November 15, 2008 7 night Western 11/15/08 11-15-08

[ALawley]

I don't know what we're doing for transportation yet. I would really love to get a Palo reservation so I probably need to be really early onboard, so I'm thinking about renting a car. But I haven't decided yet. Too many decisions....I could have worse problems though

Last year we used the services of a private shuttle to get us to the port. We left Coronado Springs at around 9:30 am, stopped at a grocery store before arriving at the port and still arrived by 10:45. We were boarding group 8, we think....that's what we remember at least....and we went straight to sign up for Palo and got reservations. There were not many choices and we ended up taking a reservation on the night of the pirate party...missed a good deal of the party! We won't do that again, but we will do Palo, it was amazing! We paid less than the Disney Cruise Line Buss for the service and really liked the control of time and the convenience of not stopping at multiple resorts and such, send me a pm and i'll give you the name of the service if you are interested.

This year we will stay at the Radisson at the Cape the night before. We want to wake up and see the ship!

 

[ALawley]

Disneyday ~ I found the battling horns of the Wonder and Magic on youtube and it made me want to go NOW right NOW. I shared the link with my bf's and we all agreed Nov. 15 just cannot get here soon enough! thanks for telling me it was out there!

 

[bambilin]

Hey, I forgot to let you know we are in cabin 6562. I have to ask my friend Alice her cabin number.

So in all we are:

Linda & Derrick
Dillon 3, Trevor 1

Alice & Davin
Rhiannon 10, Patty 8

We just booked the Dolphin Encounter and Swim today over the phone.
Davin and Rhiannon will do the swim at 1 and we can all watch and then the rest of us do the encounter at 3:30. We paid sooo much less by booking directly, even got 5% off the website rate and a voucher for the taxi as well. The lady was sooo nice, and it was a toll free number so....

Bye for now!

 

[LauraLap]

Lin, what is the recommended ages for the Dolphin Encounter? And do you have a link?

Audie, thanks....I'll look into it.

 

[Disneyday]

Hello i'm alice, I am 9 (10, when i am on the cruise) My favourite disney character is Tinkerbell .Ilove fairies and high school musical.

I can't wait for the cruise i am going to eat lots of yum yum .
I have a called Mickey, a called Mog, a rabbit called Bob

Would anyone like to write to me

richard.day2@talktalk.net

 

[izma]

Hello i'm alice, I am 9 (10, when i am on the cruise) My favourite disney character is Tinkerbell .Ilove fairies and high school musical.

I can't wait for the cruise i am going to eat lots of yum yum .
I have a called Mickey, a called Mog, a rabbit called Bob

Would anyone like to write to me

richard.day2@talktalk.net

Hello Alice! I'm Leslie. I have a daughter who will be on the cruise, she doesn't know yet though! Her name is Kennedy and guess what? She is nine years old as well...but she will be ten on the cruise!!!! When I finally tell her, I'll make sure that she writes you a note here. It won't be for awhile though!

We have a dog named Coco, a cat named Empress Woo, and a cat named Tonks (she is very white and very deaf!!). We live on a farm.

Do you like cadbury flake bars? They have been a favourite of mine since I visited the UK a long time ago! Yummmm!!!

 

[LauraLap]

Hi Alice! You sound so sweet. I love Tinkerbell too

Well, we're off to Great Wolf Lodge today......can't wait. It's not Disney, but I think it is the next best thing to it I hope.

 

[coastiewifern]

I am interested in joining in doing fish extenders for my 9(DS) and 6(DD) year old. How does this work exactly? Do you do this like a secret santa where you would be assigned kids to buy things for? I am hoping we can arrange a meet on the ship. Sounds like someone is working on that. I saw someone booked a dolphin excursion on their own. Where did you do that through? I'd like to look at the website and see age requirements.

Thanks
Christie

 

[dmja716]

Good morning,
I dont know for sure how the fish extender gifts work?? I was thinking I would just count how many kids we have and get that many presents. But whatever we all come up with is fine. Anyone have ideas???

I booked the Royal swim at Chankaanaab park at dolphindiscovery dot com.
They charged our credit card already. My DH is doing it not me. Hopefully I can watch.

Im pretty sure as the cruise date gets closer we will have all the details worked out of a meet and the fish extenders. I think Angie suggested meeting up at the Sailaway party. Im a newbie so whatever everyone wants to do is fine with me.

Have a great day,
Dana

 

[bambilin]

I'm Linda (my frineds all call me Lin!). My boys are little, Dillon and Trevor and we have a cat named Simba!

My friend's daughters Patty & Rhiannon will be on the cruise with us also.
Rhiannon will be 10 and Patty will be 8 so you are right in the middle. They are not on these bords yet but I am sure they will be happy to know about the other girls in the crowd!!

To all:

I sent an email off to see who I need to speak to to coordinate the meet on the ship.

Are there real rules for the fish extender things? I have a little present for the adults as well. (it is really nothing at all but a little trick an elderly gentleman from England shared with me on my first cruise and it has always come in handy!!)

We also booked through Dolphin Discovery but I called the 800#(well 866 really but still toll free!) and spoke to Ana Rojas and she was able to get me the extra 5% off and since there were 4 adults, we got the taxi couchers as well. You can cancel up to 4 days before and get full refund and if for any reason the ship cannot dock in Cozumel, a letter from the Concierge sent to Dolphin Discovery also gets you a refund. Davin and Rhiannon (10) are doing the swim and Alice, Patty (8) Me and hubby Derrick, adn Dillon (3) and Trevor (1) are all doing the encounter. If you book through them all kids under 5 are free with a paying adult!

OK you are all probably tired of reading now, and off to visit Mom at rehab for her hip surgery!!

 

[bambilin]

Oh yes and I agree we should meet at the Sail-a-way party, they are so much fun!!

And then let the ship arrange another formal meet as well!

 

[Disneyday]

Looking forward to meeting everone at the sailaway party, but.....
how will we recognise each other?

I'm not sure about how the fish extenders work, perhaps we should ask a question on the main board.
What if there are 100's of us by Nov, it will take a day to deliver gifts and an extra suitcase Would we split into groups?
Sue

Ps Alice was thrilled by your lovely replies

 

[dmja716]

That is a good question on how we will recognize each other. If we meet up at a specific spot at the sailaway party then maybe that will be good. Maybe we can have a second meet at a more precise location also??

As far as the fish extender gifts, it will be cumbersome to bring so many gifts if there are a lot more people that join us. "Secret Santa" is a good idea. We each pick one family to do before the cruise. If someone wants to get extra goodies for everyone in the group they are more than welcome to.
That way everyone only has to bring one family worth of gifts and if they want to do more than that, it is up to them.

 

[coastiewifern]

I like the idea of picking one family. Bringing something for everyone would be too time consuming to find everything and too much to pack. I would like to find a family that would like to do a small gift each night in the extender for the kids. Any takers?

 

[ALawley]

On our cruise in Oct. 07, a group of DISsers had T'shirts made for the cruise. They were quite noticeable, as they were lime green! We thought they were a family reunion since each time someone arrived in the terminal wearing one of the shirts folks would wave, cheer and greet each other most warmly!

 

[bambilin]

When we sailed on the Magic on 2002 my group all wore the same t-shirts. We ordered the t shirts bulk, I decided what would be on them and my friend Kathy did them herself. Ours was a white shirt that said:

Look out Mickey Here We Come
Cruise Crew 2002

On the back, we had everyone's name under the character they had selected to represent themselves. People were asking where could they get one. It was so funny, why would they want a shirt with our names? LOL

I would ask Kathy, but we had 27 people in our group, I think this is a bit too big of a group.

 

[Disneyday]

Perhaps if someone is good at designing a logo, we could buy some iron on transfer paper and each family make their own.
I think lime green is the official Dis board colour

Anyone any ideas?

 

[izma]

I like the idea of the secret santa format. Our group is getting big and it will be hard to bring stuff for everyone. I bet mommytofive will have some great input on this. As far as recognizing each other...that's not an avatar...it's an actual picture of me...LOL!!!! Perhaps we could have at least one member of each family have a lime green t-shirt with their Dis board name...or even just a lime green t-shirt.

We'll come up with something before Nov 15!

 

[MommyTo5]

OK Mommytofive where are we meeting!

Sounds like everyone is up for meeting for the Sail Away Party so...

How about we meet on Deck 10 overlooking the Goofy Pool (which will be covered for the party at this time - obviously), Starboard Side. We'll plan to meet immediately following the Safety Drill - and actually, if we want to reserve a few tables for our group, it would be great if a few of us could give our lifevests to our families (to take back to our staterooms) and run up to Deck 10 to save tables. This is a popular spot, but I think if maybe 3-4 of us can race up there, we should be able to grab a few tables together.

Just got through reading the whole thread and wanted to say howdy from Texas and we are sailing on the Western 11/15 as well!

Hi ALawley!!! Glad you joined us!

I don't know what we're doing for transportation yet.

We went ahead and booked our transportation last week - private van from the Hyatt Regency @ Orlando International Airport to the port... and then back to the Hyatt again for a post cruise night. $192 RT. Not a bad price at all for the 8 of us!

Looking forward to meeting everone at the sailaway party, but.....
how will we recognise each other?

Hmmm...

I think we need to post pics of ourselves (and our families) to this thread!

Also, maybe someone could make nametags for everyone - either stickers or pin-back tags! I could possibly do it... if I can convince DH to buy me a new printer. Mine stinks! The nametag maker could mail the nametags out in advance and we could wear them right from the start as we enter the terminal... or maybe they could be handed out upon arrival at the sail away party. Not sure of the cost of this, but I'd be more than happy to pitch in financially if someone else wants to take this on.

On our cruise in Oct. 07, a group of DISsers had T'shirts made for the cruise. They were quite noticeable, as they were lime green! We thought they were a family reunion since each time someone arrived in the terminal wearing one of the shirts folks would wave, cheer and greet each other most warmly!

I did this with the group I sailed with last time... my family was not at all thrilled to wear matching bright yellow tees. They've begged me not to force them to do something similar again!

 

[MommyTo5]

I like the idea of the secret santa format. Our group is getting big and it will be hard to bring stuff for everyone. I bet mommytofive will have some great input on this. As far as recognizing each other...that's not an avatar...it's an actual picture of me...LOL!!!! Perhaps we could have at least one member of each family have a lime green t-shirt with their Dis board name...or even just a lime green t-shirt.

We'll come up with something before Nov 15!

Input on the Fish Extenders / Secret Santa???

I have no idea... I'm not sure how the other groups have worked it. My input is ------------- [I think we should probably ask on the main Cruise forum!]

264 days To Go!



Woohoo!!!

I still haven't decided on excursions. I'd love to hear what you all are planning!!!

~ Angie