~~~ May 16, 2009 ~~~ Western Magic ~~~

[lucyddr]

After our first cruise, we never do ship excursions. Our Disney trip to Grand Cayman was late getting started (which screwed up our afternoon plans) and was really crowded. There were screaming children everywhere and we decided that ship trips just were not for us! (Maybe they will be one day when we have kids though...)

We book with the name of the island plus cruise excursions dot com or through private vendors which we research through the "other" cruise website. The dune buggies (which are NOT safe for children) were booked through the Cozumel excursions website. They were super fun! We basically went out on this country road, turned off on the beach, and rode along the beach for awhile. We had lunck at a nice area (where the jeeps come as well from the same company) and snorkelled there as well. We then came back to town. We got pretty muddy on the excursion and were the dirtiest people getting back on the ship! Overall though, it was a wonderful trip!

Note: To do this excusion, you do have to be able to drive a stick-shift! (We were told by the operator of the tour that experience wasn't necessary...trust me, it was!)

 

[lillygator]

is this meets group planning anything while on the ship?

 

[indigodisney]

Hi everyone - we are back from a great trip to Orlando!! It was just amazing - the Cruise was perfect, we loved our room - 5624 and had no complaints at all. I didn't have time to get to the rainforest room but I did peek in there and it looked great.

Welcome to all the new people on this thread, so glad you are here!

 

[indigodisney]

I forgot to mention that we were on second seating which is 8:15 on the Wonder and it was really hard on our daughter and on us too - I gained weight from eating that wonderful food so late at night. We really need to try and switch to the first seating if we can for this cruise. The other thing is that we loved the balcony so much that we just called to upgrade to the category 5 - that will be great...esp. for 7 days. I did speak to the disney cast member when we were upgrading because I noticed that there is no more fuel supplement in new bookings but there was for when I booked this cruise in the summer. She said that they were discussing if they were going to refund people or not. I hope that Disney decides to do that, we are cruising with NCL in December 2009 and they just sent us an invoice with the fuel supplement removed.

 

[lillygator]

thanks for the info re late seating, we are wle hope to be switched.

 

[lillygator]

this seems to be a rather small group will be a nice new experience for us!

 

[lillygator]

morning all -- nice and warm here today. Last night I was contemplating putting the air on!!


Excursions - we decided to snorkel in Key West since we've done all the other touristy things there and in Cozumel rent a jeep and visit many places!! We probably won't book anything through Disney as they seem to think 4 year olds only enjoy walking tours! JK I know it is a liability issue!!

 

[2_Eagle_Mom]

Hi all,

Wow, it seems like I've been gone forever! It's fantastic that we have added a bunch of people. Welcome everyone! Thanks for all the great photos. Loved the wedding shots and seeing all the cruise pics really made me wish it were May already. I need to set up a photobucket account and figure out how to use it, then I'll try and post some photos.

We're doing the late seating since we aren't traveling with kids this time. I'm getting a little freaked out seeing all the photos of men in tuxs for the formal night. We weren't planning on getting that dolled up. Is everyone else doing the black tie thing?

I think it would be great to arrange some ship meets. Both of us are fairly shy to start but would love to get to know other DISers. We're NOT the dancing type so I'm not quite sure what we'll be doing in the evenings. The last time we were on a cruise they had the dueling piano bar and we spent each night there (actually hoping that it would get better - unfortunately it didn't). Some of the shows sound interesting.

We've checked out all the excursions and none of them jumped out at us enough to crack open the wallet. We were thinking of renting an electric car or scooter in Key West and AFTER the FKLP stops just tooling around the place and stopping whenever we want. The rest of the time we will probably just do a quick trip off the ship just enought to say that we have been to each location and then back to the ship. I'm thinking of booking a spa treatment (and trying to talk the DH into it as well). Trying to decide if the rainforest room is something that I'd use more than once. I'm hoping to hit the gym a couple of times during the trip. My goal has been to get down to a pre-wedding size outfit before the trip and although it is slow going, progress has been made.

I wish we were eligible for a discounted trip, but we used our DVC points to book this so there is no way that we'll be getting any money back. I'm hoping they do away with the fuel surcharge. That would make the spa treatment decision so much easier.

Hope everyone has a happy holiday week.

 

[lillygator]

re the black tie - we'll be renting a tux for dh, but we rarely ge t achance to dress up, so for us it's fun. In teh past it's always been a mix and not all that many tuxes, don't worry!

 

[lucyddr]

I have to dress up for work most days, so it's not very fun for us anymore. My husband will not be in a tux for sure, but will likely just wear a suit of some sort. I'll wear something nicer than pants, but no evening gowns for me this time around. (We carried 2 suits, 2 evening dresses, 3 pairs of formal shoes, 2 ties, etc. on our first cruise...this time we'll be scaling back!)

As for meets, we're up for anything! I'd prefer not to miss the sail away party, but any other time is cool with us. We're not overly outgoing either, but I'll talk to anyone once I get started... I'm hoping (assuming we get to go on this cruise) that we'll be at the Raddison on Friday night before the cruise and the Swan at WDW the Saturday night we leave the cruise. If others stay at the Raddison, a meet and greet there might be nice... BTW, we're also interested in the FEs!

I plan to be in the gym most mornings as I'd like to prevent any weight gain during the cruise (while still enjoying dinner and drinks), so I'm happy to have a work-out buddy...

 

[lucyddr]

I'm trying to learn how to post photos, so please forgive me if this doesn't work! This is a photo of my husband and I at Epcot 2 years ago during Christmas...

 

[lucyddr]

Our HUGE balcony! (We booked an OV guarentee and ended up with a balcony handicapped room with a monstrous aft balcony.) Too bad we didn't know about the Dis, as we would have been great "meet" hosts!

Sail away with my husband's former Navy research vessel in the background.

Lisa and Navneet (our waiters) on Tropical/Pirate night! (Notice our shirts..) Of our 3 cruises, they are the only waiters that I actually remember their names!

Prior to our wonderful meal at Palo...

 

[sarasotamom]

lucyddr,

We had Lisa on our first 7-day cruise. She was so nice and fun to talk too. If I remember right, she was from Ireland. She has always talked to us everytime we see her on other cruises. I wonder if she is still with Disney? I would love to have her once again.

 

[lillygator]

my mom and sister are joining us as well!

 

[Disgirl83]

Lillygator-
I would absolutely be interested in getting together for a meet. I’ve never done one before so for those of you that have what has worked best? Something on the first day? I’ve noticed on some others trip reports that they’ve met in the promenade lounge about an hour before the mandatory drill.

Indigodisney-
Glad to hear your trip went well. I can’t wait to hear some highlights from your trip. My formal outfit will probably be a long black skirt with some type of dressy tank top.

2 Eagle Mom-
Don’t worry about the tuxes. My husband definitely won’t be in one. I’m sure that he wear his standard black suit. I’d also love to be my wedding size before the cruise. So we’ve only been married a little over 2 years but I’ve definitely been eating well! Losing weight before the cruise is going to be my new years resolution (only to put it back on during the cruise)

Lucyddr-
I’d like to try and get in the gym some on the cruise, if I can motivate myself on vacation. I do pretty good getting to the gym 3 or 4 times a week but on the cruise I don’t know if I can do it. My biggest problem is just eating way too much. I have such a weakness for sweets. And wow, that was such an amazing balcony you had!!! Your pictures are great too, I just love the matching shirts.

Here are a few pictures from our honeymoon in 2006, not a cruise but we stayed at Port Orleans Riverside .

 

[indigodisney]

Wishing everyone a happy holiday season!! We are running around here with last minute preparations. Hope you all have a great few days!

 

[shasess]

Wishing everyone a happy holiday season!! We are running around here with last minute preparations. Hope you all have a great few days!

You too!!!! Happy Holiday!!!

 

[lucyddr]

Happy Holidays to everyone! We are heading to south Georgia Wednesday for a 75 degree Christmas day (it's 29 here tonight)! Safe travels and a wonderful break to everyone!

 

[2_Eagle_Mom]

I'd be willing to be a workout buddy. I'm much more motivated if I have someone expecting me. I'll probably plan on going in the morning as I'm much more of an early riser than my hubby. I'm on vacation this week and I woke up at 5 am! I'd rather get a workout done early in the day. They I could figure out how much I could eat the rest of the day.

I think a meet on the first day is a great idea! That way when we see each other during the week we will know who we all are.

For anyone staying on property before the cruise, the talk on the board is they might finally open up the dinning reservation window.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1977770&page=83

The above link is the thread that has the most up to date info on the release of the dates available for reservations.

I hope everyone has a safe and healthy holiday season.

 

[Disgirl83]

Everyone have a wonderful holiday!!! Maybe some of you will have snow on Christmas, it looks like we are going to miss it.

Merry Christmas!!!