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

[Hudson5&Lennon3]

Is there anyone else out there that wants to chime in? I'm kinda lonely with Sherri being so busy lately. (BTW, Sherri, how was KC? Any luck with house hunting?)

Isn't there anyone who is willing to say that they'll be on the boat with us?!?!

 

[Nik's Mom]

KC was great. It snowed while we were there and the kids LOVED that! They are so excited to move.
Hey, maybe the lack of Dis'rs chiming in means we will have the ship to ourselves.

 

[Hudson5&Lennon3]

Loved the snow, huh? Well...after the long, cold winter we've had this year, I'm sure they would be very tired of it, too--just like EVERYONE around here is!! I just got an email yesterday of a picture of a snow sculpture with the word "winter" carved along side a hand giving "the bird." That's how I feel! It's okay for the first 1 or 2 snowfalls (this year, that was just after Thanksgiving!), but then I'm done with it and ready for spring and summer. I'd take 100-degree days anytime!

With apparently only us on the ship, it looks like our Bingo chances are looking pretty good! What else can we do with it all to ourselves? Maybe the captain would let us steer for awhile! How about a massage every day?!?! And Palo for every meal!! Maybe they'd let us adults go down the Mickey slide, too! Front row seats at the shows!! No lines and no waiting for pictures with the characters!! Just think of CC all to ourselves!!!! This is gonna be a great vacation! Just wait 'til the other DIS'ers read our trip reports! They'll be so jealous of us!

 

[Hudson5&Lennon3]

Hi Sherri! I've heard recently about that dinosaur restaurant from our neighbors who are going to KC this weekend to stay at Big Wolf Lodge. It sounds like so much fun! Maybe we'll be planning a long weekend trip there this summer sometime.

Just out of curiosity, did you book through a TA for an OBC? We rebooked onboard and want to transfer to a TA for more OBC but don't know who to go through. We used AAA last time and weren't too happy with the service, although the OBC was great, or so we thought initially. They ended up charging us $25 pp for their services, which ended up making their OBC not much more than DU, whom I've also considered. I'm not sure, but I thought I had seen DU offer quite a bit more for the Caribbean cruises in the past, so I don't know if I was dreaming or if it was a fluke deal that isn't their norm. I know the PC and Med cruises were quite a bit more, but I'm almost positive it was for Caribbean. I feel the charges from AAA were out of line when you pay for membership anyway.

Unfortunately, I've not started on my WDW research yet. I have the DVD & book that Disney sent me and I also ordered the new WDW Passporter but haven't even opened them. I have watched some of the Disney shows that were on Travel Channel recently. I'm so excited for Animal Kingdom! I preordered the new DCL Passporter for my mom as a gift but won't be getting that for at least a month. When I ordered it in Jan, Amazon said it would ship at the end of Jan. When that date came and went, they then said it would be early April. I'm so excited to give it to her!! I have last year's book but am anxious to see what's new in it. I hope they added color like the WDW one has. I also need to look into airfare and see when I can start trying to plan that. I have a feeling that will be a .

 

[Hudson5&Lennon3]

So there really is no one else booked on this cruise?

How about a fun little "get-to-know-you" quiz to try and bring some others out of the woodwork.

1. How many times have you been on DCL? Where to and when?

2. What are you looking forward to on this cruise?

3. What are your kids (if any) looking forward to on this cruise?

4. If you've cruised before, what is your favorite food on DCL? If you haven't cruised before, what are you excited to try (if you've looked over the menus already--like I did before our first one!)?

5. What would your "dream" DCL vacation be?

 

[Hudson5&Lennon3]

1. How many times have you been on DCL? Where to and when? Once before--04-21-07 Western Magic for our 10th Anniversary.

2. What are you looking forward to on this cruise? Eating a frozen chocolate-dipped key lime pie on a stick (or two!) in KW, the alfredo at Palo, FIREWORKS!, DS5 going down the Mickey slide for the first time (he was too scared last time when he was 3), sharing the DCL experience with my parents, Castaway Cay (maybe we'll try the bikes this time).

3. What are your kids (if any) looking forward to on this cruise? Mickey pool and slide! , all the ice cream you can eat, pictures with characters, Castaway Cay.

4. If you've cruised before, what is your favorite food on DCL? If you haven't cruised before, what are you excited to try (if you've looked over the menus already--like I did before our first one!)? Alfredo at Palo, paninis. I'd probably have to check out the menus again to refresh my memory of other faves.

5. What would your "dream" DCL vacation be? Something LONGER than a 7-night! Either B2B (or B2B2B with a DDip Western in there for 4 stops at CC!) or else a PC repo cruise. Since it's a dream, of course, we'd be in the Walt or Roy suite instead of a Cat 8.

 

[Nik's Mom]

So there really is no one else booked on this cruise?

How about a fun little "get-to-know-you" quiz to try and bring some others out of the woodwork.

1. How many times have you been on DCL? Where to and when?

We have cruised dcl once before in May 2007

2. What are you looking forward to on this cruise?

Spending quality time with dh and the kids

3. What are your kids (if any) looking forward to on this cruise?

They loved the Mickey pool on the last cruise!

4. If you've cruised before, what is your favorite food on DCL? If you haven't cruised before, what are you excited to try (if you've looked over the menus already--like I did before our first one!)?

Everything that we tried was delicious

5. What would your "dream" DCL vacation be?

I guess my dream DCL vacation would be a European cruise followed by a trip to DL Paris.

 

[Hudson5&Lennon3]

Just a friendly little bump to get some more exposure...

AND

Sherri, I see your ticker for moving day! Congratulations!

 

[Nik's Mom]

Yes! We close escrow on April 10th and plan to move May 3rd! We are so excited!

 

[modomo]

We've just booked our cruise!

It will be myself and husband, our 3 children DS 11, DD8 & DD7.
Early seating

This is our 1st Disney cruise, so we are really excited

We're from Missouri.

Look forward to planning!

 

[Hudson5&Lennon3]

GREAT! WONDERFUL!! AWESOME!!! Welcome to our cruise!!!! Looks like we'll all be coming from the middle of the country (so far). Thanks a bunch for popping in and saying hello! If you want, I can add you to the first post that lists us all so far. YAY!

Looks like you'll be taking another Disney vacation pretty soon. How exciting!

 

[starlawyermom]

Hi - my husband and I will be travelling with our two daughters, 7 & 8 at the time. I have cruised before and LOVE it - this will be new for the kids and husband. Will also be travelling with father and mother in-law, brother-in-law, wife and three girls ages 3, 4 & 5. We can hardly wait and look forward to meeting other cruisers on board. Not sure if my kids can hold out until next May. Are the kids' programs really as good as they sound/look?
See you on Board, and I will keep tabs on this thread.

 

[starlawyermom]

Oh, by the way, my family is coming from Massachusetts. Hope to meet/connect with others from the area.

 

[Nik's Mom]

Yeah! Two more families to join us! Welcome to Modomo and starlawyermom!!!
Modomo, what part of Missouri are you from? You will have a blast on a WDW cruise!!!!

 

[Hudson5&Lennon3]

YAY!!!! I'm so happy our little group is finally growing! I knew you guys were out there somewhere!! Anyone else care to come out of hiding?!?!

Here's a BIG to all the new families. I've got a busy couple days ahead of me, but maybe on Sunday I'll have time to update the list on post 1.

 

[modomo]

Yes, our kids are pretty excited as well! It hasn't really "sunk in" yet, plus we have a couple of other trips planned between now and then.

I have cruised before (took DD when she was 2), but DH, DS, and youngest DD haven't ever been before. I've only been on Carnival(3x), so I am expecting great things from Disney!

Nik's Mom - We are from South-Central Missouri, about 5 hrs from KC and 3 hours from St. Louis, and about an 1 from Arkansas.

Have you guys planned out all of your tours and excursions yet? The only thing I know we want to do for sure is the Dolphin Encounter in Cozumel. I haven't decided which on yet. I have been to the one at Dolphin Discovery, but Dolpinaris 9(sp) looks really nice. I love the beach at Dophin Discovery, but the actual encounter was just so-so. Do you guys have any experiences with either of these?


Have a great day!

 

[Nik's Mom]

We have done some research. I also want to try one of the dolphin excursions, but don't know which one yet. I have been pretty busy organizing our relocation to Kansas, sothe cruise has been on the back burner of my brain.

 

[Hudson5&Lennon3]

I've added everyone who is new to the first post. I wasn't sure which of starlawyermom's family was from AK and which was from FL, so I just guessed. If I'm wrong, let me know, and I can change it. If any of those family members are DIS'ers, I can add their user name, too.

modomo--I'm not really sure if we're going to do any excursions this time. I think we'll probably try and enjoy the ship a little more this time. I'm sure it was just because our kids were a little young at the time, but the stingray excursion didn't go over so well. We might try the one at CC instead of GC, but I'm not going to push that one on them. If we do anything we might just rent an electric car on KW, but I don't think we'll do much on GC or Coz. I would LOVE to do the dolphins, but my boys had a hard time leaving the ship at each port because they didn't realize we would be going back to it.

So, new thread members, here's a little quiz for us to try to get to know you a little better. If you'd like to participate, we'd love to hear about you! You can go back and read pg 2 for the answers from me and Sherri (Nik's Mom). Again, it's GREAT to have you abord our thread!!!! Now the next 13 months need to just fly by!!


1. How many times have you been on DCL? Where to and when?

2. What are you looking forward to on this cruise?

3. What are your kids (if any) looking forward to on this cruise?

4. If you've cruised before, what is your favorite food on DCL? If you haven't cruised before, what are you excited to try (if you've looked over the menus already--like I did before our first one!)?

5. What would your "dream" DCL vacation be?

 

[Nik's Mom]

Hi Hudson5&Lennon3!
Thanks for updating our list! Looks like we won't have any empty ship after all.

Please consider the stingray excursion on CC. My kids loved it! It is right on the shore line, so the water is not deep at all. My boys were 5 and 7 and they had a blast. As you may remember, they are both autistic and are not comfortable trying new things. I thought for sure that they would not want to do this. Instead, they had a great time and were not frightened at all. When my 5 year old got tired, I took him to the sand and we relaxed while DH and ds 7 snorkled. It was only an hour long, so it didn't take too much time at all.

 

[Nik's Mom]

I've packed up a lot of my pictures for the move, but I pulled this out of the scrapbook that I started from our cruise last May. This is DS7 on the CC stingray excursion. See how shallow the water is? That black object is a mickey head. You need to hold the food between your fingers and place your hand on the Mickey head. Then the stingrays swim right up and suck the food out of your hand. Both of our ds's had difficulty holding the food, so dh had to help them.