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

[Hudson5&Lennon3]

Yes! We are so excited! A couple weeks ago, I was showing off our pictures from our cruise last year to some friends, and that got me all pumped up again! It stills seems so far off, but I'm sure it'll come fast! I was also reminded of it when we packed for a quick vacation to Denver a couple weeks ago. When I opened up the suitcases to start packing, there was my over-the-door shoe holder (a must have for toiletries, etc.), the closet organizer, and the fish scale (a cheaper version of a luggage scale). The suitcases hadn't been used since our cruise, so it was kind of a surprise to see it all in there, and it also got me to thinking about how much planning needs to go into packing for it! Is anyone else going to WDW afterwards? We are, but I need to do the planning for that yet. I'm reading the WDW Passporter, and I'm thinking I'd like to stay at AK or Poly--I think there's one other one, too, but I can't remember off the top of my head. Lizzyb--what are the plans for your WDW trip coming up?

Sherry--Thanks for all the KC info! My neighbor's sister lives in KC, so she goes shopping with her quite a bit, and she had mentioned the Town Center Plaza also. For some reason, I hadn't found that one on my search, but it sounds like a great place to go! Between all the info she and you are giving me, I think we'll want to stay for weeks! I wish it wasn't going to be such a short trip. I have a huge map of KC that lists every single street, school, park, museum, etc. There sure are a lot of golf courses in the OP/Leawood area!! (I only noticed that because we live on a course. Do you?)

 

[Nik's Mom]

No, we don't live on a golf course. DH and I both agree that we should learn to play since we are surrounded by golf courses.

 

[lizzyb]

We are staying at POP and will celebrate DS 2nd birthday there. We will be soing some parks but mostly water parks. I cannot wait, but its going to be soo hot there I am almost dreading it.

 

[starlawyermom]

Hello all! I have become somewhat of an addict of the disboard threads! There is so much great information! I think I am the most excited out of everyone - I have read the Passporter book from cover to cover, and some partes several times (my mother-in-law bought a copy for me when she visited last). The kids finish school next Monday and we will be keeping them busy with day camp for two weeks, weekend trips to Cape Cod and activities at our pool club. Time is flying by which means it will be cruise time before we know it. BTW, for those who have kids, did you use the clubs and did the kids like them? My kids are thrilled at the thought - but just wondering if they are as good as they sound

Take care.

 

[Nik's Mom]

My kids had fun at the clubs. We were reluctant to use them at first, but finally dropped the kids off on our day at sea. The kids had a great time. I wish we would have used the clubs a little more.

 

[Hudson5&Lennon3]

I have become somewhat of an addict of the disboard threads!

It's very easy to become addicted! When I found the DIS, I only had three months before our cruise, so I had to suck in as much information as I could in a short time! All those late nights of DISing sure paid off.

BTW, for those who have kids, did you use the clubs and did the kids like them? My kids are thrilled at the thought - but just wondering if they are as good as they sound

The thing that our kids liked the best at first was the Mickey pool & slide. They wanted to spend ALL their time there, so they didn't use the clubs in the first few days as much as I thought they would just because they really liked the pool. We sent them to the clubs for almost the entire day of our anniversary (Thursday/sea day) because we did some tastings and ate at Palo. They went for the rehearsal for the "graduation," and then during the "ceremony," we went into the theater and watched it, but they didn't even know we were there. Then they stayed with the group and ate supper with them while we went to Palo. Hudson was so excited to make cookies on the 2nd or 3rd day, but when we went to pick him up, we couldn't find him. As panic mode started setting in, I told a CM that I didn't see him, and she said there was one little boy that wanted to play on the computers instead. I knew right away that it had to be him. Sure enough, there he was playing games instead of making cookies. He's such a game enthusiast that he was so excited to play "new games." I still hear about how the Disney Cruise had "such-n-such" game that we don't have. And Lennon still talks about how Tinkerbell came to the club and sprinkled pixie dust all over the room during story time. The boys were separated most of the time, though, because Lennon was in the 3-4 group, and Hudson was in the 5-7 group, but this time, they'll be together because they'll be 7 & 5 instead of 5 & 3. I guess it's nice to have the option of sending them or not, but we did want family time, too. Most of that, though, was us sitting at the pool watching them slide & splash. (Acutally, DH was & while I was taking as many pictures as I could!) We played Bingo one day, too. There's just so much stuff to do as a family that we didn't use it as much as we thought we would.

 

[lizzyb]

We might try to get the kids to stay at the club once or twice just for some quite time... DH is not liking the idea but I have 10mths to work on him. LOL

 

[2_Eagle_Mom]

Hi Everyone,

I just officially joined the boards today (had been lurking all week reading trip reports).

I'm so excited to find this thread! I just read all six pages to catch up and "meet" everyone.

My DH and I will be on this cruise to celebrate our 25th Anniversary. Looks like we will be the only group without kids (so far). We have two boys (21 and 18) but since this is our anniversary trip we thought we would go solo. We are from Martinez, CA (about 40 miles east of San Francisco). We took the kids on a 3 day cruise in 2004 and knew we wanted to go again and on a longer cruise, but haven't been able to schedule it until now. We are using our DVC points for a week at WDW - OKW studio and then the cruise. Which means we will be celebrating Mothers Day and our actual anniversary at WDW. I've ordered the cruise Passporter and pre-ordered the 2009 WDW guidebook so I'm anxiously waiting for the Passporter to arrive and cruising the DIS and Passporter boards. Since it's been a while since our last cruise and we were on the shorter cruise I have a ton of questions. We're booked for an oceanview stateroom on the 7th deck (can't remember the actual cabin #).

To share a little bit about us: I met my DH in Drama Class in High School. We didn't start dating untill the year after he had graduated. We dated for 6 years before getting married. We still live in the same small town and both boys went to the same high school! Our 21 year old son was diagnosed with Aspergers when he was 12. He is in a program for Adults with Disabilities and learning some fantastic life skills. My youngest graduated in June and will be living at home while going to Jr. College in the fall. The 2_Eagle_Mom refers to my boys. The both earned their Eagle Scout Award after many years in Scouting. In fact DS18 is away at camp this summer as staff.

I hope I haven't bored you all. I'm looking forward to getting to know you all better and REALLY looking forward to planning this vacation.

Happy 4th of July!!!

 

[Hudson5&Lennon3]

Jane (2 Eagle Mom)!!!!!!! We're so glad to have you here with us!! What a great life story you have! It's always nice to get to know people that you really don't "know"...yet. What a wonderful way to celebrate a great accomplishment for the two of you. Personally, I would recommend trying to get Palo ressies for the night of your anniversary! It'll be unforgettable! (That's where we had our 10th anniversary celebration last year. BTW, what day of the week will yours be? Ours was on Thursday--sea day/Captain's Gala menu/semi-formal night) It sounds like you're doing tons of planning and researching, which fits right in with everyone else on the DIS!

I haven't been around the boards much lately this summer because of ball games and kids activities taking up so much time, but hopefully once school starts in LESS THAN SIX WEEKS (!), I'll have more time to chat and really get to know everyone on this thread a little better. (It seems so strange that some people's kids on the thread just got out of school a couple weeks ago, and ours are almost ready to go back!)

I hope everyone had a fun & safe Independence Day! We had food & fireworks at our house on Thursday night for about 60+ people and had a great time. Then we went to my mom's house last night to watch the "big" display here in town (she lives just a few blocks from where they're at, and she has a great, unobstructed view). We've had WAAAAY too many late nights for the kids, so I'm anxious to get back to regular schedule with no fireworks (even though I LOVE THEM!) I love fireworks so much that last year on pirate night, I cried during the fireworks!! (Actually, yesterday was the 18th anniversary of our first date, so that's part of why I love them so much.)

 

[2_Eagle_Mom]

Hi Val & Everyone!

Sounds like you had a really busy week with everything going on (60+ people I'm impressed). We spent the day at my BILs visiting family, but came home around 6:00pm so my DS21 could go to the train station (his passion is trains and we have an Amtrac station in town) he's an unofficial volunteer and helps passengers get to the right train and helps the station agents with the luggage. Also the train station faces the waterfront where they shoot off the fireworks so he had a fantastic viewing spot. We came home to be with the pets (they get freaked with all the loud noises) so our 4th was really quiet.

I'm so excited that my Passporter arrived in the mail this afternoon. I thought I would check the boards quickly and then dive into filling out the stuff I already know into the book and the start reading and taking notes.

I defiately want to do Palo sometime during the week. Our actual anniversary will be on May 12 while we are at WDW, but we told the ressie agent that we would be "celebrating" the anniversary on Tuesday, May 19 - Day 4 which by just thumbing through the book looks like Master Chef/casual Attire (have no idea what that means).

Well, the book is calling me...

Hope everyone has a safe weekend

 

[Hudson5&Lennon3]

Our actual anniversary will be on May 12 while we are at WDW, but we told the ressie agent that we would be "celebrating" the anniversary on Tuesday, May 19 - Day 4 which by just thumbing through the book looks like Master Chef/casual Attire (have no idea what that means).

Sorry Jane! After I posted, I remembered that you said your anniversary would be at WDW instead of on the cruise. So do you have any plans made yet for that magical day at WDW?

And as I was typing before, I didn't think Master Chef sounded right for the menu we missed for Palo, but I couldn't think of what the others were! You're right...MC is on Tuesday, and Thursday is Captain's Gala (aka "lobster night"--but DH still got lobster at Palo). Those are just the "themes" for the menu each night and what the recommended "dress code" is for dinner. For the first three nights, each restaurant serves their own menu, and you'll rotate through those once each. Then after that, you'll still rotate restaurants, but all the menus are the same.

It sounds like your DS had a great night last night! What a neat way to volunteer with something he's also passionate about.

Enjoy the book! It's just as addicting as the DIS!!!

 

[Nik's Mom]

Welcome to 2_Eagle_Mom!,
We're glad that you are joining us. Wow, what a small world. We have 2 autistic sons. We just moved from California 2 months ago. It's been a struggle to get the kids adjusted, so I haven't been posting too much. Today we were in Target and they were already setting up the back-to-school supplies. I can't believe it!

 

[2_Eagle_Mom]

Hi Niks Mom,

Thanks for the welcome! I read that you had recently moved and you have two special boys. I can only imagine how challenging it can be to have a huge change in your life and then add the stress of getting your boys settled. Hopefully buy the time school is ready to start your boys will be prepared for the new adventure.

I just finished my first read of the Passporter book. It did answer a lot of my questions about dinner rotations, dress, etc. Now we just have to decide if we want to do any of the excursions. My DH knows someone (he met them on Second Life) that lives in Key West so we will probably just do a walking tour and check out some of the local sites. I think I'm going to do some more research on the boards to see what the reviews are for the excursions.

For our actual anniversary at WDW I want to do something special. I'm thinking of doing dinner at either Rose & Crown, California Grill or Narcooses (sp?) so we can see the shows from the restaurant. I would love to do a specialty cruise (we both LOVE Illuminations) but since I'm on the West Coast I would need to call the reservation number at 3:55AM! . I also just read about the carriage rides at POFQ that sound very romantic.

I feel like I should get everything all planned quickly, and then I realize we have 10 months before the trip and I should calm down. My DH is used to me getting all ramped up and finds ways to bring me back to reality. I asked him if he was planning on just doing carry on for the trip and he said "well since I have almost a year to think about it I'll probably decide sometime after Christmas". Well ok, if you want to wait that long....

Planning is ingrained into me. I'm a meeting planner for a corporation and we normally plan things well over a year in advance. I have a couple of programs planned for January and April that may take a lot of overtime and if I can get stuff nailed down early then I won't have to worry about our vacation.

Well back to the boards and reading trip reports!

 

[starlawyermom]

Welcome new members. I have been very busy at work, so have not had any extra time these days to keep up with this - and nights seem impossible to get on-line. My kids are in a day camp just up the street from my office, so my nights have been filled with rinsing out bathing suits, washing towels and wet/dirty clothes and making lunch for the next day. My mother-in-law (who will be cruising with us) bought me the passporter book several months ago and I have read it from cover to cover about 5 times, no lie! We were party hoppers for the 4th long weekend and even hosted some people (nowhere near 60!) for a cook-out on Saturday night. My DH took Thursday off (a rare occasion) and we spent the day at our pool club. Weather up here has been hot (but I am sure nothing compared to the weather some of you have all the time) and we New Englanders like to complain about the weather!!! Sadly, the summer is flying by - the only good thing is that with every passing day, the cruise gets closer. I am thinking we need to look into flights to FL soon - but the cost is so high, it is insane. My husband's company has even banned intercompany travel - good because he is not on the West Coast every other week, but bad because he is taking conference calls at 9pm east coast time
Will people be decorating their stateroom doors? Based on other threads I have read, this seems to be a huge thing. I actually started creating "picture card" that I think I will bring along and use. I have been downloading disney photos from the internet and pasting them into a 8 1/2 x 11 document on my computer. I plan on printing them on a color printer and attaching them to the door with magnetic tape. I thought that for each "picture card" I would do a theme., ie., "Nemo" or "Disney Princesses", and other movies. What about these "Fish Extender" thingamajigs? Any insight would be helpful.....

Take Care and be well.

 

[Hudson5&Lennon3]

I put up a few things on our door last time. When I get done working and go back upstairs, I'll post a picture. Actually, we have a few of them scattered througout the house still. I made one for DH that hangs on the door in the garage as you come into the house. I also had an anniversary one that still hangs on our fridge. The others are tucked away nicely for the next cruise. I'm thinking I'll reuse most of them. I still have a large stash of LGMH (thanks to Home Depot! ), so if the old ones get bent up or ruined, I can always make new ones. I don't know if I would say it's a "huge" thing, though. Some people just make a big deal about it. Personally, we really didn't see too many doors decorated--other than some of the DIS'ers we met here and onboard (someone went around and put special ones on the doors for those celebrating birthdays or anniversaries). I expected to see a lot more, though, but I'm sure some cruises have more than ours did. I did it as a surprise to DH & the boys. I knew DH wouldn't want to do it if I told him about it beforehand (and he even admitted that he would've not wanted it), but he said it was neat after I surprised them with the magnets. Our door wasn't too hard to find anyway just becuase of where it's at (in the corner of deck 5 forward--next to SPH), but it helped the boys out to find their way when they got a little ahead of us. And I can see how it would really be needed if you're in the long hallways with door after door after door. We've got the same room but on the opposite side of the ship this time. Who knows, though. Maybe the magnets were there but I just didn't see them since we weren't really ever on decks 1, 2, 6, 7, or 8.

I think the "theme" idea sounds cool! Instead of magnet paper or tape, I just used 3M MagnaTabs on laminated paper. Then you can peel them off and reuse them.

I've seen pictures of the FE but didn't see any in person last time. I think they're mostly for those DIS groups that give gifts (we didn't last time) because we only got one thing hung on the fish the entire week, and that was a brochure from the art auction people after we checked out their stuff.

Have any other repeat cruisers done door magnets or FE?

 

[2_Eagle_Mom]

I still have a large stash of LGMH (thanks to Home Depot! )

Ok, first of all, not quite sure how everyone does the quote thing, hopefully I've figured it out. Since I'm a newbie (just hit 10 posts ) It takes me a while to figure out the shorthand codes. I can pretty much figure out the rides and restaurants, but LGMH is beyond me. I've been reading TR (see I figured that one out) and you are right some people go WAY overboard on the door decorations. Since I'm pretty sure we will be traveling really light (carry on only?) I don't think I'll be doing the FE (OMG now I'm doing it)! But I did think about putting up a couple of pictures and an anniversary sign. By the look of the ship layout I don't think we will be getting a lot of foot traffic near our cabin, but it should make it a little more decorative. I just wish I had some graphic design skills.

StarLawerMom I agree with you about the summer. It just feels like it started and I can't believe we are basically 1/2 way through. My kids are long out of the summer day camp experience (but I really miss those days now). We are finally going to visit our youngest DS this weekend. He's working at Scout camp as staff and we waited almost a month! I can't believe how much I've missed him. This past year he's really matured and has gone past the teenage grumps and will actually sit and have a deep conversation about life topics (loved this one "Mom, how do you teach kids not to be spoiled") a nice long discussion was had. Made me want to cry...

Anyway, back to vacation planning. I purchased our airline tickets last week. Since we are flying across country and I doubt prices are going to drop that much we picked the best route and bought the tickets at twice the price we've normally had to pay. The way I figure it, by the time the trip comes around the tickets will have been paid off for quite some time and it won't hurt so much next year. Also, we were able to get seats in row 5 of every single flight so we won't have to remember different row numbers for each flight (and nice and close to the front for easy departure). I just have to NOT look at the airline sites so if the flights do drop I won't get depressed.

My question this evening is how "themed" are you thinking of going for the Pirate night?

 

[Nik's Mom]

Oh, we went all out on our 4 night cruise in May 07. Here are our sons. They got a lot of attention because they were the only kids in costume.

 

[Hudson5&Lennon3]

Ok, first of all, not quite sure how everyone does the quote thing, hopefully I've figured it out.

You just need to make sure the brackets that say "quote" are at the beginning and end of the quote (just like you need IMG in brackets for posting photos). You can delete as much of the quote as you want in between the brackets (like I did here--I didn't quote your whole message), and you can also do another quote from the same post (like I did below by splitting your quote), but it has to have the same info in brackets at the start of the quote--who it's from and the posting number. You can either manually retype it or copy & paste.

LGMH is beyond me.

Lime Green Mickey Head--the "official" symbol of the DIS. If you go to the paint dept at Home Depot and get some samples of the Disney paint in the lime green, you'll have some LGMH to do whatever you want to with them. I'll post my door picture, and you can see what I did with them.

By the look of the ship layout I don't think we will be getting a lot of foot traffic near our cabin, but it should make it a little more decorative. I just wish I had some graphic design skills.

Ours wasn't a high traffic area either, but we did have a couple families notice our "Huskers" magnet and said they were from Nebraska, too, so apparently people did actually look at them. Sometimes they were a little out of place from where I put them, but they were never stolen. The non-personalized ones had our room # & name on the back. For a couple of mine, I had Kristine do them up for us. She has a thread on the main board where you can request her to do something specific for you. I chose to have her made Aladdin & Jasmine on the magic carpet inside a Mickey head (we had "A Whole New World" playing during our slide show at our wedding) with our names and wedding date in the ears. Kristine does an awesome job! And for free, too! Here's her new thread. http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1779688 The other one had too many posts and was shut down. Oh, and you gotta do the "Mickey Ears" on the room # plaque! They're so cute! The "king" one was for Justin...I call him the King of Everything. The 3 anniversary ones and the ribbons were from another DIS'er, and the top one was a joke that we had amongst some of the DIS'ers...we were all chocoholics and we said we were constantly checking the thread every day in the last months before the cruise, so we were "thread-stalking chocoholics!"

I purchased our airline tickets last week. Since we are flying across country and I doubt prices are going to drop that much we picked the best route and bought the tickets at twice the price we've normally had to pay.

I haven't even thought about plane tix yet! Yikes! We aren't even sure yet how long we'll be staying after the cruise. I guess I need to get in gear and do some planning, huh? Unfortunately, the new air carrier that we were supposed to have at our little airport has cancelled their contract, and therefore, there will no longer be $59 flights to KC like we thought we were going to do. It's still questionable when we'll get air service again since we don't know who it'll be or when they'll start, so I'd like to find out more about that first. If it's not going to be as cheap to fly out of our town, then we'll have to drive 2 hours again to the nearest major airport in Omaha. Bummer!

My question this evening is how "themed" are you thinking of going for the Pirate night?

We didn't do anything for pirate night, but it would've been fun! I really didn't want to take up the room in the suitcases for costumes that would be worn for a short time. And the boys aren't realy into the pirate thing anyway, but at dinner that night, Justin said he wished we would have, so we might this time. We'll see...

Have a great time with your DS this weekend!!!

 

[Hudson5&Lennon3]

Great pirate picture, Sherry! The boys saw it and want to know all about them now that they can "see" someone who will be on the cruise with us! Hudson is wondering when Noah will be 7. He turns 7 in October.

 

[Nik's Mom]

I bought the costumes at the Disney Store a couple of Halloweens ago. Noah will be 7 in May.

Wow, I can't believe we are talking airfare. I priced it out a few days ago and nearly fell off my chair! Plus, I could only find one non-stop flight out of Kansas City. I wonder if St. Louis is any cheaper?