November 13, 2011 Mexico on the Wonder

[Kman34]

How in the world are we all gonna make it to November? I haven't even told the kids yet cause I know they'll go crazy...heck, I'm going nuts.

 

[stampinshauna]

How in the world are we all gonna make it to November? I haven't even told the kids yet cause I know they'll go crazy...heck, I'm going nuts.

It seems like so far away, but it is just over 3 months. I don't know if I'd be able to keep such a good secret this close to the cruise. Last year we took my niece with us on a 4 night DCL cruise and we had to keep it a secret for a few months and it was hard, but her parents told her on her birthday 3 months before we sailed so we were able to talk about it and be excited together. I guess I ought to get DS's passport taken care of soon.

Has everyone booked their airfare or made their travel plans? If JetBlue flies to Long Beach from your home airport, you might want to check out their sale if you still need to book flights. We booked a month or two ago and the fare went down and JetBlue gave us a credit towards a future flight for the fare difference! Woohoo! Now we can justify another short trip in the next year

 

[stampinshauna]

Okay, to help pass the time between now and the cruise, let's start thinking about a FISH EXTENDER swap.

FE stands for Fish Extenders. Just outside each stateroom door on the ship is a little decorative fish that DCL uses to put mail (announcements, flyers, etc) on for your room. I don't know how it all started, but some people started making these fish extenders for a little gift exchange between people. They are just little pockets that you hang from the fish. Then, some cruise meets do a Fish Extender swap where you take inexpensive little gifts (homemade items, glow bracelets, treats, stickers, toys, crafty things, art stuff, whatever) to other DISers and they take them to you, so it is a fun surprise throughout the ship. I'm hoping we'll have around 10-15 rooms participating, so it wouldn't be that much work for anyone. Some people do one gift per person, some do one per stateroom. People with kids especially like to do this because the kids get such a kick out of the surprises, but so many of us are kids at heart that a lot of just adults participate too (which I would encourage). Anyway, that is it in a nutshell. There is an extensive thread on the subject at http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1219607

I'm willing to organize the FEs. What we did on my last cruise was have a list of everyone and their room number and how many/what age people are in each cabin. Then, everyone did gifts for each cabin. Some people did one gift per cabin, some did one per person. Some customized the gifts for the age and gender of the kids, some did the same thing for everyone. We just made it flexible so you can decide what you want/can do. That way it hopefully works for everyone and if you want to do a lot you can and if you need to keep it simple that is fine as well. One the first day of the cruise someone posted a list on their door in case there were any room number changes (which there were some because people upgraded at the port). So, we checked that door before delivering our gifts. We didn't make a schedule for deliveries, everyone just delivered them when they wanted to, so we did have some days that we got more than others, but it was a lot of fun and it was nice to have the flexibility.

So, who is in? PM me your room info (names, ages & gender of the kids, your email address, room # if you know it). That way I can start a list and then email it to everyone so that we don't have to post all of that info online for privacy purposes.

Please feel free to post more questions as they come up.

So far here are the DISers who are participating in the FE swap:
stampinshauna
stampinshauna's mom
lucky1
lise maltais
Adie's Mama
dpygrl3
lee122668
dsinger44
nat1914
nat1914's 2nd room
TeamMason
livedallovercanada

 

[lucky1]

Shauna - Thank you for organizing. We are in and have sent you a PM.


Laura

 

[Adie's Mama]

Just sent you a PM - I'm totally in!

 

[lise maltais]

I wanted to post a picture of the Fish Extender I created today, to sort of get everyone excited...but don't know how to load a picture.

 

[stampinshauna]

You can post pics by uploading them to a photo hosting site and then post the image code. I used photobucket to post this pic of my FE.

 

[stampinshauna]

Here is a pic of Lise's FE that she made. She just used an old beach bag to make it. Way to go, it looks great!

 

[lucky1]

Great FE pictures... I will have to find a picture of mine, that I made 2 cruises ago. I full day of crafting and it cost me more than if I would have just had someone else make it.


Woohoo only 92 more days until our cruise. On Sunday I get to book our excursions!


I also noticed that their is a S Calif resident offer on cat 9 rooms for the cruises around us, but not for our cruise. Not that it matters much to me since we are in AZ.

 

[lise maltais]

Thank you Shauna for uploading the pic of my FE!

 

[lucky1]

Tonight I will be up late booking our excursions. Hope what we want is still available.

I am also on call tonight for work, so hoping there are no IT crisis, so I can do the online checkin in peace.

 

[lucky1]

Whew.. finally booked and checkin online!

Here is what we have booked... Did not book any Spa treatments, but still thinking about it. Last cruise, we just did walk up on port days

Tues 10:30 Palos
Wed PV Beach Excurison
Thurs Cabo 9:45 Dolphin Swim
Friday Cabo 10:45 Dolphin Swim 6pm Palo's Dinner
Sat 3pm Palo's Tea


We booked dolphin swim on both Cabo days because I need to check with MIL on which she would prefer and then will cancel next week so we don't block it off to much longer.

Have never done the tea, so that will be a first.

 

[Kman34]

Whew.. finally booked and checkin online!

Here is what we have booked... Did not book any Spa treatments, but still thinking about it. Last cruise, we just did walk up on port days

Tues 10:30 Palos
Wed PV Beach Excurison
Thurs Cabo 9:45 Dolphin Swim
Friday Cabo 10:45 Dolphin Swim 6pm Palo's Dinner
Sat 3pm Palo's Tea


We booked dolphin swim on both Cabo days because I need to check with MIL on which she would prefer and then will cancel next week so we don't block it off to much longer.

Have never done the tea, so that will be a first.

Looks fun...What do people do with their kids on a Palos night?

 

[lucky1]

Looks fun...What do people do with their kids on a Palos night?

Make her fend for herself No.. In the past so goes to the Kids club and has dinner with in the kids clubs.

She might just have something at the Quick Service around the pool or room service before going to the Club, while we are at dinner, Brunch. I always have hopes that if we get along with our tablemates like we did on our first cruise that had a daughter the same age, we would be able to have her join them. We actually spent a lot of time together with our tablemates on the cruise and the girls played well together.

 

[stampinshauna]

We haven't done Palo since we've had kids, but most people use the kids clubs.

Sorry I haven't been around on here much lately, I've been keeping busy with the kiddos and I've been focusing on our Disneyland trip. Hope everyone is doing well!

 

[dsinger44]

New to the thread... I'll be joining all of you with my DH, DS - 7 and DS - 4. This is our 2nd Disney Cruise - we actually did the exact same cruise back in February - loved it!! Just booked the Pirate excursion in PV... was sold out last time by the time we tried to book it. Not sure what we're doing in Cabo yet... any suggestions?

 

[stampinshauna]

New to the thread... I'll be joining all of you with my DH, DS - 7 and DS - 4. This is our 2nd Disney Cruise - we actually did the exact same cruise back in February - loved it!! Just booked the Pirate excursion in PV... was sold out last time by the time we tried to book it. Not sure what we're doing in Cabo yet... any suggestions?

Welcome to our thread! So, what did you do last time in PV and Cabo? Tell us about the ports. Was there much to do in walking distance from the ship?

 

[Kman34]

Just made my final payment! Cannot book excursions yet since we're 1st timers ....getting excited.

 

[lee122668]

I think me, my husband and my two girls...Emily age 13 and Clara age 10 will joining the fun. This will be our 3rd Disney Cruise!!! Any other girls my girls age? What is the plan so far regarding FE...new to it but super interested...how many people participating so far?

 

[lucky1]

I think me, my husband and my two girls...Emily age 13 and Clara age 10 will joining the fun. This will be our 3rd Disney Cruise!!! Any other girls my girls age? What is the plan so far regarding FE...new to it but super interested...how many people participating so far?

Lise has girls your age and I (Laura) have a DD who will be close to 10 at the time of the cruise, less than 2 months away from 10.

Shauna is coordinating the FE. Small list right now, but with those jumping on board, it will probably grow..