No wbta 2013

[JessicasMom]

This is funny - esp. because you used the 'super sleuth' from "My Friends Tigger and Pooh."

 

[PFlamingo]

Wow! Lots of reading to catch up on! I had a front tooth extracted this morning from a root canal that happened 18 years ago (bicycle wreck in elementary school). Reading these posts is just the recovery medicine I needed! Getting a dental implant, so I will have a tooth by summer if all goes well.

Ouch! Dennis went through the same thing a couple of years ago. Not fun on so many levels. Hope you feel better soon!

Thanks Pat, honest I don't drink

Oh, I know! I've seen you not drink. I've not drank (drunk?) with you. I think we need to get together and not drink a large quantity of adult beverages.

A wonderful thought just popped into my head, if this cruise happens ( it will I feel it in my bones ) we will be at WDW for Halloween and having never been in the US for this celebration it's so exciting. Started off just thinking about the WBTA 2013, but now also excited about the others things that go with it


margaret

Hmmm... sounds like we could all hit MNSSHP together! How fun would that be?? (And we could not drink with you afterwards.)

 

[DISNEYFAN_SD]

Pretty please with a cherry on top!!!!!

Oh my had a long day at work and came home to dis/facebook about what they are doing....Oh no...WHY tease us??

 

[yyum168]

wow, so much excitement.

May I ask why everybody is excited about the westbound but not for the eastbound ?

Thanks in advance for your enlightenment !

 

[ThePhantomsGirl]

Because we are Westies....hear us roar!

 

[ThePhantomsGirl]

Okay, serious answer: For Americans I think getting the long flight out of the way first is a factor. Then, having an hour each day added, rather than subtracted like on the
Eastern is probably another. I'm sure others will chime in.

 

[ForTheLoveOfDCL]

Hey all....I just have a few questions from the pros here. First, did or do any of you have teens? We have always wanted to do this but airfare was just as much as the cruise..lol My question is, how did your teens handle school work for 2 weeks??? My oldest DD will be in 8th grade. Not sure how the teachers would feel about 2 weeks all at once.
Thanks for your input and sorry for crashing in...I am just getting ready to get on the Wonder in 10 days and am hoping to hear some info...will book a dummy date for a possible move to this!

 

[poohluv2u]

wow, so much excitement.

May I ask why everybody is excited about the westbound but not for the eastbound ?

Thanks in advance for your enlightenment !

Originally for us it was the time of the year that was convenient, now it will be just to cruise with friends

 

[chunkster20uk]

Hey all....I just have a few questions from the pros here. First, did or do any of you have teens? We have always wanted to do this but airfare was just as much as the cruise..lol My question is, how did your teens handle school work for 2 weeks??? My oldest DD will be in 8th grade. Not sure how the teachers would feel about 2 weeks all at once.
Thanks for your input and sorry for crashing in...I am just getting ready to get on the Wonder in 10 days and am hoping to hear some info...will book a dummy date for a possible move to this!

I can't comment on they will handle school work, but when we did the WBTA in 2010, the one thing I noticed was how few children and teenagers there were compared to any other cruise I had been on.

 

[JustAnnieNotHazel]

wow, so much excitement.

May I ask why everybody is excited about the westbound but not for the eastbound ?

Thanks in advance for your enlightenment !

For Hazel and I we enjoyed going west because we are from UK so had nice short flight to Barcelona to start then the extra hours was a great bonus. Then at the end as we were flying straight home we still had 7 hours to spend shopping in Orlando.
Win, win for us!!! Lol

Also because we met so many great people last year that we would jump at the chance of another cruise with them

 

[liesbeth1012]

wow, so much excitement.

May I ask why everybody is excited about the westbound but not for the eastbound ?

Thanks in advance for your enlightenment !

For Hazel and I we enjoyed going west because we are from UK so had nice short flight to Barcelona to start then the extra hours was a great bonus. Then at the end as we were flying straight home we still had 7 hours to spend shopping in Orlando.
Win, win for us!!! Lol

Also because we met so many great people last year that we would jump at the chance of another cruise with them

We choose for the westbound, because the time was better, the hours more you get and it would be our first time America and WDW, and that was better after the cruise then before. And we had a great offer for WDW in september and MNSSHP in WDW.

And we feel the same as Annie, now we will see everybody again. We had such a great time.

And you see how it worked on the Board and FB. Before we know we have over 50 people talking to each other about a rumoured cruise. This group is so different then the group for the Hawai cruise in October 2012. There is so less activity.

 

[chunkster20uk]

Pretty please with a cherry on top!!!!!

As others have said I am sure it will be fine. Still showing on the Port of St Maarten Schedule for October 22nd.

 

[Tod&Copper]

May I ask why everybody is excited about the westbound but not for the eastbound ?

Thanks in advance for your enlightenment !

Why do we do the Westbound? For a few reasons:-

May is probably the best summer month for weather we get in Scotland, so its good being at home taking advantage of it
High School kids final exams are in May, we need to be at home for DD
25 hour days on the Westbound

Lastly, I have to say that I wouldn't miss out cruising with all the Westies we met on the WBTA 2010 and WBTA 2011 again, they are an amazing bunch of people

Because we are Westies....hear us roar!

Hey all....I just have a few questions from the pros here. First, did or do any of you have teens? We have always wanted to do this but airfare was just as much as the cruise..lol My question is, how did your teens handle school work for 2 weeks??? My oldest DD will be in 8th grade. Not sure how the teachers would feel about 2 weeks all at once.
Thanks for your input and sorry for crashing in...I am just getting ready to get on the Wonder in 10 days and am hoping to hear some info...will book a dummy date for a possible move to this!

I can't comment on they will handle school work, but when we did the WBTA in 2010, the one thing I noticed was how few children and teenagers there were compared to any other cruise I had been on.

On the WBTA 2010 there was about 30 teenagers and on the WBTA 2011, there were even fewer.

I know on the WBTA 2010 the Stack Teen Club had homework time, so that all the kids were doing homework at the same time and not missing out on activities. They were up on deck 10 on the tables outside the stack doing the work. Mind you, I didn't see any of that on the WBTA 2011. I'm sure someone said there was only about 13 teenagers on that one.

Hence why DD doesn't ever want to do WBTA with us, she thinks 2 weeks would be too boring with only a few kids onboard and she didn't want to miss 2 weeks of school work at a crucial time

 

[davidls]

We choose for the westbound, because the time was better, the hours more you get and it would be our first time America and WDW, and that was better after the cruise then before. And we had a great offer for WDW in september and MNSSHP in WDW.

And we feel the same as Annie, now we will see everybody again. We had such a great time.

And you see how it worked on the Board and FB. Before we know we have over 50 people talking to each other about a rumoured cruise. This group is so different then the group for the Hawai cruise in October 2012. There is so less activity.

We like the westbound as well as liesbeth1012, the time fits us better and like Holly said we want to get that ol' pesky flying behind us and sail back home with Disney.

 

[ForTheLoveOfDCL]

On the WBTA 2010 there was about 30 teenagers and on the WBTA 2011, there were even fewer.

I know on the WBTA 2010 the Stack Teen Club had homework time, so that all the kids were doing homework at the same time and not missing out on activities. They were up on deck 10 on the tables outside the stack doing the work. Mind you, I didn't see any of that on the WBTA 2011. I'm sure someone said there was only about 13 teenagers on that one.

Hence why DD doesn't ever want to do WBTA with us, she thinks 2 weeks would be too boring with only a few kids onboard and she didn't want to miss 2 weeks of school work at a crucial time

Thank you for the info.....I have to say if both my girls were ages up till 10, I wouldn't think twice and we would go, but the 8tH(2013) is concerning me. I know her experiences in port and onboard will be more then anything she gets in school for 2 weeks but I don't want the teachers taking our travels out on her

 

[PFlamingo]

Thank you for the info.....I have to say if both my girls were ages up till 10, I wouldn't think twice and we would go, but the 8tH(2013) is concerning me. I know her experiences in port and onboard will be more then anything she gets in school for 2 weeks but I don't want the teachers taking our travels out on her

Former middle-school teacher here. Talk to your DD's principal and teachers (or potential teachers) and ask about this. I used to be hardline about vacations during school, then 9/11 happened and I changed to a "life is short, enjoy your family time" attitude.

It depends a lot on your DD. I had no problem with kids who were reasonably good students, who would do their work while they were away. But I did have an understanding with the parents - if the kids got behind, there wasn't a lot I could do to get them caught up. Not that I *wouldn't* help them, there just wasn't much extra time in my schedule to do it. So if their grades dropped, that was the trade-off for being away.

On the WBTA we had a mom traveling with her 13 yr old son. I know they got most of his work caught ahead before they left. Also, Mandy (Mandygirl) and I both do private tutoring, so that might be a possibility. Not that we particularly want to work during our vaycay, but it helps with the bar tab!

 

[Pinky166]

wow, so much excitement.

May I ask why everybody is excited about the westbound but not for the eastbound ?

Thanks in advance for your enlightenment !

Hi.

My reasons for doing the 2011 WBTA were firstly you gain 6 hours rather than lose 6! It was lovely to arrive in Orlando and not have jet lag from the flight for the first few days. Also the parks are much quieter in September and that is our preferred time to visit WDW.

This time around though it is all because of all the lovely friends I made & can't imagine doing the WBTA without them.

As others have said I am sure it will be fine. Still showing on the Port of St Maarten Schedule for October 22nd.

Yes that's good, I am sure they are just messing with us.

 

[magic123]

mmm... sounds like we could all hit MNSSHP together! How fun would that be?? (And we could not drink with you afterwards.)

That sounds good Pat

Because we are Westies....hear us roar!

lol Holly

wow, so much excitement.

May I ask why everybody is excited about the westbound but not for the eastbound ?

Thanks in advance for your enlightenment !

I agree with all my WBTA friends...... Mickey was good.... but you lot were fab and the chance to cruise with the same people just can't be missed !!!!!!
And of course the 25 hours day just left more time for the fun things in life
( what ever they may be, I just couldn't possibly comment )

margaret

 

[Seraphine]

Living in the UK, I was thrilled to NOT have to fly 8 hours just to sail! Usually we fly to Florida and then cruise, but flying to Barcelona was a piece of cake. No jet lag to start sailing with.

(yes, I know we could choose European sailings, but we love the Caribbean - we're trying a Greece/Israel sailing next October for a change)

 

[AmandaRG]

For us the WB is good for a few reasons. A few more months to save up $$ is a big one. We homeschool and our girls are in early elementary, so we are wanting to do this while we can. I love the idea of gaining a few extra hours on the ship (ends up being a 12 hour swing over the EB, right?).

Seeing how excited everyone is, and how much they enjoy being together and sailing together is a huge bonus! We sailed with a great group of DISers in March of last year. In Oct, the group fell apart and we only had a couple to make it to the meet. I have heard great things about the extra activities!