May 28, 2005 Mexican Riviera

[suesings]

Oh I am SO glad that everybody heard about the new Disneycruise site that lets you register for everything. I had read a thread last night around 11 PM and went out and registered for everything. I was on there until 12:30!! This is so exciting and takes so much stress off getting to the port early, waiting in line, rushing around the boat, etc. Now we can make our way over to the port, have lunch meet everybody at the pool with no stress (hopefully!!!!!) I could barely sleep last night I was so excited. I booked through Costco Travel so I thought my reservation # wouldn't work, but it did!!!

We signed up for Palo's dinner on Wednesday at 6:30, Palo's Brunch on Monday at 11:30 (and I was able to get Ava into Flounder's Reef for both of them!!). We also signed up for the Paradise Beach in Puerto Vallarta at 12:40, & Stone Island Beach Adventure in Mazatlan at 9:30 AM. It let me sign Ava up for 10 hours total of daycare. I was so stressed about being able to get a Palo's reservation that matched with daycare because I had heard that Flounder's Reef was so hard to get in. I even bought walkie-talkies for Mark and me so when we rushed onto the boat, one could go one way and the other the other way and then call each other to see if we could match up a reservation. NOW WE DON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT ANY OF THAT!!! We decided to sign Ava up for a couple hours each day on sea days so we could try out some of the adult areas (coffee shop, pool). Woo-hoo, this is so exciting. CAN YOU TELL I'M EXCITED NOW!!!! Maybe I'll even have to bring another bottle of Champagne just to celebrate this new site taking much of my stress away 3 weeks before the trip!!

Margaret, I think we are on the same Deck 5. This is close to the clubs so I think it will be a great location!!!
HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN......

 

[JPFAMILY]

Does anyone know anything about rooms that have the solid white wall verandah? I just got my travel info today and we have room 5148. We booked a cat 8 deluxe oceanview statesroom. Does this mean we have no view?

Thanks for the info on making reservations on the website. I booked Palo, a spa treatment and a night in the nursery for my son - yeah!

 

[wccruiser]

Sue- What cabin number do you have if you don't mind me asking? I love the location of ours...I just hope it is not a mistake, as Jenner (on our list below) has the same cabin number..I'm hoping she got upgraded. I too, was up past midnight last night...got brunch res for Mon at 1030am and Palo for Wed at 730pm. Strange how similar things are with us! It is such a relief to have all this done ahead of time!!

 

[wccruiser]

Does anyone know anything about rooms that have the solid white wall verandah? I just got my travel info today and we have room 5148. We booked a cat 8 deluxe oceanview statesroom. Does this mean we have no view?

Thanks for the info on making reservations on the website. I booked Palo, a spa treatment and a night in the nursery for my son - yeah!

Actually, looks like you have been upgraded to a CAT 6!!! a solid white wall verandah is a room with a balcony, so you will definitely have a view..not to mention an ocean breeze!!! Congratulations!!!

 

[janner]

Well, it's about time I came back to bring the thread up to date. Earlier this spring DP Maddy and I made the difficult decision not to go on the inaugural West Coast cruise. Our cruise fund was needed elsewhere. As a consolation prize, we are making a four-day trip to DL/CA in a couple of weeks, so we will still be getting a big dose of Disney. We splurged by using DVC points to stay at the Grand Californian Hotel.
We'll be thinking of all of you, and we hope to enjoy the trip vicariously by reading your trip reports when you get back.
We are heartened to learn that "our" cabin, #5124, will be home to a fellow DISer (wccruiser).
Bon Voyage!
Janet and Maddy

 

[JPFAMILY]

Actually, looks like you have been upgraded to a CAT 6!!! a solid white wall verandah is a room with a balcony, so you will definitely have a view..not to mention an ocean breeze!!! Congratulations!!!

This is great. I saw the * by the room number which indicated it had a "white wall viranda", which I thought meant a balcony, but wasn't sure about the white wall. After reading posts in other threads I found out it meant instead of a see through half wall, it was a white wall. Which only means we can't sit in a chair and see the ocean, we have to stand, which is no big deal.

 

[528 Cruiser]

Are the kids meeting at 2:00 or 2:30 at Scoops on the first day? Also, I assume the rest of the group will meet at 3:00 at Scoops. Can someone confirm this? Sorry, I just didn't have time to go back and re-read all the pages where this was discussed and finalized. Thanks.

 

[suesings]

Hi everyone,

Margaret - we are in Cabin 5524 (it has a Secret Porthole - although from the pictures it is VERY ubstructed but I am just happy to have some light). We are by the elevators on the front of Deck 5 and you are by the elevators in the back of Deck 5. You are right down the hall from JPFamily it looks like!! I'd love to see your balcony sometime on the cruise!

Oh, I booked us a room the night before at the Coast Hotel. I asked for a Bay view room so I am hoping that we can see the ship come into port!! What time does everyone think it will get there? We booked the park and fly and it has breakfast so now that we don't have to be in such a hurry to get onboard and book everything we can relax and enjoy our breakfast!!

 

[suesings]

Hi,
The young kids are meeting at the pool at 2:00 PM.

Then at 3:00 people are meeting at Scoops (I believe?)

 

[ssnyder]

Hi,
Then at 3:00 people are meeting at Scoops (I believe?)

It sounds like some people will be still hanging out at Scoops, since it is at the Mickey Pool. Maybe that should at least be our first stop. If it is getting too congested, we can always move to a new location and the people that are hanging around the Mickey Pool can let the stragglers know where we are headed. Does that sound like a workable plan?

Thanks for the heads up on the Palo reservations. My TA thanks you too. He called Disney yesterday and asked about this and they told him it wasn't available for our cruise. When I told him it was, he managed to do our reservations online and then called them back and asked them why they told him it wasn't available. Apparently Disney is worried that too many people will hit the site at the same time so they wanted us to find it "on our own". For some reason I can't get my reservations myself. I tried, but it tells me to contact my TA. Now it looks like I need to get back in touch with him and ask for Brunch and High Tea reservations.

 

[grammiegail]

We've been watching the DL festivities on Good Morning America and are so jeolous. We wish we could be there today. Enjoy the fireworks! Grammie you are not alone. I get teary eyed when I hear the Magic's horn and watch the vacation planning DVD.

Had to about you writing and watching the Good Morning America stuff about Disneyland. So am I! I had to leave before it started so I recorded it! How sick is that??????

 

[wccruiser]

Hi everyone,

Margaret - we are in Cabin 5524 (it has a Secret Porthole - although from the pictures it is VERY ubstructed but I am just happy to have some light). We are by the elevators on the front of Deck 5 and you are by the elevators in the back of Deck 5. You are right down the hall from JPFamily it looks like!! I'd love to see your balcony sometime on the cruise!


Sue- Will have you come by for a glass of champagne on the balcony, definitely! That's great that you scored a secret porthole room. If you like it dark when you sleep, now you'll have to include clothespins on that packing list! My husband thinks I'm crazy for packing so far in advance (I started 3 weeks ago! ). I know what you mean about Ava "unpacking" anything you might pack in advance. Grace used to do the same thing. I have my suitcases open on our guest room bed and I keep the door shut when I'm not in there packing so the dogs don't slobber all over our stuff!
I don't know if I am going to make the 10pm pirate deck party (I would love to though), but we'll see how Grace is doing with the time frame. She is usually in bed and asleep by 8pm! We will wear our pirate gear to dinner though, just to get into the spirit!

 

[CSNYDER]

Anyone here practice martial arts at all that might like to get together a few times to practice together?

Definitely! I'm gearing up for a test, need to work on a lot of things. Contact me at csnyder@ligand.com and we can prep...

 

[EnchantedPlayroom]

Okay, the shake down of yesterday at the parks...

My party arrived at close to 5 am. We decided to eat breakfast at IHOP, which is located DIRECTLY across the street from Disneyland. My friend Shellee and I seemed the most anxious to get into the park. Especially when we noticed that at 5:00, people were walking across the street to go stand in line. So, we decided that our waiter took far too long to bring our Dr. Pepper and coffee and was jeopardizing our "get in line early" ploy, so Shellee and I decided that "we can eat tomorrow!" and got to-go cups for our drinks, told my brother to park my car for me in the Disney parking, and started bookin' it across the street. (The rest of our party of 12 had breakfast at IHOP). When we got there, there were a few hundred people in front of us. Nothing too scary though. And this was just the line to get through the security bag check. So, when they opened that up, everyone made a mad dash to stand in line at the gate. Shellee and I got a great spot. But we still had a 90 minute wait. We never expected to let our party cut to the front of the line with us, there were just far too many of us, and I don't like that sort of thing. BUT, the small party of 3 that was standing in front of us...grew to 5...then 8....then about 10. I mean, these people just kept coming and coming. What was a single file line in front of us quickly turned into a blob of people. So, when our party finally did show up we told them to just come on down because that seemed to be the way things were going around here. Luckily, they were only in line for about 3 minutes, when the empty space next to us was turned into a new line. So half of our line jumped over there, and we ended up getting even closer to the gate. (Please don't hate me).
As opening time got closer, people started walking by the inside of the gate. The first of which, was Michael Eisner! Which I know some people have issues with for some reason or another, but I absolutely adore him. So I was very excited. Next came Mickey and Minnie, which was the highlight of the day for the 18 month old in our group. (Too cute!) Then came the Disneyland band, playing the Mickey Mouse Club march. Which EVERYONE started singing along to. So, after the gates opened, everyone FLEW down Main Street to get to the front of the Castle, which was unfortunately blocked off in every way possible, by media tents, tv crews and special Golden folding chairs, reserved for special guests. As we were waiting for the festivities to begin, it started to sprinkle. You would have though a storm had hit with the number of umbrellas that went up. People immediately, became insane. Because as bad as our view was in the first place, now there were umbrellas added to the optical challenge of seeing the stage. And honestly, it wasn't "raining"...yet. That came around parade time. D'oh! Guests in the back were about to go tear the umbrella people apart. FINALLY the sprinkles stopped and the umbrellas went down.

During the festivities, we heard from the President of Disneyland, Michael Eisner (who was greeted with cheers and BOO's...inappropriate I thought), Leann Rimes sang, Christina Aguilara sang "When you wish upon a star", ART LINKLETTER CAME OUT (who was a co-host at the opening day of Disneyland) and was celebrating his 70th wedding anniversary! Holy cow! Julie Andrews came out and said a few words and then fireworks went off from the castle and all the characters came out. Being the tallest person in my party, I was the only one would could see the tops of the heads of everyone. We only got glimpses of Julie, Art, Michael, Leann and Christina as they walked to the center of the stage for the cameras. Then they were out of sight.

A GREAT day to be at DCA. We walked over there and rode about everything in the park! The loooongest line was 25 minutes for "Tower of Terror". We went back to DL at 5pm, to sit down for the 9:25 fireworks. The new parade passed by at 7:45. Great view. GREAT parade, Very cute. When the fireworks started, I was a little disappointed because even though there were scads of people sitting behind us (we got great bench seats at the bottom of the train station steps and there were tons of people sitting on the steps) people came and stood right in front of everyone. So, people who had been there forever, could no longer see the castle. But, what we did see...was spectacular! Wonderful. I almost died when they played parts of Walt's opening day speech. And lemme tell ya, the nostalgia didn't end there. The fireworks were quite long, worth every minute of waiting. They played selections from attractions, old and new, from all around the park. They play snippets of Country Bears, Tiki Room, Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Captain EO, Star Tours, Indiana Jones, THE ELECTRIC PARADE!!!...the list goes on and on. Oh God I cried. It was incredible. 3 HUGE fireworks formed a perfect Mickey head.They had fireworks in the shapes of hearts, happy faces and 3-D CUBES! And TINKERBELL! OH MY GOD! GrammieGail...you'll loose it! Tinkerbell is brighter than ever. She almost glows. And she flies twice during the fireworks! And not just quickly by the castle. She flies back and forth and up and down. Almost circling the castle! She was magnificent. Walt would have been so proud! The fireworks last night were exactly what he would have wanted. Just absolutely breath taking. Just tremendous!

 

[challada]

Thank you Sue for letting us know we can book online...kids booking is done, Palo is done and I think mom was doing her spa stuff last night...no running when we board..YEA!


Okie dokie, hidden mickey time!

Hidden Mickey #6: While you are getting pampered, or at least waiting to, better check out those coconuts on the sofa..WOW!

 

[challada]

Oh, Brandy, I'm so jealous that you got to go yesterday (but I am happy for you)!
How crowded was DL park during the day?
Did they have the picture collages up?
THANKS
Chris

 

[EnchantedPlayroom]

YES they had the picture collages up. They are incredible. They have some at DL and some at DCA. They are pictures of Buzz, Malificent as the dragon, Mickey, Sleeping Beauty, Monsters Inc. All kinds of stuff. Some of them are very high up so it would be difficult to see all the pictures that they're made of. DL's Main Street was a mad house. But, we did not venture any farther into the park than that, other than to go eat at Pizza Port immediately after the Castle ceremonies. After 30 seconds in line for Pizza Port, the line behind us stretched to the Star Trader shop. We spent all "day" at DCA. We had seen most of the stuff in the DL park a few days before, so we just wanted to be in there for the parade and fireworks. So from 5-9:45pm we were sitting on a bench on Main Street.

 

[Jedisan]

Brancy,

Than you so much for the wonderful recap of yesterday's event. I am looking forward to going with the girls and checking out the new fireworks show. I'll be sure to bring the Kleenex.

 

[grammiegail]

They played selections from attractions, old and new, from all around the park. They play snippets of Country Bears, Tiki Room, Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Captain EO, Star Tours, Indiana Jones, THE ELECTRIC PARADE!!!...the list goes on and on. Oh God I cried. It was incredible. 3 HUGE fireworks formed a perfect Mickey head.They had fireworks in the shapes of hearts, happy faces and 3-D CUBES! And TINKERBELL! OH MY GOD! GrammieGail...you'll loose it! Tinkerbell is brighter than ever. She almost glows. And she flies twice during the fireworks! And not just quickly by the castle. She flies back and forth and up and down. Almost circling the castle! She was magnificent. Walt would have been so proud! The fireworks last night were exactly what he would have wanted. Just absolutely breath taking. Just tremendous!

Oh, yeah! Grammiegail is going to lose it! I lost it just ready your description!!! I think we may have been separated at birth (well, except that I'm way older than you!) But, I think I see another link between us. You capitalized THE ELECTRIC PARADE!!!! Oh, my gosh! That is absolutely my favorite! Once, during my daily call to DCL to see if there are dolphin swim cancelations, I asked to be put back on hold because the parade music had just started.

THANKS for the report of the anniversary! I can't wait!

 

[poconoboatniks]

I'm not sure how much of this I can handle. I'm choking up about the cruise and now the DL trip. I'm going to be exhausted before the trip starts. I think I'm glad the kids don't know about this trip. They wouldn't be able to sleep for the rest of the month.

Enchanted, Are they going to have the same fireworks and hoopla all year? Kate loves Tinkerbell!!!!!!!!!! She was too young for her to remember when she saw Tink fly in WDW. How was the new Buzz ride? Brett is a huge Buzz Lightyear fan. He and I always ride together in WDW. We like to see who will get the highest score.


Poconoboatniks