March 26, 2011 - Eastern Caribbean Magic and FE Exchange!

[KristiMc]

On our way to the airport! See everyone tomorrow.

 

[luvndizny]

SeeJayPandP...It took us maybe an hour (smooth sailing honestly) to get from Orlando train station to the Radisson (including two stops at toll booths). So I'm sure you'll be just as quick getting there.

Train was interesting, most people were very friendly- guy behind me wouldn't be quiet (over-nighter train with most everybody trying to sleep)...so I didn't appreciate that-mostly because of his 'colorful' language, especially with so many children all around. Breakfast was EXCELLENT on the train! Anybody on the East Coast (well maybe NC, SC or lower) I highly recommend the train! I don't know if I could take a longer trip (12 hours).

Anyhow, we were able to check in early and been here most of the day chillaxin at the hotel. See y'all tomorrow!!!!!!!! Praying for safe travels for everyone!

 

[onetothenuts]

Southwest almost had one mad cruiser. We arrived at Midway Airport to discover that SWA had boarding passes for my wife and kids, but not me. It was not until after the plane started boarding did someone offer to be bumped. Their alternative for me would have been a flight in at 2:30 this afternoon, which obviously would not have worked. So hopefully by the time we reach the port, our SWA ulcers will have subsided. Hopefully in 4 hours I may sing a clean version of "I'm on a boat"

 

[karajeboo]

Welcome back everyone! So glad to meet y'all during the cruise! Here's hoping everyone gets home safely and the tears don't stain too badly (or was I the only one crying?).
Loved all the great FE surprises! Ally raced down the hall all the time to check it out. Can everyone post what they left as sometimes there werent any names on the goodies?
We left the personalized lanyards and then the chocolate bars the last day (hope y'all got them as Ally said that some FEs were already taken down....).

 

[KristiMc]

We are home

The cruise was great! It was so nice to meet all of you and we all enjoyed our FE gifts.

We left the bag of pirate stuff for the kids and the cruise cd and DCL car decal.

Kara - Thanks again for organizing our FE group.

I might try to do a trip report. Have never done one before.

 

[jac1976]

We arrived home last night. It was so tough having to leave. My son put on the biggest sad face on Friday when he asked what island we were going to next and I had to explain we were going to FL to head home. My kids also loved the FE. It was the best! Even my mom said she thought I was nuts for doing it at first, but when she saw how excited the kids were everyday, she thought it was great. We left the big ziploc bag (sorry about the hugeness, I grabbed the wrong size at the store and didn't realize it until it was too late to change) full of silly bands, pins, pencils, and the Philly Zoo pencil and postcard (I work there). We also left the photo album.

What a magical vacation. We had the most amazing time and were even sprinkled with a bit of pixie dust while we were there which made an already amazing trip completely unforgettable. We will definitely do another cruise at some point with DCL- especially once they move to NYC!

 

[KristiMc]

I am in such a blue mood today.

I posted some of our pictures on Facebook. Here is a link if anyone wants to relive the cruise a bit. I would love to see other pictures.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?fbid=1947751257826&id=1363913124&aid=2114517

 

[jac1976]

Here are our pictures:

https://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=283804&id=614796297


I am having such withdrawl that I spent the morning on the phone with a Vacation Club representative and am plotting how to get my husband to agree to join!

 

[jcarwash]

Well, that certainly was fantastic! It was a real pleasure meeting you all.

I think we're hooked on DCL now. I'm planning to write a trip report from a first-time cruiser perspective.

Our son checked the FE upon every return to the stateroom...he gave each pocket a push just to see.

We also put together a little gift bag with some of FE gifts you all gave us for the little boy at our dinner table. Our table-mates didn't know about Fish Extenders. So thanks for helping us extend the Extenders!

 

[KristiMc]

We arrived home last night. It was so tough having to leave. My son put on the biggest sad face on Friday when he asked what island we were going to next and I had to explain we were going to FL to head home. My kids also loved the FE. It was the best! Even my mom said she thought I was nuts for doing it at first, but when she saw how excited the kids were everyday, she thought it was great. We left the big ziploc bag (sorry about the hugeness, I grabbed the wrong size at the store and didn't realize it until it was too late to change) full of silly bands, pins, pencils, and the Philly Zoo pencil and postcard (I work there). We also left the photo album.

What a magical vacation. We had the most amazing time and were even sprinkled with a bit of pixie dust while we were there which made an already amazing trip completely unforgettable. We will definitely do another cruise at some point with DCL- especially once they move to NYC!

Thanks for the big ziploc! That is what I used to stash all of the other gifts during the week.

 

[KristiMc]

Here are our pictures:

https://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=283804&id=614796297


I am having such withdrawl that I spent the morning on the phone with a Vacation Club representative and am plotting how to get my husband to agree to join!

Great pictures Jessica. Thanks for sharing. I so want to join DVC also.

 

[karajeboo]

For trips to WDW have y'all considered renting DVC points? We are staying in Boardwalk Villas in December for $120/night.... Yes you read that right - it's $250/night to pay out of pocket for the same room.

I'm miserable today - do you realize someone else is staying in YOUR cabin right now???? And YOUR servers are laughing with another family! Kinda feels like they are cheating on us!

I will add the link to my facebook photos once I add them and also the link to my TR.....

I've got the blues....the post Disney cruise blues....

 

[luvndizny]

We got back EARLY this morning off the train...and napped a while. So sad to be back, but we had such a wonderful time!!!!! We went ahead and re-booked while onboard...currently for a Christmas cruise next year. (Might change it up as we were told the new itineraries will be coming out next week!!)

We just absolutely LOVED our FE gifts! OMG- I am so stealing some of the ideas for FE gifts on our next cruise. Kara- you made the personalized ID/KTTW holders? We so used those every single day!!! And the chocolate was had by all today as an afternoon snack. Also we loved everything else everyone gave from the candy to the tattoos, cruise CD's, and the cute and hilarious magnets to the lovely photo album which will be filled quite soon as I took more than 700 pictures!! Also the HUGE ziploc bag saved my brand new camera- I'm not kidding! We did the St. John-Trunk bay excursion and got soaked during one part of it and thankfully had that big bag that my camera fit in perfectly. So glad you accidentally grabbed the bigger bags!!!!! I am also saving the bookmark with the cruise ship, mickey hands, movie reel look for the scrapbook I plan to start ASAP. The Philly postcard will go in there as well as many other things I saved from the FE gifts. I even saved one of the pirate eye patches to scrapbook as well. My husband too rolled his eyes at first, but when we would get back to our room all sad that another day was so quickly over it was so nice to come back to surprises and just as much fun to give them away to everyone else on our list. (Oh and we handed out the hand-made laminated bookmarks/scrapbook goody with the family names on them and mickey head ribbon on it...Also candy, jellybeans, bubbles, playdoh as well as a candy tin for adults and vanilla scented packets.) By the way, if you weren't able to use those scented packets on board (we used it to put in our dirty laundry bag for the clothes we couldn't finish onboard), you can open it up and put it in your vacuum cleaner at home (small amount is all that's needed) and your room will smell good every time.

I'm miserable today - do you realize someone else is staying in YOUR cabin right now???? And YOUR servers are laughing with another family! Kinda feels like they are cheating on us!

I thought the same thing today- ...that they're on their second day of sailing, etc...LOL! Oh well...til next time right?! Also sucks to have to go back to cooking, cleaning...blah blah blah.

Also, for others considering alternate transportation- the train worked out pretty well for us. Not exactly sure if we'll take that way next time as it was a LONG haul (11 to 12 hours)..and didn't get much sleep, etc.. They do have sleeper rooms but that costs as much as flying does (if not more). I am thinking of making a trip report and possibly a separate trip report on the train as well with more details. (The breakfast food was delicious though!)

Well, I'm gonna go look at everyone else's pics and still working on uploading some of mine onto FB. I will link here once I am done and also provide the link to the trip report here too. Please let us know if anyone else does as well!!

It was so nice to meet everyone and hope everyone had a wonderful time. I am so glad we went with a 7 nighter as I can't say how many times we said a 3 nighter would be over WAY too quickly. For the other first-timers- Did anyone get seasick? I took (and had everyone else take) Dramamine the first day...and honestly that's the only day it really bothered me. It made me have dry mouth pretty badly and think that bothered me more than anything. After that it was smooth sailing.... Sigh....

Hope to hear from everyone else soon...

 

[KristiMc]

I have pretty miserable today also Kara. I was saying to the boys earlier that Leasa and Benny are having fun with another family - just not right .

We rented points last February for our stay at BLT. I am hoping to rent at Beach Club next time.

 

[luvndizny]

Although we're not a member of DVC, we have timeshare points and wouldn't do it again (as far as 'owning' goes). I am sure Disney does it better than Holiday Inn Vacation Club, but our maintenance fees alone have gone up and up and UP each year. If I had my 'druthers', we'd just rent points from people and never buy again. Like I said though- not DVC so maybe there's a better experience with them, but RCI/HIVC has been a hassle for the most part. Just MHO.

Man, I so don't want to go to work tomorrow!!!! (Today was spent catching up on zzz's and daydreaming about back-to-back transatlantics....LOL!)

 

[llenne]

Hello,

So sad to be home!

We have been DVC members since 1995. We only get to vacation once or twice a year so 360 points has been sufficient. We love DVC and end up sound like a walking commercial for them. In fact our dinner guests ended up buying 220 BLT points on the cruise. In our oponion it has been one of the best investments we have ever made. Our children grew up going to Disney every year and out daugter honeymooned at Vero Beach. Please send me an email if you have any questions/concerns.

 

[karajeboo]

Hello everyone! This morning I had a really long post and then POOF it was gone! And then I just didn't have the time to retype it all, so....

Anyway, I started my TR today. I had started a Pre-trip report a couple weeks before we left, so I'm just picking up where I left off....

The McSparklesons are BACK, and they are CRUISIN! trip report.......

As for DVC, we almost bought back in 1998 and kind of wish we would have because it would be paid off by now! But a couple years ago I did the math, big ole spreadsheet and everything. If you normally stayed in a deluxe resort every time you went to WDW, you would break even in 12-15 years depending on where you bought and at what price per point. So after 12-15 years, you would then be staying in a deluxe resort for just the price of maintenance.... For us, that just didn't work out, because we do not always stay deluxe. So to justify only 20 points/night (for example) at $6/point is only $120/night versus $300 rack rate sounds great in theory, but considering you paid up front about $70-100 per point to buy in....... Then throw in staying at a moderate for that same price per night or a value at $80/night....... It just didn't add up for us, especially when we lived in Florida and usually went on weekends when the price per point is higher.

But I think it's like the DDP, it's just easier sometimes to say "I've got points so I can go for a couple days....." And I'm all about easy......

I was just going through all the FE gifts again, trying to sort things out. So many cute things I never even saw because Ally grabbed them before I saw them!!! Y'all are so creative and I'm also going to steal some ideas from you!!!

Well, off to have some leftover cake from dinner last night. Not quite like the chocolate souffle from Palo, but I guess I'll take what I can get.......

 

[jac1976]

I can't wait to read the rest of your trip report! I've had such fun reliving the cruise, talking about it to anyone who asks. It was awesome! I am a total DCL believer.

As for DVC, my mom and step-dad bought into it in 1993 or so, soon after it started. They were members for about 15 years before they sold it (which my mom totally regrets doing) so I'm very familiar with how it works- and the pros and cons. I'm going to wait a bit, but I'm pretty sure if I can get DH to agree we will do it.

 

[SeeJayPandP]

Everyone did such amazing FE gifts - Thank you. It was fun coming back to the room and finding all those little surprises. We were going to hand ours out near the end but the kids were just as excited to hand them out as they were to check their pocket.

I went to the DVC presentation and was so close to joining. I told my DH we have to join before we book another Disney vacation. I think with our week at the Animal Kingdom Lodge followed by the cruise would have made it a good investment before hand.

I really miss the great food, sunshine, and our stateroom host. Back to reality and rain, rain and possibly rain in the forecast. xoxo

Thanks again everyone. I think we'll do this again in a couple of years or maybe the Med or Alaska. I really enjoyed cruising.

Colleen Diggle

 

[karajeboo]

I can't wait to read the rest of your trip report! I've had such fun reliving the cruise, talking about it to anyone who asks. It was awesome! I am a total DCL believer.

You and me both!!! I've already got two friends getting quotes on DCL cruises!!! Do we get commission on this???

Everyone did such amazing FE gifts - Thank you. It was fun coming back to the room and finding all those little surprises. We were going to hand ours out near the end but the kids were just as excited to hand them out as they were to check their pocket.

I went to the DVC presentation and was so close to joining. I told my DH we have to join before we book another Disney vacation. I think with our week at the Animal Kingdom Lodge followed by the cruise would have made it a good investment before hand.

I really miss the great food, sunshine, and our stateroom host. Back to reality and rain, rain and possibly rain in the forecast. xoxo

Thanks again everyone. I think we'll do this again in a couple of years or maybe the Med or Alaska. I really enjoyed cruising.

Colleen Diggle

I couldn't agree more! Jeff was pricing out trips last night and about got sick when he saw the prices....... He has NO idea how much this trip cost us. Yes, we could take two cruises on another cruise line for the same price, but same service? No way! Disney just knows how to do it right. We are talking about 3 years, for Ally's 13th bday...... But I may be able to swing in in 2 years.... Jeff is taking this one hard. He has been online checking out reviews of the Dream....

I booked our DISmoms trips on the Dream for next May but honestly, I don't know if I'll like it as much as the Magic. Jeff is VERY sold on the Magic and keeps saying, "We'll never see the Magic again" because of all the rumors that she is going to New York (announcement to be made tomorrow!!!!) once the Fantasy comes out. So the Dream will do 3, 4, and 5 nights out of PC and the Fantasy will do Eastern and Western 7 night trips out of PC. We are talking about a 5 night double dip next time, but again, wish it was the Magic - the Dream just seems too big?

Heading over to check out my TR....... The next couple months will keep me"on" the ship by working on the TR so that's the only bright side.....