May 10, 2008 Ship of Thieves! Stealing the Magic..AGAIN!!! Panama Canal FL to CA!!!

[birkner]

Good morning from the UK. Lovely day here but very cold.

Can anybody tell me how to stop thinking about this cruise all the time? There are 15 months to go - I will be worn out! I was awake in the night worrying about getting a rental car at the port in LA - for goodness sake!!

I also have a trip to Disney to plan for December and it has taken back place to the cruise. Help

When is your Disney trip? My family and I will be there from 12/21-29/2007.

Noel

 

[nskjerven]

ibouncetoo....

count me in on the olives and vodka snack...the DCL popcorn is VERY BAD!!! i will be spending the next few months trying to taste some bagged popcorn near us to decide which one to send with us....

it's not the season for boy scouts to sell this but I have to tell you about what we found this year with our son being in his first year of scouts...(& top seller in his pack with over $1.7K in sales)

Trails End, popcorn. It's microwave popcorn, not sure if that will work for us, but it is fabulous. I'll remember next year when sales start to post Wil's link for you all to investigate.

 

[mom_of_2_princesses]

I am so glad we could all pass the DIS (and Disney) addition on the the next generation.

I am so glad that they like it!!! My own children are not on it yet...we have not told them about the cruise!! But I know my DD 13, will be on it ten times a day. I did go in and start a photo album in her name, so I could make sure the site was working.

Now, I have to come up with a way to include the younger ones.

When are you telling them?

 

[birkner]

Wow I finally decide to read up and jump into this thread and I am already being talked about! I am a OCD planner as well so this should be lots of fun hanging out here a couple times a day to catch up and add more things to my to do list. Call me crazy but I just had to buy a fish extender on ebay since you guys had pictures posted. That crossed one thing off my list. Then I read a few more pages of posts and added like ten more.

Oh and hey to everyone in the Northern Cali area! Me too Me too

Where in Northern California are you guys?

Noel

 

[mom_of_2_princesses]

it's not the season for boy scouts to sell this but I have to tell you about what we found this year with our son being in his first year of scouts...(& top seller in his pack with over $1.7K in sales)

Trails End, popcorn. It's microwave popcorn, not sure if that will work for us, but it is fabulous. I'll remember next year when sales start to post Wil's link for you all to investigate.

They will probably have battery operated microwaves by the time we cruise.

 

[kimerinc]

So, today is the day that inventory control would be contacting the 'next in lines' for any of the suites for this cruise.

Wondering if anyone has heard from them?

No Kevin from DU told me yesterday that IC would be sorting it out today. But I have not heard yet

 

[disneycruising]

When are you telling them?

We haven't decided. I think it depends on how long we want to listen to...how many more day.

 

[birkner]

Ok - thought I'd introduce ourselves as we have PAID OUR DEPOSIT! So excited.

We live in the San Francisco Bay area, have four boys under 9 (DS 9, DS 7 DS 4 DS 1). We just got off the Jan. 20 Magic staying in the Roy Suite - boy was that a treat! We are in connecting 9's now, hoping one of the four Cat. 1 or 2 opens up for our family of 6. But if not, who cares! We will be having fun on deck 2 and enjoying every minute!

My husband and I have been on many cruise lines (RCCL, Celebrity, NCL, Princess) but find the DCL is just perfect for our family with the boys at their ages.

Our big issue is figuring out the school - our school is a public one, but they don't lose any funding if kids don't go to school (it has a financially strong foundation). But 10 days...argg. Only two (4th grader and 2nd grader) will be affected. I guess I feel like this is a special opportunity - we could go on another cruise line for the Panama Canal during summer time but it just wouldn't be the same. Our kids start school the last week in August so the EB wasn't an option as missing the first week of school would be too tough.
When would you all advice me to notify the school? I was thinking about waiting until right before Christmas.

The only hiccup would be if STAR testing is done while we are gone (both the testing and makeup). We can't miss that. I'm hoping it will be that second week in May, right before we leave.

Anyway, looking forward to trying to keep up with the board. Our Jan. 20 meet was so quiet! Thank you to everyone for putting in all the effort and time into this. It is great!
Lisa

Welcome Lisa. With all the northern California DISers going on this cruise, we need to plan a precruise meet.

Noel

 

[nskjerven]

We haven't decided. I think it depends on how long we want to listen to...how many more day.

Cindy, how can we have a No. CA mini meet if your kids don't know....you must tell them. Then we can share our stories of how the kids are BUGGING us to death....

 

[mom_of_2_princesses]

We haven't decided. I think it depends on how long we want to listen to...how many more day.

There is a guy doing a trip report right now that did a scavenger hunt for his kids with clues and they kept opening presents to give them clues. It was a really cute idea. It makes me wish I had waited. If I find the link I will post it. In fact I think they are going on their cruise in a couple of days so it should be at the top. Oh yeah it was their Christmas present.

 

[mom_of_2_princesses]

Cindy, how can we have a No. CA mini meet if your kids don't know....you must tell them. Then we can share our stories of how the kids are BUGGING us to death....

That would be a problem.

 

[clynne]

Aaaaaww...cute! I wish I could bring my son now too! He's almost 5. But our schools won't allow that many days off. I'm thinking the limit is 5 days, but am not 100% sure....anyhow, I know it's definitely way below the number we'd need to take off for this cruise! He'll be so sad when he finds out.

DD has missed 13 days since August!! Nine for our double dip and days at WDW, two when her big brother (DS18) graduated from recruit training, one for pink eye, and one for some bug. I'm going to ask at her conference tomorrow, but I don't think she even has the most days missed!

I wish you could bring your son, too! Will his school allow independent study??

Carolyn

 

[mom_of_2_princesses]

Are we going to be at Castaway on Mother's Day?

 

[Mom323]

CRUD, CRUD, CRUD!!! No time to catch up with everything posted since I went to bed, but just have to vent....it stayed at 7 below all night and my pipes froze! This sucks!!!!!!!!!!

Oh Holly, sorry to hear this. They didn't crack did they? It is 16 degrees here. BRRRRR.

 

[birkner]

I would choose LAX. I just booked a flight for my boss to mexico and we had to have him fly in/out LAX to get the best deal...and he lives near San Francisco! They are larger and have more flights. Ontario may seem close (miles wise) but there is a ton of traffic to ontario. It's not as close as it seems on paper. FYI.
Steph

Tons of traffic but if you can get in carpool lane, sometimes can be easier than getting to DL from LAX.

Just my thoughts.

 

[mom_of_2_princesses]

DD has missed 13 days since August!! Nine for our double dip and days at WDW, two when her big brother (DS18) graduated from recruit training, one for pink eye, and one for some bug. I'm going to ask at her conference tomorrow, but I don't think she even has the most days missed!

I wish you could bring your son, too! Will his school allow independent study??

Carolyn

Our school is so wacky they allow something like 30 days before a review by the board. This year is the most my DD has ever missed because of the 9 days we were at WDW and the cruise. Every other year it has been one or two days and she was so upset for not getting perfect attendance. I am not feeling bad one bit about this cruise as you can tell because if you average out the amount of days by all the years she has pretty good attendance.

 

[Mom323]

Yes, I learned all about the canal on our lasp PC cruise. I read a book by Dabid McCullough called "Path Between the Seas." It's a great read, and really made ,e appreciate all the blood sweat and tears that went into building the canal. If you haven't read it, I'd recommend reading it before the cruise in a heartbeat.

Thanks for the info about the book! I've checked on line and even our little library has it.

 

[Mom323]

I found another good trick is to set the TV to the outside camera. Turn the sound off and set the timer on the TV for what time you want to wake up. It's like having an electronic porthole.

Also, you can set it on a static channel. It makes a great white noise. We've done this at a few noisy hotels. It works great. Just throw a towel over the screen to block out the light.

 

[AuntyBrat]

So, today is the day that inventory control would be contacting the 'next in lines' for any of the suites for this cruise.

Wondering if anyone has heard from them?

Heard it will not be until Wednesday since DCL gave extensions for some people to pay by Tuesday. So we shall see.

 

[txaggie94gigem]

on the pot pie issue! i also think it must be in "pie" form with a top and bottom crust!!! here is a good recipe for a casserole that tastes like chicken pot pie but much easier to make!

Cracker Chicken

3-4 chicken breasts cooked and cut up (about 2 cups)
1 can cream of chicken soup
8 oz container sour cream
1-2 cups mixed veggies (drained out of the can or frozen but already heated)
if you cook the frozen ones in the casserole they release
too much water and make it runny

mix all this together....

crumble up 2-3 sleeves ritz crackers and drizzle with 1/2-1 stick of melted butter depending on how good you want it to taste vs. the healthy content!

mix crackers & butter well and sprinkle 1/2 of mixture on bottom of pan, cover with creamy chicken mixture and then top with rest of crackers....bake for 1 hour at 350 and enjoy! i have made this several times at church and everyone raves about it and begs for seconds....also...my kids love it!


did any of you see Paula Deen from the food network on Oprah....Oprah asked her about using all the butter in her recipes and how that fits into the healthy lifestyle most people want today and Paula said "I'm your cook, not your doctor!!!!!" i was rolling!