May 18, 2013 Fantasy 7 Night Eastern!

[amandaw]

Another family!!! This is the first time we booked this far out so I too cannot wait to be under a year. We have 2 birthdays on this cruise as well! Can't wait to start getting enough folks to put together a Fish Extender exchange, although I have to admit it-I'm already working on some stuff

I may have already started too.

How exciting! More birthdays being celebrated on the boat!

I guess I need to learn more about the whole Fish Extender exchange thing. Sounds like something that I may like.

 

[MTmomma]

Its awfully quiet around here

 

[maggs1035]

If we had the time, I would prefer to drive to the cruise instead of flying. Airports, lines, security, delays, cancellations, lost baggage...

All these things stress me out even though I no control over most of them. Obviously, driving for 2-3 days (from Western NY) has its own stressors, but I prefer them over the greater evil that is the airport cattle runs.

Hi, My name is Beth, I just booked our family on the May 18 2013 Fantasy cruise and I too am from Rochester NY, actually we live in/around Victor NY! I think it is so cool to know that someone from my hometown will be on the cruise! We should keep each other posted on airfare and rental car deals, etc...

Beth

 

[maggs1035]

Can someone tell me what a "Fish Extender" is??? First time cruiser here!

 

[maggs1035]

We booked this cruise and are so excited to be doing a cruise! Hello everyone... We are a faminly of 4, DH, myself, DS18, DS6! Cant wait to experience a DCL!

 

[mammacaryn]

 

[MTmomma]

We booked this cruise and are so excited to be doing a cruise! Hello everyone... We are a faminly of 4, DH, myself, DS18, DS6! Cant wait to experience a DCL!

Welcome Beth and family! I can't believe how quickly time is already passing! We booked 571 days out, and we are rapidly approaching the 400 mark!
As for the Fish Extender Exchange, it is quite simple. The DIS-es get together, and do a gift exchange. Items from hometowns, hand made items, pirate night goodies, etc. The actual Fish, and the extender refer to the fish (or sea horse) outside the stateroom that DCL uses for some types of communication. The extender is pockets that are hung to allow other cruisers to drop off gifts.
my friend and son would get so excited when "we got fished!"
as for total number of gifts, delivery schedule, and DIS meet, once we get closer to the sail date, we will hash out those details.
FB GROUP no longer exists. Sorry.

 

[GoofyCrazy]

We're on this cruise. It's Melissa (me), Richard (DH) and Cayden (DS 9 at time of cruise). I'm a photographer and my DH drives for Fedex, our DS is in the 2nd grade and plays soccer. This will be our first cruise and we're beyond excited. We were going for a 4 nighter but the DS said no we wouldn't have enough time to do anything. As you can see he got his way. If a FE gets started we do want to participate. I've already started collecting things.

I do like the idea for a private facebook page. I already have a FB account so it would be a great way for me to keep up with what's going on with our group.

Melissa

 

[amandaw]

Welcome Beth and family! I can't believe how quickly time is already passing! We booked 571 days out, and we are rapidly approaching the 400 mark!
As for the Fish Extender Exchange, it is quite simple. The DIS-es get together, and do a gift exchange. Items from hometowns, hand made items, pirate night goodies, etc. The actual Fish, and the extender refer to the fish (or sea horse) outside the stateroom that DCL uses for some types of communication. The extender is pockets that are hung to allow other cruisers to drop off gifts.
my friend and son would get so excited when "we got fished!"
as for total number of gifts, delivery schedule, and DIS meet, once we get closer to the sail date, we will hash out those details.
I have debated setting up a private and unsearchable facebook group, so personal information is not public. Please let me know if we want to go this route!

I'd be in for the private FB group! Just let me know if you start it & I'll PM you with how I have my name listed on FB. Thanks!

 

[maggs1035]

Wow! This is very cool, FE makes it even more exciting and I love the idea of keeping an eye out for items to get for FE. Is it like a gift exchange with one person or do you "fish" any and all participants?

Another question..... Do any of you have trouble with the schools in regards to taking your kids out of school? We are going to be out from 5/9/2013 - 5/26/2013, we are doing 8 days at WDW first, my hubby is driving the "Experience of a Lifetime" at Daytona, and we are doing Kennedy Space center before the cruise! We have taken the kids out of school for WDW for the last 3 yrs, one family trip, and the last two have been 8 days at WDW related to Victor Cheerleading Nationals! Schools can't say much when it's for cheer, lol!

Any other good info you can share with us firtst time cruisers would be great! We are all for facebook!

 

[maggs1035]

Hi Beth, I am UncleLarrys wife,Caryn. We are in Webster, small world(I work in Victor/Fairport). There is a sticky FAQ thread at the top of the forum for DCL, it is alphabetical and if you go down to Fish Extender there you will find a bunch of stuff. It's an organized gift exchange of sorts-very fun This is our 4th DCL Cruise, we drove last year, but will be flying again for this next one sice it falls during the school year when there is not a break and we will be pulling the kids out of school. Welcome to the group

Hi Caryn, Thanks for all the info! We have flown every yr for the past 3 and liked Airtran out of Rochester, but have loved Southwest out of Buffalo, free baggage and less issues! Haven't had to much trouble driving to buffalo either! We did have damage to our truck (that we got from Marina Dodge in Webster ) from parking garage, but that could happen anywhere! Im also on track for losing weight before the cruise! Anyone else?

 

[GoofyCrazy]

Wow! This is very cool, FE makes it even more exciting and I love the idea of keeping an eye out for items to get for FE. Is it like a gift exchange with one person or do you "fish" any and all participants?

Another question..... Do any of you have trouble with the schools in regards to taking your kids out of school? We are going to be out from 5/9/2013 - 5/26/2013, we are doing 8 days at WDW first, my hubby is driving the "Experience of a Lifetime" at Daytona, and we are doing Kennedy Space center before the cruise! We have taken the kids out of school for WDW for the last 3 yrs, one family trip, and the last two have been 8 days at WDW related to Victor Cheerleading Nationals! Schools can't say much when it's for cheer, lol!

Any other good info you can share with us firtst time cruisers would be great! We are all for facebook!

Schools here make it well known they don't approve of it. It's even in the school handbook in big bold print and announced over and over at registration. They used to be pretty good about letting you take your kids out for vacations. Then came along some people that just had to abuse it and ruin it for everyone else. A family took their son out of school one week before our three week Christmas break so he could go to Disney World. They just couldn't wait one more week. Well it was like follow the leader after that. It was to the point to where families were just taking their kids out and saying it was for a vacation. Now it's not excused unless you have a doctors note and then if you miss more than three days they're calling your house. Here if it was a cheer related it would have to be a school cheerleading team and the school would arrange transportation. They would go and come back no extra stops.

I'm telling you it's crazy. I kind of understand it. Maybe it's because I have three teachers in my family (my mom and two sisters). I see their side of it. I hate for my son to even miss a day for a dentist appt. The way things are taught now, at a fast pace if he misses a day he gets so behind. However he will miss the last week of school next year for our cruise. We did it in 2010 when we went to Disney World. They don't seem to care all that much at the end of the school year. My mom told me that once high school graduation is over the school year is pretty much over. It's really babysitting after that until the last day.

Melissa

 

[maggs1035]

Schools here make it well known they don't approve of it. It's even in the school handbook in big bold print and announced over and over at registration. They used to be pretty good about letting you take your kids out for vacations. Then came along some people that just had to abuse it and ruin it for everyone else. A family took their son out of school one week before our three week Christmas break so he could go to Disney World. They just couldn't wait one more week. Well it was like follow the leader after that. It was to the point to where families were just taking their kids out and saying it was for a vacation. Now it's not excused unless you have a doctors note and then if you miss more than three days they're calling your house. Here if it was a cheer related it would have to be a school cheerleading team and the school would arrange transportation. They would go and come back no extra stops.

I'm telling you it's crazy. I kind of understand it. Maybe it's because I have three teachers in my family (my mom and two sisters). I see their side of it. I hate for my son to even miss a day for a dentist appt. The way things are taught now, at a fast pace if he misses a day he gets so behind. However he will miss the last week of school next year for our cruise. We did it in 2010 when we went to Disney World. They don't seem to care all that much at the end of the school year. My mom told me that once high school graduation is over the school year is pretty much over. It's really babysitting after that until the last day.

Melissa

Yikes! Victor is crazy about the cheer program, lol.... at this time next year my little guy will be 6 1/2 and finishing 1st grade, and my other son will be 18 and a senior, but he is already so far ahead that he gets early dismissal every day and doesn't have to take Math and Science as a senior! so it should be no problem, we don't get out until the end of June, so he can catch up!

 

[MTmomma]

Luckily our school district doesn't pitch a hissy over family vacations. They understand the value of family togetherness. However, they would have an issue if my child were absent NORMALLY all the time. Last year, he was out with strep near the beginning of the school year, then was out the week before memorial day holiday, no questions asked. Part of why we vacation during the end of may, is being able to play catch up during that holiday weekend. DSs school has webpages for each teacher, and they are updated nightly. Some even go as far as recording their lectures from the smartboard and post them online. We are VERY lucky to reside in the school district that we do. One campus for K-8, three separate buildings. It makes life easier knowing exactly how they plan things, so we can reasonably predict break times.

FB GROUP NO LONGER EXISTS
How our FE worked last time (around 20 staterooms) on a 4 night, was we split it into "assigned nights" so that we got gifted every night, not just all at the beginning. Im open to suggestions of doing it another way, so please brainstorm it! Me personally, I may split up our gifts into two deliveries, as Ash and I have a pretty good game plan to cover the Dream in the time between the early show, and late dinner.
Beth, make sure you are carrying your FE list, as some Cruise Critic groups do a FE too. I am kicking around printing maps of the Fantasy, with our final stateroom locations on them, but I have to find a company who will print them. I will have to contact the people that did them last time, as I can't find my Dream map! Oops?

 

[MTmomma]

Fb group no longer exists

 

[maggs1035]

Ok FB group is set up. Please either PM me or Amandaw and we will add you to the group!

I tried to PM you and it won't let me, says I haven't done enough posts???

 

[maggs1035]

I must not be as computer smart as I usually am??? Have not been able to do a ticker? It keeps telling me to pick a background even though i did already? Also I can't seem to find what Caryn told me about the sticky FAQ to learn more about FE??? I would like to also do a weight loss ticker?

Yikes..... what a project I have become, lol

Have you guys heard of being able to request dinner seating together? Thought I read that in one of my cruise guide books?

 

[maggs1035]

says i have to do 10 posts so heres # 10

 

[MTmomma]

Welcome Melissa! I think I missed saying hi Welcome to our sailing!

 

[MTmomma]

I must not be as computer smart as I usually am??? Have not been able to do a ticker? It keeps telling me to pick a background even though i did already? Also I can't seem to find what Caryn told me about the sticky FAQ to learn more about FE??? I would like to also do a weight loss ticker?

Yikes..... what a project I have become, lol

Have you guys heard of being able to request dinner seating together? Thought I read that in one of my cruise guide books?

Tickers:
as you are perusing the DIS and you see someones ticker that you like, click on the ticker. Then it will take you to a webpage to set one up. Most are pretty easy. Once that is done, it will generate HTML, a direct link to a website, AND an IMG tag. You need to copy the IMG tag text (usually clicking the code will auto copy for you) and then go over to your user CP on this forum. on the left side, will be options, and I believe one is for "edit signature." click there, and then paste the IMG code into the white box. Then you can add other information around the ticker (my text above the ticker is on one line, the next line is the ticker img code, the third is the link to this cruise meets thread) click the preview button, and then click save changes if everything is okay!

Ill find the FE FAQ shortly for you