March 4, 2007 Wonder - Anyone Else?

[rpclmc]

helloto all,i'm still here and doing well,Is everyone on board going with the Promenade Lounge between 2:30 - 3:00? I don't mind the idea of starting out with a drink .........me either.sounds like a plan to me.i'll be there!!! just got my travel docs in mail today,but do not have passports YET.they told lw today that they were overnighting them,should see them tommorow or wednesday.(not sure what type of overnite they use).so i'm hoping for tommorow.have to pack yet.(no problem)2 piggly wiggly bags,doubled up of course,and be on the road friday afternoon late.roughly 10 hour drive to orlando to relax and head to port sunday morning.thats pretty much it for now,i hope all have a safe trip and be careful...we'll see you on sunday afternoon ....wayne

Hey, we collect the state coins and put them in the U.S. board. Can't seem to come across Tennesee or Kentucky. If you have any of those, will you bring them and I will buy them from you (I just need 1 of each)?

Thanks.

Linda

 

[meeone2]

what are you looking for linda,a regular tn state quarter or the collectibl coin.wife just dumped change cup on the bed as i'm typing...........found a KY quarter

 

[rpclmc]

what are you looking for linda,a regular tn state quarter or the collectibl coin.wife just dumped change cup on the bed as i'm typing...........found a KY quarter

Just the regular state coins.

Linda

 

[FrazzledDad]

To everyone going to WDW first, have a safe trip and a great time. See you on the boat!!!!

 

[rpclmc]

O.K. packed, boarding passes, travel clothes set out, alarm clocks set; off to bed. Morning we leave for Florida

O.K. enough with the smiley's. Wish us good travels, looks like some storms across the country and going from Idaho through Salt Lake City, Utah through St Loius to Orlando has potential for delays and weather problems, but I know everything will be good traveling for everyone.

See everyone on the boat, except maybe Doodlesmommy - might meet up with her at the resort on the land portion.

Linda

 

[rpclmc]

Arrived at Disneyworld last night. Our flights were wonderful, no delays, no storms, etc; perfect. I guess we just missed the storms by about an hour all the way out.

Check in was great and luggage followed very closely behind. Was wonderful not to have to worry about picking up the luggage.

Spent most the day at Epcot. Beautiful weather, warm but not hot (starting getting hot about 3:30 pm, but that is when we went to hotel to swim). No lines for us to wait in. I had a schedule all broken out and it worked great and we even got a late start. Saw everything we wanted, except the fireworks - we will see those tommorrow night. My DD and DH pooped out early on me (9:00 pm they were in bed and asleep by 9:30 - now they are having a snoring contest). After swimming (about 6:00 pm) we headed out to Downtown Disney and tried our chances at Fulmer's Crab House with no reservations; seated right away no waiting. Excellent dinner and service.

Wandered around Downtown Disney for about an hour and came back to hotel.

I am checking emails and update on Survivor, etc. Tried calling Doodlesmommy but no answer. I am hoping that means they were at the Epcot fireworks (that is what she said their plan was going to be) and not delayed in airports. Will try her again tommorrow.

Hope everyone is doing well and ready to go.

Linda

 

[FrazzledDad]

Nice update, Linda.

We told the kids tonight.

The 11yr old was speechless, the 8 yr old was so overwhelmed that she literally just sobbed for 5 minutes and the 4 yr old was just running around screaming. The baby, of course, was sleeping. We let them go crazy for about an hour and then sat them talk and read them the riot act about how much planning went into this and how they have to behave. They all agreed and that lasted for about 2hrs until the 4 yr old smacked the 8 yr old in the head for fun. Good times, good times (Girls are really really hard to raise....especially when you have 3)

See you all in 2 days!!!!!!!

 

[rpclmc]

A good day today. Little on the breezy side, but with it so hot (to us, others from warm country were wearing jackets all day, we were in shorts and t-shirts) it was perfect. Got a little more crowded today. ESPN event is going on this weekend and drew in some people and the weather really is good, so that brought out more, but still no waiting for the things we chose to do. We went to MGM and kept it a short, sweet day. We were there from 10:00 - 2:30 and then came back to the room. DD and DH went down to the pool and I took a long (2 hours) nap. We then went back to Epcot for the fireworks. Ate dinner in Morroca and had a 5 minute wait (if that); which was our longest wait of the day.

Buses were full - standing room only - but things still didn't seem to be unpleasantly crowded today. Let's hope for another good one tommorrow, we are doing Magic Kingdom tommorrow and Animal Kingdom Sunday before the bus out to the port. From what I have heard, plenty of time to get the stuff in at Animal Kingdom in 1/2 day.

We are having fun, but realizing that we are not park people, so are looking forward to the cruise.

Just leaving messages back and forth for Michelle/Doodlesmommy. She is here and made it in o.k., but we seem to be hitting different parks and on a slightly different schedule. Can't wait to meet up with everyone.

Frazzledad, we were trying to explain the "joys" of having siblings to our DD (she is our only) tonight and were talkling about the hitting and teasing.

Linda

 

[rpclmc]

Holy cow, were we ever busy. We had a great time. How about everyone else?

I really wish we could have gotten together. I was so looking forward to meeting everyone; just touched base with a couple of you. I just think everyone was sooooo busy.

Did anyone else have late seating and what was your thoughts on this? We had the late, late (8:30 pm) seating and didn't get out for 2 hours; it was too long in our opinion. Other than that, everything was top notch.

Hope everyone made it home safe and sound. We made it back last night at midnight. Now just trying to adjust to the time change (2 hours and then daylight savings changes on Sunday - we should be a pretty good mess after that) and get all the laundry (oh my gosh, did we ever pack a lot) done.

We also have to have all 200 boxes of Girl Scout cookies delivered by next weekend. We lost a week of delivery time while on vacation.

My clothes shrank. Anyone elses?

Linda

 

[doug46]

What a wonderful vacation. We got home last night around 7:00 pm. Everyone was pretty exhausted, but feeling great. We enjoyed the cruise more than the land portion (way to rushed for us). We liked the cruise so much we booked the same two staterooms for a new cruise in September of 2008 ( a seven-day cruise that visits Castaway Cay (our favorite part of cruise) twice.

Linda, we had the 6:00 pm dining time and it was perfect. Not so early that we felt like we had to end our day early, and not so late that the kids were falling asleep... We had plenty of time to make the 8:30 shows or whatever else we wanted to do.

We were traveling with my sister-in-law (wife's sister) who used a wheel chair and that impacted what we could do and at what speed, but Disney did a great job (both land and sea) of accomodating her and helping us make her trip "magical".

We did find that we were overwhelmed by the many, many tips on these boards and we were moving so fast that we never really took advantage of many of them. However, the over-the-door shoe holder that my wife scoofed at worked out very very well to keep us and hte kids organized.

The only things we would complain about were mostly out of Disney's control, some flights issues come to mind (we will never, ever fly Spirit Air again). We thought a towel drop-off on Nassau would have been helpful (had to carry them a long way) and there was too much help with the drink station on Castaway Cay (they were in the way and slowed things down). Pretty small issues given everything we absolutely loved (i.e., the shows, the food, the cast off party and Pirate party (fireworks were very good), our wait staff and room hostess were out of this world, the ship was beautiful and emaculately clean, the kids activities were awesome (in particular the Oceaneer's Club), and the characters were plentiful (though the lines were sometimes quite long). I also thought for the number of people on-board, DCL did a fantastic job of moving people. Even with all of the necessary security procedures, they were able to keep the people moving and spread out. We could not be happier with the whole experience (as indicated by our having booked our next cruise while still on board). I did think the gift shops had too much pirate stuff and not enough stuff for girls around 8-10 (i.e., those who are done with princeses, but still like toys).

Caribbean Beach was really nice and we loved it there. We had one questionable day of weather, but most of it was pretty good. Aminal Kingdom Sunday morning was kind of a waste. We did the safari and saw a very cool Bird show, but that was it before we had to assemble for the bus ride. Rode on brand new DCL bus and that was also quite nice. Check-in at the ship could not have been easier or quicker. Loved it all.

Hope everyone had as nicve a time as we did.

 

[FrazzledDad]

Hey guys, sorry we missed you all. We just got back home.
We would have made the meet but we ended up having some "issues" before we even boarded. I actually heard the two words that I thought I would never here on this vacation..... "We're bored".....while we were sitting in the terminal with a number 2 boarding pass. It took everything I had not to lose it. So, we took a little "time out" in the stateroom, made some attitude adjustments and re-started our trip.
We did eventually have a great time. My only complaint was with the food. I was very dissapointed in all the dinners except Palo. I really thought the food would be outstanding and I thought it fell way short. Oh well . The kids loved the clubs so much that they didn't ever want to leave. We actually ate dinner the last night without the 3 girls, who stayed in their clubs. I thought the staterooms were excellent and having the 2 connecting rooms was great.

The Dolphin Swim in Nassau was probably one of the 3 best things I have ever done in my life and to have my 2 oldest girls with me was just a special time.

Hope everyone had a great time.

 

[doug46]

Frazzledad, what is a number 2 boarding pass?

 

[rpclmc]

What a wonderful vacation. We got home last night around 7:00 pm. Everyone was pretty exhausted, but feeling great. We enjoyed the cruise more than the land portion (way to rushed for us). We liked the cruise so much we booked the same two staterooms for a new cruise in September of 2008 ( a seven-day cruise that visits Castaway Cay (our favorite part of cruise) twice.

Linda, we had the 6:00 pm dining time and it was perfect. Not so early that we felt like we had to end our day early, and not so late that the kids were falling asleep... We had plenty of time to make the 8:30 shows or whatever else we wanted to do.

We were traveling with my sister-in-law (wife's sister) who used a wheel chair and that impacted what we could do and at what speed, but Disney did a great job (both land and sea) of accomodating her and helping us make her trip "magical".

We did find that we were overwhelmed by the many, many tips on these boards and we were moving so fast that we never really took advantage of many of them. However, the over-the-door shoe holder that my wife scoofed at worked out very very well to keep us and hte kids organized.

The only things we would complain about were mostly out of Disney's control, some flights issues come to mind (we will never, ever fly Spirit Air again). We thought a towel drop-off on Nassau would have been helpful (had to carry them a long way) and there was too much help with the drink station on Castaway Cay (they were in the way and slowed things down). Pretty small issues given everything we absolutely loved (i.e., the shows, the food, the cast off party and Pirate party (fireworks were very good), our wait staff and room hostess were out of this world, the ship was beautiful and emaculately clean, the kids activities were awesome (in particular the Oceaneer's Club), and the characters were plentiful (though the lines were sometimes quite long). I also thought for the number of people on-board, DCL did a fantastic job of moving people. Even with all of the necessary security procedures, they were able to keep the people moving and spread out. We could not be happier with the whole experience (as indicated by our having booked our next cruise while still on board). I did think the gift shops had too much pirate stuff and not enough stuff for girls around 8-10 (i.e., those who are done with princeses, but still like toys).

Caribbean Beach was really nice and we loved it there. We had one questionable day of weather, but most of it was pretty good. Aminal Kingdom Sunday morning was kind of a waste. We did the safari and saw a very cool Bird show, but that was it before we had to assemble for the bus ride. Rode on brand new DCL bus and that was also quite nice. Check-in at the ship could not have been easier or quicker. Loved it all.

Hope everyone had as nicve a time as we did.

O.K., we must have passed paths at least once. We did the Animal Kingdom on Sunday morning and also were on board a brand new DCL bus. It was the 2nd one to leave AK. I don't remember anyone in a wheel chair on that bus though. I thought AK was fine, it was a little pushed, but I guess there really isn't much to see, so I was glad that was an option, so we had more quality time in the other parks and didn't feel we had to make extra time for AK. Did I make any sense?

The over the door shoe hanger was hands down the best suggestion out of all of them. I think I followed about 80-90% of the suggestions and that shoe hanger saved us.

The room host, what an amazing guy. Room was always clean and even if we left for just a little bit, we would come back to clean towels and emptied garbage. And the cleaniness of the whole adventure, great.

We did not book and don't plan to; just not park people or cruise people. That has nothing to do with Disney and all to do with us; but it was an exceptional experience.

I was on an elevator on the cruise with a nice looking, I think, blond, skinny woman in a wheelchair being pushed by a man (didn't look at him at all) and a young child (around 7-9 years). Could that have been your sister-in-law? I was going to ask them if they were with a Doug, but didn't want them to think maybe you had been saying too much to others, so I kept quiet.

Linda

 

[rpclmc]

Hey guys, sorry we missed you all. We just got back home.
We would have made the meet but we ended up having some "issues" before we even boarded. I actually heard the two words that I thought I would never here on this vacation..... "We're bored".....while we were sitting in the terminal with a number 2 boarding pass. It took everything I had not to lose it. So, we took a little "time out" in the stateroom, made some attitude adjustments and re-started our trip.
We did eventually have a great time. My only complaint was with the food. I was very dissapointed in all the dinners except Palo. I really thought the food would be outstanding and I thought it fell way short. Oh well . The kids loved the clubs so much that they didn't ever want to leave. We actually ate dinner the last night without the 3 girls, who stayed in their clubs. I thought the staterooms were excellent and having the 2 connecting rooms was great.

The Dolphin Swim in Nassau was probably one of the 3 best things I have ever done in my life and to have my 2 oldest girls with me was just a special time.

Hope everyone had a great time.

Yeh, what is a #2 boarding pass?

Sounds like you had your hands full. My DD did say she was bored and wanted to sit down and watch the tv while we were in the terminal, but we said no and she was fine.

I have to agree with you on the food. I thought maybe I was just being too picky, but it didn't seem to "pop". The cold mango soup and the butternut soup were exceptional, but other than that nothing was "over the top" like I had heard it might be. We never made it to Palo, so I can't comment on that and the fast service food is what is to be expected with as much as they have to turn out. The Java Coloda was pretty exceptional and I had a bit too many of those 1 night (just 3, but considering my calorie intake per day should be around 1500 and each one of those is close to 1500, I did some damage that day).

We never did get upgraded and had a cat 12 stateroom and I have no complaints. Yeh, it was small, but we weren't there much and camp in a cabover a lot in the summer, so it was no big deal.

Linda

 

[doug46]

Linda, my sister in law has brown hair and, at least to me, looked very emancipated. She is down to about 95 pounds (not much left of her). Her husband is just about bald and thier daughter is 8 and has black hair, longer than sholder length. There were only two people in wheelchairs the morning we left from AK and I think the other person was an older woman. I don't know which number bus we were on because it was all I could do to move the bags and keep the kids in line. I think Ernie was the driver.

I can see how people might be disappointed in the food. But I think that has more to do with the build up the food gets on these boards than the actual quality. We have cruised Carnival a couple of times and the DCL food was hands down better. But I think that with all of the build up on here people expect gormet. That is pretty hard to do for 2,000 people in about 3 hours. We were very happy. Both with the selections and the taste. In fact, our server often brought an additional dinner that no one chose just so we could all try it. Could it have been better? Sure. But we were more than satisfied. I think coming in with lower expectations because we have cruised before made it a pleasant surprise for us.

I also haer what you are saying about not being park or cruise people. It is not for everyone. We just really like cruising I guess, though many of our friends will not do it again. Glad you tried it and enjoyed it once.

 

[rpclmc]

I think that was probably your sister-in-law; she did look around 100 pounds. I thought she looked pretty, but sick, but I also haven't seen her through the whole thing. Did she have a good time? I would imagine it can sometimes be hard for her, not feeling well and all.

I think there is a lot of build up and that could be some of my dissapointment in the food. It wasn't bad by any means, just not what I heard it could be and that could be because the people (like you) have something to compare it to.

I am very glad I did a cruise and am happy it was a Disney one at that; I probably got one of the best cruises. My sister-in-law absolutely loves cruising.

Well, we need to go deliver 200 boxes of Girl Scout cookies.

Linda

 

[FrazzledDad]

The #2 boarding pass was the numbered pass we got as we entered the terminal. We got to the terminal at about 10:30am and got the #2 which, from what I read on these boards, was the earliest pass you could get outside Concierge. I think we were around the 10th family on the boat.
There was obviously more to the "Time Out" than just being bored but I'm sure you guys don't need to hear about it. Bottom line is the trip ended alright and everyone had fun. Oh yeah, I definitely wouldn't recommend the late seating. Way too late for the kids (especially 4 sitting together). The first night the baby and 4 yr old fell asleep at the table before dinner was even served. By the last night, none of the older kids even went to dinner with us. Just the wife and the baby.

 

[rpclmc]

The #2 boarding pass was the numbered pass we got as we entered the terminal. We got to the terminal at about 10:30am and got the #2 which, from what I read on these boards, was the earliest pass you could get outside Concierge. I think we were around the 10th family on the boat.
There was obviously more to the "Time Out" than just being bored but I'm sure you guys don't need to hear about it. Bottom line is the trip ended alright and everyone had fun. Oh yeah, I definitely wouldn't recommend the late seating. Way too late for the kids (especially 4 sitting together). The first night the baby and 4 yr old fell asleep at the table before dinner was even served. By the last night, none of the older kids even went to dinner with us. Just the wife and the baby.

Did you have the late seating? It was too late for us also, DD fell asleep the 1st night and DH took DD back to the room and had their food delivered to the room. Other nights DD did the head nod and didn't eat much, past the hunger stage.

We didn't get a boarding #, I think because we didn't arrive until 2:00 pm or so and I think most people were on board by then.

Linda

 

[Paxton's Mom]

Hi everyone-

We made it back in one piece and had an awesome week! We were exhausted when we got off the boat, so Thursday was a drag. We went to Kennedy Space Center and the whole family was falling asleep on the bus tour they do there. On Thursday night we checked into the Hilton on Cocoa Beach, ate Subway for dinner and were asleep in our beds by about 8:30 pm! We spent the whole day Friday on the beach and it was very relaxing.

The cruise was great. We liked our room, and since we had my mother traveling with us and sharing the room we had popped for a Category 6 with a veranda. It helped extend our room space and it was really nice to sit out there and relax at times. I agree that the food was nothing to get overly excited over, but we seemed to eat enough of it anyway. We did first seating (6 pm) and that was just perfect. We usually eat a little later at home, but it seemed more natural to me to eat first, then go to the shows. The pace of dinner was a little slow for our liking, except for the last night when we were at Animator's Palate. I found things to be a little disorganized sometimes at the check in/check out desk for the kids club, and the councelors were not quite as friendly as I had expected. My daughter is 7 1/2 and when we checked out the Club it seemed awful "little kid-ish", so we went over and registered her for the Lab instead. They didn't give me any grief over it and it was a much better fit for my daughter. She really enjoyed her time there, although in total she only spent about 5-6 hours there over the course of the cruise. She went just for specific activities. We really liked the shows, although I thought that the seats in the theatre were kind of weird the way that they leaned back so far.

Loved having my over the door organizer. Kuddos to whoever thought of that. Really enjoyed the brunch at Palo. The croissants were to die for! We liked ordering the cheese and cracker platter from room service and eating it on our veranda. Had a blast during our Dolphin Encounter and would highly recommend it to anyone. I'd never done much snorkeling before and had a surprisingly good time at Castaway Cay, especially once we got further out and had no one else around us. We even found the sunken Mickey statue!

I saw Linda around the boat a few times and it was nice to have someone to say hi to. I think I saw FrazzleDad up on deck 9 near the kids pool shortly after we boarded (nice looking family all wearing outfits in matching fabric, little boy in a stroller) but didn't approach since I wasn't sure.

At my mother and daughter's urging, we booked again for next year. This time we'll do the 7-day Western. Four days was just too short! Not sure yet exactly how we'll pay for it. Even with the discount they offered, it is still steep! I would have loved to do a "double dip" with two trips to Castaway, buy those are rarely offered and not at all during the winter, which is when I really like to travel.

I hope you all had a really nice time!

 

[FrazzledDad]

Hi Paxtons Mom, That was us. I was so happy to see that there was nobody else on the ship in matching outfits that first day . See, I should have worn a Vikings hat. Would have made things easier.