May 27th 2007 Wonder Cruise. Anyone else on it?

[logan1_2000]

6 weeks from tomorrow will be driving down, and enjoying dinner at Dixie Crossroads (crab legs!). Then boarding the next morning. Ahh.....

Re: the patch--one of the very rare side-effects is that your eyes dilate and you end up with blurred vision and can't read, and sure enough happened to DW a couple cruises ago and it drove her crazy not understanding why her eyesight was going bad on her and she couldn't read her papaerback by the pool. She had a spa appointment, mentioned her vision issue during small talk, and the spa attendant noticed her patch behind her ear and told DW about that rare effect--so DW removed the patch and her eyes slowly returned to normal over the next day or two. Odd!!

 

[Tiggery]

DH is normally very motion sick, however he has never felt seasick whilst aboard. Fingers crossed for you on the ship.

 

[Buddrose]

Dixie Crossroads?? Please tell me more!! Crab Legs sound wonderful! Although, we are driving down and staying at Daytona (right across the street from the Speedway) Sat. night. It cheaper and DGS can swim most of the afternoon.....

 

[Nik's Mom]

Time is breezing by now, isn't it?! I'm prone to motion sickness, but have heard about the side effects of the patch. I'm going to try less-drowsy dramamine.

 

[logan1_2000]

Dixie Crossroads?? Please tell me more!! Crab Legs sound wonderful! Although, we are driving down and staying at Daytona (right across the street from the Speedway) Sat. night. It cheaper and DGS can swim most of the afternoon.....

You'd be too far up in Daytona to make a meal of it at Dixie Crossroads the night before. Dixie Crossroads is at Exit 205 for I-95, then 2 miles east on the right hand side of the road, in Titusville. We spend the night at a Hampton Inn a bit down the interstate in Titusville, Exit 215, and then the Beeline/528 is Exit 220. The first time we ever took a Disney cruise we were w/ DFIL, DMIL, DBIL, DSIL, the DSIL's DD and DS, and we all spent the night in Orange Park outside of Jax, then at DMIL and DFIL's insistence we stopped for lunch of all things at Dixie Crossroads on the way down to the Port (I tried to say that there was a huge buffet waiting for us on the ship, but they had it in their minds that it was what they wanted to do). So I cannot recommend that you make a similar stop--seems unnecessary on embarkation day. But DMIL passed away a little over a year later so in her memory we have dinner there the night before cruises out of port canaveral when the schedule allows us to drive all the way down to Titusville the night before.

If we weren't doing the Dixie Crossroads ritual, I might grab a reservation by the Port, but maybe some other time. I just like being able to book one room that has two queen sized beds instead of the smaller double beds, but maybe I might try the Residence Inn sometime, just booked the Mariner for next March. We've cruised a lot in January when the lovely pool at the ever-popular Radisson would not be much of an attraction, or driving down and getting in late enough that we wouldn't have been swimming anyway.

 

[logan1_2000]

Did the doc's on-line, printed out and signed. tick tock, tick tock...getting closer.

 

[lenshanem]

Hey logan1, do you go to the port by Orlando way or do you go down 95? Do you find one way faster coming from Atlanta? Last time we went thru Orlando going, coming back 95, but we hit construction and traffic both ways.

 

[logan1_2000]

Hey logan1, do you go to the port by Orlando way or do you go down 95? Do you find one way faster coming from Atlanta? Last time we went thru Orlando going, coming back 95, but we hit construction and traffic both ways.

Construction is the great destroyer of travel time, isn't it?

Not sure when your "last time" was, so don't know about which construction slowed you down vs. what is still underway. We can go down 75 to the FLA turnpike, then across Orlando on 528, and I tend to avoid doing that when I can if I will be hitting Orlando when it will be heavy traffic. Since we are really targeting Titusville and Dixie Crossroads as our destination when we drive down on a Saturday for a Sunday embarkation, we go 75 to I-10 east, by-pass Jax on 295 south to 95, and tends to be fairly smooth --when there hasn't been construction. We went that route on New Year's Day for a Jan. 2, 2007 embarkation on the Sovereign and it was fine--and part of that was purposeful avoiding downtown Orlando because of peak holiday plus bowl game congestion. I think the true pure mileage measurement from ATL to the Port is shorter on the path going through Orlando, ...though now I am wondering if I might have come home--when I had no need to stop in Titusville--through Orlando from the sovereign and taken the turnpike. Huh. Flip a coin, I guess. And the rest stops with the Citgo gas and the food options at the Turnpike aren't bad.

 

[logan1_2000]

I must be awfully obtuse--I never saw the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie (heard it was really long, sent DS w/ some friends one time and w/ DW another time, skipped it myself) so I had been unaware there was a third one coming out. Then got a glossy mailer from the Disney Visa yesterday promoting the film, saw that it opens on May 25th, so told DS he'll be able to see it on the ship, and even DW sounded excited. I of course will be snoozing or having a frozen tropical drink, or both, but that's the beauty of DCL, something for everyone. Did everyone else but me realize the timing of this movie opening?

 

[lenshanem]

I guess we'll just go turnpike then. We drive that way to WDW several times a year and it has become a very familiar drive for us. We're staying at the Radisson Saturday night.

 

[tiptoen]

I live right off I-95 in Brunswick Ga. There is construction from exit 36 down to exit 29. For the most part it goes pretty smooth but you should not speed through there. Lots of tickets lately. There have been a few accidents and they are really enforcing the 55 limit.

 

[lenshanem]

Thanks for the heads up! A ticket wouldn't be a good way to start a cruise!

 

[Buddrose]

Thanks for "head's up" about construction 95. We come that way too from Athens - through Sparta, Wrightsville to Brunswick and 95. We also take the Jax bypass and just scoot right on down....easy breezy! Of course, we might have to take another route back thru Vidalia coming home to get a big bag of onions!

 

[logan1_2000]

Just put my printed out and signed boarding doc's from the website onto my packing pile on the bed in the spare bedroom, along with some family photos that we will give to my mother when we see her on the cruise, and along with the Disney Rewards cards from my Disney Visa and DW's Disney Visa (two accounts because that got us an extra $25 bonus for her first use).

 

[ALDISNEYFAN]

I can not believe myself.. ask a question about seasickness and patches, then take this long to come back and check for answers. I am so sorry.
You guys are great though, I really appreciate the answers and offers of advice on side effects to watch for. Thank you!

I am ready to GO!!!!!!

 

[nursetink]

Thank you for the heads up on the construction. We too will probably going down 95, after leaving our friends house in Watkinsville, GA. So be sure to honk and wave if you see a silver Yukon XL with Arkansas tags!

 

[logan1_2000]

Have seen a couple threads and it appears that parasailing will not have a new vendor/operator at castaway cay by the time of our cruise, if ever, but it will be a WONDERful cruise anyway.

Mailing an extra copy of the Passporter Book to my mother who will be joining us, it will be her 1st Disney cruise after many, many, mostly on HAL or Celebrity.

 

[wehavesix]

I've started buying and stockpiling in earnest now. My grandson's portacrib has become the temporary home for an assortment of vacation stuff. I've just about got the kids' wardrobes up to snuff. I still have a few other things to buy and lots of stuff to gather but it'll happen in due time. Since we are going to WDW both before and after the cruise, I have several non cruise related things to do also. Every once in a while I have a momentary attack of panic that time is going to run out before I have everything ready. This is a really busy time at school what with end of the year programs to plan and carry out, paperwork to complete, registration for next year's pre-k classes, and cleaning/packing up my classroom. To top it off, I'm having some minor surgery next week. Still, I'm keeping my eye on the ultimate goal of a wonderful family vacation with lots of fun and some relaxation time too.

 

[Nik's Mom]

Yup, time is ticking away. We are down to 28 days (we arrive the day before the cruise)! I'm checking off items on my packing list!

 

[lenshanem]

I'm impressed! I'll probably be running around a few days before trying to buy all the stuff we need.