March 19, 2011 Western on the Magic

[AbsyBabsy]

Amanda,
Thinking of you today with your dad. Today would have been my parents 42nd wedding anniversary, but my dad died 7 years ago. He was such a sweet man and loved my kids. I get sad sometimes when they reach a milestone or do something fun because he isn't able to see it, but he lived a long time with a illness. So we are grateful he was able to meet them and enjoy them when he was here.

Maybe our dads are having a beer together in heaven.

Hope your daughter's foot heals soon!

Hi 2littleprincesses - our dad's are probably laughing at how we are becoming friends electronically! You mention how much your dad loved your kids - that is the hardest part for me, thinking about how he so loved my daughter and she him.

Mixed news with the surgeon today - trying 6 more weeks of physical therapy if it does not work - surgery. I did not share with him we are going on a cruise so it will have to be 9 weeks before surgery. I do not want to worry about wound care on the ship. I want her to be able to have a great time. Hopefully out of the metal brace and healed! Is it terrible that I would rather her miss school than our spring break cruise? But she has already missed out on so much this last year.

Only two day until Christmas - shopping done?

Amanda

 

[papertraveller]

Hello All,
We are booked for our 1st ever cruise- celebrating 10-year Anniv w/ hubby and bringing along our 2 children- DD(7) and DS (5). I appreciate reading all your tips b/c I am a planner and overwhelmed with what I may not know or be ready for!

Looking forward to March....
Merry Christmas!

Welcome! You will have such a good time, I'm sure.

And Happy Christmas one and all!

 

[madmom1030]

I hope everyone had a good Christmas.

AbsyBabsy is your daughter foot problems a dance injury? Both DDs dance, thankfully we have never had a injury that kept them from dancing. I think they would go crazy if they couldn't dance. DD8 had so much energy during the one month they were off this summer she drove me crazy. She doesn't know how to function when she isn't at school and having dance class several nights a week.

I am still trying to decided if DH and I are going to do brunch at Palo. This is our first Disney Cruise so I have to wait till the 75 day mark so I still have a few more days to decide.

to the group prisjoyce

When the girls go back to school I am going to go and look for the fabric I want to make our fish extender.

Erin

 

[AbsyBabsy]

I hope everyone had a good Christmas.

AbsyBabsy is your daughter foot problems a dance injury? Both DDs dance, thankfully we have never had a injury that kept them from dancing. I think they would go crazy if they couldn't dance. DD8 had so much energy during the one month they were off this summer she drove me crazy. She doesn't know how to function when she isn't at school and having dance class several nights a week.

I am still trying to decided if DH and I are going to do brunch at Palo. This is our first Disney Cruise so I have to wait till the 75 day mark so I still have a few more days to decide.

to the group prisjoyce

When the girls go back to school I am going to go and look for the fabric I want to make our fish extender.

Erin

Hey Madmom! I would say yes to brunch at Palo - it is incredible! We booked ours day 6 at 11:30 am. We also have high tea on day 3 at 3pm and dinner day 2 at 7pm. We have late dinner for our rotation -we have found that works great for us as we are never hunger at 6 on the ship. If you husband does not want to do high tea (my husband does not enjoy it) you can join us!

We are not sure when my daughter injured her foot - it is more from overuse. She had an intense two week rehearsal for Annie in June 10 from 9am to 5pm every day except the last two days she went until 9 at night. But she has been having foot problems since she was little. Our last appointment we learned she has a navicular bone that is too large for her foot, this along with the accessory navicular is causing the problems. PT already giving her some relief and she is walking without any aid today. This is exciting but we will see what happens when she starts dancing again (I hope it is soon, poor girl has gained weight as she has to be still).

How was your Christmas? We had a very nice, but different one. I think I overdid it with the gifts. Dsi XL, smart phone and all kinds of girl stuff. I got a beautiful Coach bag for my laptop.

Amanda

 

[madmom1030]

Hey Madmom! I would say yes to brunch at Palo - it is incredible! We booked ours day 6 at 11:30 am. We also have high tea on day 3 at 3pm and dinner day 2 at 7pm. We have late dinner for our rotation -we have found that works great for us as we are never hunger at 6 on the ship. If you husband does not want to do high tea (my husband does not enjoy it) you can join us!

We are not sure when my daughter injured her foot - it is more from overuse. She had an intense two week rehearsal for Annie in June 10 from 9am to 5pm every day except the last two days she went until 9 at night. But she has been having foot problems since she was little. Our last appointment we learned she has a navicular bone that is too large for her foot, this along with the accessory navicular is causing the problems. PT already giving her some relief and she is walking without any aid today. This is exciting but we will see what happens when she starts dancing again (I hope it is soon, poor girl has gained weight as she has to be still).

How was your Christmas? We had a very nice, but different one. I think I overdid it with the gifts. Dsi XL, smart phone and all kinds of girl stuff. I got a beautiful Coach bag for my laptop.

Amanda

We have late dinner also. We don't eat dinner most nights till 8pm so early dinner would be way to early for us. I think I will try to get a Palo reservation next week. I can always cancel it.

Hopefully your daughter won't have to have surgery and the rest is helping her foot heal.

So far Christmas has been good. 3 days of Christmas down and 3 more to go. Both our parents are divorced and everyone lives in town so we have lots of people to see for Christmas.

I tried not to go overboard with the girls this year. DD10 got a full set of golf clubs. DD8 got a new ipod. Both got Vera Bradley Mini Hipster bags for the ship to carry their room keys and their wave phones in.

DH got me Epic Mickey. I just need to find time to play it.

Erin

 

[AbsyBabsy]

Hi Erin, I added you to the facebook group!

 

[2littleprincesses]

Hi all! Sounds like people had a good Christmas! Dds did well with each getting a camera, ydd getting a guitar and odd getting a snowboard (target one, not a "real" one). Odd wants an Ipod touch so I told her if she does well with the one I got for Christmas, we would see about her getting one for her birthday.

Also we did a little scavenger hunt for them to find out about the cruise. They loved it. We watched the dvd last night and they had questions. Odd said that was the best present of all. Now that they know, I am in full cruise planning mode.

Anyways, Amanda, sounds like your dd is very talented to be in Annie. How exciting. I hope her foot is well enough for it.

Last night I looked up our cruise and was surprised to see a SPH open up so I emailed my TA who grabbed it for us. We were in a 11B sideways, but spending a little more for the SPH! Yeah!

We have early dinner and are waiting to book Palo brunch too. I am hoping that it still has openings.

What excursions are you guys doing? I think we are doing nachi conom (?) at cozumel and the dolphin swim at grand cayman.

 

[madmom1030]

2littleprincesses- I bet you are glad that you don't have to keep the secret any longer. Congrats on the SPH, we are in an 11B I keep hoping for an upgrade. Not a big deal if we don't get one we are on Deck 6 which I am really happy about.

For excursions we are thinking of doing the Jeep Exploration in Cozumel. Going to 7 mile beach in Cayman. We are planning on just doing our own thing in Key West.

Erin

 

[AbsyBabsy]

Hey gang, I had some downtime and decided to start planning! we are getting close!

please check first page of this thread - I updated my first posting with everyone's information. Please let me know if you want me to make any changes (add names, ages, special occasion, interesting info, etc.)

Don't forget we now have a facebook page, my FB user name is hamandayoung - just send me a FB friend request letting me know you want to be added to the FB page. I set it up as private so no one can see it except for those added.

Amanda

 

[krispykreme97]

Hi my boyfriend and I just decided to go on this cruise. We just got back from the Wonder on a 3 day and rebooked an Eastern in May. Haven't decided if the kids will go considering school will still be in. However, March is my spring break (I'm a school teacher) and the kids spring break is the previous week so they can't come this time. I'm so excited to do an Eastern and Western in the same year. We had a very small (3) FE group and got tons of stuff. It was funnier than the cruise itself. We were really hoping to get Palo reservations since we didn't do it on the 3 day cruise with the kids.

 

[tiggernpooh]

It's been awaile since I've checked into the cruise meet. Between work and kid activites, going to WDW in October, and the holidays, I haven't checked the boards too much. I am sorry to hear of some of the losses and health difficulties some of you have had since I last read the board. I thank God our a family has been relitively healthy as of late.
But, we have our plane tix now, insurance, hotel and car reserved for Wed. to Sat. before the cruise, so we are about ready to go!

We've been checking out the excursions and our first choices are the Island Tour and Stingrays at Grand Cayman and the Dune Buggies at Cozumel. We're sticking with the Disney booked tours for this trip since it's our first time. I'll be on the computer tomorrow night at midnight eastern to start booking (luckily only 11:00 pm for us) I am so curious to see what is available for excursions and what is already booked.

We also decided we're going to save Palo for a future trip and just enjoy the other restaurants. I've been trying to figure out the dining rotations and keep seeing different info on the boards and in my Passporter. Anybody here that could tell me the typical Western Cruise rotations and Formal, Semi-formal, and Pirate Nights? I plan to request (I know it's not guaranteed) to eat at Lumieres on the formal night. (I still have to find a dress, though!) so I just want to know what rotation to request.

I'm really looking forward to a Dis meet the first day and meet you all face to face! Also, we'd really like to do the FEs - so if anyone is keeping a list, please sign us up!

Wishing you all health and hapiness in the New Year!

 

[AbsyBabsy]

Hi my boyfriend and I just decided to go on this cruise. We just got back from the Wonder on a 3 day and rebooked an Eastern in May. Haven't decided if the kids will go considering school will still be in. However, March is my spring break (I'm a school teacher) and the kids spring break is the previous week so they can't come this time. I'm so excited to do an Eastern and Western in the same year. We had a very small (3) FE group and got tons of stuff. It was funnier than the cruise itself. We were really hoping to get Palo reservations since we didn't do it on the 3 day cruise with the kids.

Welcome Krispykreme97 - I added you to the first page list.

I guess we need to get a list of who wants to do FE's - I am up for it and actually bought a bunch of gifts today (Great sale at Dillards!)

Oh and I added another 11 year old girl to our party! Welcome Jas!!

Please let me know PM or post on this thread if you want to be a part and I will keep updating page 1.

Amanda

 

[madmom1030]

Jeff, the girls and I are in for the FE. We are in room 6611.

Jeff is sick so I have to stay up and book things tonight. Good Luck to everyone who is making their reservations tonight.

Looks like the Magic isn't close to being full yet, I guess we can thank all the people who are on the Dream for spring break instead of the Magic.

Erin

 

[AbsyBabsy]

Hey everyone! We have added one girl to our group, Jasmine 11. this is her first Disney Cruise and she is very excited.

We initially booked Eco park in Mexico for 4 and when I called I was told it was booked so cannot add 1!

I managed to get all my Palo's in - I highly recommend it for at least a brunch or Tea of you don't want to miss the regular dining on your first trip.

Happy new year! Amanda

 

[le830]

Hi Everyone, We are travelling on this cruise also! It will be me, DH, DD (4), and DD (22 months). Also, my parents will be in a connecting room. My DH and I were last on the Wonder in 2000, so we're so excited to be cruising agian--especially now with our girls! Is anyone else on deck 7?? We chose the late dining option. I am hoping it works out good with the nap schedule! We are going to skip the FE this time, but I am going to try and join the FB group.

 

[madmom1030]

Hi Everyone, We are travelling on this cruise also! It will be me, DH, DD (4), and DD (22 months). Also, my parents will be in a connecting room. My DH and I were last on the Wonder in 2000, so we're so excited to be cruising agian--especially now with our girls! Is anyone else on deck 7?? We chose the late dining option. I am hoping it works out good with the nap schedule! We are going to skip the FE this time, but I am going to try and join the FB group.

Hi le830 Welcome to the group. Have you booked your airfare out of St. Louis yet? We are flying into Tampa before the cruise. We are still trying to decide if we are flying home from Orlando or Tampa.

We are on Deck 6.

Erin

 

[2littleprincesses]

Welcome to le830! So excited that things are getting closer and we are hearing from more people.

I am debating staying up tonight (11:00 for us too) to schedule excursions and Palo brunch (fingers crossed) or just getting up early tomorrow am.

I think we will do the trolley (book privately) in Key West, Nachi Cocom in Cozumel, and dolphins and turtle farm in Grand Cayman. I think this is the plan. It could change.

We are planning on flying in the day before so now I am debating where to stay on Friday night. Do we stay in Orlando somewhere or find something on Cocoa Beach. We also have not booked airfare yet--still so expensive. I hope it gets better! Then we will book insurance.

Erin--I noticed too that there are several rooms left in several categories so maybe the boat won't be full?

We live in MN and have already had such a icky winter that this will be a nice break for us. I know those on the east coast will be happy to take this break as well.

Can't wait to hear tomorrow what everyone signed up for.

 

[le830]

Hi Erin-
We are flying down to Orlando on Friday, and flying back from Orlando Sunday after the cruise. Airfare was a bit more than we were expecting, but we were not up to that drive!
Lori

 

[DundasDad]

I managed to get a Palo brunch reservation -- Thursday at 10:30, a sea day. I went online early on the 90th day, and was very surprised to have a choice of days and times. I decided the night before that I wasn't going to be too worried if we didn't get in. But now that we are going, I am excited!

We just booked the same time! Very cool!

 

[madmom1030]

It sounds like everyone is eating at Palo on Thursday for brunch at either 10:30 or 11:30.

Did everyone get the excursions that hey wanted?

le830 - I hate flying out of St Louis these days, it is gettting more and more expensive. We always try to fly Southwest but this time we may end up doing a combination of Southwest and Airtran. I just hate to pay for luggage. The girls suitcases we can carryon if we need to.

Erin