May 28, 2005 Mexican Riviera

[grammiegail]

Good Morning Everyone,
Grammie, What is the word about Pirate Night? Has Disney said one way or the other whether Pirate Night is on this cruise?

Poconoboatniks

UHHHHH, don't know, but will add it to the daily call and questions!!!! I'll let you know later.

 

[grammiegail]

Thanks Rebecca... nice to know that I won't be the only one with a green face out there.. I also plan to get patches, writs bands and dramamine... and anything else I can get over the counter.

OH, OH, I forgot.....also good antiemetics/stomach pacifiers - ginger (try pickled or candied ginger) and peppermint (tea or liquid drops or gum or candies).

 

[suesings]

Hi,
I've added the additions. Poconoboatniks, I've added you and your family but you didn't list your names?

Carriep1657 -- W (Carrie), H (Mark) , D-7 (Mattie), S-4 (Sammy)
Rocknty -- W (Jen), H (Ty), S-5 (Zachary)
Suesings -- W (Sue), H (Mark), D-5 (Kelly), D-21mo (Ava)
Wccruiser -- W (Margaret), H (David) D-5 (Grace)
Madison'sMom – W (Jodi), H (name?), D-5 (Madison) GP, GM
Jedisan -- W (Lara), H (Blake), D-10 (Sarah), D-6 (Katie)
Challada -- W (Chris), S-10 (Alex), D-5 (Emily), GM (Gail) GP (Bob)
Rccllap -- W (Rebecca), S-5 (Sam), GM (Helen Marie)
Wmjivey -- W (Gail), H (John), S-11 (Tyler), S-9 (Tobey)
Poconoboatniks -- W (name?), H (name?), D-10 (name?), S-7 (name?)
Ssnyder -- W (Susie), H (Curt)

I'll try to bump this list every now and then so we can all find it

 

[grammiegail]

Regarding what to pack, GrammieGail made up an excellent packing list.

OK, OK, so it look's like Grammiegail all the time 'cus there are probably a million responses from me in a row....but, I've finally got a minute to DIS. Jedisan, I thank you for the kudos, but all I did was summarize stuff on other DIS boards. What can I say? I'm AR, maried to an AR with an AR kid....... Also, rccllap has a really nice list if you PM her (him/them????).

 

[rocknty]

We picked these three:

Puerto Vallarta - Las Caletas Hideaway
Mazatlan - Stone Island Tour
Cabo - Cabo Resort Pool Getaway

I am looking forward to hearing the reviews from the repositioning cruise folks. If anything gets a horrible review I can still cancel excursions as late as Wed May 25th.

DW and I are also thinking over leaving DS5 on the ship on ship and have one day of child free adventure. I have a GSM cell phone so it should work fine in Mexico. We will decide that after we see how he adapts to the club and the how he is on the first excursion.

 

[rccllap]

Rocknty--I might not be going ashore every day we have the chance; your son is MORE than welcome to hang out with me and Sam if you are comfortable with that as an idea, if he doesn't want to stay in the kid's program all day while you're off the ship. Just an offer! Maybe Carrie's Sammy will want to have a play date too (I have taught at daycare/summer camps and while I probably couldn't handle a big group, two or three four/five-year-olds can be a lot of fun.)

On the parking issue, my Grandmother lives in San Bernardino and we are having a shuttle service bring us all the way to the ship. It's more economical plus no paying for parking. Anyone who can, I'd recommend this as an option. The shuttle busses seat quite a few people too in air conditioned comfort!

peace--
Rebecca

 

[first timers]

Sea Sickness

My DW has used Bonine with good success. It's a once a day tablet, but can make you a bit drowsy. She takes her dose before bedtime so the peak of drowsiness occurs at night while she sleeps. As large a ship as the Magic is and with the stablizers that are used most of the time we are at sea, overall the Magic is not too bad for rocking and rolling.

Art of Entertaining
This series demonstrates how to make the dishes featured each day and has samples of both food and wine for everyone. Alex

 

[ssnyder]

Our herd will be in staterooms # 6101, 6103, 6105, 6107, and 8078... Anyone near us?

We're VERY close - room 6092.

 

[ssnyder]

... we tend to be a loud happy bunch ...

OK now you are making me a little nervous - how loud? This has given me another idea. Maybe I'll run back to Home Depot and pick up another color Mickey Head to use for when we're napping and would like a little quiet.

 

[sandysplayhouse]

OK now you are making me a little nervous - how loud? This has given me another idea. Maybe I'll run back to Home Depot and pick up another color Mickey Head to use for when we're napping and would like a little quiet.

ssnyder:
Glad to know you will be so close... and we really aren't too bad... but we are loud like the family in "How to lose a guy in 10 days" when they are playing the Bull S++t card game. And I think most of our loud hang out times will be in the 8078 room... so not to worry about your nap time. And is there a special Mickey Head color for naps?

First timers:
Thanks for the Bonine tip.. I will definately give it a try.

rccllap:
Which shuttle service are you using and what is the cost... I checked with a limo service and it was $350 for the 91 miles one way from Oceanside... and they thought we may need 2 limo SUVs because of luggage... ergo $700... definately not worth it. I would appreciate any recommendation to a cheaper service if you have it.

 

[grammiegail]

Originally Posted by poconoboatniks
Good Morning Everyone,
Grammie, What is the word about Pirate Night? Has Disney said one way or the other whether Pirate Night is on this cruise?

Poconoboatniks

UHHHHH, don't know, but will add it to the daily call and questions!!!! I'll let you know later.

OK, today's call netted no dolphin swim slots and vague information about the Pirate Night. Jill said that there is typically a Pirate Night, so she said that it is likely.....but, she also said that DCL liked to surprise folks so she could not say for sure that there would be a Pirate Night or if it would be replaced by something else. She did say that with 3 days at sea they would have to do something to entertain us. So......

 

[rccllap]

Sandy, my AAA agent had the shuttle service on her favorites list when we made the bookings, so I'll have to ask her Monday. I always enjoy speaking with her and was planning to go in soon on other business, so I'll post the info here when I get it from Nancy.

peace-
Rebecca

 

[G.G.G.]

Since everyone is running Home Depot out of Alien Green Mickey paint samples (and don't think they aren't wondering at headquarters why they have to restock paint sample but haven't sold a single quart of Alien Green paint) a pre or post cruise meeting & greeting suggestions is that Target has these very light almost Alien Green non descriptive hats for $2.99. I'm assuming all Targets have them. So for a slight investment of $2.99 + tax per head, we can find each other before, during or after the cruise. (If you five fingered an adequate supply of Home Depot samples, you can stick them all over the hat to make it even more obvious what social group you belong to). I plan to acquire enough of them this weekend to cover the heads of our fellowship-of-the-cruise.

And before you post an argument, challada and grammiegail, don’t. If I got to get dressed up in a penguin suit for a stupid formal dinner, you can wear my lime green hat. PS. I’ll take it all back if we are the only fools in lime green hats on Friday in the Grand Californian at 3pm.

 

[challada]

Hi Dad...are they soft hats or baseball cap types? If they are soft, I can probably hoop them and do something cool on them, but I can't on bball hats.

Sandy- have you thought about a oneway car rental for that trip to the port? Rent a big van, get yourself there and leave it at the rental places' closest lot.

 

[sandysplayhouse]

Challada... I was trying to start my vacation early by getting out of driving... as we stand, we are driving up in a GMC Yukon XL Denali which seats 8 and a Chevy Astro Mini Van with the back benchs removed for the luggage. We should all fit nicely... the more I throw this idea around, the more I think that we will have to drive ourselves... The parking fee isn't unreasonable, I'm just being lazy about driving up early that morning... and I am the designated driver as my husband gets road rage when ever ANYone else is on the road... he grew up in rual Lousiana... before signal lights and traffic jams. He'd die if he knew I said that!

GGG... I'll look for those green hats at my Target tomorrow... I find them, we will wear them. Are they caps or hats? What department?

 

[G.G.G.]

The Target hats are baseball caps. So I don't know if you do anything with them on your machine. I'm going to see if I can find someplace that can put something on a baseball cap.

PS Cousin Rudy confirmed and he’ll join us Thu & Fri. before the cruise at DL. Can probably be convinced to wear a lime green baseball cap.

 

[wmjivey]

3 pm at the Grand Californian sounds good for us. We are usually in the area by 2, if we leave by 8 that morning.

Will also try to find the lime green bball caps at Target. GGG-which department did you find them in?

Grammigail - thanks for the updates from DCL.

Is anyone going on the Pirate Sail & Snorkel in PV? What about sportfishing in Cabo?

 

[sandysplayhouse]

DH Joe wants to know if there is Bingo on board and can you win $$$ or prizes? I want to know if there are casino like games on board... slots/roulette?

 

[G.G.G.]

I'm not sure what department they are in. In the Target I went to it was behind the cash registers. So if you stood in a line, they would be behind you. But since Taget has 3 miles of checkout counteres, they probably cover 6 departments. I'm heading out in a few minutes, and will ask what department they are in once I buy them and will let you know.

 

[Moley]

DH Joe wants to know if there is Bingo on board and can you win $$$ or prizes? I want to know if there are casino like games on board... slots/roulette?

I love Bingo! Last year on our first cruise, we didn't miss a session. Luckily with winning over $300 we came out ahead. There is a game at least once a day and sometimes twice a day on sea days. The callers are so much fun, they are worth the entertainment. The jackpots for the last game coverall snowball each day if it is not 'covered' before the set number of calls allowed. I won a coverall but not in the alloted calls to win the snowball jackpot.

When the snowball lasts to the very last game on Thursday, which it almost always does, the jackpots are in the thousands. This is when they move the game from the usual location of one of the lounges, to the Walt Disney Theater. As you can well imagine when the jackpot is $5000 or more, nearly everyone on board is playing in that last game. It was fun to watch a young mother from Pittsburgh win it all last year. I bet she won't ever forget that Mother's Day week ever.

Disney has no casino onboard. They've taken the traditional midship casino space on other liners and used it for kids' clubs. That's why the Oceaneers Club is the envy of the industry.

The only gambling available is through the bingo games. Good luck when you go!