing Wed, Thurs, and Fri.

Which beach have you been to in St. John? Is it close to the ship? DS and DD want to Jet Ski and snorkel. We're thinking that beaches will be good excursions for us to go on since we'll have baby.

 

[DW4US]

Thanks for the big welcome!!

We've been to St. John twice, both Disney shore excursions. The first time we did the 5-Star Snorkel tour and the second time we did the St. John Trunk Bay Beach and Snorkel. Both take you to Trunk Bay which is our dream beach -- soft, white sand and beautiful clear water and you snorkel in St. John National Park --- it is truly awesome. On the 5-Star you take a boat over and snorkel from the boat so that won't work with the baby, plus it was pretty rough. On the St. John Trunk Bay Beach and Snorkel you take a ferry over that you board right next to the Magic then taxi (kind of like a trolley) to the beach, gives you a chance to see some of the island. You're free to just hang out on the beach or snorkel (equipment is provided if you don't have your own), I think that would work for your family if you want to go to St. John. We are thinking of just going over to the beach on our own, not on a planned excursion, that way would get more beach time. I just don't know if we're that brave or not. I've talked to a lot of people who've done it on their own and had no problems. We'll just have to see.

As far as jet skis --- I don't think they have jet skis at Trunk Bay, being that it is a national park it is all very natural, I don't think you could ever find a more beautiful place.

We did rent jet skis in St. Maarten at the beach right in the bay where the ship docks. It is kind of a commercial beach in that there are people selling things and it is right next to the shopping district, but it would be really convenient to head back to the ship with the baby if you needed to. They also had a water trampoline with a slide in the bay that my DD13 played on. So many things to do and so little time!!!!

I don't know if we'll take the kids out of school or not (I would love to, cause I never have enough Mickey and I truly believe I should live at WDW), but it gets harder the older they get. They have a half day on Friday so they'll probably miss that day (DD16 gets out at 10:30 on a half day anyway, so what's the point), depending on what kind of flight we get. I know I want to get the earliest possible --- even if we don't get to go to a park we can at least hang out at a resort and Downtown Disney. (Guess I better pack an extra bag!)

 

[jenbrem1]

Hi Patty - welcome!

I think we will most likely do the beaches at every stop, weather permitting. I'm curious to find out what beaches are easily accessible on your own via cabs/ferries.

 

[DW4US]

Jen,

I think it's very easy to get to the beaches via taxi --- I've talked to others who've said they just have the driver drop them off and set a pick-up time for the same driver to come back --- I think you wait to pay until they pick you back up and you probably set a round-trip price before you start out. I'm sure there's a lot of people with experience. We just haven't been brave enough to try it --- we did see a Carnival boat leave without some people in St. Maarten, they tried to get out to it on a tender or something but they couldn't board because it was too rough. I don't know whatever happened to them. We think they were a group we saw on the beach earlier playing drinking games so they probably lost track of time.

 

[jenbrem1]

Cool. I've done this before on a western itinerary cruise but not on an Eastern.
Patty - where do you live in KC? I lived there for 3 years and really like the area. It's close enough to DSM that we go a couple times a year. We are actually taking the kids in August for a couple days to see the Red Sox play the Royals and then to Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun

 

[DW4US]

We live north of the river, always lived here, always north --- obviously we like it (of couse we don't know any better). We're about 8 miles east of the airport. Where did you live while you were here?

 

[jenbrem1]

We lived in south Kansas City, 101st St area, then we moved further south and bought a house in Raymore, about 10 min south of KC. I liked it because it felt like my home town here in Iowa. The last time we were in KC, and visited the north side, I couldn't believe the development!

 

[DW4US]

The northland has grown a lot, personally I'm ready for it to stop. I can't believe all the houses going up, we can't figure out where all the people come from. Raymore is usually our first stop out of town when we're heading south -- cracks me up that we hardly get out of the city limits and we have to stop for snacks and potty breaks!

Are you staying up north when you're here? Hopefully it won't be so hot by then. Another 100 degree day today, but then it's supposed to cool off --- funny that it's hotter here than in Florida

Have a great day and stay cool everyone!!!!!

 

[jenbrem1]

We are staying down in Country Club Plaza. There is a Holiday Inn down there that has a huge outdoor pool that the kids love and I love the shopping so everyone wins!! I think we are coming down August 9,10 and 11.

 

[DW4US]

FUN!! Shopping! Since they've opened up Zona Rosa (the Plaza of the northland --- or that's what we think!), we don't venture down to the Plaza too much. I work in the Crown Center area, so I try to avoid driving "over the river" on the weekend. They've also opened up a new shopping/dining meca over on the Kansas side by the speedway, we really like it. It's really nice and there's tons of different food options. They have Dave & Busters out there and they are opening up a T-Rex (looks like a Rainforest Cafe only dinosour themed) that looks really fun. You're really going to busy if you're doing both Worlds & Oceans of Fun as well as the Royals. Is this your "last blast" before school starts? We want to do something fun -- we just haven't decided what yet. We need to save up for passports. Has everyone else already order there's?????

Have a great day and weekend

 

[jenbrem1]

I don't blame you if you have everything you need right there. I'm going to have to check the area out.

It will be a busy couple of days but my son is a huge Red Sox fan so I promised him the games. My daughter just got over a broken arm so I promised her the Oceans of Fun. Hopefully I will get some school shopping done at the same time.

I'm doing the passport thing soon. I keep putting it off which is really bad because they have increased the timeframe in which you get them back. They are just so freaking expensive!!

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

Hey all! What a crazy week. The kids are both back from camp. The downstairs bathroom is a few hours away from being done. I can take a shower instead of a bath in the morning!!

Last time we were in KC we stayed at the Great Wolf by the racetrack and had a great time. We went to some town close by and watched them make marbles at the Blue Moon marble company. It was awesome.

The kids and I got our passports done already. DH and baby still need them. The state told me it would take 2 weeks for a birth certificate, then we'll need to expedite baby's passport to get it back in time. Hopefully it all works out. They are expensive. We sent ours in in February and they took 12 weeks to the day to come back.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

Patty-Forgot to mention, my DS14 will be in KC next weekend with his Jr. High group from church for power connection. They stay on a college campus and get to go to Worlds of Fun while there. Do you know which college hosts that?

 

[DW4US]

Jen -- Are you going to the Sox game on Tuesday night? If you are I think it might be a T-Shirt night -- it's always fun to get something when you're spending so much for the game. My girls went Saturday night and got bobble heads --- no clue what I'm going to do with them, hopefully I can find a big Royals fan around here that wants them. We're going to the game tomorrow night and it's another t-shirt night --- at least it's something we can get some use out of.

Stacie -- Congratulations on the bathroom completion! Could he be staying a William Jewell? That's close by World's of Fun. I hope it's not too hot next weekend, at least they're are a couple of water rides they can get wet on if it's too hot. Our youth group always stays at churches when they travel, they'd be thrilled to stay at a college. At least most of the churches they stay at have showers (always a plus with a bunch of teens). We're going to St. Louis (church youth) in August to go to Six Flags and then do some sort of mission project. I may or may not be going --- depends on the cost, have to figure in the cost of the trip as well as figure out what we're going to do with our dogs.

Do you remember where you went to see the marbles being made? You know when you live somewhere you never do any of the fun stuff around.

We need to start saving for those passports! Don't know how we're going to do that with school getting ready to start. At least we can get free passports photos through our AAA membership --- that will save around $30 or so.

Have a great day everyone!!!!!

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

Patty-It's called Moon Marble Company, in Bonner Springs. Here is the link:

http://moonmarble.com/index.htm When we were there there was a Girl Scout group visiting, and they were teaching the girls how to play marbles. It was a hit with my kids, you can buy marbles by the pound, or just a few and they have a toy store too.

 

[jenbrem1]

Patty - Wednesday or Thursday will be the nights that we go. It depends on which day we do Oceans of Fun and which day we do Worlds of Fun. I'm thinking about just waiting on buying tickets until we get down there. The games during the week don't usually get crowded from what I remember.

On passport pictures - have any of you taken these yourself? When I got my first passport in high school, we just used my school picture. I don't think that meets the criteria now since the background is dark. It just seems silly to pay $15 for a picture.

 

[DW4US]

Don't think you have to worry about a crowd at a Royals game unless they have a big promotion. I think yesterday was Build A Bear day so that probably brought in a lot of people. I thought they just would give out little bears but my daughter said they are the full size ones.

I've been seeing all kinds of ads for passport photos -- Osco and Walgreens both advertise them for $7.99, I don't know if they take them there or what. I was at the post office a couple of weeks ago and saw a girl being turned away because her photo wouldn't work --- looked like it was the standard wallet size. I haven't really paid attention to the restrictions since we were planning on just having AAA do ours.

Thanks for the link to the marble company --- sounds like it might be something different to do when the kids are complaining about being bored. I can always fix them up with some housework -- but they don't seem to be that interested.

 

[smarttyone]

Hello there everyone. We are new to this site, new to disney, and booked for the March 17 7 day eastern cruise! It will be me, I should be married by then, and my dd 8 years old. See you all then