November 5th 2011 Eastern on the Magic

[NC2WDW]

thanks. GPS says 9:45 but with 2 kids we are planning 12 hours. We will be leaving NC about 5am.

We are about 150 miles north of you and we are leaving around 5am as well. We have driven to DisneyWorld twice from this location and it took us about 11 hours. We stop every two hours to refill gas (whether we need it or not) and use the restroom. We also pretty much drove the speed limit.

Wear your plaid hat from your website so we can spot you in case we catch up with you if you leave later or something!

 

[NC2WDW]

We are doing the Best of St. John's Tour and the Under Two Flags Tour in St. Maarten. My mom is planning on doing at least one shore excursion with us. She signed up for both but she's thinking she will get a massage instead due to her back injury. When we board we will try to get specifics as I don't think she will like those winding drives that Gma Kathy mentioned. My mom's Dr. told her to do what she felt comfortable, therefore she is able to do excursions at her discretion. Hey, I might cancel one if I feel unsafe on the side of a mountain!

 

[wtgilligan]

We are about 150 miles north of you and we are leaving around 5am as well. We have driven to DisneyWorld twice from this location and it took us about 11 hours. We stop every two hours to refill gas (whether we need it or not) and use the restroom. We also pretty much drove the speed limit.

Wear your plaid hat from your website so we can spot you in case we catch up with you if you leave later or something!

Awesome. I will look for you guys on the road.

I won't be wearing the hat, it actually belongs to one of my youth group girls and I was wearing while playing my guitar shirt for youth group.



P.S. My last post was number 2000 for this discussion!!

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Hi everyone... Well, today the excitement REALLY set in!! Wow, I feel like a little kid feels just before Christmas!!

My husband just texted me saying he is even getting in vacation mode at work, and that says a lot because his job always keeps him super busy!!

I think we officially have the "We're going on vacation" bug!!!

Kathy

We have the same BUG here too


Kathy

 

[Switzert]

I looked up right now ST. Martin is on atlantic Standard which in the Summer is the same time because of Day Light Savins...

When the time changes it will result in an hour time difference between EST and Standard. If Disney was smart they wouldn't change our time on SAT, SUN, MON, because then on Tues, and Wed we would be on the right time.

Otherwise in the Winter St. Martin and St. Thomas are one hour ahead of EST time in the Winter and the day during day light savings.

Hope this helps.

By the way I looked at the storm and one track has it moving along the entire stretch of Cuba. Though it might make our week at Disney wetter. I kinda wish it would head toward Florida and then out to see by Wed. I am afraid if it moves along Cuba it will slow down and possibly be between us and the Caribbean on Sat, Sun, Mon... I personally would rather be wet at WDW. Since Orlando is known for raining daily anyways, well especially in the summer.

 

[Switzert]

Wow, I have one day of work left, and I cannot wait. I am a IT Specialist. We are in the middle of upgrading 1100 client to Win 7. Unfortunately everyone wants to drag their feet and our users have way to much say. It slows down what should be an easy process.

Well, got some bad news today. My boss informed me that they are not going to pay for the Hotel on Sun night or Per Diem until Monday. So we will have to either pay the hotel and food out of pocket or leave Monday. We planned on paying Saturday night anyways as Sunday was the travel day, but now we may not leave until Sun. Our group was planning on driving down to Busch Gardens in Tampa because Monday is only registration and welcome speeches. To top that off the guy in the office that no one can stand, who's wife no one can stand is now going. My boss said after last year; there was no way he was going. No, he cried and complained and got his way because no one can say two letter words at work "NO"!!!!

I am now just praying his wife can't go! Alone he is not so bad, but his wife is one of those Loud, Look how good and smart I am. As I rattle off dumb incorrect facts about everything. Sorry for the rant... Had to blow some steam I was told as we were leaving the office.

I so need a cruise right now!

 

[mikeejay]

Yay, SO great to hear there are other runners!!! How fun! I bet we'll see each other on Deck 4 running (that is where you can run laps on the ship, and it's SO much fun, especially on sea days). What kind of running do you guys do (like long distances (marathons, half-marathons), or shorter distances (5Ks, 10Ks)? Or, are you just runners that just like to run without really keeping track of distance or time?

I assume you and Christine will be doing the Castaway 5K! My husband (who is also a runner) and I will for sure be doing it. It is a lot of fun!

Take care,
Kathy

Two weeks ago Christine and I wrapped up the running season with the Detroit / Windsor marathon (you run across the bridge to Canada... then run back to the U.S. through the tunnel). It was my second marathon and her first... I am so proud of her! We want to do the Disney Marathon one year... and maybe even "The Goofy" but that might be a 2013 adventure

I did not know about the Castaway 5K... I looked it up on-line and that looks like so much fun! The whole family plans on signing up! The kids have been doing 5Ks for a few years and my Daughter will be running her first 10K on Thanksgiving with me. Thanks for the tip we're really looking forward to it!

- Michael

 

[mikeejay]

Michael,
You now have enough posts so you can post some photos

Kathy

I'm normally a pretty techie guy, but I can't figure out how to post photos?

When I click "insert image" option it asks for a URL and doesn't give me an option to browse for a file to upload. The help menu talks about a 'Manage Attachments' button and a browse button... but I can't find either. Yikes... I'm going to call it a night and try again tomorrow. I really need a vacation

- Michael

 

[Switzert]

I'm normally a pretty techie guy, but I can't figure out how to post photos?

When I click "insert image" option it asks for a URL and doesn't give me an option to browse for a file to upload. The help menu talks about a 'Manage Attachments' button and a browse button... but I can't find either. Yikes... I'm going to call it a night and try again tomorrow. I really need a vacation

- Michael

The site is not very informative. They do not store your photos in the DISboards. They will allow you to link photos from other public sites. Most here use Photobucket. You create an account there and upload the photos to a public album. Once the Photos are up there you just click on the direct link button, and then paste the link in the photo url box from the pc clipboard.

 

[Switzert]

Well, we can at least be glad we don't have western cruise this weekend.
It just became a modified Eastern

The revised itinerary will be as follows:

Saturday – Port Canaveral
Sunday – Day at Sea (Formal Night)
Monday – Day at Sea (Halloween)
Tuesday – St. Maarten (Pirates IN the Caribbean)
Wednesday – Tortola
Thursday – Day at Sea (Semi-Formal Night)
Friday – Disney's Castaway Cay
Saturday – Port Canaveral

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Michael,
Tim is right, sign up for photo bucket which is a free site and then its really easy to post photos from there. Thats what i use.
www.photobucket.com


Timy I have a friend who is on next saturdays cruise and she just told me Disney called and informed them of the change. Better to change and be safe than no cruise at all.

Good night all,

back tomorrow,

Kathy

 

[MouseinMelbourne]

I'm just curious ~ does anyone have any idea why our sailing is PACKED? There are no rooms left. Just 2 concierge rooms. Everything else is booked. The next sailing has tons of free space.

What's up with that?

 

[wtgilligan]

I'm just curious ~ does anyone have any idea why our sailing is PACKED? There are no rooms left. Just 2 concierge rooms. Everything else is booked. The next sailing has tons of free space.

What's up with that?

I don't know for sure why it is packed but the next sailing is getting close to the holidays so the people (like me) who can't miss a holiday scheduled to get in one last cruise before the holiday?

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

I'm just curious ~ does anyone have any idea why our sailing is PACKED? There are no rooms left. Just 2 concierge rooms. Everything else is booked. The next sailing has tons of free space.

What's up with that?

Sometimes they run the Florida residents rate to fill the ship about 5 or 6 weeks prior to the cruisr to fill it up. Maybe they did that for our cruise but havnt for the next one, at least not yet.

maybe we have a large corporate group that booked up several rooms for our cruise, that does happen now and then. A corporation will book an entire floor sometimes for employees.

Could be some states have a couple days off from school that week so the kids wont miss as much school so people booked this week so the kids wont miss as much school.

Its a good question.

Kathy

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Good morning fellow cruisers,

I can't believe I have 1 link left on my countdown chain for tomorrow


Just a few small things to do today, then tomorrow I will be very busy packing. We dont leave until late afternoon so I will still post tomorrow.

Have a great day everyone,

I will be back later to see what the question of the day is

Kathy

 

[Daniellenbella]

I'm just curious ~ does anyone have any idea why our sailing is PACKED? There are no rooms left. Just 2 concierge rooms. Everything else is booked. The next sailing has tons of free space.

What's up with that?

Strange. Not to long ago there were plenty of rooms and no specials. I had been checking in case my mom wanted to join us last minute or my dad who lives in FL. It is the week that NJ has 3 days off so there are plenty of NJ people going. I think VA also has a short week, we have friends going on a different cruise line but with the same dates, and practically same iternerary, they are just doing St. Maarten & St. Thomas opposite days of us.

Well, got some bad news today. My boss informed me that they are not going to pay for the Hotel on Sun night or Per Diem until Monday. So we will have to either pay the hotel and food out of pocket or leave Monday. We planned on paying Saturday night anyways as Sunday was the travel day, but now we may not leave until Sun. Our group was planning on driving down to Busch Gardens in Tampa because Monday is only registration and welcome speeches. To top that off the guy in the office that no one can stand, who's wife no one can stand is now going. My boss said after last year; there was no way he was going. No, he cried and complained and got his way because no one can say two letter words at work "NO"!!!!

I am now just praying his wife can't go! Alone he is not so bad, but his wife is one of those Loud, Look how good and smart I am. As I rattle off dumb incorrect facts about everything. Sorry for the rant... Had to blow some steam I was told as we were leaving the office.

I so need a cruise right now!

That really stinks that your boss just told you this! I would be freaking out about the added cost & so mad. Hope Mr & Mrs Annoying aren't going on the cruise too!

GMA Kathy, I'm so jealous you are leaving tomorrow! Hope you guys don't get stuck in the bad weather!

 

[rob_jen]

Yep - New Jersey Week. Schools are closed 3 days. In NY the kids are off 2 days so we chose this week instead of our normal week (3rd week in Nov before Thanksgiving). The parks are usually busy this week as well.

Last time on the Magic we booked a inside room and got a 4 category jump to an outside room. This time we were not lucky. I just hope the pools/shows/activities are not jammed with people since its fully booked.

 

[flygrl]

Happy Thursday...
Guess with the number of passengers on the cruise we will have to take it day by day... I don't really no what to expect but I am sure we will make it enjoyable regardless.
Tanya

 

[LovesToRun]

I'm just curious ~ does anyone have any idea why our sailing is PACKED? There are no rooms left. Just 2 concierge rooms. Everything else is booked. The next sailing has tons of free space.

What's up with that?

I'm pretty sure the reason our sailing is totally booked is because everyone found out I'll be celebrating my 40th birthday on the ship, and they don't want to miss out! I'm telling you, folks, it's going to be one big Disney Magic P-A-R-T-Y!



Ok, just had to have some fun there!

I agree with everyone else... Nov 11 is Veterans Day, and all schools in the country have that day off, and some districts choose to take a few extra days off before Veterans Day. And, when you have school aged kids, squeezing in a cruise when your child already has 2 or 3 days off in the week is very doable! That is one reason we chose to do this cruise (the main reason we chose the cruise is for my birthday), but we were able to really make it work because our kids don't have a full week of school this week, so it's fine pulling them from school.

Alrighty, people!!! One more week from tomorrow, we fly out!

Kathy (gma) can't believe you guys leave tomorrow!!!! So, exciting!!! Can't wait for you to post from Orlando to tell us all what the weather is like, and just give us all some Disney love!

And, for all of you leaving this weekend, or early next week, safe travels!!!

We are going to be gone this weekend about 1 1/2 hours north of here (just 30 minutes from the Canadian boarder) Friday afternoon - Sunday afternoon for a church retreat, so I probably won't post much (if I do, it'll be from my phone, and my rule of thumb is "tiny keyboard = tiny email", so I won't be writing much. I'm glad I have this retreat to distract me, because I'm SO antsy inside I can hardly contain myself!!!!

Take care, everyone!
Kathy

 

[NC2WDW]

Kathy (Gma): Hope you're able to post from WDW, otherwise, you will be missed.

Karen (GreensboroKG): Hope Peter is feeling better!

I remember back in August the ship only had about 20 rooms available. I thought that was a lot back then. I did read about a NJ teachers conference in Orlando near our cruise date, probably attributing to it's fullness. I agree also to the Florida rates being released.