Nov 10, 2012--Western FANTASY!!

[jodical]

Exploring lots of FE Gift ideas... SO FUN! I've compiled a list of nice crafty projects. :

Can't wait to see what everyone comes up with in 9+ months!

 

[Ariel224]

Random thoughts.......

I was just looking back at when I started this thread and the cruise was 579 days out. It's been nearly a year since I booked, so there hasn't really been much to plan up until this point. It's exciting to finally get to start thinking about booking pre-cruise hotel, coming up with pirate costumes, deciding which excursions to try and book, etc.

Trying to be patient waiting for Southwest to open their schedule for our dates. Their next release will only go through November 2nd, so it will probably be the end of March before I'll be able to book. I'm hesitant to try and plan too much without the flights in place.

My boss is now booked on a Disney cruise....Thanksgiving 2013 on the Dream. Except......he doesn't even know it's the Dream....or which category he's booked into. It's an extended family vacation, booked by said extended family, so the only details he knows is "when", and "4 nights", and "Castaway Cay". I'm finding that it's very hard to discuss upcoming Disney vacations with someone who isn't a ridiculously die-hard Disney fan like me.

 

[jodical]

My boss is now booked on a Disney cruise....Thanksgiving 2013 on the Dream. Except......he doesn't even know it's the Dream....or which category he's booked into. It's an extended family vacation, booked by said extended family, so the only details he knows is "when", and "4 nights", and "Castaway Cay". I'm finding that it's very hard to discuss upcoming Disney vacations with someone who isn't a ridiculously die-hard Disney fan like me.

I know exactly what you mean! I can't imagine being nonchalant about a Disney vacation! It is never anything less than an exciting prospect for me. Glad for another diehard in the thread.

We've been doing many of the same things. Putting together costumes, starting FE gifts projects, etc. We'll be driving down so no flights to book here, well, for 3 of our rooms anyway. It's been a lot of fun and we're only getting started since booking barely over a month ago!

 

[taraandmike]

Hi everyone!

I have been booked on this cruise for a while, was not sure it was going to happen so did not want t opost, but thinking now we will be going. I even booked a second room for my oldest daughter and her boyfriend.

This will be my 4th cruise and so excited to go, only have cruised on the Magic and while excited to see the Fantasy, wondering if I will miss the Magic.

Tara

 

[jodical]

Hi everyone!

I have been booked on this cruise for a while, was not sure it was going to happen so did not want t opost, but thinking now we will be going. I even booked a second room for my oldest daughter and her boyfriend.

This will be my 4th cruise and so excited to go, only have cruised on the Magic and while excited to see the Fantasy, wondering if I will miss the Magic.

Tara

Welcome Aboard!

 

[Ariel224]

Hi everyone!

I have been booked on this cruise for a while, was not sure it was going to happen so did not want t opost, but thinking now we will be going. I even booked a second room for my oldest daughter and her boyfriend.

This will be my 4th cruise and so excited to go, only have cruised on the Magic and while excited to see the Fantasy, wondering if I will miss the Magic.

Tara

Welcome! Would it be correct to assume that all the kids in your signature line are going?

 

[Ariel224]

I just realized we sail 9 months from today!

 

[karapp75]

Yeah- we are joining you all! My name is Kerri and my DH John, DS jack who will 8 and twin daughters who will be 7. This is our very first cruise ever. We are huge wdw fans and are so excited to be trying out a dis cruise. Looking into excursion options now. Squeal!

 

[Ariel224]

Welcome Kerri. It's nice to see a boy close to my son's age on board.

 

[karapp75]

Since this is our first cruise and I am clueless can someone let me know when we will ind out about FE groups? Need to start researching more ideas!

 

[Ariel224]

Since this is our first cruise and I am clueless can someone let me know when we will ind out about FE groups? Need to start researching more ideas!

I was thinking of officially organizing in April, unless there us a consensus to start sooner.

 

[jodical]

I was thinking of officially organizing in April, unless there us a consensus to start sooner.

Can't wait!!! Already almost finished one project.

 

[karapp75]

I think April is good. Is there generally a cut off date too? That way I won't be running out the day before we leave trying to get last minute items? Today I have been jotting down my ideas. I'm running the princess half marathon in WDW next week so I will look for things while I am there.

 

[Ariel224]

I think April is good. Is there generally a cut off date too? That way I won't be running out the day before we leave trying to get last minute items? Today I have been jotting down my ideas. I'm running the princess half marathon in WDW next week so I will look for things while I am there.

Yes, I think there should be a cutoff date, though I'm not really certain whether it should be one month or two months before the cruise or what. I'm open to hearing opinions. I'm also very much in favor of splitting into multiple groups if the numbers get large, as I would much rather be able to do some nicer gifts for fewer people than have to spread my time and money resources out more thinly to cover more people. I see posts about FEs that had 100+ cabins and I get very ! Does 10 to 20 cabins per group sound reasonable? Again, seeking opinions....

 

[*TheWigs*]

Yes, I think there should be a cutoff date, though I'm not really certain whether it should be one month or two months before the cruise or what. I'm open to hearing opinions. I'm also very much in favor of splitting into multiple groups if the numbers get large, as I would much rather be able to do some nicer gifts for fewer people than have to spread my time and money resources out more thinly to cover more people. I see posts about FEs that had 100+ cabins and I get very ! Does 10 to 20 cabins per group sound reasonable? Again, seeking opinions....

I'm of the opinion that 10-20 cabins per group would be the best...too many more and people may just kind of scramble to get "stuff" to hand out rather than really putting time and thought into the FE gift. On our first cruise, I had signed up to do an FE and somehow got out of the loop on how things work...I had thought that since I hadn't heard anything thru email that the group had fallen apart. NOT SO! Our DD had soooo many gifts that we stuffed the extra suitcase! And here we were empty handed as we thought the FE had not gotten finalized. I'm going to make up for it this time, tho!! I only ask that the end date is clear and who is participating is clear...I DO NOT want to EVER make that mistake again!! Thanks for all you do in the planning for a fun FE!!

 

[karapp75]

I think that 1-2 months is perfect and I like the size groups you suggested. I'm not sure if I would participate if it was a 100 people. Just think how long it would take you to go to all those cabins. I am so excited that in 7 days I will get to soak up a bit of Disney magic! Wish me luck on my run. I am of the distance. Have a great weekend!

 

[Ariel224]

I'm of the opinion that 10-20 cabins per group would be the best...too many more and people may just kind of scramble to get "stuff" to hand out rather than really putting time and thought into the FE gift. On our first cruise, I had signed up to do an FE and somehow got out of the loop on how things work...I had thought that since I hadn't heard anything thru email that the group had fallen apart. NOT SO! Our DD had soooo many gifts that we stuffed the extra suitcase! And here we were empty handed as we thought the FE had not gotten finalized. I'm going to make up for it this time, tho!! I only ask that the end date is clear and who is participating is clear...I DO NOT want to EVER make that mistake again!! Thanks for all you do in the planning for a fun FE!!

Geni, just keep an eye on the thread and your PM mailbox. I intend to make things as crystal clear as I am able.

I think that 1-2 months is perfect and I like the size groups you suggested. I'm not sure if I would participate if it was a 100 people. Just think how long it would take you to go to all those cabins. I am so excited that in 7 days I will get to soak up a bit of Disney magic! Wish me luck on my run. I am of the distance. Have a great weekend!

Kerri, I'm sure you will do great and have a lot of fun in the process.

So, I need some opinions on what the protocol should be to arrange and split the groups, if we have more than 20 participants. One school of thought would be to just put the first 20 in the first group and then start a second group for anyone that comes in after. But what if I do that and the final count ends up being something like 24? Then we have a group of 20 and a group of 4.

Second idea would be that once we hit 20, we split into 2 groups of 10 and add newcomers onto each group. This keeps the numbers a lot more even, but creates challenges for those who are planning things very far in advance (jodical!!), as the group size could go up and down and back up again before the cutoff date. Of course, if someone wanted to be listed in more than one group, they could.

I really haven't gotten my head around how to manage this aspect of it. I guess either way, the groups will be changing right up until the cutoff date. Maybe I'm stressing about this way too much.....

Also, if anyone has done this before, how are last minute stateroom changes (i.e. port upgrades) communicated to the group? It would stink to have someone's goodies not making it to their new room.

 

[jodical]

This keeps the numbers a lot more even, but creates challenges for those who are planning things very far in advance (jodical!!), as the group size could go up and down and back up again before the cutoff date.

No worries here! LOL! I like the smaller group idea and if I have extras it saves me from having to purchase souvenirs for friends back home.

I have 3 rooms of my 5 participating for sure (Mom and I even picked up some small things earlier tonight on a spur of the moment shopping trip.) Working on clueing my mother-in-law in on this whole thing better. Right now she thinks it is secret santa. Weeeeell, sort of. I think she is thinking we trade names or rooms and it's a gift for a gift. She's not off the mark but I wouldn't want her to feel bad if she gets a bunch of stuff and only prepares one gift. Of course, that would be my fault too! She's across the country and she much prefers to talk to my son when she calls so I need to type something up for her.

I think 10 - 15 rooms and no more than 20 sounds good. But I agree, shouldn't exclude an extra 3-4 if it makes the numbers a touch higher in the end.

 

[mnrhannah07]

We ususally do a meet and greet on the first day and that is where last min. stateroom changes are communicated. Everybody come with a pen and FE list in hand cause there is typically a good amount of changes lol

On my ticker I have us staying at AKL after our cruise but plans changed..We are actually planning to move to Florida in Jan and have to cut back alittle. We were going to cancel the cruise but then a few min. later we looked at eachother and thought, heck no we cant cancel! lol

 

[Ariel224]

We ususally do a meet and greet on the first day and that is where last min. stateroom changes are communicated. Everybody come with a pen and FE list in hand cause there is typically a good amount of changes lol

On my ticker I have us staying at AKL after our cruise but plans changed..We are actually planning to move to Florida in Jan and have to cut back alittle. We were going to cancel the cruise but then a few min. later we looked at eachother and thought, heck no we cant cancel! lol

Thank you Rachel for the tip. You CAN'T cancel; I NEED your FE wisdom!