November 18, 2012 ~ Turkey day on the Wonder

[freemice]

I hope we can continue to keep the trip a secret from the kids until we arrive at the port.

 

[freemice]

We are so excited to meet up with everyone. We are also practically neighbors here in the Sacramento region. We look forward to the meet ups.

 

[adnil530]

We are so excited to meet up with everyone. We are also practically neighbors here in the Sacramento region. We look forward to the meet ups.

I don't know how some people manage to keep keep a secret like this. I get so excited that I can't contain myself lol.

We get out your way a few times a month. I'm working in Granite Bay today. My dds would love to be close to the Galleria!

Linda

 

[adnil530]

Hello Everyone! Normally I am a huge planner, but we just booked this cruise over the weekend. This will be our third Disney cruise, but we've never been to the MR before so looking forward to reading up on the various shore excursions. We'd love to join the FE group as well. There will be 3 of us - DH, DW and DD (5) and we'll be celebrating DD's birthday. DD has a variety of food allergies so please no candy or food products for her. We joined the FE group on our last cruise to Alaska and it was so much fun. Look forward to getting to know everyone over the coming months!

Hi G'sMaman
Welcome to our cozy group! This will be our 2nd Mexican Riviera. We want to enjoy the Wonder while she is here. What have you decided about the excursions?

I will update the FE list later and will take note of dd's allergies. Thank you very much for pointing them out. We do have a "please" no candy on this FE unless it is something special. I will ask you if she has allergies to cats or dogs also. The items I am making are fabric in nature and since I have a dog in the house, it is possible that some dander can get on the fabric while I am sitting on the couch working on these items. Please let me know so that I can pick an alternate gift if that is the case. Thank you!

Gotta get to work so that I can get back and work on FE gifts for our 9/30 mom and dad only cruise that is quickly approaching.

Enjoy your day!

Linda

 

[G'sMaman]

Hi G'sMaman
Welcome to our cozy group! This will be our 2nd Mexican Riviera. We want to enjoy the Wonder while she is here. What have you decided about the excursions?

I will update the FE list later and will take note of dd's allergies. Thank you very much for pointing them out. We do have a "please" no candy on this FE unless it is something special. I will ask you if she has allergies to cats or dogs also. The items I am making are fabric in nature and since I have a dog in the house, it is possible that some dander can get on the fabric while I am sitting on the couch working on these items. Please let me know so that I can pick an alternate gift if that is the case. Thank you!

Gotta get to work so that I can get back and work on FE gifts for our 9/30 mom and dad only cruise that is quickly approaching.

Enjoy your day!

Linda

Wow – another cruise before our Thanksgiving cruise! That is wonderful. Thanks so much for the welcome and for asking whether my daughter has allergies to cats or dogs. Very thoughtful of you! When she was a toddler, she had a terrible allergy to cats. Her eyes would just swell up whenever she came in close contact with a cat, but interestingly not dogs. Thankfully, she has outgrown that allergy and hasn’t had a reaction in years. Now, all she talks about is getting a kitten. I’ve gotten supplies for my FE gifts and can’t wait to get started. I only hope they turn out the way I’ve envisioned them in my mind.

As for excursions, I’m thinking of booking the Las Caletas in PV. Still up in the air about Cabo. I’m leaning towards a resort/beach type excursion, but the cost of the Disney excursion for 5 people (my parents may be joining us as well) is a bit pricey. I’m thinking we may be better off booking a room at one of the resorts and using their facilities even though we won’t actually be staying the night. Has anyone ever done this before in PV? If so, are there any hotels you would recommend? Thanks in advance.

 

[sranes]

Anyone doing Las Caletes I will warn you we just did this same exact cruise in February and we did Las Caletes half of the people on the boat go sea sick so if your prone to it watch out luckily my daughter did not

 

[G'sMaman]

Anyone doing Las Caletes I will warn you we just did this same exact cruise in February and we did Las Caletes half of the people on the boat go sea sick so if your prone to it watch out luckily my daughter did not

 

[freemice]

Yes, it is hard to keep this secret. There are so many times that I almost spill the beans in everyday conversation. DH and I talk about the trip in code. "When we go to the Queen Mary and stop and visit the Getty Museum, the Reagan Museum and Solvang".

 

[Double Trouble]

MEETUPS:

Meetups are a fun way to get the cruise started and a great opportunity to put faces to the disnames, meet some new friends/drinking buddies, and exchange ideas about everything from dining to excursions to whatever. We've done several of these in the past, as have many others, but we are always looking for suggestions and/or new ideas so feel free to speak up. Attendance at meetups is your option (although see note about FE and cabin changes)...it's your vacation after all, but I think you'll enjoy them. Here is a draft to get us started...

DLR/Hotel Pre-meets: Three of the more popular places to stay pre-cruise are Disneyland Resort (DLR), the DoubleTree (San Pedro), and the Crowne Plaza (San Pedro). If you are staying at any of these (or any other hotel) on Saturday or earlier) and would like to get together to hit the park, have a drink, or just a quick meet, just post it (or send me a PM if you prefer) and I'll track it here in this post. Once we get close to the date, those staying at the same hotel/area can coordinate via PM to meetup as desired.

DLR:
DoubleTree:
Crowne Plaza:
Other:

Cruise Terminal Prior to Boarding: Meet by the largest TV display where Disney movies/shows are playing. It's obvious...once you're through security, just go straight ahead past the restrooms towards the far wall and look on your right. There's plenty of seating, and TV for the kids while we wait for kids registration to open, Mickey's arrival for photos, and boarding to begin. I'll post a DIS sign as well to help you find us, or we can coordinate a color to look for. You'd be surprised...it's actually pretty easy to figure out who's in our group jsut from what you learn online. We are usually very early arrivers at the terminal so just look for us. I'll be looking chilled, but anxious to board, while my twin DDs will be running around to meet all their new friends and get the social activities going. This (and the onboard meet) is a great opportunity for the kids to premeet some friends and get over their shyness before hitting the Stack/Edge/Lab/Club/etc.



Onboard After Boarding: 3:00pm in the Promenade Lounge, Deck 3, Port Side. I'll have a sign there as well. If you are in the FE and have any cabin changes (port upgrade, Pixie Dust, etc), PLEASE make sure someone is there from your group so we can all update our FE delivery spreadsheets. For the newbies, lunch is available until 2:30, cabins open at 2:00 (although bags may not arrive until around 5:00), and meeting from 3 to 3:30 or so allows plenty of time to get to the lifeboat drill afterwards; and, then it's sailaway party time! We'll take a few minutes to introduce our familes, coordinate any similar interests (like running/walking/exercising, excursions, beverage tastings, sports, games, etc), and field any questions anyone may have about anything at all. After that, you'll be running into your new disfriends everywhere! We've made some amazing friend through DIS, so don't be shy.

Some tentative additional meetups to consider...

Monday (Sea Day) - Adults: TBD in the Outlook Cafe, Deck 10 just aft of the adult pool area, off the midship elevators. It's right above the Cove Cafe (Deck 9) so make sure you come upstairs to the right place. Bring your own beverage, or you can get one there as desired. It's a nice place to just hang out. Check it out on the DCL site.

Tuesday (Sea Day) - Everyone: TBD on the "secret verandah" (more on that later). We typically hang out here for cocktails every evening around 5:00 before early dining. We generally bring our own "spirits", or you can get them onboard.

Tastings - Adults (Individuals/Small Groups): As desired. I will bring a Guest Services projected schedule of tasting opportunities to the meetups so we can arrange some mini-groups as desired. These are held 3-4 times a day when the ship is at sea, and the final times/beverages are posted in the daily Navigators. You sign up individually at Guest Services, $15-20 per person...very educational and lots of fun to boot!

Please, if you have any inputs, suggestions, whatever....let me know. This is all for fun, and very flexible.

If you have any particular interest, please post it on this thread ahead of time so you can possibly find others to enjoy it with.

 

[tammie33]

Wow Double! Thank you for putting that together. I'm looking forward to meeting up with some fellow Disers during the week.

Right now, we are scheduled to fly in Friday night late. I'm not sure where we are staying yet. Originally we were going to do Universal Studios on Saturday, but now are debating Disney or just hanging out and relaxing.

We are typically not early risers, but I'm hoping to "trick" DH into getting to the terminal early because "we have to".

I'm definitely doing the tequilla tasting and am open to others.

A few questions for those of you who have done this before...

1. I am going to rent a car Friday night to Sunday morning. My thoughts were to return it to the airport and then have a town car pick me up, pick up my family at the hotel, and take us to the port. We'd use the same town service on the return. Any suggestions of a good company down in LA?

2. I am up in the air about Las Calletas due to the start time (7:30 is just a bit too early for my family). Was thinking about either doing the Paradise Beach Adventure or booking a canopy tour through Los Veranos (not Disney). Has anyone done either of these?

 

[sranes]

One question to DoubleTrouble we live in Southern California so we aren't staying at a hotel but would be happy to meet

 

[Double Trouble]

One question to DoubleTrouble we live in Southern California so we aren't staying at a hotel but would be happy to meet

We live in Nevada and may be driving to the port the morning of the cruise from San Diego this time (we normally stay at the Double Tree the night before, and still may). However, many SoCal DISers meet up at DLR or other places well before the cruise just to get to know each other a bit. Or, once we get the hotel pre-meets organized, you would certainly be welcome at any of those.

In the mean time, feel free to post or PM any other SoCal'ers if you have anything in common (kids, etc.).

See ya soon!

 

[Double Trouble]

Wow Double! Thank you for putting that together. I'm looking forward to meeting up with some fellow Disers during the week.

Right now, we are scheduled to fly in Friday night late. I'm not sure where we are staying yet. Originally we were going to do Universal Studios on Saturday, but now are debating Disney or just hanging out and relaxing.

We are typically not early risers, but I'm hoping to "trick" DH into getting to the terminal early because "we have to".

I'm definitely doing the tequilla tasting and am open to others.

A few questions for those of you who have done this before...

1. I am going to rent a car Friday night to Sunday morning. My thoughts were to return it to the airport and then have a town car pick me up, pick up my family at the hotel, and take us to the port. We'd use the same town service on the return. Any suggestions of a good company down in LA?

2. I am up in the air about Las Calletas due to the start time (7:30 is just a bit too early for my family). Was thinking about either doing the Paradise Beach Adventure or booking a canopy tour through Los Veranos (not Disney). Has anyone done either of these?

Tammie,

We don't live in SoCal so can't help with your first question, although if no one here comes up with anything, you can search the boards as I'm sure I've seen many posts before on this subject.

Regarding your second question (PV excursions) we are tentatively booked for Las Caletas but not sure as my Mom probably can't handle the boat ride (my kids are fine...they love to rock and roll). Haven't been to Paradise beach, but you can find many opinions/experiences on that by searching the boards or just googling.

Finally, Los Veranos...something I can help with as we have done it before...

This is a bit lengthy, but here's an overview from our experience. I'm sure some of the other previous MR cruisers can chime in with their thoughts as well as everyone's perspecitive can be different.

We did a couple of EXCURSIONS and got feedback from others in our group on other ones...

PV: We did the Los Veranos zip line and it was great! Check out their website and the reviews on tripadvisor.com. The employees were amazing and made it a blast. They take photos ($10 each) and video ($40) if you want, but we took some of our own. You finish at a restaurant right by the river while you wait about 1 hour for the return bus (unless you have a private van). We ate lunch (delicious!) and had some ice-cold beer and margaritas while the kids checked out the free (we left a nominal tip) exotic petting zoo. It was very relaxing after zipping through the trees…time well spent.

Anyway, for the particulars…We did not book through DCL as they want a minimum age of 10, and $99/person. I booked it direct through the Los Veranos website http://www.canopytours-vallarta.com/ at 2 adults and two kids for a total of $238. Their minimum age is 6, but we had a couple of "almost 6" kids in our group...no problem. If you book direct you have to take a cab, (we crowded 5 people into each cab) to their office (about $14 in a “yellow” cab, slightly more in a “tourist” or tan cab) or other pickup point (costs a bit less if it’s closer…see website) so that adds a few dollars to the total. You then board a bus (included) for a beautiful ride southbound down the coast to the zip line facility (the bus took us directly back to the ship afterwards).

I booked ahead of time as we had a group of 10 and just wanted to be sure; however, you can do the whole thing for even less money (confirmed this with others we met) by negotiating with the van and tourist taxi drivers inside the port fence (literally just after you walk off the ship). You can basically put a tour package together on the spot and negotiate the price. One family in our group got a 4-hour tour in a private taxi for a total of $75 (went to several sites/beaches but not zip line). Another group we met got a private van to the beach, tequila factory, and zip line for about $50/person. It’s basically whatever you want to do and for whatever you can negotiate. Just to clarify, these are with the tour operators using white vans and tan taxis inside the port fence. They all speak English and were very friendly and fair in my opinion. Even our driver (we took tan tourist cabs this time as I was able to negotiate a good price for two) said he could have gotten the zip line tour for us cheaper if we had not already pre-booked and paid. It’s how their economy works I guess. You could also probably work a deal with a regular yellow taxi cab outside the fence, but from our experience you might have to brush up on you Español first.

Other things in PV: You can walk south from the port to some of the beaches (hotels and beach bars), but they’re a bit close to the port for my taste. You can also take a cab to the Malecón, which is basically a concrete “boardwalk” that runs down the coastal beach to the south in town. There is shopping (including the mercado down by the river), lots of art (statues, unbelievable sand castles), entertainment (guys swinging on ropes from a pole), a beautiful church, and food/drinks. The beaches get nicer the further south you go. If you just want a taste of PV without getting too adventurous, the Malecón is perfect. It’s about a $12 cab ride (for a family) each way from the port, and full of locals and tourists alike.

Others in our group took the Pirate Ship Excursion (booked though DCL). The Pirate ship picks you up right in the port before setting out to sea. Some had a lot of fun, but others (I want to be honest) had some issues with seasickness onboard. Having not done it personally, I recommend you check it out on the boards. Others did the DCL ATV excursion and had a great time, although they got filthy. You can do a dolphin and/or sea lion swim in PV as well. Be aware DCL charges $35 for non-participants and/or observers for the bus ride to the facility; however, PV lets you take your own pictures (where Cabo does not). There is also another zipline that includes a mule ride and rappelling down a waterfall if you’re so “inclined” (lol). Check out Vallarta Adventures at http://www.vallarta-adventures.com/. I’ve also heard the marina area (to the north of the cruise ship area) is nice but I haven’t been.

Lots of info, but I hope it helps! More later on Cabo...

 

[kennedyparalegal]

I just talked to my daughter who is starting to get excited about the cruise. She would like to talk to some others to get to know a few people before the cruise. She is 16, into theatre, books and writing short stories and poetry. I encouraged her to get on and introduce herself. We shall see if she does (she is kind of busy with working on her school's play right now).

If there is a better way to do this let me know.

Thanks,
Patti

 

[freemice]

I just talked to my daughter who is starting to get excited about the cruise. She would like to talk to some others to get to know a few people before the cruise. She is 16, into theatre, books and writing short stories and poetry. I encouraged her to get on and introduce herself. We shall see if she does (she is kind of busy with working on her school's play right now).

If there is a better way to do this let me know.

Thanks,
Patti

Our DD is 15 1/2 and is into theatre, singing and playing the piano. BUT.....we are the ones keeping the cruise a secret and surprising them. Something they asked us to do a long time ago, just pick up and go. We look forward to at least meeting at the port or on the ship. We are staying at the Miyako Hybrid Hotel in Torrance Saturday night. It sounded cool and it rated high with trip advisor.

 

[kennedyparalegal]

Freemice, meeting at the port would be great. We are driving in the morning of the cruise and our boarding time is 12:30. We are coming from the San Francisco area so if we don't see you at the port we can meet at the first meet maybe?

 

[adnil530]

Hi Everybody

Just a quick note that I have updated the FE list. Should be up to date now. We haven't really discussed a cut off point for the FE. I'm going to suggest October 1 is the last day to sign up. Our list is small so about 45 days to complete the gifts??? If you have a different idea, chime in!

Sranes granddaughter Katie has been working on a logo. I'm hoping she posts it soon so I can add it to the front page! Then those who would like to make some magnets or incorporate the logo in our FE gift can use it. I've had a sneak peak and can't wait for everyone to see it! Thanks Katie!

Thank you doubletrouble for the meetups. I missed a few of the meets last cruise that I wanted to attend. I would like to join you for some of the tastings...that would be fun. And of course meet up in the terminal.

We are staying precruise night at the Vagabond, great rate with parking and it's only for one night.

Someone asked about a shuttle and here is what someone posted on another cruise thread: Payless has $10 and $12 specials from LAX, Long Beach and John Wayne airports to the cruise port. I am using Super Shuttle in December, $38 for 2 people that will take us to the Crowne the night before our cruise. The $10 rate looks like it is for groups of 8 or more.

KennedyParalegal and Freemice (if you spill the beans) I have a dd16. She has done some theater and is into dance right now. How would you suggest the girls chat?

Our dd16 had all 4 of her wisdom teeth taken out this am. What was suppose to be a 30 minute procedure took almost an hour. Thankfully she was fully asleep. I am feeling so sorry for her. I'm home today taking care of her. Poor baby

 

[sranes]

Your welcome we can post it tonight or tomorrow and we are going to definitely make a magnet for our FE gift and are thinking about maybe something for the kids but not sure

 

[sranes]

here is the logo and a link to it in photobucket ...

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj75/sranes/thanksgivingcruiselogo.png

 

[adnil530]

here is the logo and a link to it in photobucket ...

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj75/sranes/thanksgivingcruiselogo.png

Awesome Job! And THANK YOU KATIE. I've posted the logo on the first page also

Linda