May 30, 2009 - Western Cruise Magic

[kcashner]

Oh I was thinking CHURCH choir (probably because Ruby is in church choir)

It is church choir. The kids are from 5 different high schools......
Being a church choir just makes it funnier....the kids all love the director. I think we'll draw the line at sending anything from Hell to the minister though

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

It is church choir. The kids are from 5 different high schools......

Oh.

Well don't give my dd any ideas- I think our choir director might faint if she received a postcard from "hell" LOL

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Sooo... who else is excited?
Our time is counting down quickly now! We're almost a month away from the cruise- anyone going to the parks beforehand probably already less than a month (like us!)
Ooh I better get cracking on getting some things done before we go! LOL

 

[CarolinaBlue]

Sooo... who else is excited?
Our time is counting down quickly now! We're almost a month away from the cruise- anyone going to the parks beforehand probably already less than a month (like us!)
Ooh I better get cracking on getting some things done before we go! LOL

Count me in as excited! I have so much stuff to do. We're heading down to the "world" in just one month and 4 days.

 

[poohmomof5]

Hi everyone,

My DH and I just decided to celebrate his 40th birthday with you guys on this cruise! He turns 40 on June 3rd!

This will be our first long trip without the kids!

This will be our 6th cruise, we have done the Eastern 2 times, one 3 night cruise, the Western and the Panama Canal this past August (Hi BIP, I see you will be on this cruise too!)

I am having a hard time knowing the kids won't be with us, but I am so excited to spend some quiet time with my husband!

 

[brucechase]

poohmomof5 - Welcome to our little cruise thread. You probably know more about what is going on that most of us. I have included your name in our big list of disboard cruisers. There is some infomation about excursions, hometowns, seating, etc. If you would like a copy, please PM me an email and I will send it to you.

 

[brucechase]

To all our FE group -

I have all the information except for Hmurry. She hasn't popped back in here since Jan so I'm not even sure they are still on our cruise. We can either leave her in the FE list (w/o a room number) or we can drop her name off. I will go ahead and send out the finalized name tag list for our FE group without Hmurry's number on it. If she pops back in, we will just have to pencil it in.

This is the final list of people on the exchange. I will send out an update if anyone else gets some pixie dust and upgraded rooms OR if there is a correction that I missed. I am now working on the ship map with all our room numbers highlighted. This should help plan out how to deliver the gifts. I will send that out later. Hopefully I have all the corrections in.

We don't have long!!!!!!!

 

[poohmomof5]

To all our FE group -

I have all the information except for Hmurry. She hasn't popped back in here since Jan so I'm not even sure they are still on our cruise. We can either leave her in the FE list (w/o a room number) or we can drop her name off. I will go ahead and send out the finalized name tag list for our FE group without Hmurry's number on it. If she pops back in, we will just have to pencil it in.

This is the final list of people on the exchange. I will send out an update if anyone else gets some pixie dust and upgraded rooms OR if there is a correction that I missed. I am now working on the ship map with all our room numbers highlighted. This should help plan out how to deliver the gifts. I will send that out later. Hopefully I have all the corrections in.

We don't have long!!!!!!!

Can we still get in? I would love to participate!

 

[kcashner]

Don't know if anyone has seen the link on the main boards...but there are scheduled to be 10,572 passengers in port on our Grand Cayman day (if all ships are full). This is about average. What it means is that if you have a NON-DCL excursion early in the morning, you will want to be sure to get a tender ticket as soon as they become available. Instructions for getting the tender tickets will be in your room the night before (the procedure changes from one cruise to another depending on the number of passengers in ALL ships tendering).

There is no cost for tender tickets, it is just a means of crowd control.

IF you have a DCL excursion, your tender ticket is taken care of for you as part of the excursion group.

If you do not have an early excursion, enjoy a leisurely breakfast and let the early birds stand in line. When the crowd has died down, they will announce "open tendering" which means that you no longer need a ticket to get on a tender--you just go to the appointed place and get on the next one.

The whole thing is down to a science--it goes very smoothly and quickly. The issue is that the tenders serve ALL the ships in port....so if the Magic is the only ship there, they might have a tender leaving every 10 minutes. WIth 4 ships scheduled, it will be more like every 15-30 minutes depending on when each of the ships arrive, etc. NO, other passengers don't use our tenders and we don't visit their boats...Tender 1 will go to DCL and back, tender 2 will go to Carnival and back, tender 3 will go to RCI and back, etc. However, if DCL is the first ship there, tender 1 will go to DCL. When it leaves for shore, tender 2 will start filling at DCL until Carnival arrives...Then it will unload DCL passengers on shore and go to Carnival....if this makes any sense at all. The system works better than my explanation!

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Don't know if anyone has seen the link on the main boards...but there are scheduled to be 10,572 passengers in port on our Grand Cayman day (if all ships are full). This is about average. What it means is that if you have a NON-DCL excursion early in the morning, you will want to be sure to get a tender ticket as soon as they become available. Instructions for getting the tender tickets will be in your room the night before (the procedure changes from one cruise to another depending on the number of passengers in ALL ships tendering).

Thank for this info! We have a non DCL excursion scheduled and this was very helpful to me.

Bruce - thanks for all your hard work, we really appreciate it.

Welcome poohmomof5!!!!!

 

[IndyDisneyFan]

Don't know if anyone has seen the link on the main boards...but there are scheduled to be 10,572 passengers in port on our Grand Cayman day (if all ships are full). This is about average. What it means is that if you have a NON-DCL excursion early in the morning, you will want to be sure to get a tender ticket as soon as they become available. Instructions for getting the tender tickets will be in your room the night before (the procedure changes from one cruise to another depending on the number of passengers in ALL ships tendering).

There is no cost for tender tickets, it is just a means of crowd control.

IF you have a DCL excursion, your tender ticket is taken care of for you as part of the excursion group.

If you do not have an early excursion, enjoy a leisurely breakfast and let the early birds stand in line. When the crowd has died down, they will announce "open tendering" which means that you no longer need a ticket to get on a tender--you just go to the appointed place and get on the next one.

The whole thing is down to a science--it goes very smoothly and quickly. The issue is that the tenders serve ALL the ships in port....so if the Magic is the only ship there, they might have a tender leaving every 10 minutes. WIth 4 ships scheduled, it will be more like every 15-30 minutes depending on when each of the ships arrive, etc. NO, other passengers don't use our tenders and we don't visit their boats...Tender 1 will go to DCL and back, tender 2 will go to Carnival and back, tender 3 will go to RCI and back, etc. However, if DCL is the first ship there, tender 1 will go to DCL. When it leaves for shore, tender 2 will start filling at DCL until Carnival arrives...Then it will unload DCL passengers on shore and go to Carnival....if this makes any sense at all. The system works better than my explanation!

You did a great job explaining it, and I could not have explained it better myself!

Laura

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Hi everyone,

My DH and I just decided to celebrate his 40th birthday with you guys on this cruise! He turns 40 on June 3rd!

This will be our first long trip without the kids!

This will be our 6th cruise, we have done the Eastern 2 times, one 3 night cruise, the Western and the Panama Canal this past August (Hi BIP, I see you will be on this cruise too!)

I am having a hard time knowing the kids won't be with us, but I am so excited to spend some quiet time with my husband!

Woohoo- welcome to this cruise!

Do you know what room you'll be in?
I'll be 40 this July- DH is already 42, my old man. HAHAHA
(Rita's birthday is in June also- but shortly after the cruise, not during. LOL)

Glad you're coming with us!!!!

Don't know if anyone has seen the link on the main boards...but there are scheduled to be 10,572 passengers in port on our Grand Cayman day (if all ships are full). This is about average. What it means is that if you have a NON-DCL excursion early in the morning, you will want to be sure to get a tender ticket as soon as they become available. Instructions for getting the tender tickets will be in your room the night before (the procedure changes from one cruise to another depending on the number of passengers in ALL ships tendering).

There is no cost for tender tickets, it is just a means of crowd control.

IF you have a DCL excursion, your tender ticket is taken care of for you as part of the excursion group.

If you do not have an early excursion, enjoy a leisurely breakfast and let the early birds stand in line. When the crowd has died down, they will announce "open tendering" which means that you no longer need a ticket to get on a tender--you just go to the appointed place and get on the next one.

The whole thing is down to a science--it goes very smoothly and quickly. The issue is that the tenders serve ALL the ships in port....so if the Magic is the only ship there, they might have a tender leaving every 10 minutes. WIth 4 ships scheduled, it will be more like every 15-30 minutes depending on when each of the ships arrive, etc. NO, other passengers don't use our tenders and we don't visit their boats...Tender 1 will go to DCL and back, tender 2 will go to Carnival and back, tender 3 will go to RCI and back, etc. However, if DCL is the first ship there, tender 1 will go to DCL. When it leaves for shore, tender 2 will start filling at DCL until Carnival arrives...Then it will unload DCL passengers on shore and go to Carnival....if this makes any sense at all. The system works better than my explanation!

Great info to have!
Do you have any "idea" of when open tendering usually happens? I'm just curious. we booked on our own in Grand Cayman and our excursion starts at 10:45am- obviously we need to get off the ship earlier than that but we get there at 7:30am- so do you think we'll need to get a ticket? or not?

 

[kcashner]

For a 10:45 with Captain Marvin, you are asked to arrive at their outlet at the shore by 10:15...don't know if your excursion is the same.

Assuming that the ship gets in at 7:30 and clears essentially instantly, the first tender will start by 8:00. My guess is that they'll be at open tendering no later than 9:30. Of course, that assumes that all goes normally--no medical emergencies, high seas that might prevent tendering, etc. Since we need to be there by 10:15, we'll be planning on a 9:45 tender. If they don't announce open tendering before that, we'll go to the appointed place (usually one of the theatres while on tickets, deck 1 after open tendering starts) about 9:30. When you go to the place, you'll need to have your whole party, appropriate ID, and anything you plan to take ashore (swimsuits, etc.)

If your NON-DCL excursion says 10:45, that means be at their spot on shore no later than that; most tour operators ask you to show up earlier than the scheduled tour. The stated time is "bus will leave" time.

 

[luvdmouse57]

What's the procedure for getting off the ship at Key West? DH & I really want to try to make it to mass there if at all possible. The itinerary that I have says that we can leave the ship @ 11:30 which gives us until noon to walk to the church.

Karla

 

[homespun]

Do you have any "idea" of when open tendering usually happens? I'm just curious. we booked on our own in Grand Cayman and our excursion starts at 10:45am- obviously we need to get off the ship earlier than that but we get there at 7:30am- so do you think we'll need to get a ticket? or not?

I'm thinking we might be clear to tender right away because our meet time for DCL excursion is 7:30 AM. I'm new at tendering and I'm guessing but with our early time they must be counting on everyone being there at 7:30 and leaving promptly.

Karen

 

[sebamt]

We have a non-DCL excursion with Nativeway that meets at 8:15 am. I was also skeptical about making this, but I was assured by the Nativeway people that I would have enough time to make this time if we take one of the first tenders out of the Magic.

Based on a recent navigator, tendering starts at 7:30 am. So, our plan is to get up really early, have breakfast at Topsiders, and go to the Buena Vista theater to get tickets by 7:15 am.

Here's a copy of the tendering instructions, in case you were wondering:

http://www.disney cruiser.info/m090124/w7d3p5.jpg

(remove the space between "disney" and "cruiser" for the link to work)

Sebastian

 

[sebamt]

I just checked on the DCL site and found that only Cat 6 is available. Could it be that our ship is that full already?

 

[poohmomof5]

Thank for this info! We have a non DCL excursion scheduled and this was very helpful to me.

Bruce - thanks for all your hard work, we really appreciate it.

Welcome poohmomof5!!!!!

Thanks! So, exactly how many kids do you have? Who is going on the cruise with you? I love the picture in your signature!

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Thanks! So, exactly how many kids do you have? Who is going on the cruise with you? I love the picture in your signature!

We have two daughters. They are twins and will be 12 in May. Only the 4 of us will be going on this cruise. The other people in my picture is my parents and my twin sister's family. We are the family on the right side when looking at the picture.

 

[poohmomof5]

We have two daughters. They are twins and will be 12 in May. Only the 4 of us will be going on this cruise. The other people in my picture is my parents and my twin sister's family. We are the family on the right side when looking at the picture.

That is awesome. It is a beautiful picture! Twins must run in your family!

Have a great weekend everyone!!!