March 20, 2010*** Mickey's Magic Matey's Cruise the Western!***

[disney-akj]

What other excursion providers' web sites are you visiting? I need to spend more time planning apparently or buy a planning guide : ) I have learned so much already from the disboards though, but I am sure a book would help.

 

[wegs3000]

I bought the 2009 Passporter and I have read it multiple times cover to cover. I highly recommend it.

However, I want to book Dolphinarius in Cozumel because we can walk from the ship and I am not worried about getting lost or getting hung up in traffic and not making it back on the ship on time on a DIY-booked excursion (as opposed to a DCL-booked where they have to wait for you if it gets delayed for any reason). But the Dolphinarius web site says kids must be 10 or over to swim with the dolphins (not the touch one as it is too much money for a kiss and a wave). DD will be 9 and when I talked to her about it she got tears in her eyes because she thought she wouldn't be able to swim with dolphins and "fudging" her age is a big no because that is lying and lying is wrong. I can't really refute that as a responsible parent. Just to make it perfect, the DCL site said 8 and above to swim with dolphins but you have to book through them and pay more.

Adding to my dilemma is that the second Cozumel dolphin swim is Dolphin Discovery at Chakanaab park but DCL does not offer the Royal Swim, but you only have to be 8 years old or above to do that. You can book it on your own but then you have the make it back to the boat on time issues. You see my dilemmas?

And then the new DCL web site, which I love the new design, doesn't have all the excursions listed any longer so I had info. before to compare but now they only have four listed for Cozumel and none are dolphins.

So you are not the only one with rambling! I can get a headache with all these options.

And I still waver on the dang eating times but I'm sticking with main dining. For now. If there was a 7pm option it would be perfect... Like when to eat is such a big problem. I know, get over it!

 

[Clari]

I love my Passporter too. Lots of info . And worksheets to organize your travel info and itinerary.

 

[disney-akj]

I also noticed the changes on the DCL website, but found them in a different location. I don't remember where because I stumbled upon it by accident after I logged on. They are categorized by water, sightseeing, etc. My youngest daughter will turn 8 on April 10 so she will barely miss that excursion, so I will have to choose a different one. I will have to get the Passporter book. I reserved a book at the library too, that I will pick up tomorrow. Can't remember the title off the top of my head though.

 

[dytx]

hello folks; we received a call from DVC this morning. when we called last week for a room at Bay Lake Towers; there was not a 1 BR bay lake view available for the thurs, fri nite that we wanted so we were quite happy with the studio. we received a call from the same member services lady that we talked with last week. a 1 br bay lake view has come available for those two nites--were we still interested? Dee jumped for joy and we now have a 1 br for those two nites. so if you see three people floating on cloud nine the two nites prior to the cruise--you have spotted the Young family LOL.....

 

[wegs3000]

Youngs - I guess pixie dust comes in all places so lucky you all! We will try to lasso you to the boat.

 

[wegs3000]

I monkeyed around on the new DCL web site and found that if you search for shore excursions at the top you will get the entire list but if you just go to each port you only get three or four. The full list is organized alphabetically by excursion title which was a clunky to sort through but descriptions, pricing and photos are listed for all of them.

 

[disney-akj]

Angela, good to know Have fun Young family : )

 

[disney-akj]

We made adorable count down calendars for the kids to color and cross off each day until the cruise which we started today. 200 days : )

 

[mommyofthreeboys]

Well, I might have to jump ship!!!

YIKES!!!!

Fast—talk me out of it!

Ya see, with Disney announcing the new “kids sail free” offer on most 3 and 4 night cruises, it might be a deal we can’t pass up.

What would you do?

This is our first cruise. I initially wanted to do a 4 night cruise just to test the waters to see if cruising was for us. But then I priced it out and decided a 7 night was a better deal for us. But now…..with the deal, the 4 night might be better. But we would be going to 1 room (pros and cons of that)

So…here are the options

7 night as planned—2 rooms (cat 7 and 11) $7,200
or
4 night deal—1 room (cat 4) for $3,500….(a $2,300 savings)

With the savings, I think it’s a no brainer for us. Unless you tell me I am missing something????

Also, with the 4 night—the boys wouldn’t miss a day of school and DH wouldn’t miss an unpaid day of work.

But then I would miss out on meeting ya’ll!

AGHHHHHHH!!!!

Just when I think I have everything figured out.

I wonder if Disney will come out with a deal for the 7 night….then that would get me to stick with the 7 night.

All these second guesses are driving me crazy!!!


HELP ME

 

[disney-akj]

That is a tough decision, because that is a lot of money. I guess your family would have to decide how excited they were about the different ports/excursions they were going to do on the WC. Plus would your family care about missing some of the things that are not offered on a shorter cruise? Good luck with your decision, I am sure you will make the right one for you and your family : ) It would be nice to have you on our cruise, but I understand completely. I know I personally wouldn't end up saving that money though because if I drove that far for only a four night cruise I know we couldn't resist stopping by Disney for a few days too then. There my savings would go : )

 

[wegs3000]

I saw the kids sail free extension through April 2010 and quickly went to check it out on the DCL site and found that of course the 7 day cruises are not included. So then I went to the ever trusty DIS board and saw several other people scratching their heads over the same issue and the concensus is that 7 days sell without kids sail free so they won't be offering it.

In your situation $2300 is a lot to think about. We took the 7 days because we are flying from the west coast and 4 days just does not seem long enough. Also, we ruled out a land/sea option because as I've posted before we did WDW at this week of the year (our spring break is always the same week) two years ago and it was a nightmare. A CM told me it is the second busiest week at WDW after Christmas. It felt like it too.

I selfishly hope you all join us but it is totally understandable that with a $2300 savings you would go to the 4 day. Only you can decide if the three days is worth the extra money.

I bet that didn't really help. I'm sorry. I say stay with us! But I don't have to pay your mortgage...

 

[shinez]

Hi All! We're headed on the Magic the 20th too! Any Friends of Bill W. out there??

 

[DisneyMom92]

I think we are going to rent an electric car in Key West (a few in our party might go on the Thrill Boat ride?). We will have to rent through a private company though because Disney requires you to be 5 or older where private companies do not. I plan on finding a company for this soon. I will add that to my to-do list. We will probably drive around the island. We plan on going to the Southern Most Point, looking at the 6-toed cats at Hemingway's house, visiting the beach, a stroll on Duvall Street and Mallory Square while there. I am disappointed about the ship leaving before the sun sets though. I have been to Key West and it is a beautiful sight to see. I looked up the time of sun sets and it is a little past 7:30 in March which is disappointing because I believe our ship leaves at that time : ( I guess we will be on the Magic and will have to get the view from the deck. Things could be worse : )

The Magic will stay in port during the sunset. They sail away just after the sun is below the horizon. It'a unique perspective to be on deck rather than on land. I have some pretty cool pictures both of the sunset and of the crowd gathering for the sunset. If any one is interested, I will try to find them to post.

I believe while in Cozumel, my daughters want to do the kids swim with the dolphins and I will watch them. My husband and mom plan on going to the Ruins, while my in-laws watch DS (3) on the boat.

We have done the Chankanaab dolphin swims, the first time with Disney and the second time the Royal swim on our own. The Disney one is a little watered down, but great and less time consuming. Leave a little extra time for the park; it's really pretty.

We plan on going on the semi-sub and snorkeling excursion. At CC we plan on relaxing. Maybe do a little snorkeling. We thought about doing the sting rays, but we just got to pet some at the STL zoo for free, so probably won't pay to do it on the cruise.

Do you live in St. Louis? We are just a little east of there in Evansville, IN. It's about a 2-2 1/2 hour drive.

I too have been back and forth on the excursions. I can't see any reason to spend the $$$ on Disney booked excursions in Key West, however. There are no language, travel to and from the boat, or foreign country issues to deal with and you can easily do any of them on your own and save the $ for something else. I'm getting confused with the costs/age restrictions/timing that you see on the excursion providers' web sites vs. what DCL says. I need to just figure out what we want and map out the options to pick best. They don't make it easy on you and as first time cruisers I'm worried anything with the word dolphin in it will be long gone well before the 75 day mark.

If you do decide to book on your own, there is little need for currency exchange. Almost everyone takes American dollars in the tourist areas. Even shopping in both Grand Cayman and Cozumel take American dollars without exchanging.

My dad asked me yesterday what could he possibly wear on pirate night? Hah! He has just issued me a challenge. We're talking closer to Barbosa than Jack Sparrow but hey, it's the thought that counts.

Lots of men wear their Carribean or Hawaiian style shirts that night, but lots of people get pretty into the Pirate dress.

My DD and I have figured out our FE gift. We are really excited as it gives us something to do to pass the time a little bit quicker.

Did not realize we were doing FE. Who's organizing it and is there a list of rules? We really have really enjoyed it in the past.

Well, I might have to jump ship!!!

YIKES!!!!

Fast—talk me out of it!

Ya see, with Disney announcing the new “kids sail free” offer on most 3 and 4 night cruises, it might be a deal we can’t pass up.

What would you do?

This is our first cruise. I initially wanted to do a 4 night cruise just to test the waters to see if cruising was for us. But then I priced it out and decided a 7 night was a better deal for us. But now…..with the deal, the 4 night might be better. But we would be going to 1 room (pros and cons of that)

So…here are the options

7 night as planned—2 rooms (cat 7 and 11) $7,200
or
4 night deal—1 room (cat 4) for $3,500….(a $2,300 savings)

With the savings, I think it’s a no brainer for us. Unless you tell me I am missing something????

Also, with the 4 night—the boys wouldn’t miss a day of school and DH wouldn’t miss an unpaid day of work.

But then I would miss out on meeting ya’ll!

AGHHHHHHH!!!!

Just when I think I have everything figured out.

I wonder if Disney will come out with a deal for the 7 night….then that would get me to stick with the 7 night.

All these second guesses are driving me crazy!!!


HELP ME

If you would be going to 1 room, but have 2 in the 7 night and you would be going to 4 nights instead of 7, it seem to me that you are getting almost 1/2 on the 4 night that you get on the 7. That explains most of your price differencial away. We have discussed this ad naseum, especially now that we are embarking on our 5th cruise. They are costly, but they are well worth it, in our opinion. One thing we notice, even after so many cruises, is that it takes 2-3 days to get comfortable with where everything is. Then the rest of the time is taken up with relaxing. For us it is the perfect vacation, with the kids able to do their own thing safely and us coming together when we want to. We don't want to do a shorter cruise; I think we would feel cheated.

 

[disney-akj]

Shinez- I do not know Bill : ) Glad you will be on the magic with us. If you want to join our FE gift exchange let us know.

DisneyMom92- Thanks for the info. About the FE exchange group, I don't know if there is an official organizer (our hostess maybe going on a different cruise possibly?). Two of us have offered to keep track of all of the members (# of people, ages, stateroom #, dining times, etc.) myself and Belinda (who hasn't posted in a while so I hope all is well). On post #139 there is a list of FE participants so far (I had counted you because of what you wrote on post #138, I hope that is o.k.) As far as rules, the following was previously posted :

"On the FE's. Really their is no price range. It your preference and what you want to spend. Over the years, I've seen a lot of different gifts that people give. Things as simple as post cards, candy, magnets, treat bags, to mini bottles of liquar stuffed mickeys and cd's. It's not the price of the gift that matters though, its just the fun of going back to your stateroom and finding a little something from your DIS friends. Some people do one gift for the whole week, others do 2 gifts and deliver them two different times in the week."

That is the only guidelines I have seen posted. If someone else know something different because I started a little later than some, let us know.

I hope everyone is doing well : ) I love three day weekends!!!!!!!!!!! We are almost to our 6 month mark !!!!

 

[wegs3000]

Thanks, DisneyMom92 for the good info. I appreciate it. For several of us this is our first cruise and I'm looking for all the tips I can get especially from you veterans.

FE is for everyone - Michelle and I volunteered to keep a list with names and room numbers to distribute prior to the cruise so if you would rather not post personal details on the thread please PM either or both of us. If we get a whole bunch of participants we can thing of breaking into groups but we seem to have a great manageable size going now.

It rained on our three day weekend so DD and I got out the DCL dvd and watched the whole thing. It got us both very excited!

 

[dytx]

Wegs; we had 26 members(families) in our FE on our cruise last october. our coordinator assigned x amount of members to deliever their gifts on certain days and it worked out well. as far as the gifts they ranged from a few pieces of candy and a pen or pencil; up to stickers, bandanas, sunglasses to name just a few. our particular package to others includes small candy bars, packs of texas bluebonnet flowers and such.

dee and don

 

[wegs3000]

Dee and Don:
Did you break the FE families down by deck location? Or how was it done?

Having not ever done this before I have no idea what works so any ideas from all of you are most appreciated!

We certainly want to keep it manageable so it stays fun.
Angela

 

[disney-akj]

Dee and Don: I have read that assigning people to certain days to deliver their FE gifts work well. That way by the end of the week your FE isn't empty, because everyone delivered their goodies the first few days from excitement : ) So everyone still delivers to the whole FE group, just on certain assigned days right?? Just making sure I understood you correctly. I'm glad we have experienced cruisers in our group : )

I have also read that people have to break their FE groups up into smaller groups for the exchange because they are too large (one group had about 100 staterooms in the exchange), but right now our group is a very manageable size, like Angela said. I guess we will have to wait to see about the # of staterooms in our exchange, but I do think the assigned days is a nice touch. I believe the cut off posted for joining in the FE exchange was Feb. 1st (I could be wrong, but I thought I read that somewhere on here) so hopefully we will still get some more members : )

Angela- Our Labor Day weekend was rainy too. Good idea for the rainy day though, watching the cruise DVD : ) We are still marking down on our count down calendars. I think the next few months will go by fast with Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, New Years, etc.

 

[dytx]

Dee and Don: I have read that assigning people to certain days to deliver their FE gifts work well. That way by the end of the week your FE isn't empty, because everyone delivered their goodies the first few days from excitement : ) So everyone still delivers to the whole FE group, just on certain assigned days right?? Just making sure I understood you correctly. I'm glad we have experienced cruisers in our group : )

I have also read that people have to break their FE groups up into smaller groups for the exchange because they are too large (one group had about 100 staterooms in the exchange), but right now our group is a very manageable size, like Angela said. I guess we will have to wait to see about the # of staterooms in our exchange, but I do think the assigned days is a nice touch. I believe the cut off posted for joining in the FE exchange was Feb. 1st (I could be wrong, but I thought I read that somewhere on here) so hopefully we will still get some more members : )

Angela- Our Labor Day weekend was rainy too. Good idea for the rainy day though, watching the cruise DVD : ) We are still marking down on our count down calendars. I think the next few months will go by fast with Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, New Years, etc.

our delievery day was thurs (almost everyone was assigned a day while we were "at sea" to keep from messing up days in a port
allen (our son) and I broke down all staterooms by deck then started with the smallest amount on a deck and then moved on to the next larger rooms on a deck. we were on deck 2 (and same on this cruise); so it was easy for us to take off. it was a ball. if we dropped off at a room that we knew had children and if it was a decent time of day-- we knocked on the door and boogied away.

dee and don