May 13.2006 Eastern

[Hanover]

Welcome to our group Stuff Survivor.

We have a son who will be turning 9 on 5/13 and one that is 5.

Ragdoll, I hope you are feeling better. We are spending a few days at the parks before the cruise and I'm going to be using purrell on all our hands every other hour. All those handrails and seatbelts are probably crawling with germs. I'm so afraid of getting sick before our cruise. I don't want to wind up spending the week in our stateroom!

Accuweather.com is now showing some of our travel dates!

 

[Verandah Man]

Welcome to the boards Stuff, a list of cruisers & kids can be found here: I will add your info to it as well...


DrCavin,

I get a message indicating "thread not found" when I try the link. Is there another path to the information you referenced?

I was having the same problem, try this link: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=12429775&postcount=818

I just noticed my DD's name was missing an "n" her name, it is Angelina and she is 15(going on 40 LOL!!!).

 

[Hanover]

So far 5/13 forecast is mostly sunny....high of 89! Looks like we'll have some nice weather for the sail away party!

Anyone else watching the cruise ship murder/mystery on Law and Order?


Another cruise ship movie will be coming out right before we cruise on 5/12 called Poseidon. We saw an advertisement for it at the last movie we went to and it looks rather intense. I'm glad it won't be showing on our cruise! (It's a Warner Bros. movie).

 

[Verandah Man]

Another cruise ship movie will be coming out right before we cruise on 5/12 called Poseidon. We saw an advertisement for it at the last movie we went to and it looks rather intense. I'm glad it won't be showing on our cruise! (It's a Warner Bros. movie).

My DD saw the trailer for this movie the other night on TV, she said, "Great, just what I wanted to see before getting ready to go on another cruise." We WON'T be seeing that movie before we sail, that's for sure!!!

 

[Hanover]

Good morning gang..

This morning I canceled our 5 Star St John Snorkel excursion in hopes of booking the St.John Trunk Bay excursion that we could not book before...

Well what do you know it was available now, so we are now going on the St John Trunk Bay Beach excursion

We were unsure if our kids would be able to snorkle off of a boat in the middle of the sea, so we were debating if we should just cancel it & try to book the Trunk Bay excursion once on board or not.

:

Dr. Cavin,
Are you saying that the 5 Star St. John Snorkel and beach excursion is only from a boat? We are booked on it and I thought the boat just took us to the beach and then to the National park for snorkeling. I have the Passporter's DCL and it's Ports of Call guide book and Birnbaum's Disney Cruise line guide book and neither mentions snorkeling from the boat. If that's the case, we are cancelling too. I don't want to be on a small boat for 4.5 hours. I thought we'd be at a beach/park and get to snorkel if we wanted to. Right now I can't retrieve my reservation on dcl.com because it's down....

Do you know the deadline for cancellations?

Has anyone done/or doing the St. John Barefoot Sail and Snorkel or the Doubloon Sail and Snorkel Tours?

 

[Verandah Man]

I think you have up until 2 days before the cruise to cancel any Disney excursions and not be charged for them.


We cruise "THIS" month people, only 12 days remain!!!

 

[DrCavin]

Dr. Cavin,
Are you saying that the 5 Star St. John Snorkel and beach excursion is only from a boat?

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1017719&highlight=star

Post #8 & #10 have good info in them...

We were not exactly thrilled about having to get 2 kids into a dingy or them jumping into 20' of water.. Our 8 year old would have no problem, but the 6 year old would be a cling-on

Hopefully the link works, since I screwed up on my last attempt to post a link. Thanks for posting a working link V-Man, and I changed your DD name & age

 

[Can't W8]

I can't keep up with everyone! Haven't read my docs yet, haven't gotten the clothes out, suitcases are still in the closet but everytime I read a good idea, I write it down so that I don't forget. Thanks you all have great ideas, it's a big help for when I finally get myself in gear. When I read what everyone is up to I get more excited all the time, this is a great string. Tonite it's a haircut and hopefully, tomorrow I can put together a room that I painted last week and then I'm ready to join the fun!
Love all the door signs! You are all so creative. Unfortunately, I think our doors will have to be naked this go around so hide your eyes when you walk by;-)

 

[Hanover]

Thanks for the responses V-man and Dr. Cavin.

I think we'll stick with it. I really want to go to Trunk Bay and as long as the kid's have the option to do the dinghy, they'll be fine. DS5 will probably go snorkeling right off the boat. Not sure about DS8.Thanks for the link to the reviews. I'm glad to know in advance what to expect. The guidebooks kind of left a little bit out!

Danielle

 

[Stuff Survivor]

Welcome new cruisers.
We seem to be getting a nice Florida group here.

We're from S Florida and whatever you wear to work is perfect for dinner. (There I go - assuming you work. Maybe you are one of the two who won the big LOTTO last week.) As others have posted the word is jeans are OK.
fran

Squiggle,

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately, someone else "stole" the LOTTO winnings so I'm still at work...in shorts and a golf shirt, which I wear for most of the year. I'd wear them year round but we're in N Florida so we get enough "cold" weather to force me into long pants part of the year. Given that, I think you can appreciate why I'm not all that big on getting dressed up for dinner.

NOTE TO FOLKS FROM THE NORTH WHO ARE GETTING READY TO FLAME ME ABOUT REAL COLD: Please don't. I fully appreciate the miserably cold weather you endure as I've had the "opportunity" to travel in it fairly extensively. It's not fun. Just so that you know, our cold does include weather well below freezing and occassional snow. It just doesn't go on for months. The trade off is we get hurricanes. They're not fun either.

 

[Cali-Mouse]

Good Morning from the West Coast!

I'M FINISHED PACKING!

I leave Thursday to attend a tradeshow in Orlando, so I had to pack a weeks worth of "work" clothes and cruise clothes at the same time. ugh!

Looking forward to meeting everyone next week.

 

[hooksenemy]

To all of our newbies - a great welcome.

I am travelling with my boys 9 & 7 and another fam. we will be with have a 10 yo & twin 8 y.o.

Hanover and I have the closest in ages I believe I haven't checked the board recently so my memory is lapsing.

Dr. C. We are on the Trunk Bay excursion (Leylon Sneed) we are truly looking forward to it. I did not realize the dinghy was used to get to shore however I do like the idea of it. I also am looking forward to snorkeling off the boat - about how far from shore does it dock? Do you think we can swim to shore?

I am going to pop over to some excursion boards. The Leylon Sneed excursion to trunk bay had a higher rating when we did our initial investigating that is why we picked it for our group but honestly can we go wrong with any of them?

I am so excited about our trip - I am really procrastinating about getting my stuff packed - I did a shirt yesterday for my son and made a mistake so I need to go out a buy him another shirt! I forgot to flip the graphic so it was backwards on the shirt, I was exhaused when I did this.

V-man - what a great idea about scanning postcards, I have a few that I bought a couple of years ago, I am going to scan them in and see what I come up with.

Still don't have posting privelage so I can't show you.

JODIFLA - I made a welcome aboard sign, I will send it over so you can see it.

I will check in again later today.

Carolyn

 

[Verandah Man]

OK gang, I've got the "official" word from another DCL CM that I know and I am posting the info below about who our captain will be:

Andy,

Captain Tom will be aboard the Disney Magic during your May 13th sailing. I'm certain you'll have a lot of fun!

Take care,

George

 

[Verandah Man]

Squiggle,

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately, someone else "stole" the LOTTO winnings so I'm still at work...in shorts and a golf shirt, which I wear for most of the year. I'd wear them year round but we're in N Florida so we get enough "cold" weather to force me into long pants part of the year. Given that, I think you can appreciate why I'm not all that big on getting dressed up for dinner.

NOTE TO FOLKS FROM THE NORTH WHO ARE GETTING READY TO FLAME ME ABOUT REAL COLD: Please don't. I fully appreciate the miserably cold weather you endure as I've had the "opportunity" to travel in it fairly extensively. It's not fun. Just so that you know, our cold does include weather well below freezing and occassional snow. It just doesn't go on for months. The trade off is we get hurricanes. They're not fun either.

We own a place in Lake County near the St Johns River. We were there between Christmas and New Years and was it ever cold the first morning we woke up. We didn't have the heater turned on and I could see my breath when I exhaled after getting out of bed, you better believe the heater got turned on "REAL FAST!!!"

 

[DrCavin]

Hooks, sorry cant give you any more info than what is posted in that thread I linked to. We have not done any DCL excursion before, since my DS was only 4 at the time.
I think either would be fun, our kids have never snorkled before so we dont want to traumatize them by having the first experience be something they may be scared of doing...

 

[TSirgey]

Hi everyone!

I was not online all weekend since I was busy doing everything that left to the last minute.

Friday night my Mother and I hemmed my dress and used her embroidery machine to finish the pillowcase. She never really got the hang of it, so she does not use it much. We ended up just putting her name and the year in beautiful purple lettering. Very cool. We didn't want to write too much and have less room for the signatures. Whew!

Then, I started packing last night and got most of dd done. I used the awesome trick of ziploc bags (thanks Hanover) and I was amazed at how well that works! I even got the pirate costume in there! I found out my inlaws are coming to visit next weekend, so I need to get most of the packing done this week.

My only dilema is the door signs. We tried to find magnetic paper and so far have not found anything. Does anyone know if Office Max or Staples carries it?

 

[DrCavin]

Office Max & Staples carry it, our Wal-Mart also had some. If you cant find it, print them on heavy or even better photo-paper, then stick some magnetic strips on the back.

 

[Hanover]

T-sirgey,
I just got back from Staples and Walmart. My keyboard was fried and I got a nice new wirless one. I bought 4 sheets of magnetic paper for $12 something at Staples and bought 5 sheets for $7.50 at Walmart. I can't be bothered returning the first purchase so I'll give it to my parents to use. I did a couple basic door signs with scrapbooking paper, postcards I bought on our last cruise and stickers. Haven't gotten around to doing anything via computer, but figured I'd get some paper in case I do.

Glad to hear you liked the zip locks for packing. I can't take the credit though-I found that hint on Disboards a while back myself. I love that when you squish the air out of the bags you can fit so much in the cases. It's nice too that TSA isn't handling your underwear at airport searches when you pack them in bags! I don't roll them for the return trip (I'd rather spend my time having fun), so alll the dirty clothes don't fit quite so nice on the way home.

I'm glad to hear your pillow cases went well. They sound really nice. My poor kids will have the generic plain white ones!

Hooks- I'm glad to know that the boys will have some other kids to hang with on the beach at Trunk Bay. I have to remember to pack a pool ball of some sort for them to play with. Our kids have only practiced snorkeling in my parents hot tub, but got the hang of it fast. They got snorkel kits for Easter from my parents and we threw a bunch of money in the hot tub for them to find. What an incentive money is to practice! The snorkels do not allow water to go back down them and the masks and flippers are very easy to adjust and fit them perfect. The time for this particular excursion is pretty good too. We figured we'd be up from immigration call early and pretty much be able to go straight on the excursion. We'll have enough time when it ends to do a little shopping/site seeing. I think someone on the link Dr. Cavin posted said the Leylon Sneed docked about 20 yards (or was it feet??) from shore. As long as we don't see any fins circling about, we may jump in there. I also booked the excursion based on the great reviews from the guidebooks. They said it was one of their favorites and got rave reviews. The only thing I'm a bit worried about is my little one getting sick on the way to and from Trunk Bay. He tends to literally look green and has gotten ill on small boats on choppy water. I'm hoping it's a smooth trip! I picked up my motion sickness patches today. I tend to get very ill myself on small boats . Our pharmacy still had them in stock thank goodness (my mom's pharmicist said they weren't making them anymore ???)

I'm off to pick ds8 up from his afer school bowling league and then off to soccer practice for ds5.

 

[TSirgey]

Office Max & Staples carry it, our Wal-Mart also had some. If you cant find it, print them on heavy or even better photo-paper, then stick some magnetic strips on the back.

Thanks!! I want to get some fabric markers for the pillow case and there is a craft store next to our Staples. One stop shopping!

Guess I'm not done shopping!!

 

[bxirishrn]

Hi everyone,

Welcome StuffSurvivor, no worry about flames from up here in No. NJ.

I can't believe we're cruising this month !!!

I have a question for all you experienced DISers. Do we still have to go to Guest Services to check out at the end (I can't say the rest)? Or is it like at a hotel where the charges are slipped under the door and if they're ok we just leave? We plan on bringing cash with us for the tips, and we'll get chocolate (ummm, chocolate) for the Oceaneer Club CM's.

Does DD sign her customs form for Castaway Cay, or can I sign it?

Can't wait

Kathleen