OK, life has been busy!
Who we are & Why his trip:
I am Andrea, and my DH is Angelo. We have 2 boys Marco, age 9, and Charlie age 5. We were on the 4-day Dream last November:
My kids love cruising. This will be Marco's third cruise:
Charlie, my youngest has only done 1 cruise, last year's Dream. He loved it, but did not enjoy the kids club (turns out big brother dumped him in Andy's Room and left him alone). He's a trooper and is going to try the kids club again.
Being Jersey folks, we get an opportunity to travel the first week of November most years, since our kids have off most of the week for election day and 2 days of Teacher's Convention. It is generally a great week to travel, since it is "off peak" most places. Last year was rough, with Hurricane Sandy the week prior, but we made out fine, house and power intact, everyone safe, & airport open when we were ready to go. However, the canceled the teacher's convention, so our kids missed 4 days of school instead of 2. I stressed, but one of my friends told me, "Andrea, relax. They are not going to be 4 days dumber for having missed school".
In past few years, we have used this week to do WDW twice, a cruise on the Norwegian Pearl, and last year's trip: Disney Dream plus 3 nights at Universal.
This year, we were originally going low-key for "Jersey Week": 4 nights at a cabin in Virginia, followed by a night or 2 in Williamsburg VA at the Great Wolf Lodge. This was because DH and I were going to travel alone on a 4 night Celebrity cruise around New Years to celebrate a milestone birthday I am having. Ahem.
Anyhow, for a number of reasons that trip is not happening right now (family logistics, etc), so DH said let's cancel the Virginia trip and do something special with the boys, since we are not doing our adults only trip.
Tossed around the idea of going back to WDW, since they had free dining, but the kids kept asking about another cruise. We could have done the Dream again, or possibly the 7 night Fantasy, but since we booked this 7 weeks out, the airfares were out of control (also we travel on SW points, and the weekend flights were soooo many points. Like equivalent to 300 bucks each way. Not happening).
Then I saw that Magic was being re-imagined, they had a 4 night to CC and Key West (yay no Nassau!), and I could tack on a few nights ahead of time in Fort Lauderdale or Miami! Sold! I booked everything myself on Sunday morning, as we were ready!
Next installment: Travel plans!
