March 17, 2007 7 Day Eastern

[disneypoor]

It sounds like you are about set, Jenbrem! We are set as well! I ordered my son a suit off of ebay the other day, and it is so cute on him! It was only $30 delivered to my door and is brand new! I couldn't believe it! I'm not sure my husband believed that it was only $30 until I showed him the online statement! We all have our dress clothes now and just can't wait to get on the ship! Have a good week everyone!

 

[jenbrem1]

We are about set. I'm looking for a nice place in Orlando to stay on the 24th before going home. What we really want is a place with a huge pool for the kids. I was thinking about one of the Moderate resorts at Disney World. Does anyone here have any suggestions?

 

[disneypoor]

JenBrem--we stayed at Port Orleans Riverside last year when we went to WDW, and it was wonderful. The grounds are beautiful, and my kids really enjoyed the pool. It is sortof spread out, so there is some walking involved, but we loved it and would stay there again in a heartbeat!

 

[DW4US]

Port Orleans Riverside is our favorite resort. Guess I need to get on the stick and get a hotel for us. We're DVC so I need to give them a call and see what I can get. I was thinking Boardwalk would be fun for one night --- we could pretend we were in Epcot!!!

No airfare for us yet --- I wish some of those great deals I'm seeing for now would extend out to March.

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

Jen--We're staying at Coranado the Saturday night before flying home. It sounded like a great resort except that it doesn't provide transportation to the cruise so I thought we'd try it after the cruise. Who are you flying with? We're flying out with Delta at 7:00am Sunday morning. I've toyed with the idea of staying at the airport hotel just so we don't have to get up quite as early that day. Anyone ever stayed there?

My DS is running cross country at Norwalk on Tuesday. I'm not sure if we're going to make the trip or not but I immediately thought of you when he said it. My guess is that the apples at Happy Apple are about ready too? We might have to come your way one of these weekends.

 

[jenbrem1]

I'll look at all of those. The only one I've priced so far is the Caribbean Beach Resort. It's nice because you can do the Disney transfer back to the airport the next morning. Are the rooms in the moderate resorts still fairly small?

The night before the cruise we are staying at an Orlando airport hotel. It's the Holiday Inn Express Orlando Airport.

We are flying American and our flight leaves at 10am I think.

Cross Country meet in Norwalk next week - where do they run at? I think it's near the soccer fields where my kids play. Happy Apple Orchard is open for business. I saw their ad in the Sunday paper.

 

[disneypoor]

Hello, everyone! I'm just trying to boost us back up to the first page of this thread! Where have you all been? We only have 164 days left til our cruise!!!!

 

[DW4US]

I'm still here --- don't know where everyone else is , I know we're really busy with school, homework, etc.... Plus we're getting ready for a big hardware rollout here at work so I'll be really busy until after the first of November --- maybe I can get some OT out of the deal

Anyway, I bit the bullet yesterday and made air reservations --- about killed me --- I think I was almost sick. I got scared with all the high prices I've been seeing out of Orlando and thinking they may not go down especially during that time, sooooo while I was messing around I got $248 on Midwest --- not to Orlando but to Tampa. We've flown into Tampa before and it's not bad and it's only about an hour drive from WDW where we'll be staying (if I ever get around to calling for ressies). I hope I did the right thing --- guess it doesn't matter now since there's no turning back. Of course, today I get a SW Ding for $39 each way to Orlando for the month of November ---- better not see anything like that for March or I'll be sick!!!! Next thing is a rental car

Hope everyone's doing good!!!!!!

 

[jenbrem1]

I'm still here too!! It's weird that no one is posting much in here anymore. Like I said a couple posts above, I'm still researching a Saturday night hotel in Orlando before going home. I'm thinking Coronado Springs or Caribbean Beach Resort. My kids will just want a huge pool with a slide.

I don't have the ticker at the bottom, but it's so cool we're getting to the 5 month mark!! I hope this winter flies by.

 

[DW4US]

I don't know about the slide at Coronado, but unless Caribbean has redone their pool in the last few years their slide is really short. In the moderate range Port Orleans Riverside and French Quarter both have really fun slides. As I said before, Riverside is our fav mod, but it is big so you could have a little bit of a walk. French Quarter isn't as big so you're closer to the pool and food court. I'm going to try and call today and see what I can get for Friday night before and Saturday after.

When is everyone coming in and where is everyone planning on staying????

Have a great weekend everyone -- the weather looks great here!!! I'm really thankful for that since this is homecoming weekend and it's hard if it's cold with those formal dresses. Plus the nice weather will provide a great background for pictures!!!!

 

[jenbrem1]

Thanks for the info. From what I've heard, their opportunities on the ship to enjoy the pool will be limited due to the crowds so I'd like our last day to just be hanging out at a pool and relaxing.

We are coming in the Friday night before and staying by the Orlando airport. We are going home the Sunday after.

I love the weather too! I hope it lasts the whole month. The longer the kids have to play outside, the better.

 

[disneypoor]

Glad to hear from everyone! Patty--I don't think air from KC to Tampa for $248 sounds bad at all! We bought ours quite a while back and paid more than that. I've been watching it ever since we booked our cruise, and the same flights that we are on have gone up to $580 per person. Ouch! That makes me glad that I booked when I did. Of course, one of these days I'll probably check it and it will be something like $199 round trip and I'll be sick. Oh well, I'm just glad we have air and I know we are going!

We are flying in the Friday night before the cruise and staying at Radisson at the port. We stayed there this past June and liked it. We have a 12:50 flight leaving Orlando on the Saturday we get off of the ship. I hope we make it in plenty of time. I worry a little bit about spring break crowds, but I'm hoping they are all flying back on Sunday.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Susan

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

Hey all! Long time no post.

Jen--We never made it to Norwalk. DS dislocated his knee playing neighborhood soccer so his cross country season is over. He went to the orthopedic Dr. this week, no surgery unless he does it again (this was the second time its happened). He starts physical therapy tomorrow.

We are flying in on the Wednesday before the cruise and doing the parks for a couple days. We're staying at the Beach Club. I hated to pay that much but it was about the same price as two rooms at a moderate. We are doing Cape Canaveral the day we disembark and flying home on Sunday morning.

I can't beleive the cruise is coming up so quick. I need to make dining reservations, but I don't even know which parks we're doing on which days yet. Has anyone used Tour Guide Mike before? I have the Unofficial Guide but some posts rave about how good Tour Guide Mike is. I'm thinking that since we'll be there during spring break time it might not be a bad idea.

 

[disneypoor]

Stacie--I sure wish we were doing the parks for a couple of days before the cruise! I'm a teacher, so we can't leave until Friday night.

I found another very nice dress for my daughter this weekend at Dillards. She now has two nice dresses, and I'm hoping that's all we'll need as far as "dressy" stuff goes. I figured we'd need one for formal night and one for semi-formal night, so someone please let me know if we still need more. Other than that, I think we'll just wear nice clothes but not as nice as we will on formal and semi-formal nights.

I also went to the Disney store and bought a gift card to put towards our stateroom credit. I found out that you could do that and thought I might as well start buying now so we have quite a bit when our trip gets here.

BTW, I noticed that now you might not need a passport for our cruise. I was kindof let down since we've already spent the money on them, but I'm also sortof relieved so that if, I mean when , we rebook onboard, we'll be covered for sure.

Have a great week!

Susan

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

Susan--I hear you on the passports. DH and baby don't have theirs yet, I don't know if we should go ahead and get them or not. We're going back in Dec of 2007. I'm leaning towards just getting them and being done with it.

My kids just wore church clothes to dinner each night. DD is not a frilly kind of girl but she did wear a skirt one night, otherwise it was sweaters and black gaucho pants. DS wore khaki pants and polo shirts. Your DD should be fine with two dressy dresses.

 

[SB's Mom]

Stacie ~ we're also waiting on the passport issue for DD but I believe that your DH will have to have one.

It is hard to believe that this cruise is just a little over 5 months away!

Have a great Tuesday everyone!

Charlene

 

[disneypoor]

Hi, everyone! I'm just bumping us up to the front again. Just think---next week all of our "tickers" will say 4 months and something--no more 5 months!

 

[DW4US]

Wow --- this cruise is slipping up fast on us

I called today and our ressies for before and after the cruise --- we'll be at Boardwalk Villas on Friday night before and the Wilderness Lodge Villas on the Saturday after

I guess we're all set until we can start making shore excursion ressies. I'm still going to keep checking rental car prices to see if I can't do better. We have to get at least a standard size to hold all of our luggage. Last cruise we had an Explorer before and that was great, but we weren't so lucky on the return side --- we got the biggest car they had but it didn't have the capacity of the SUV and we were surrounded by bags Funny now (I should've took a pic), but it wasn't so fun then. To top it all off we went to Downtown Disney and bought more stuff!!!

Have a great weekend everyone!!! We need to keep this thread alive!!

 

[disneypoor]

Hi, Patty! I can't remember--do you have airfare already? If so, what line are you flying? We're flying out of KC Friday also. Just thought maybe we'd be on the same flight and could share in the excitement!

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

Hey all!! Time before the cruise seems to be going really quickly but time for this baby seems to be dragging.

I got some of my dining reservations made. I got into the Rose and Crown at Epcot late enough that I think we'll be able to watch Illuminations from there. I also got a fantasmic dinner package for our night at MGM. I didn't know you could do the dinner package with the dining plan.

I switched our reservation for the Saturday after to the MCO Hyatt. That way after Kennedy Space Center we can just return the car to the airport and go to our room. Our return flights home had changed since I booked them too. We're now going home through Atlanta instead of Cincinnati.

Patty--Where are you renting a car from? We've never rented at all before. Do the rates get cheaper as the dates get closer or should I do it now for best selection? I'm clueless about car rentals.