May 30, 2009 - Western Cruise Magic

[klcason]

We'll I don't know if he was right or not, but he did look it up. I told him I was trying to book Palo ressies and wanted to know what my dining rotating would be. He said it would likely be as follows unless I requested otherwise:

LAAPLAP - 5:30 - for those with younger children
APPLAPL - 5:45 - for those with older children
PLLAPLA - 6:00 - for mostly adults

Again he said that most "likely" our dining time would be 5:45 and that our "likely" rotation would be APPLAPL unless I requested otherwise. I know this is different than shown in the Passporter too, so I don't know if they are making a change. It makes sense though when I look at the rotations since adults are more likely to appreciate Lumiere's and young children and more likely the appreciate Animator's Palate. I guess we won't know until we get our KTTW cards.

I'm curious if anyone else has called and if they've gotten the same information.

Karen

Well I for one are hoping for the 5:45, with a 7 and 9 year old I wonder if they will consider them younger or older??? Last year on the Wonder we had APPL and I would be fine with a similar rotation this trip.

It's a shame they don't give you some kind of info about that beforehand, sure would make things easier.

Kayla

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

I agree it sure would make it easier to know ahead of time! But you know they are probably just waiting in case things change and also if they told us now you now they'd have hundreds of people calling to get it changed now and they'd probably rather wait and deal with that on the ship? LOL

Well ADLLAPL for 6pm is what I wanted and the PLLAPLA is the same really. Maybe even better- because one of the L days would be when we're at Palo and people tend to dress better in Lumiere's no matter what day it is- for some reason... so avoiding another L day would be nice. (I mean with APLLAPL we'd be eating Palo on a Parrot Cay night, then have formal night in Lumiere's, then another Lumiere's night, then yet another Lumiere's night on the last night when I can't avoid it because topsiders isn't open. Yanno? LOL I just think that 6pm would work better for us. Having usually late dining- I think the earliest main seating would be quite a change for us- yanno?) With PLLAPLA that would be better because the first L day we'd be in palo instead, then the next is formal night, then the next is semi-formal nights.. so I wouldn't have to worry about not being "dressy" enough in Lumiere's on a non formal night. Yanno? So actually I hope what they told you is right- for 6pm. LOL

HOWEVER, I have to tell you that what they say isn't what really happens on the ship. I do not think they really are able to work the rotations that way with young children/older children/no children. maybe they'd LIKE to- but I don't think it ever works that way. Generally all main seatings have more children than late dining-- I do not think the latest main seating rotation is no children. I've never seen it work that way. the only thing I've witnessed is MAYBE the latest late dining rotation having less young children- but that's only because it's really late and probably not many people want to have their little ones at that time- but even then there are still some children. I can't imagine them really having 6pm rotation without children and then having children (I've seen as young as babies on both cruises) in the latest late dining. Doesn't make sense. Keep in mind that CM's give out incorrect info all the time and you can get various answers on things from different CM's everytime you call. I'm just saying don't "count" on it. Yanno? I am HOPING for 6pm rotation and if I don't get it- I'm HOPING they'll be able to change us once I get on board and ask... *pixie dust* LOL

I wonder if I'll call and get the same info as you or different. I might have to test this. LOL

 

[homespun]

I wonder if I'll call and get the same info as you or different. I might have to test this. LOL

I'd like to see too. Hope you call. Then if we get a different answer we'll know that it's hogwash. Otherwise, maybe we can count on it.

They didn't say no children for the later seating. He just said, mostly adults. But they accommodate requests too, so if you request, then hopefully you'll get the time and rotation you want.

 

[CarolinaBlue]

Hey, y'all! We just switched over to this cruise. We were originally booked for August (our 25th anniversary), but some things came up and we had to change dates. This looked like the best one, so here we are. This is our 2nd cruise. We were on the Wonder 4 day double-dip last May for our oldest dd's graduation gift. It's me, dh, dd(18), and dd(15). We're still celebrating our 25th (even though our actual anniversary is in August) and we're making this our family vacation as well. We may want to particpate in the FE if someone would be so kind as to explain the process to me. We're booked in a Cat.9 on deck 2. We haven't decided on excursions yet. I need to do that this week.

 

[liliagm]

We'll I don't know if he was right or not, but he did look it up. I told him I was trying to book Palo ressies and wanted to know what my dining rotating would be. He said it would likely be as follows unless I requested otherwise:

LAAPLAP - 5:30 - for those with younger children
APPLAPL - 5:45 - for those with older children
PLLAPLA - 6:00 - for mostly adults

Again he said that most "likely" our dining time would be 5:45 and that our "likely" rotation would be APPLAPL unless I requested otherwise. I know this is different than shown in the Passporter too, so I don't know if they are making a change. It makes sense though when I look at the rotations since adults are more likely to appreciate Lumiere's and young children and more likely the appreciate Animator's Palate. I guess we won't know until we get our KTTW cards.

I'm curious if anyone else has called and if they've gotten the same information.

Karen

well DD is 2 so we would end up on the 5:30 one and that is fine with us!! we have our dinner at Palo on day 4 (Grand cayman day) so we would "miss" Parrot cay and that is the one we like "less" so we are good!

 

[chccatfish]

Carolinablue,

We Look forward to meeting you and your family. Where are you staying? We are staying at the Radisson and taking the 10 am shuttle to the port. This is our 2nd cruise and you can read post #130 to see how I found out about this cruise. It was a huge surprise!! This trip for our family is going to be awesome. My husband, Bruce is in charge of the FE and he will get you information hopefully today. Again, WELCOME!

Carolyn

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Welcome Karen!!!!!!!

We decided to suprise the girls with a limo trip down to the Port, so we are going to stay at the Hyatt Regency at the Orlando Airport and take a limo down on the 30th.

 

[luvdmouse57]

Ok, is there anybody planning on dressing up for formal night? From what I've read there is only one family that will be dressing but not in a tux/evening gown. DH loves wearing his tux as long as he's not the only one wearing one. It's funny, but he'd rather wear his tux than his suit. I enjoy dressing up also but feel the same way. I don't wear evening gowns but the dresses I wear when he wears his tux are pretty dressy. I'd also like to dress up for some pictures.

Karla in Kansas

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

I'd like to see too. Hope you call. Then if we get a different answer we'll know that it's hogwash. Otherwise, maybe we can count on it.

They didn't say no children for the later seating. He just said, mostly adults. But they accommodate requests too, so if you request, then hopefully you'll get the time and rotation you want.

I called and they told me the rotation that is listed on the DIS faq page. Weird huh? Who knows what it will end up being- maybe they change it around all the time? Who knows. LOL

Hey, y'all! We just switched over to this cruise. We were originally booked for August (our 25th anniversary), but some things came up and we had to change dates. This looked like the best one, so here we are. This is our 2nd cruise. We were on the Wonder 4 day double-dip last May for our oldest dd's graduation gift. It's me, dh, dd(18), and dd(15). We're still celebrating our 25th (even though our actual anniversary is in August) and we're making this our family vacation as well. We may want to particpate in the FE if someone would be so kind as to explain the process to me. We're booked in a Cat.9 on deck 2. We haven't decided on excursions yet. I need to do that this week.

welcome!
Our eldest DD is 15.
We're celebrating our 19th anniversary on this trip.

Is this your first cruise? If not, hurry on those excursions as the booking for 90 days opened yesterday!

Ok, is there anybody planning on dressing up for formal night? From what I've read there is only one family that will be dressing but not in a tux/evening gown. DH loves wearing his tux as long as he's not the only one wearing one. It's funny, but he'd rather wear his tux than his suit. I enjoy dressing up also but feel the same way. I don't wear evening gowns but the dresses I wear when he wears his tux are pretty dressy. I'd also like to dress up for some pictures.

Karla in Kansas

Am I the one you are talking about or another one? LOL Cause we're not wearing tux/evening gown. We'll be dresses as "smart" as possible though.. if you know what I mean? Unless our plans change and we decide to skip formal night all together (definitely want semi-formal lobster though!) I'll be wearing a formal-ish (but not long evening gown) dress, girls in dresses, DH in white shirt/black tie/black pants/black dress shoes/belt... DS pretty much the same although his shirt may not be white (seems in the sizes he needs now they only carry COLORED shirts? What up with that? So I'm still on the search for a white shirt since all his dress shirts are getting too tight/short on him- my growing boy...)
No tux though..... I think you'll look fine in tux/gown! There will be other people on the ship that dress that way- this thread is only a few people that will be on the cruise. Go ahead and dress up as fancy as you like!

 

[CarolinaBlue]

Thanks for the warm welcome! We are probably going down a few days before the cruise so we can visit the parks for a day or two. If we do, we'll stay at one of the WDW resorts and then head over to the port that Saturday morning.

We actually just switched dates yesterday, so I still need to pay in full. I will probably be doing that this week so I can go ahead and book the excursions (as soon as we decide which ones). I'm leaning toward the Nautilus excursion at Grand Cayman and maybe a dolphin swim at Cozumel.

 

[loveysbydesign]

Hiya everyone....it's offical...we'll be joining all of you! anything I need to know about this group??? We canceled our 11-14 double dip to save money so we can still afford to go and All Seas got us a great deal1
It'll be me, dh, dd-10 y.o., dd 6 1/2 y.o and ds almost 2!

 

[loveysbydesign]

Here is a quick list of all the children I have and their ages sorted by youngest to oldest (up to 16). I know my kids are now ready to make some online friends to prepare for the cruise so they will at least know someone there.


If you don't see your name here and want it here, let me know. If you want it removed, let me know and I will edit it out.

liliagm - DD 2
MRS RMM - DD 4
Jennymouse - DGD 5
Bama4Disney - DS 5
klcason - DS 7
stlkeeler - DGD 7
sebamt - DD 7
Bama4Disney - DS 8
klcason - DD 9
Biddyidybobbidyboo - DD 9
brucechase - DD 10
pclair - DD 10
Family#1 - DS 10
Suzepoo - DS 11
Biddyidybobbidyboo - DS 11.5
brucechase - DD 12
PoohFriend#1 - DD 12
PoohFriend#1 - DD 12
pooh.kim - DD 12
Family#1 - DS 13
Family#2 - DS 13
Paula13 - DD 13
Paula13 - DDF 13
Bamabornnemonut - DS 13
Homespun - DS 14
Jennymouse - DGD 14
Family#2 - DD 14
mmmagic7754 - DS 15
Bamabornnemonut - DD 15
Biddyidybobbidyboo - DD 15
auntlynne - DN 16


I'll send out the first draft of the FE list before the weekend is out. Right now there are 10 families with a total of 36 people. If I missed anyone, let me know. If you are still interested, there is plenty of time to join the FE club. Here are the families:

Suzepoo
brucechase
PoohFriend#1
Homespun
liliagm
Biddyidybobbidyboo
Bamabornnemonut
Hmurry
stlkeeler
pooh.kim

I think we'd like to join in too for our 1st cruise!! I just need to know how much is usually spent for the FE and what sorts of things people do before I commit

 

[loveysbydesign]

Ohh..my kids ages will be...
DS-10 y.o.
DD- 6 1/2 y.o.
DS- almost 2 y.o.
...for the cruise!

 

[homespun]

I called and they told me the rotation that is listed on the DIS faq page. Weird huh? Who knows what it will end up being- maybe they change it around all the time? Who knows. LOL

Weird for sure. Either way we're fine with our Palo dinner since it's on formal night. Thanks for checking -- go figure. Disney likes to keep us guessing, that's for sure.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Glad you made it over loveysbydesign- and glad you were able to get the cruise at the price you wanted! They always come thru for me...... so I'm not surprised they did for you too.

I answered your PM about the FE but I'm sure others will answer too. There is no price range too small or too high- but I think everyone is not going to spend a fortune on the gifts. Some might even be homemade- maybe not on this cruise but some have done that in the past! LOL I'm thinking basically things like you would consider party favors- but disney themed party favors? Anything kids would like- disney pencils, disney trinkets- on the last cruise I also added pirate rings I got on orientaltrading- those were a big hit (I had extra and passed them out to kids during the pirates deck party- and they were all happy and surprised! LOL I definitely don't look like a CM so they knew I was just some random stranger passing them out LOL) -I had kids asking me for them once they saw me giving them away to other kids. LOL Anything really is fine- no one is saying you have to spend a lot of money on it. I know you're doing a budget trip- and so are we! It's just a fun little thing that the kids really enjoy.

(sometimes I even stick stuff in our own FE for our kids- cause it makes them happy to go back to the room to see what they might get in there! LOL)

Let's see... to know about our group? Well I think everything is here if you have time sometime to browse the thread. It looks like some of us may be atleast "walking over" to the trolley tour in Key West and quite a few people have booked Palo on formal night... (except us- it worked better for us on Key West night since we'll miss main dining seating since we're at that port longer and DH is diving that day and will be off the ship at dinner time!) but other than that I can't think of anything else that's "group related" besides the FE. Someone correct me if I'm wrong?

Unfortunately none of our kids match up in age but you can tell on that list there are others I think? our kiddos at the time of the cruise will be DD8, DS11, DD15. (our youngest doesn't turn 9 until after the cruise. It hasn't been corrected on the list yet but I suppose it really doesn't matter- 8/9 would be in the same place-lab- anyway LOL)
Wow- looking at that list now it does look like atleast the DIS'ers that have signed up for the FE are primarily older kids! Most of them are lab age or older. Interesting. I just noticed that and that's going to mean I need to change some of my plans for the FE. It's easier for the littler kids.

 

[homespun]

I'm leaning toward the Nautilus excursion at Grand Cayman and maybe a dolphin swim at Cozumel.

To one Karen from another

We're doing the same thing. We're doing the semi sub with the snorkeling in GC and we booked the dolphin swim on our own in Cozumel.

If you're going to book on your own, click on the chat with a reservationist--it paid off for me as I was offered a discount for booking that way (close to what they give groups). Maybe it will save you $ too, unless you're going through Disney.

Looking forward to cruising with you.

Karen

 

[mmmagic7754]

Hey, y'all! We just switched over to this cruise. We were originally booked for August (our 25th anniversary), but some things came up and we had to change dates. This looked like the best one, so here we are. This is our 2nd cruise. We were on the Wonder 4 day double-dip last May for our oldest dd's graduation gift. It's me, dh, dd(18), and dd(15). We're still celebrating our 25th (even though our actual anniversary is in August) and we're making this our family vacation as well. We may want to particpate in the FE if someone would be so kind as to explain the process to me. We're booked in a Cat.9 on deck 2. We haven't decided on excursions yet. I need to do that this week.

Welcome CarolinaBlue! I think we were on the same cruise last year.I remember your name from the May 24-29 thread.If your DD spent any time in Aloft then I'm sure my now DS15 will remember her. I know he did the banana boat on CC with several of the other teens.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Here is a quick list of all the children I have and their ages sorted by youngest to oldest (up to 16). I know my kids are now ready to make some online friends to prepare for the cruise so they will at least know someone there.


If you don't see your name here and want it here, let me know. If you want it removed, let me know and I will edit it out.

liliagm - DD 2
MRS RMM - DD 4
Jennymouse - DGD 5
Bama4Disney - DS 5
klcason - DS 7
stlkeeler - DGD 7
sebamt - DD 7
Bama4Disney - DS 8
klcason - DD 9
Biddyidybobbidyboo - DD 9
brucechase - DD 10
pclair - DD 10
Family#1 - DS 10
Suzepoo - DS 11
Biddyidybobbidyboo - DS 11.5
brucechase - DD 12
PoohFriend#1 - DD 12
PoohFriend#1 - DD 12
pooh.kim - DD 12
Family#1 - DS 13
Family#2 - DS 13
Paula13 - DD 13
Paula13 - DDF 13
Bamabornnemonut - DS 13
Homespun - DS 14
Jennymouse - DGD 14
Family#2 - DD 14
mmmagic7754 - DS 15
Bamabornnemonut - DD 15
Biddyidybobbidyboo - DD 15
auntlynne - DN 16


I'll send out the first draft of the FE list before the weekend is out. Right now there are 10 families with a total of 36 people. If I missed anyone, let me know. If you are still interested, there is plenty of time to join the FE club. Here are the families:

Suzepoo
brucechase
PoohFriend#1
Homespun
liliagm
Biddyidybobbidyboo
Bamabornnemonut
Hmurry
stlkeeler
pooh.kim

I know it's been awhile but when someone else posted this tonight I just noticed my name is spelled really wrong. LOL That's not me! who is that biddyidybobidyboo? hehe

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Looks like we have a good range of ages for the kids. I kind of wish I wasn't suprising my girls 2 weeks before the cruise so they could email some of the other kids, but maybe they can hit it off with someone 2 weeks before the cruise by emailing!

 

[loveysbydesign]

We are planning to fly in Thurs. so we can take the kids to AK on Fri(we have non-expiring tix with 3 days left on them) Anyway I need to find a cheap, nice place to stay on Thurs. night near WDW and then I guess book near the port to be able to park our rental car for free. Just wondering if any of you are staying overnight near the port and if so where at & for what price?? Thanks!!!!