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

[MommyTo5]

Was online this morning when the dates switched to Jan. 9, I jumped on it and found it most difficult to find the deals for Thanksgiving week! I was disappointed as well by the prices! It was a comical actually, as I was trying to book for 4 families on 2 computers, total of 10 guests, but like ya'll, I just took what I could get. Overall we just paid around 330.00 per person avg. Had to adjust 2 families travel dates, b t now they get to join us for Mickey's Verry Merry Christmas party!

I so agree, airfare is expected to increase and the air industry is a bit shaky right now; continental is expected to begin laying off employees by Sept! SWA is a solid air provider and it is not likely we will see them add fuel charges or baggage charges....we will keep our fingers crossed!

But we are all booked and it feels so official now! We all have our before/after vacations on the books and we are getting ready!

So glad to hear you were able to get your airline tickets booked too, Audie!

I was just checking SWA (as I promised myself that I would do this daily just in case there is a decrease in price! LOL) and noticed that several of the flights on our travel days have sold out already! On the 14th, 1 of the 9 flights has sold out completely and the Wanna Get Away fare is gone from another... and on the 23rd, 3 of the 9 flights have now sold out completely. Several fares have increased including both of the flights we booked. Booking the exact same flights today would cost me $72 more per person (x 8) for a total of $576!!! So - although I'm still not thrilled with what I paid, I do feel better that I did jump on the inital fares.

 

[MommyTo5]

This is my vote also! I'm with Dana, basing choice A on around 10 families.

I booked airfare from here in February I think. We paid around $500pp taxes in...from here, this is a a pretty good deal. So we are paying around $2000 for 4. GRRRRRRRR!!!!!

We are heading to the lake for July but I will be home occasionally to check emails etc., So if I am off the radar for awhile, that's why. I am also heading to Vegas for a week and hope to get to the Disney store to look for extender goodies and fun stuff for the kids!

If you don't hear from me regarding the final decision on extenders or other such things, I'll go with the group majority. I generally agree with Angie and Dana if you need a guideline...!

Les

Have a wonderful time at the lake, Les - and in Las Vegas!!! Sounds like you did get a nice deal on the airfare. I'm sure it's probably much higher now.

I just noticed we have only 141 days to go!!!

 

[izma]

OMG!

That almost had me in a panic!

 

[MommyTo5]

OMG!

That almost had me in a panic!

It's definitely getting closer.

I got my DCL Travel Kit this week... did everyone else? The letter said I can book Palo, excursions, etc... on August 17, 2008 (this is early due to being a Castaway Club member) providing the cruise is paid in full, of course. I originally booked thru DCL directly and recently paid the ressies down so I only owe $1 on each stateroom. I did this so I could still transfer the ressies! Anyway, after I saw that we are at 141 days, I put in a request to transfer the ressies to Dreams Unlimited (the DIS board sponsor) so I can earn stateroom credit. It looks like it should be $50 per stateroom which will be nice added to the $25 per stateroom that I got for doing the original booking online with DCL.

 

[dmja716]

Les, Have a great vacation!!

I did not get a Travel Kit yet. How exciting!! I will post when our's arrives.

Have a good weekend everyone.

 

[MommyTo5]

It's too bad we didn't run across these back when we were looking for something to wear so that we could recognize one another on the ship...

Solid Color 40g Feather Boas
$4.00
The six-foot long chandelle feather boas are available in your choice of 15 colors. These are standard weight 40 gram boas.

They are even available in Lime Green! I'm sure we'd attract quite a bit of attention wearing those!!!

 

[coastiewifern]

We booked our SWA flights the day they opened. In the midst of checking something with my husband the flights went up on the outbound flight. I was however happy with our flight times and glad we are not flying out of Bush airport.
Mommyto5 the boas would have been hilarous however my husband would have never agreed HA!! Let us know if you see flights go down. I never knew that you could rebook and get a credit. We have never lived in a SWA market until now.

 

[MommyTo5]

We booked our SWA flights the day they opened. In the midst of checking something with my husband the flights went up on the outbound flight. I was however happy with our flight times and glad we are not flying out of Bush airport.
Mommyto5 the boas would have been hilarous however my husband would have never agreed HA!! Let us know if you see flights go down. I never knew that you could rebook and get a credit. We have never lived in a SWA market until now.

So glad to hear you got your airfare booked, Christie!

I just checked ours again... another increase! It's now $3120.00 (or $390 each) which is $728 more than I paid. Even though I'd love to earn credit towards a future flight, I'm not sure if I'll ever see a decrease or not. If we do, it may not be until the DING fares come out.

Unfortunately, our flight times are not flexible at all on this trip and I'm sure this lessens the likelyhood of actually saving any $$. We needed the last flight out on Friday night, so the kids wouldn't have to miss an additional day of school and DH wouldn't have to take off work early. I also didn't want an early morning flight home on Sunday, but wanted to get up and have a nice breakfast and maybe do some shopping in the airport 'mall.' A mid-day flight is ideal since I don't want to get home too late with the kids needing to be back at school Monday morning. Usually, I'm a bit more flexible... in fact, we've even flown into Tampa several times when the savings was significant. I really don't mind driving an extra 45 minutes or so, when we are saving a couple hundred dollars on flights. This is, of course, not even an option this time since we won't be getting a rental.

 

[izma]

That would have been hilarious!!! Light packing too!

I am in doing laundry (Lake is only 15 mins from home ).

I will not pay off cruise in full until I know nobody will be picking up the mail except for me!!

Kids get another letter today. I have resolved to tell them late September.

Glad you are all securing flights!

 

[coastiewifern]

It seems like most people are liking a version of option A......any other votes out there? Once all the voting is done (I believe someone is keeping track of families interested) can everyone please include ages and sex of the child? I'd like to start shopping as soon as I get home from vacation. The sooner we get a head count the better before all the summer themed things are gone.
Just can't wait to get on that ship!

 

[dmja716]

I got my Disney Travel Kit today!!

 

[MommyTo5]

Awesome, Dana! It makes it a little bit more real, doesn't it? I know I was excited that our 'kit' arrived when it did. Since DH is planning on renting a tux for the cruise (again), we especially needed that measurement form. He had to go on Tuesday to get fitted for a tux for his brother's upcoming wedding, so I was really glad we had the form in hand and he was able to have them fill it out while he was there. I wouldn't trust myself to measure correctly!

 

[MommyTo5]

It seems like most people are liking a version of option A......any other votes out there? Once all the voting is done (I believe someone is keeping track of families interested) can everyone please include ages and sex of the child? I'd like to start shopping as soon as I get home from vacation. The sooner we get a head count the better before all the summer themed things are gone.
Just can't wait to get on that ship!

It does look like option *A* is our winner!

A. a single gift delivery to each participating DIS family (or simply the children in the family... everyone could decide for themselves what they'd like to give)​

So, each of us will make a one-time delivery! Do we want to assign days, so we can spread the fun and gift deliveries throughout the week?

I think we could all decide individually what exactly we'd like to do for the deliveries... as far as whether we'd like to give individual gifts for the kids, individual gifts for adults and kids, a shared couple gift and individual gifts for the kids, a family gift, etc... Is this okay with everyone?

 

[MommyTo5]

Fish Extender Participants

Angie / MommyTo5 *Staterooms #5022 & #5024
DD-Ashley (18), DS-Zack (12), DD-Cassidy (almost 11), DS-Cody (almost 11), DS-Nick (8), DD-Olivia (3)

Christie / coastiewifern *Stateroom #6071
DS-Connor (9), DD-Ainslie (6)

Dana / dmja716 *Stateroom #6049
DS-Joey (4)

Les / izma *Stateroom #7509
DS-Bennett (11), DD-Kennedy (10)

Lin / bambilin *Stateroom #6562
DS-Dillon (almost 4), DS-Trevor (15 months)

Lin's friend, Alice *Stateroom #2534
DD-Rhiannon (10), DD-Patty (8)

Sharon / Waltworshiper *Stateroom #7022
DS-Mark (10), DS-John (9), DS-Matthew (6)

Sue / Disneyday *Staterooms #2075 & #2077
DD-Rosie (15), DDBF-Rhys (16), DD-Alice (9)​

Fish Extender Delivery Dates

Saturday, 11/15:
Lin / bambilin

Sunday, 11/16:
Christie / coastiewifern

Monday, 11/17:
Angie / MommyTo5
Sue / Disneyday

Tuesday, 11/18:
Sharon / Waltworshiper

Wednesday, 11/19:
Les / izma
Dana / dmja716

Thursday, 11/20:
Lin's friend, Alice

Friday, 11/21:
*No deliveries due to the fact that it's our final night, and we will all be packing! ​

 

[LauraLap]

Hi guys! Sorry I haven't been around much, I really should come by here more often.....I just upgraded our reservation from a cat 12 guarantee to a cat 5!!!!!!!!!!!! YIKES. This is a surprise for DH that hopefully he will enjoy. so now I'm even more excited than I was if that's even possible

I would really like to get into the fish extender thing if there is still room. I'm up for option A as well. It looks like there are a couple more spots so hopefully I can squeak in there.

OK, I'll come by more often now, I promise! We're going away for a week coming up (off to a family's cottage) after which my cruise diet will begin! Anyone else going to try to lose weight for the cruise?

The other thing I was thinking is don't you think maybe we should start putting pictures of ourselves (or at least our kiddos) in all of our siggies? It gives us a more familiar sense of each other. For example on my last cruise I could pick out people I had "chatted" with online based on their avatar's and such. Just a thought

 

[dmja716]

Good for you Laura on upgrading.

We need to add you to Angies list of fish extender participants above and my list matches too.

Some of us posted pics of our kids in the thread. I will find another more recent pic to add to my sig. Good idea. Dont forget we have the green bracelets too

 

[MommyTo5]

Hi guys! Sorry I haven't been around much, I really should come by here more often.....I just upgraded our reservation from a cat 12 guarantee to a cat 5!!!!!!!!!!!! YIKES. This is a surprise for DH that hopefully he will enjoy. so now I'm even more excited than I was if that's even possible

Wow - the upgrade sounds wonderful!

I would really like to get into the fish extender thing if there is still room. I'm up for option A as well. It looks like there are a couple more spots so hopefully I can squeak in there.

Awesome!!! Just added you to the list!

OK, I'll come by more often now, I promise! We're going away for a week coming up (off to a family's cottage) after which my cruise diet will begin! Anyone else going to try to lose weight for the cruise?

Have a great time! I'm going to try to start eating healthier and working out soon!

The other thing I was thinking is don't you think maybe we should start putting pictures of ourselves (or at least our kiddos) in all of our siggies? It gives us a more familiar sense of each other. For example on my last cruise I could pick out people I had "chatted" with online based on their avatar's and such. Just a thought

Great idea! I'm up for this!

 

[bambilin]

Okay... I believe that the following fish extender list is correct, as of right now anyway. Fish Extender participants: Please check your family's info and let me know of any changes and I'll make the corrections. Also, if anyone else would like to join our exchange, please post ASAP - or PM me - so that I can get your family added.

Fish Extender List

Angie / MommyTo5
DD-Ashley (18), DS-Zack (12), DD-Cassidy (almost 11), DS-Cody (almost 11), DS-Nick (8), DD-Olivia (3)
*Since most of the group wants to focus on younger kids (or at least that's the impression I'm getting), please don't feel obligated to include my oldest daughter who will be a high school Senior.

Christie / coastiewifern
DS-Connor (9), DD-Ainslie (6)

Dana / dmja716
DS-Joey (4)

Laura / LauraLap
DS-Josh (4), DD-Kaia (2.5)

Les / izma
DS (11), DD-Kennedy (10)
*Les, what's your son's name?

Lin / bambilin
DS-Dillon (almost 4), DS-Trevor (15 months)
Kids: *Lin, do you think your friends family would also like to participate?

Sue / Disneyday
DD-Rosie (15), DDBF-Rhys (16), DD-Alice (9)

& possibly
Kim / mommykeg
DD (11), DS (7)
*Kim, please let us know if you'd like to participate. ​

Thanks for putting us on the list. I will ask Alice but I had such a hard time trying to explain it to her I am not sure. I was trying to explain the boards and well, we just never got her on here. I was actually thinking if it seems like she isn't up to it, I might just do an extra gift for everyone on their behalf so her girls could be included!! I wiill let you know.

I guess it would be easier if we did not have to be assigned a date for delivery, but I can see what you mean about the kids having the gifts spread out instead of all at one. As always, I am OK with whatever the majority decides!

Oh and hey, we finally got our home computer back up, so I can check a little more often. Of course I am also back to work, so between that and the kiddo's not sure how often that will be!!

 

[2-4me]

Hello all. I'm new here and I will be on this magical cruise with you all. Just want to introduce myself. We are a family of 4. Myself, DH, DS-10 and DS-6. We are a pretty laid back family and just enjoy cruising. We booked our flight on AirTran a few weeks ago so i'm totally excited that search is over with. Now if only they will keep us on the schedule they have us on I would be totally grateful. I'm sure I'll have questions every so often and I'm sure you great group of people will be willing to answer. Almost at the 4 month countdown!!!!

 

[coastiewifern]

I went extender shopping today and picked up some stuff. I like the idea of being assigned a day so that there is not a day where nothing arrives. Doesn't matter to me what day I have. I also think it is great to let each family decide for themselves if they want to get for kids only or couples as well. That seems really flexible. Thanks for putting together the list. I guess we'll add room numbers to it closer to the time.
Wow I didn't know you could rent a tux on the cruise. That is neat. I don't know if we'll dress up that much or not though. I'd like to get a nice family pic on formal night though.