March 31-April 7, 2007 Eastern...3rd try :-)

[Deb & Bill]

Okay, we're here, too. We're looking forward to this cruise. We did the 4 night cruise in Nov 2001 and had a great time. So we are doing this to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. It's actually a little earlier in the month, but we wanted our son to go along (how could we go without him?), so we picked his spring break. He'll be 13 in July and in 8th grade in August. It's great to see so many other teens on the cruise so far. He's a bit shy and we found some friends on our other cruise ahead of time.

We're on deck 6 in a category 6. We have no idea what we'll be doing on board or off the ship at this time. We're leaving for out West for the San Diego Marathon (including 3 nights at the Grand Californian) on Wednesday and still have to start packing for that trip. Then we have a four night trip to DL for the 1/2 marathon in Sept.

We are DVC members so we have a week at VWL planned at Thanksgiving. Hopefully after that trip, I'll have a little time to plan our cruise activities before the 90 day Castaway Club time frame.

Right now, I bet we'll arrive in Orlando on Friday afternoon, check into a hotel at WDW or DTD for one night, then drive to the port on Saturday morning. An OKW studio would be perfect. We'll have APs from our Nov trip, so we can get in a few attractions before we head to Port Canaveral.

Last time we cruised, I think we got to the port around 10AM and we were allowed to board the ship about 11:30 or so.

Looking forward to meeting all of you at the port!!

 

[ScrapinDisney]

Welcome to the group! I'm sure as time gets closer we'll get more joining us because I don't think the ship is going to be that empty!
You mentioned San Diego marathon...are you a runner? live in CA? Well good luck and have fun at Grand Californian. That's were we've been staying the last few times we've stayed over.

 

[Deb & Bill]

I walk 5Ks. My husband is the runner and he is doing the Suzuki Rock N Roll marathon in San Diego on Sunday. He's doing the DL inaugural half in Sept. He did the Goofy Challenge last January.

We live in Louisiana. But we have a great set of wheels.

 

[ScrapinDisney]

I walk 5Ks. My husband is the runner and he is doing the Suzuki Rock N Roll marathon in San Diego on Sunday. He's doing the DL inaugural half in Sept. He did the Goofy Challenge last January.

We live in Louisiana. But we have a great set of wheels.

Oh Deb how fun and good luck to you guys! Hey maybe I'll talk the family into going to DL and cheering your hubby on! hahaha We are further north than San Diego but the weather here has been great this week, low 80's- high 70's.

 

[minniesota]

Welcome Deb and Bill! - Glad you found us!

How was Memorial Day weekend for everyone? We had a fantastic four-day at our cabin in northern Minnesota. The weather was unbelievable - 90s! That is unheard of on Memorial Day weekend in Minn.! We were on the boat and tubing all four days. I think the ice has only been out for 6 weeks. Let's rephrase the activities - I was ON the boat and NOT tubing! Left that for the kids. The 3 families who will be on the cruise were all at the cabin but we didn't break the news to the kids yet. They are going to be so excited!

I've got my Passporter and all the fun stuff our travel agent sent hiding under the chair in my bedroom. It's fun to look at it all and start the planning - only 10 months to go.

I wonder how many other Disers will find their way to our thread - I'm sure we're not the only families onboard! We'll have to keep bumping so newcomers can find us! Have a great Thursday, everyone!

 

[ScrapinDisney]

We'd have a very empty ship if we were the only families! I wonder how crowded it will be since it's very close to Easter and Spring Break for many schools.

 

[dpuck1998]

I'm guessing it will be full..but then aren't most of the sails full anyway? I had to go down to deck one to get a connecting room in cat 9. I think I'll like it down there anyway.

 

[ScrapinDisney]

We are on deck 8 and we have 3 rooms amongst our group of 11, but they aren't right next to each other like they were on our last cruise in June 2005. I'm sure it will be pretty crowded but thats ok, the ship is big!

 

[minniesota]

We are on Deck 7 with connecting Cat 5s (starboard side); my brother's family is also on Deck 7 in connecting Cat 5s directly across from us on the port side; and my sister is on Deck 7 in one of those staterooms that used to be classified as a Cat 5 but is now a Cat 7. So we're all relatively close to each other.

ScrapinDisney - Are you guys in Cat 4s or in the Walt suite?

Oh, the ladies might be interested in this. I was shopping with my DD14 yesterday and several of the department stores have all their prom dresses marked 50 to 75 percent off! Even though my DD doesn't know about the cruise yet, we bought a long black dress which I'm sure she'll wear on formal night. It was $34! ANd it's adorable. I think I'm going to start looking myself - it seems like a good time to find some dressier things.

 

[ScrapinDisney]

I WISH we were in a suite! hahha We have a cat 4 on the the 8th deck near the aft elevators.
That is a great idea about the "prom" dresses, after all this graduation stuff is over I'll have to take the girls out shopping.

 

[ScrapinDisney]

Ok all your March 31st Cruisers....why did you pick the date of this cruise?
Our decision was that all the kids had Spring Break at the same time (and we live in different cities) so we said it was the perfect time to go back on a cruise. All of us had wanted to go back on another cruise since we did one of the Mexican Rivera trips last summer when the Magic was here.

 

[dpuck1998]

We picked it because it our spring break in Michigan. We were going to go in Jan since we alway do Disney in Jan, but decided to do disney in Jan when it's nice and slow and the cruise over spring break since its not going to be noticable busier on the boat any given time...

How many days till we leave?

Ohh yea I have a countdown

 

[minniesota]

Hi fellow cruisers!

Same here on the spring break dates. With my DD in high school, taking her out of school is next to impossible. And I would never do WDW the week before Easter! The other reason is that my sister has never cruised before and my neice has been begging for 3 years. It will be fun to have all of the cousins together on the trip and the adults are looking forward to it as well.

Btw, my sister already bought a dress for formal/semi-formal nights - an adorable little black dress, as they say. She's not the type to dress up (neither am I!) so it should be fun! What are the guys doing about formal and semi-formal nights???

 

[ScrapinDisney]

On formal and semi formal night my hubby wore a suit, just changed the shirt and tie for the different night. On our cruise last summer we saw a few people with full length gowns and tuxes, but most people were dressed like they were going to a wedding: nice dresses and suits.

 

[minniesota]

On our cruise in January '04, DH and DS rented tuxes onboard and I must say it was very convenient and we had more space in our luggage. Not sure what they'll do this time as DS does not own a suit and I hate to buy one during these growing years. Since there are only 2 young men in our group, I'm sure my son will want to do what his cousin does!

Do most of you have early or late dining?

 

[ScrapinDisney]

We have early seating because of some of the little ones in our group. We had the early on our '05 cruise and it semed to work out ok. I want to take advantage of more of the shows this time....I only saw 1 of them last time.

 

[ScrapinDisney]

What seating does everyone have? We have early since we have some little ones with us.

 

[dpuck1998]

We are in early seating also. We will have three kids with us and 5 adults.

 

[minniesota]

Hi everyone- we have late seating which I think will work out well with our group especially on port days. Trying to get all those teens ready by 6 could be pushing it! And 8 p.m. is actually 7 for us in the central time zone so no one will starve...

I'm surprised we don't have more cruisers on this thread - I'm sure they'll show up eventually.

ScrapinDisney - I know you said you were thinking about Palo for dinner. Is anyone else planning to dine there? Dinner, brunch, tea??
We did brunch and dinner on our last cruise and will probably try for that again thisi time. It was such a treat!

 

[dpuck1998]

If you post it they will come.....

Maybe we need some excitement?