May 5th 2007 Western Magic CINCO DIS MAYO!

[OurDogCisco]

Ok....I'm starting this because I didn't find another thread. I just switched from 4/21/2007 cruise to this one since they just added this week and it's our 25th anniv. week and my DH birthday week! Can't wait to go!

Debbie, I think my best friend is going on this cruise. I'll have to ask her.

Tina

 

[pppiglet]

Debbie, I think my best friend is going on this cruise. I'll have to ask her.

Tina

Hey....that would be great!

 

[gallafamily]

Just wanted to say that we have officially booked this trip!! It will be myself, DH & 3 DS's-ages 11,4,& 1-(these are ages @ time of cruise). We are so excited! This is going to be our 4th cruise, but our 1st time on the Magic. We have done the 4 night all the other times, & had a 7 nighter booked for this past may, but we had a special delivery, so we had to cancel (note the age of our last child)!

Happy to be joining everyone on this cruise!

 

[LibraryGoddess]

Hello, Gallafamily. This is our family's first cruise, and I've been asking the veterans on these boards for some advice.

My next question concerns dinner attire. There is a formal and a semi-formal dinner on the 7-night cruises. Do most people get dressed up? I don't mind dressing up, but my guys don't want to wear suits. The best I'm going to get will be collared shirts and khakis.

 

[gallafamily]

I don't know much about the 7 night cruises, as this is my first. However, in the research I have done, I would say that alot of people do dress up, & don't take too kindly to people who come to the dinner not dressed up. They seem to feel that if you aren't going to participate in dressing up, then to go to eat at the buffet or have room service. I am still doing research to see what is considered dressed up on formal & semi-formal nights. My trusty passporter states:

"Formal night is "black tie optional". Many men wear tuxedos & women typically wear long evening gowns, but semi-formal is fine, too."

I am still researching & will let you know what I find out. I have 3 small boys & a husband that will probably not want to go the tuxedo route, but will probably do the suit. The boys, I will have to see what is exceptable.

I hope this helps at least a little bit.

 

[pppiglet]

Welcome Gallafamily!

My DS and DH wore suits on formal and semi-formal. Formal they went with white shirts and semi formal colored shirts just to look a little different. I wore a black dress about knee length on formal night and a long tropical skirt and black shirt on semi-formal.

My next question concerns dinner attire. There is a formal and a semi-formal dinner on the 7-night cruises. Do most people get dressed up? I don't mind dressing up, but my guys don't want to wear suits. The best I'm going to get will be collared shirts and khakis.

I was the one that didn't want to get dressed up but DS and DH wanted to. Go figure!
We even had to go out and buy suits for them because they didn't own any! Now for this next cruise I already have my formal dress bought. I just have to lose some weight to fit into it better!

 

[MickeyD]

Hi all, Well it looks like you can add three more to this roster.
We sailed the May 6th Western last year and had an awesome time so decided this would be the perfect "senior trip" for our ds. He was adamant that it had to be Disney. It is actually going to be our 6th cruise with Disney, our 10th overall. It will actually be his graduation gift as I still have to fund a trip back to Colorado in June for my neice's wedding.

As for the dress question: let me just say that in 5 cruise with Disney we have seen it all, from shorts and flip flops, to tuxes. We usually dress nicely, but not extravagant, I could never get dh in a tux (except for our wedding), but I may get ds into his suit that he wore for his prom last year (would like to see him get one more wear out of it! )
Usually, for guys khakis or dockers and a button down shirt-sometimes with a tie, and ladies a nice dress.

Looking forward to cruising with you all!

Lisa

 

[pppiglet]

Hi MickeyD!

How was the weather on your trip last May and how about the sea? Was it smooth sailing or kind of rough?

We've only done the Mexican Riviera and it was pretty smooth both times. DH gets seasick, but the Bonine did fine for him on both of these trips.

 

[gallafamily]

Anyone here have any ideas on places to get cute boys dress clothes for pretty cheap (or at least reasonable)?

I am so excited about this trip! I am already being really compulsive on planning. What am I going to do for the next 7 months!?!

Does anyone else here have small children? Most of the people here seem to have older kids. That's okay too.

 

[lunsusie]

Welcome Gallafamily and MickeyD! It is exciting to see our group of DISers growing!

 

[MickeyD]

Hi MickeyD!

How was the weather on your trip last May and how about the sea? Was it smooth sailing or kind of rough?

We've only done the Mexican Riviera and it was pretty smooth both times. DH gets seasick, but the Bonine did fine for him on both of these trips.

The seas were fantastic all week. Very smooth sailing. We ran into rain for about 15 mins while at Castaway Cay, but it cleared up and was sunny all day. Of course this perfect weather messed up our jet boat tour in Grand Cayman. Rough seas would have made that a bit more exciting. LOL

 

[gallafamily]

We have always sailed in May & so far always had wonderful weather! One time it rained at the port, but once we left it was beautiful the entire trip, and upon returning to port it was still raining there! Hopefully this trip will be beautiful & sunny!!

 

[LibraryGoddess]

Thank you for responding to my dinner attire inquiry. For those of you who have done the Western Cruise before, which excursions do you recommend? Have any of you done the Catamaran Sail & Snorkel Tour in Key West? If so, would you recommend it for a family who has never snorkeled before? Or is time better spent exploring Key West on foot? I believe we've definitely decided to do the Shipwreck & Reef Snorkeling in Grand Cayman. What about Cozumel? I'm trying to decide between the Tulum Ruins tour and Xcaret. I'd appreciate hearing of any of your experiences.

 

[MickeyD]

Thank you for responding to my dinner attire inquiry. For those of you who have done the Western Cruise before, which excursions do you recommend? Have any of you done the Catamaran Sail & Snorkel Tour in Key West? If so, would you recommend it for a family who has never snorkeled before? Or is time better spent exploring Key West on foot? I believe we've definitely decided to do the Shipwreck & Reef Snorkeling in Grand Cayman. What about Cozumel? I'm trying to decide between the Tulum Ruins tour and Xcaret. I'd appreciate hearing of any of your experiences.

Key West is just one of those ports that is way too easy to do on your own. We have always just gotten off the ship and done our own thing. Last time we checked out the Pirate Soul museum, went and had Key Lime Pie at the Blonde Giraffe and took the Conch Train tour. It was a lot of fun.
Grand Cayman we have done the Land and Sea Island Tour and it was fun, But our ultimate (not recommended for little kids) is the Thriller Jet boat. We had an absolute blast on that one.
Cozumel, just remember that with either Tulum or Xcaret you have to ride a tender to the mainland which is about 45 mins. With small children both of these excursions can be loooong and hot! Especially in May. We did the Fury Catamarran and it was awesome. The snorkling was so so because there is still damage to the reef from Wilma, but by this trip, it should be more repaired??

HTH
Lisa

 

[gallafamily]

Thanks for the info on excusions. We are researching things to do in all ports. I really just want to go to the beaches at Grand Cayman & Cozumel. However, not really sure what to do in Key West. I'm thinking just walk & tour on our own. We have 3 DS's, ages 11, 4, & 1 , so this would give us the option to quickly head back to the ship if things get uncomfortable.

Any other options would be very helpful!

 

[gallafamily]

Bump

 

[kandyk]

Add two more to the roll call. Myself, Kandace and my DH, Sean will be joining you all from Auburn, WA. We booked just recently with DVC and we are soooooooo excited. We are on deck 7 and have the late seating. This will be our first cruise ever. We are leaving our DS home with grandma since we will be celebrating our 10th anniversary early (it's in June).

I just finished reading this entire thread, all 18 pages, and I am so happy to meet some wonderful people before we even get there. My DH was a little concerned that we aren't going with anyone else that we knew, so this is great.

I have a few questions for all of you crusing veterans and WDW veterans. First of all we haven't booked our flights yet and I was looking at a red eye from Seattle that puts us in MCO at 7:20am. Is this enough of a "cushion" before the crusie or should we take the same flight the day before and-oh darn, we'll have enough time to spend 1 night and 1+ day WDW. We can use DVC to stay so the only extra cost would be tickets and food. We have never been to WDW before either so it would be a nice treat. (We are frequent Disneylander's, next trip on 09/27). Last question (for now), if we do decide to arrive the day before will it be worth while to get 2 day tickets to also go to the parks in the moring before we leave for the cruise or do we leave to early for the ship.

Thanks for all of your help and I look forward to meeting everyone.


PS, Thank you Piglet for getting me redirrected to this thread, I don't know how my search didn't pull it up!

 

[MickeyD]

Hey another Washingtonian! Welcome!
Personally, I would recommend flying in day prior just because you never know what may transpire between flights etc. Especially those of us flying coast to coast. If you can get in early enough on Friday, I'd hit a park, you can also take a later flight on the following Saturday and do a park that day. We were off the ship and to Orlando by 9:30, so went to DTD and were looking at doing Epcot.

Lisa

 

[LostGirls]

MickeyD & kandyk,
Let me know if you find any great air fare out of SeaTac - I am STILL looking!
We are in Silverdale.
Lynn

 

[kandyk]

Lostgirls- The airfare out of Seattle is real high right now so I plan to keep an eye on to see if it comes down. I may even wait until after the holidays to book. I have been looking at Alaska Airlines, they have a direct flight to MCO that would get us there at 7:20am and the return flight leaves at about 6:20pm and puts us into Setac at about 9:30pm (our time). That would give us some time after we get off the ship to go back to the parks but does anyone know what we can do with our bags?