November 3, 2012 - Election Escape Eastern!!

[katzs13]

I was wondering if everybody wanted a cutoff date for the fe. If you did how about the end of August?
What do we do for the people after that date?
Just want some input from everybody. Please. Thank you

 

[ntheory]

I was wondering if everybody wanted a cutoff date for the fe. If you did how about the end of August?
What do we do for the people after that date?
Just want some input from everybody. Please. Thank you

Personally, I would like a cut off date. That would insure that I could complete enough FE gifts for the ones on the list - and that I can find enough of the objects I need. That's just my opinion, though.

The end of August is fine.

We could have a late sign up list - separate from our regular FE list. That way, if we have something that we could deliver, then we could add them to our personal list, and they could join in. They could know up-front that they may or may not get things from those on the list since they were after the cut off date. What do you think?? Does that even make sense??? I'm tired, and my brain isn't working well!!

 

[disneyfan888]

I love the idea of the big logo in the front
I am also very excited because we ordered our FE and it should be arriving within the next 2 days!!! The person who made it sent me a picture through email and I am more than pleased! I will try to post a pic if I can remember my photobucket password
1 month and 4 days until we could book excursions! I can't wait!!!

 

[TomsRiverNJMickeyFan]

I was wondering if everybody wanted a cutoff date for the fe. If you did how about the end of August?
What do we do for the people after that date?
Just want some input from everybody. Please. Thank you

I agree that there would be a need for a FE cutoff. I would be able to live with the end of August, but would like to suggest the 15th of August also.

At least that way would have the opportunity to plan and order before the school year craziness get's into full swing.

 

[bfosbenner]

Hi Everybody! I haven't read through the thread yet to get to "know" you (but I WILL do that soon!) but I wanted to take a moment to introduce ourselves.

This cruise on the Fantasy will be our 6th Disney cruise (first on a new ship ). For my own sanity, I've put off coming here until now since we had a big Disneyworld vacation at the beginning of this month and I can only plan so much stuff at once!

We are a family of 3 - Pamela (pdarrah) 47, DH Dan 45 & DS Darrah 13.


We actually booked this cruise back on our last cruise (well, it was a placeholder date for a while & then moved to this date once released) so it will be 2 full years by the time this rolls around. We picked this date because our school district has always had at least 2 days off (Election day & Fri for parent-teacher conferences) Of course, they changed everything this year and we only get Election day off LOL. Oh well, DS is in 8th grade & his school is pretty good about allowing good students to take time for a family vacation.

.

So, were you guys with us on the Not So Scary Halloween 7 day western cruise Oct 2010?

We booked a dummy cruise on board also!

 

[Daniellenbella]

Hi Everybody! I haven't read through the thread yet to get to "know" you (but I WILL do that soon!) but I wanted to take a moment to introduce ourselves.


We actually booked this cruise back on our last cruise (well, it was a placeholder date for a while & then moved to this date once released) so it will be 2 full years by the time this rolls around. We picked this date because our school district has always had at least 2 days off (Election day & Fri for parent-teacher conferences) Of course, they changed everything this year and we only get Election day off LOL. Oh well, DS is in 8th grade & his school is pretty good about allowing good students to take time for a family vacation.

Hello! I see you are from NJ! We are planning a NJ Meet up prior to the cruise since there are SO MANY NJ families. If you would like to join us, please pm me your email address and I'll add you to our list.
(That goes for any other NJ families too! If you didn't see my previous message, just PM me your email address! )

I can't believe your school isn't off for NJ Teacher's Convention?! I figured those days off were just a given!

I was wondering if everybody wanted a cutoff date for the fe. If you did how about the end of August?
What do we do for the people after that date?
Just want some input from everybody. Please. Thank you

A cutoff sounds like a great idea to me! Last cruise people kept joining up until the last minute and it was really hard to keep up. Someone was getting married and at the last minute included her whole wedding group which had to be 20 extra people! It caused me to have to change my FE gift to per room instead of pp (they were homemade magnets).

End of Aug is fine, Aug 15th works too I think it's fine to let any latecomers start a new list with the understanding they may not get something from everyone.

 

[disneyfan888]

A cutoff sounds like a great idea to me! Last cruise people kept joining up until the last minute and it was really hard to keep up. Someone was getting married and at the last minute included her whole wedding group which had to be 20 extra people! It caused me to have to change my FE gift to per room instead of pp (they were homemade magnets).

End of Aug is fine, Aug 15th works too I think it's fine to let any latecomers start a new list with the understanding they may not get something from everyone.[/QUOTE]


You brought up a great point. I know some groups organize it to be per room or per person in room. Are we doing per person? I have been buying things for the exchange thinking its going to be this way but as some people mentioned if too many people sign up at the last minute and we do not have enough things, that would probably change things a bit. So, I am all for the cut off date as well. That way we can plan accordingly.

 

[ntheory]

You brought up a great point. I know some groups organize it to be per room or per person in room. Are we doing per person? I have been buying things for the exchange thinking its going to be this way but as some people mentioned if too many people sign up at the last minute and we do not have enough things, that would probably change things a bit. So, I am all for the cut off date as well. That way we can plan accordingly.

On both of my previous cruises, the gift(s) you choose are up to you - you can choose whether to do a cabin gift or a per person gift. Some do adult gifts and kid gifts. I like having the choice, personally.

 

[pdarrah]

So, were you guys with us on the Not So Scary Halloween 7 day western cruise Oct 2010?

We booked a dummy cruise on board also!

Yes, we were on the Halloween cruise Did you do the trick-or-treat event? My son was the Mad Hatter (J Depp style) - my mother made his costume and it was pretty cool

Hello! I see you are from NJ! We are planning a NJ Meet up prior to the cruise since there are SO MANY NJ families. If you would like to join us, please pm me your email address and I'll add you to our list.
(That goes for any other NJ families too! If you didn't see my previous message, just PM me your email address! )

I can't believe your school isn't off for NJ Teacher's Convention?! I figured those days off were just a given!

Nope, Not NJ - We are from near Chicago. Our school just always used to do 2 days of Parent/Teacher conferences that week (Th & Fri) so with Election day off (they use the schools as polling places) it was a 2 day week and ideal for taking off - they basically accomplished nothing at school with just a Monday & Wednesday week. Now we'll be missing 4 days, but I expect Monday won't be a real productive day since they'll have Tuesday off. I've known that NJ had time off then because we always seem to be traveling during "Jersey Week" whether its on a cruise or to the parks!

Just a comment on the FE - Totally agree there should be a cutoff date or else planning is just too difficult. On at least one of our cruises we have had a 2nd post-cutoff list that folks could optionally include. Basically, if someone had extras or didn't have a problem adding people late and the people on that list gave to the 2nd group.

On the per room vs per person question - for all 5 of our prior cruises it was decided to leave that up to each individual. It kind of depends on the gift. Some things make more sense per room & others only make sense per person.

 

[Daniellenbella]

Nope, Not NJ - We are from near Chicago. Our school just always used to do 2 days of Parent/Teacher conferences that week (Th & Fri) so with Election day off (they use the schools as polling places) it was a 2 day week and ideal for taking off - they basically accomplished nothing at school with just a Monday & Wednesday week. Now we'll be missing 4 days, but I expect Monday won't be a real productive day since they'll have Tuesday off. I've known that NJ had time off then because we always seem to be traveling during "Jersey Week" whether its on a cruise or to the parks!

Oops! Sometimes I see things I *want* or *expect* to see, not what's really there...sorry!

 

[conny264]

San Juan Excursions are now up on the Disneycruise site.
I guess we will stick to our original plan and walk San Juan on our own.
Conny

 

[Daniellenbella]

San Juan Excursions are now up on the Disneycruise site.
I guess we will stick to our original plan and walk San Juan on our own.
Conny

Thanks for the heads up!

None of them are going to work for us either. The ones we would want, Isabella isn't old enough for and The El Yunque Hike is quite pricey!

To anyone who knows PR: What do you think about renting a car and driving out to El Yunque? Do you think we could do that and be back in time for 4:30?

 

[bfosbenner]

Yes, we were on the Halloween cruise Did you do the trick-or-treat event? My son was the Mad Hatter (J Depp style) - my mother made his costume and it was pretty cool



Yes, DD was a "nerd" and DS was in a Jeff Gordon suit!

Only the DCL trick or treat not the DIS event.

We did Captain Marvins also.

 

[disneyfan888]

Thanks for the heads up!

None of them are going to work for us either. The ones we would want, Isabella isn't old enough for and The El Yunque Hike is quite pricey!

To anyone who knows PR: What do you think about renting a car and driving out to El Yunque? Do you think we could do that and be back in time for 4:30?

Hi there
To be honest, I think it's a bit risky. Your looking at an 1-1 1/2 to go and an 1- 1/2 to come back. Its not the same when someone takes you as to when you dont know the area. Traffic can get pretty bad in the morning, around noon around 4pm rush hour starts. Not to mention the time you will take getting to the nearest car rental, wait to get the car and do all that when you come back to go to port.

By the way the el Yunque hike down to the waterfall is gorgeous, but I would not recommend it for anyone who has any sensitive health issues or asthma. Going down is a breeze, its coming up that almost killed me twice! The first time I did, I told myself as much as I enjoyed getting in the water (which is freezing by the way, but so good) I got asthma going back up. It is long and steep. I lost my breath, it was horrible. Then I did it a second time with family that came on vacation when we used to live there and they insisted me doing it and would not take no for an answer. I wanted to spend time with them so I went and did it. Had a beautiful time at the waterfall and I felt like I was going to die coming back up. This was when my health was better, but the asthma still got to me. It is not definitely something anyone can do. I saw others having the same problems. Just wanted to give a heads up. I don't want to scare anyone from doing it because it is wonderful. I wish I could do it again, but I will not risk it a third time. Their are still many other things to be done at the rain forest. As for us, all we want to do is go to el Morro and the San Cristobal fort. We shall take it easy and stroll through Old San Juan. If we have time we will go to Plaza Las Americas, the mall in Hato Rey which is part of San Juan, but not at the port. I thought that would have more offerings. Im guessing they did not offer el Morro because its literally a couple of minutes to walk when one gets off. I hope everyone has fun planning!

 

[conny264]

Thanks for the detailed report of your experiencewih the Waterfall.That would be the only excursion I would consider but I have Multple sklerosis so there is no way for me to do it.
San Juan in a leisure way sounds more and moer appealing to us.Are the streets fairly even or mostly cobblerstone(not sure it´s thr right word,you know-uneven stones)?Than I would need to bring my good walking shoes for support.
We stll are totally undecided what we want to do in St.Thomas.Definitly Paradise Point on our own because the Bushwacker Cocktail they have up there was the best we ever had.
Can´t wait untill it´s finally time to pack our backs and fly to Florida,we are in serious need for some nice weather.Over here it´s cold and rainy and they still call it summer
Take care and lots of greetings from Germany
Conny

 

[Daniellenbella]

Hi there
To be honest, I think it's a bit risky. Your looking at an 1-1 1/2 to go and an 1- 1/2 to come back. Its not the same when someone takes you as to when you dont know the area. Traffic can get pretty bad in the morning, around noon around 4pm rush hour starts. Not to mention the time you will take getting to the nearest car rental, wait to get the car and do all that when you come back to go to port.

By the way the el Yunque hike down to the waterfall is gorgeous, but I would not recommend it for anyone who has any sensitive health issues or asthma. Going down is a breeze, its coming up that almost killed me twice! The first time I did, I told myself as much as I enjoyed getting in the water (which is freezing by the way, but so good) I got asthma going back up. It is long and steep. I lost my breath, it was horrible. Then I did it a second time with family that came on vacation when we used to live there and they insisted me doing it and would not take no for an answer. I wanted to spend time with them so I went and did it. Had a beautiful time at the waterfall and I felt like I was going to die coming back up. This was when my health was better, but the asthma still got to me. It is not definitely something anyone can do. I saw others having the same problems. Just wanted to give a heads up. I don't want to scare anyone from doing it because it is wonderful. I wish I could do it again, but I will not risk it a third time. Their are still many other things to be done at the rain forest. As for us, all we want to do is go to el Morro and the San Cristobal fort. We shall take it easy and stroll through Old San Juan. If we have time we will go to Plaza Las Americas, the mall in Hato Rey which is part of San Juan, but not at the port. I thought that would have more offerings. Im guessing they did not offer el Morro because its literally a couple of minutes to walk when one gets off. I hope everyone has fun planning!

Thank you for your input! That is very disappointing to hear though. Going to El Yunque and do the La Mira walk was the only thing that excited me (so far) (well, besides the zip lines but DH said too expensive ). Any suggestions for a nice quiet beach? or places to get a good lunch? We aren't interested in shopping. Do you know anything about the Old Harbor Brewery?

 

[disneyfan888]

Thank you for your input! That is very disappointing to hear though. Going to El Yunque and do the La Mira walk was the only thing that excited me (so far) (well, besides the zip lines but DH said too expensive ). Any suggestions for a nice quiet beach? or places to get a good lunch? We aren't interested in shopping. Do you know anything about the Old Harbor Brewery?

The Old Harbor Brewery is great! We don't drink, but we went to eat and the food was fantastic. A bit pricey, but good. The restaurant is nice, nice ambiance. As for a beach, I don't think any of them will be quite, quite considering school is out and San Juan is where a lot of people go to, but our favorite in San Juan is "El Escambrón" which is also known as "Parque del Tercer Milenio" or in English "Third Millennium Park" We like this one because although it is not a huge shore line, it's protected by huge boulders which makes the swimming area enclosed. Dh loved going here because he felt protected that nothing would come into the bay (He is terrified of almost all sea creatures). Its really nice, the water is great! Its the closest bathing beach from the port. I would say its about 30 minutes to walk. Their is a restaurant where you can buy food if you get hungry and you have people selling souvenirs and beach gear.

I hope this helps! Please let me know if I can assist further

 

[storms71]

We will be having a Meet and Greet on boarding day at the BonvVoyage Lounge located on deck 3 behind guest services starting at @3:00 Pm and ending @ 3:45 PM just before the munster drill this will give us a chance to meet everyone this includes all kids. The space was chosen because it is near the gift shops and The Walt Disney Thearte this will give us plenty of space. Hope to be on the chat on Friday depending if I still have a softball game or not if so I will talk to everyone on the next chat. I will update any changes if needed.

 

[Daniellenbella]

The Old Harbor Brewery is great! We don't drink, but we went to eat and the food was fantastic. A bit pricey, but good. The restaurant is nice, nice ambiance. As for a beach, I don't think any of them will be quite, quite considering school is out and San Juan is where a lot of people go to, but our favorite in San Juan is "El Escambrón" which is also known as "Parque del Tercer Milenio" or in English "Third Millennium Park" We like this one because although it is not a huge shore line, it's protected by huge boulders which makes the swimming area enclosed. Dh loved going here because he felt protected that nothing would come into the bay (He is terrified of almost all sea creatures). Its really nice, the water is great! Its the closest bathing beach from the port. I would say its about 30 minutes to walk. Their is a restaurant where you can buy food if you get hungry and you have people selling souvenirs and beach gear.

I hope this helps! Please let me know if I can assist further

HUGE help, thank you!!

 

[Daniellenbella]

We will be having a Meet and Greet on boarding day at the BonvVoyage Lounge located on deck 3 behind guest services starting at @3:00 Pm and ending @ 3:45 PM just before the munster drill this will give us a chance to meet everyone this includes all kids. The space was chosen because it is near the gift shops and The Walt Disney Thearte this will give us plenty of space. Hope to be on the chat on Friday depending if I still have a softball game or not if so I will talk to everyone on the next chat. I will update any changes if needed.

Thanks!!