May 20th 2006 Western Magic Cruise - Who's Going?

[JonetteA]

We are on second dinner rotation as well. I have done the 3 and 4 day cruise before and my future husband has never been on the cruise. It should be a good experience for both of us! I can't wait.

 

[crazypom]

Anyone booked their excursions yet? We are thinking of just a walk or train around Key West with a stop for DH at Margaritaville. Would like to do the dolphin swim in Cozumel but will book privately thru Dolphin Discovery or cozumel insider as Disney doesn't allow for my almost 4yo. Plan to swim with the stingrays in GC - have gotten lots of info off cruise critic about booking that privately as well(again, Disney does not accomodate DS).
Will definately stop at Kinos for sandals - I love summer shoes! DMIL and DD11 will want some too!
Anyone else find the whole dining thing confusing?? I don't know which day to book Palo as I am afraid to miss something! When did you find out your dining time? We got our Roy suite as a result of a cancellation so was a very last minute decision - I haven't done anything about the dining yet but definately want early.
Put out the request for "pen-pal" for my DD and now my son would like one too. At time of cruise he will have turned 9, in grade 3, loves any type of sports, computers, and games of any type. Let us know if you have a similar DS (he and DD will likely be separated in the club as 9yo &11yo so would be nice to meet a buddy!)
I also have a DH who may like to do a golf excursion, any others out there?
Got my passporter yesterday and have skimmed the whole thing!! Couldn't put it down last night. It was a good read but I have to say that most the info I already knew from being an obsessive reader of these boards.
well, that's prob long enough for now!!
I don't know how I can wait 7 more months!!!

 

[anty30]

I have already booked the Royal Swim for myself and DD8 through Dolphin Discovery. I also booked the Dolphin Encounter for DH and DS5. I booked both direct and received a 10% discount. The Dolphin Encounter is usually fully booked with DCL excursions, but I contacted the owner of Dolphin Discovery and told him I wanted to book it so that the 4 of us could travel there together. He allowed us 2 of the DCL spots. He was really helpful, otherwise DH and DS would have had to go with DCL and we would have had to go in a cab at a seperate time. He said the Dophin Encounter is always fully reserved on Wed. for DCL. We are planning on booking the Stingray City Sail and Snorkel excursion through DCL for all 4 of us. In Key West we plan on leaving the kiddies onboard while we explore on our own for awhile. We don't anticipate staying long. Probably visit Hemingways house and Margaritaville also. I cannot wait. I am driving DH crazy talking about the cruise and all that I want to do. We were thinking about doing Palo, but we decided against it as we don't want to miss anything either.

 

[crazypom]

How did you get 10% off? I was thinking of booking thru cozumel insider but 10% would help as there are 7 of us!!
Did you just book on-line or phone? We will have to do the same as you and split up into encounter and swim group. Are you going to swim with the sea lions?
Thanks, Cari

 

[Echo queen]

We have main dining, on the first cruise we have late seating and missed all of family fun programs. I will have my son do research on Key West and the Tulan ruins so maybe on Key west we will go to those special places in the morning back to ship for lunch and put the kids in clubs and back on shore for a few hours back in time for dinner. We will definitly do Palo because we missed that on first cruise.

 

[anty30]

When I called Dolphin Discovery they told me that if I booked by Sep. 30 I could receive the 10% discount. So that is what I did.

 

[Echo queen]

We are on second dinner rotation as well. I have done the 3 and 4 day cruise before and my future husband has never been on the cruise. It should be a good experience for both of us! I can't wait.

I would guess you will be flying out DFW? We are outside of Austin TX so, we will fly out of Austin. Unfortunatly it cost about $200 more per ticket to fly out of Austin For our last cruise we drove to Dallas and stayed with relatives the night before to get the cheaper fair. It was worth it. All of that extra travel wore us out, so we will not be doing that again. I hope the rates come down some.

 

[JonetteA]

Echo Queen, yes we are flying out of Dallas on Tuesday night, getting married on Thursday in the UK Rose Garden, having the MK photoshoot on Saturday morning and then sleeping for a few more hours before heading to a grocery store and port!!! So the long and short of it is that we are flying out of DFW, but we are going really early.

 

[Echo queen]

Congrats congrats You'll be honey mooners. That's great. This has to be over the top exciting for you both. I'm so happy you You are going to very busy until you get on the ship.

 

[lilo62]

lilo, we are from Brewster. My DH works in Norwalk. Sounds like you are nearby. We are 45 min. north of NYC. We are flying out of LaGuardia Friday morning 5/19. American Airlines. What about you?
Anty30

Well hello there sort-of neighbor! We live in Cos Cob which is 15 min. outside of Greenwich. My DH works in NYC. I haven't made any flying arrangements yet - waiting on the airfare prices. We will probably fly either Jetblue out of JFK or Song out of LGA.

 

[lilo62]

So, lilo have you ever gone to to kino's store? Did you buy any? Does any one here plan to buy Kinos in Key West?

I haven't. I need to check these shoes out - I think!

Ok, so I checked the sandals out. Am I missing something?! I'm under the impression that they are some sort of special shoes. They look like regular sandals to me and they are flat! I don't wear flat shoes!

 

[lilo62]

We are on second dinner rotation as well. I have done the 3 and 4 day cruise before and my future husband has never been on the cruise. It should be a good experience for both of us! I can't wait.

I wonder if we'll be assigned at the same table?!

And by the way, I'm very jealous you guys are having a Disney wedding!

 

[JonetteA]

I am sure we can request it if we want! PM me your information if you are interested.

 

[anty30]

Well hello there sort-of neighbor! We live in Cos Cob which is 15 min. outside of Greenwich. My DH works in NYC. I haven't made any flying arrangements yet - waiting on the airfare prices. We will probably fly either Jetblue out of JFK or Song out of LGA.

Are you from Cos Cob? I have a good friend from there. We checked JetBlue and Spirit and ended up going with American as they were the least expensive. I was suprised because we flew Spirit this year and last for under $120. rt. For some reason they were high this time. I wanted to wait til after the new year, but I also just wanted to have all the arrangements complete so I booked it. We got $168. rt. Not bad. We are going into the city tomorrow night for dinner. Also just got tix to see Peter Pan at the Garden for the kids, and Wicked tix for Feb. Love being so close. My brother lives on 55th between 2nd and 3rd.

 

[crazypom]

I think the appeal of the shoes is the price - $10 - and lots of cool colors! I did read on the cruise critic board about them and many people swear by them. I gave up on heels years ago and now love flat shoes (even though I'm only 5'2" and could use the height!!) I will have to dig in the back of the closet to find a pair for formal night (I'll be the woman who can't walk in her shoes!! )

Have been checking out excursions in GC and am leaning towards the Nativeways Reef, Rays, Rum point tour. Leaves port around 9 and back at 2:30 and the owner said very suitable for kids. You also get lunch which is good. Anyone else interested???

Are you people dressing up for pirate night? I plan on getting stuff on sale after Halloween but my DH will throw me overboard if he's the only dad dressed up!!!

Still looking for e-mail pal for DS.

We are heading to California for X-mas and in DL Dec 11-15th so that should continue to build the excitement. I must say I am far more excited about the cruise than DL but I guess its cause I've been there before and never cruised.

Congrats JonnetteA on your upcoming wedding, you must be so excited!!

Where are people staying before the cruise? I am debating between RonJon or Radisson but still not sure of exact arrival, hoping to arrive Sat 13th but not sure what we'll do or where we might go. The flights from western Canada are so costly that we try to make a longer holiday out of it.

 

[JonetteA]

We are going to be staying at the Poly. Also, we will probably try to stick a day or so on the end of the cruise at the POP.

 

[Echo queen]

Have been checking out excursions in GC and am leaning towards the Nativeways Reef, Rays, Rum point tour. Leaves port around 9 and back at 2:30 and the owner said very suitable for kids. You also get lunch which is good. Anyone else interested???

Are you people dressing up for pirate night? I plan on getting stuff on sale after Halloween but my DH will throw me overboard if he's the only dad dressed up!!! pirate dad


Congrats JonnetteA on your upcoming wedding, you must be so excited!!

Where are people staying before the cruise? I am debating between RonJon or Radisson but still not sure of exact arrival, (Quote)

We are staying at the Raddison the night before.
April 29 we are going to see Disney's Lion King broadway production in San Antonio TX. My dh is pretty excited about that, we thought we were going to have to go to New York city to see that.
My boys are going to be pirates for Halloween and I am going to be a wench type pirate groupee. DH is working for Halloween, for the crusie he said he will wear something pirate.

We will be staying in Orlando for a week after the cruise at a resort and going to WDW and maybe Universal.
Kinos from Key West just sound cool.
We have not decided on excursions for GC yet, I will look into that one. Thanks

 

[JonetteA]

EchoQueen...you are going to LOVE the lion king...try and get seats on the aisle. In NY the animals come down the aisle. Also, if you can afford it orchestra seats for this one ROCK, you are definately going to want to watch their faces....It is an AMAZING show!

 

[Echo queen]

Jonette we did get orchestra right center row E, I can't tell how close they are to the aisle. We went with a early booking premium ticket package that was an offer from our Disney visa card. I have heard such great things about this show. Can't wait Thanks for the review.

 

[JonetteA]

Make sure you buy the cast recording....FANTASTIC