November 5th 2011 Eastern on the Magic

[Wish I lived in Fl]

Brandon loves planes also. He especially likes the old fighter planes right now (ie. B-52s, P-51s, etc.) He likes flight sim also and the Wii airplane games. I'm going to ask him if he has "flown" into St. Maarten. My DH is a pilot so I'm sure there is some influence there. I don't know if they will really push to go to Maho Beach but I know they are talking about it.

http://www.fantasyofflight.com/
http://www.navalaviationmuseum.org/

 

[LovesToRun]

Hi everyone,

I have a super busy day today, so won't be able to post much, but just quickly read what has been posted so far today.

We also have late dining.... we booked this cruise late May, and only late dining was available then. We have had both late and early dining. We do prefer early dining only because neither of us like feeling super full late at night. I know about changing your dining time when you get on the ship (or requesting a change), but I'm trying to decide... We will be coming from the West Coast, so our body time will be 3 hours behind east coast time. The last time we had late dining, we had been at WDW for a week, so by the time we got on the ship, we were already adjusted to east coast time, so the 8:15 seating seemed super late! But, this trip, I'm considering experimenting and "trying" to stay more on west coast time the whole time and stay up late, and then sleep in until like 9). I have no idea if that would work, or our bodies would stay on west coast time.

But, I know for sure when we are in St. Maarten, we probably won't be back on the ship until 6 PM, so if we had early dining, we'd miss it that day and have to do the buffet, but if we had late dining, on the St. Maarten day, we'd for sure make dinner.

SOOOO, I don't know.... we'll probably stay at late dining, and just deal with it. One nice thing about late dining is the servers are more relaxed and you don't feel rushed as much, because they are not trying to get ready for the next group of people.

Also, our boys are fine staying up late, so the biggest issue w/ us for late dining is just eating so much late at night, which we don't like to do normally. hmmmm... boy, the tough decisions in life you have to make when on a cruise!

-Kathy

 

[Daniellenbella]

LOL Kathy! We have late dining as well We figured we would just deal with it this time around and see how it goes. I feel like the early dining would just be too early for us.

Danielle

 

[rob_jen]

We had late dining last time and it was not bad. The good thing is when you sit down the waiters will bring the kids food right away and I think about 1/2 hour in the camp counselors will show up and bring the kids to the camp so the adults can enjoy the rest of their meals while the kids play. We loved this last time.

 

[flygrl]

Well glad to hear that on the dining page we are "all on the same boat!" LOL
Today I booked our hotel the night before and the shuttle to the cruise and my sister rented the car from the airport to the hotel... This is a lot of planning for a cruise...

 

[rob_jen]

Well glad to hear that on the dining page we are "all on the same boat!" LOL
Today I booked our hotel the night before and the shuttle to the cruise and my sister rented the car from the airport to the hotel... This is a lot of planning for a cruise...

Where are you staying the night before? We still can't decide. If its one night we will stay near the port. Save a ton of money too.

What we may want to do is fly in Thursday and stay at a WDW resort then drive to the port on Saturday morning. This is what I want to do but I do not know if its worth pulling the kids out of school for one more day. They would be missing Friday and 3 days during the cruise week already. We would not go to a park (resiting) but relax at a nice resort and go to downtown Disney at night.

Cant make up my mind. I wish there was a really nice resort near the port to stay.

 

[flygrl]

We are flying down Nov 4, booked in at the:
Radisson Resort at the Port
8701 ASTRONAUT BOULEVARD
CAPE CANAVERAL, FL 32920
(321) 784-0000
http://www.radisson.com/

I booked the shuttle to the ship already for 10:30a (not too sure if it is too early...) Kids 6 and under are free the rest was $4.00 per person.

I paid more than I would want but my sister is splitting so I guess it would be normal rate then. I never thought of going to a Disney Resort but guess we will have to do that another time. Darcie and I want to shop a bit as well the day we get in we rented a car from Hertz and then just hang out at the pool.

Still debating on what to do on the 12th when we arrive back. We are leaving that day as well.... Kathy (grandma) sent some links I am going to check out... Might do that now, I should be working....LOL

 

[flygrl]

Here is a picture of Darcie (my sister) and her son Dennis who is 5... Dennis does not speak too much English just Swedish, though he fully understands English.

[/IMG]

Tanya

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Nice photo Tanya. He is a cutie !!

Nice to see so much posting again today. I knew you guys were chatter boxes like me

Looks like most of us have late dining. We have always changed to early but this time Greg said maybe we wont try to change because like was stated above we don't want to have to rush back on the ship from the islands, also we love standing up on deck 10 watching us pull out of port, especially the first day. You cant do that and have early dining.


Just have to watch the time for pirate night. Dont want to be late for that, plus if we are full from dinner we wouldnt feel like eating the buffet they have set out there too. Thats the only downside I can think of.

Kathy

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Band on deck 10

Breakfast cereal

This was my last cruise meets group. We barely fit on the stairs for a group shot. much larger group than we are huh?

Bay in St Maartin

The way to the adult clubs

Our last cabin on the Magic

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

I would like to suggest we have our meet the first day at 3 P.M. in the Promenade lounge.

Then we can meet face to face and the kids will have time to meet in person so they will know someone before going to the clubs.

Here is why I am suggesting this place and time over other places.

1. For new people it is really easy to find.
Once you board the ship they always send you down a hallway to your left for lunch. As you walk down that hallway you will walk right past the Promenade lounge.

2. This is a family lounge and there is never anything going on there the first afternoon accept for selling of water and wine packages sometimes.
Plenty of tables and chairs for everyone. Especially if we sit at the end near the Computer area.

3. There is a bar if anyone wants a drink. Its ok to bring pop or coffee, tea or cocoa from the free drink station on deck 9 there if you want. Bathrooms are close too.

4. It's inside so the weather won't matter and its quiet so we can hear ourselves talk. Outside by the pools is really noisy.

5. By 3 p.m. everyone is usually on board and have had time for them to have had lunch, checked out their rooms and checked out the kids clubs.
The mandatory safety drill is always around 4 p.m. so this still give us time before that.

6. Any other day on the ship people will be busy running around having fun. After the drill will be the Adventures away party, then dinner, shows etc..
Any earlier and people may not be on the ship yet.

So what do the rest of you think??

This is everyones cruise so lets hear if you have a better place and time or if you like this one.

Once we have all decided I will include the information with the FE list i have made for everyone.

Speak up and let's hear what everyone thinks about this.

Kathy

 

[Mulanrocks]

Hi never posted on dis boards (read it for info all the time) before but thought it might be fun. Just booked this cruise for dh and I and couldn't be more excited. Hoping my sister and parents will join us but that depends on other factors for now. My family is big into Disney, I did a college internship there with my sister, she stayed and works in magic kingdom. We go to Disney every year (my poor husband) but this is our first Disney cruise. We got married two years ago on a carnival ship, but I think we'll like Disney better. Still 12 more days tell I can book excursions, hoping the goods ones don't fill up. Any ideas on what is interesting for adults, okay swimmers, no long bus rides (I get sick) would be welcome. Thanks!

 

[flygrl]

The meeting place and time is great for us Just will need to find it....LOL
Welcome Mulanrocks! You are going to love this thread
Tanya

 

[SLM]

We are also doing late dining-but requested it since we are just two adults! Thought we'd leave the early slots for families with children that might not be able to wait.
The time and meeting place works for us-looking forward to putting names and faces together!

Sandy

 

[Jetflyer]

We also have late dining as well but we requested it. We like to see the ship sail from ports and watch the sunsets.

Hopefully, Brandon will eat with us at some of the dinners. Sometimes he likes to eat earlier and go to the kids club.

We also made reservations for Palo the night of our anniversary!

 

[Jetflyer]

We stayed at the Radisson in February when we went on the Dream. It is a very attractive resort. The grounds are very well laid out and we had a 1br suite with a huge jacuzzi.

We have also stayed at the Residence Inn by Marriot. It is next door to the Radisson. It is also very nice and includes a free breakfast. We will drive up from Fort Lauderdale on Friday. Have to be at the ship nice and early!!

We are flying down Nov 4, booked in at the:
Radisson Resort at the Port
8701 ASTRONAUT BOULEVARD
CAPE CANAVERAL, FL 32920
(321) 784-0000
http://www.radisson.com/

I booked the shuttle to the ship already for 10:30a (not too sure if it is too early...) Kids 6 and under are free the rest was $4.00 per person.

I paid more than I would want but my sister is splitting so I guess it would be normal rate then. I never thought of going to a Disney Resort but guess we will have to do that another time. Darcie and I want to shop a bit as well the day we get in we rented a car from Hertz and then just hang out at the pool.

Still debating on what to do on the 12th when we arrive back. We are leaving that day as well.... Kathy (grandma) sent some links I am going to check out... Might do that now, I should be working....LOL

 

[Jetflyer]

Thank you for the info on Maho Beach. I am going to look at the sites over the weekend.

Here are two sites that tell a lot about Maho Beach, and the first one says the 747's usually land about 2:00 PM and take off around 4:00 PM... but both sites say the best time to hit Maho beach is between 1:30 pm- 5:00 pm.

http://www.sint-maarten.net/St-Maarten-Beaches/MahoBay.html

http://www.vacationideas.me/caribbean/maho-beach-st-marteen-planes-landing-head/


At St. Maarten, we have to be back on board the ship BY 6:30 PM, so I'm guessing if you stay at Maho Beach until 4:00 to watch at least one 747 take off, you should make it back by 6:30... I can't imagine it'd take more than 2 1/2 hours to get from the airport to the Port... BUT, when I call Bernards Tours, they will know. If we miss seeing the 747's take off, no big deal... We'll for sure get to see them land because we'll for sure be able to be at the beach at 2 PM no problem. But, we'll be seeing smaller jets (737's, etc) take off if staying until 4 PM is too risky.

Once I call Bernards, I'll post here what info I found out. I probably won't call them until next week because we are going out of town this Thursday - Sunday, and tomorrow is a super crazy day for me. But, I'll get to calling them as soon as possible. I do know the group tour is $40/pp, so for a family of 4, the group tour will be $160.00 (then I'm sure people tip a little). So, my guess is a private tour would be like $250 - $300. Just a guess on my part...

 

[Jetflyer]

We haven't been to these museums yet. We will have to make a point of seeing them. We went to a great airshow put on by Emery Riddle last year on Daytona Beach. Always looking for a good airshow on the beach.

http://www.fantasyofflight.com/
http://www.navalaviationmuseum.org/

 

[Jetflyer]

Mom x 4,

The meeting time and place are very well thought out. It is perfect.

We will be there!

I also think there will be as many people there as in the photo you had.

It is still a few months away and look how many people are already

interested.

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Hi never posted on dis boards (read it for info all the time) before but thought it might be fun. Just booked this cruise for dh and I and couldn't be more excited. Hoping my sister and parents will join us but that depends on other factors for now. My family is big into Disney, I did a college internship there with my sister, she stayed and works in magic kingdom. We go to Disney every year (my poor husband) but this is our first Disney cruise. We got married two years ago on a carnival ship, but I think we'll like Disney better. Still 12 more days tell I can book excursions, hoping the goods ones don't fill up. Any ideas on what is interesting for adults, okay swimmers, no long bus rides (I get sick) would be welcome. Thanks!

WELCOME


Great to have more people along.

I also am into Disney big time. Love it!!!
My name is Kathy, actually I am one of the Kathy's DH is Greg and our adult son Peter will be with us.

What are your names?
Would you like to join in on the FE exchange? If your not sure what it is we can explain it to you.
I am keeping a list of all who want to participate and will send it out soon, although I will be adding to it as more people join this cruise thread. So I will keep revising and resending up to the cruise.

This thread is really coming to life lately and we are all looking forward to getting aquainted and meeting on board.
You cant send PM's until you post either 12 or 15 times but if you want to ask questions about the FER or the meet feel free to e-mail me at sixtoedfrog@yahoo.com

Do you guys like to hike? There is an eco hike on St. Johns and a Mountian hile (downhill) on St. Maartin. lots of islands tours. Most are open air safari type buses, not sure if thats ok for you.

Looking forward to getting aquainted the next few weeks,

Kathy