November 5th 2011 Eastern on the Magic

[NC2WDW]

Everyone is going to think we are nuts by scheduling ressies at midnight, but........we weren't even looking into Palo. We just wanted to make sure we got the excursions we wanted, plus the port arrival time. Our excursions are a bit limited with the kids ages. Feeling relaxed that all is booked but can't decide on what time we want to do our excursions. Our choices are approx 8:00ishor 12:00ish. If you have an opinion on which you'd choose and why, I'd like to hear from you.

Jetflyer: sorry to hear you won't be on Disney but good news the family thing is working out!

 

[NC2WDW]

Looks like some are catching zzzzz's from late night ressies. By the way Greensboro: the shirts are excellent!

By the way, our port arrival time was great. We are doing a park n cruise and there was only one time left for the shuttle(booked in June) and so it coincided with Disney's port arrival time.

Congrats to everyone else who got what they wanted.

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

So sad to tell you that we have jumped ship. We will be cruising on the Norwegain Sun on November 5 out of Port Canaveral instead. We have very good friends that we cruise with sometimes. We had originally booked on the Sun with them last winter, but they cancelled due to illness in the family. Well things are looking up for them and they decided they wanted to go last week. Unfortunately, the Disney Magic was cost prohibitive for them. My brother has a cruise agency, Cruise One of Plano, and he sure scrambled to get us great cabins with the same special from last winter (I'm sure he isn't happy with me after having to cancel my Disney cruise and rebook the others at the last minute but that is what brothers are for. lol)

I will really miss meeting you all. I was enjoying the disboards so much, this was a first for us writing on Disboards.

Kathy, Mom x 4 , you really do a great job getting everyone all pumped up for the cruise! You give such good info and advice out! I would like to have told you that in person.

Kathy, Loves to Run, I was really looking forward to meeting you and your family. It seem like our sons would have really hit it off. Brandon is very upset that he does not get to meet Tyler and Ryan. And of course he will not get to see the planes take off at Maho Beach.

I will look forward to the Disney Dream in May. We are planning to go May 10 which is Mother's Day weekend. I am sad to cancel this cruise but I know I will have a great time with our friends. They have twin daughters that Brandon is very close to.

Happy Sailing to you all! I will think of you as I sail out on the Norwegian Sun! I will cry if I hear the horn blow "When you wish upon a Star"

We will miss you But I am happy you get to cruise with your friends. Perhaps on a future cruise we may meet??
Have a great time,
Kathy

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Everyone is going to think we are nuts by scheduling ressies at midnight, but........we weren't even looking into Palo. We just wanted to make sure we got the excursions we wanted, plus the port arrival time. Our excursions are a bit limited with the kids ages. Feeling relaxed that all is booked but can't decide on what time we want to do our excursions. Our choices are approx 8:00ishor 12:00ish. If you have an opinion on which you'd choose and why, I'd like to hear from you.

Jetflyer: sorry to hear you won't be on Disney but good news the family thing is working out!

You might like the noonish time with kids. The cruise can be very exciting and tiring for little ones. If they get to sleep in a bit and have a leisurely breakfast they may enjoy their excursion better than having to be up early and hustle to be ready to go by 8 a.m.

Just something to think about

Kathy

 

[Daniellenbella]

Love the dog pictures! Scooby on the dryer is hilarious! We have a fur baby also. His name is Joker and we rescued him from a shelter (the one we got him from was no-kill but he had been at a kill shelter in VA and our shelter (we are in NJ) rescued him from there). He'll be one next month. We call him a Whippador Non-Retreiver. We know he's part Black Labrador but that's it. Based on his personality, physique, and ability to run FAST, we think he is also Whippet. And he won't play ball like a retreiver, he'll go get what you throw but he will not drop it for you to throw again.

We had Rott who we had to put to sleep a year ago, he was 11 and we had him since he was a puppy. He was very sick, cancer throughout his body, with a really nasty mass in one eye. I completely understand the paw prints Kathy, my DH is really regretting not having a print made of Rommel and having it tattooed on his shoulder blade. (My DH has NO tattoos, so it is something that would be very meaningful to him.) I had Rommel's name tag put on a leather cuff for DH and he keeps it in his car.

We also have a guinea pig who was a rescue. We got him at the same time as Joker. They get along quite well. I'll post some pics of them.

Jetflyer, sorry to hear you aren't coming. But I completely undertand your position! We have friends who we found out are going to be on the RC on the same exact days & same itinerary as our DCL except that their days at St. Maarten & St. Thomas are opposite of ours. I really wish we had know they were going to be cruising at the same time & we would have for sure booked something with them. But I'm too excited for *this* cruise to change now!

So our TA switched us back to 2nd seating for dinner, I'm very releived about that! And maybe now someone who needs 1st seating will get it

NC2WDW--I agree, I'd go with noonish. 8 am is early. For our St. Thomas Jet boat excursion, our choices were early morning, or noon, or 2:00. I went with the 2:00 b/c I did not want to have to rush off the boat and drag DD out of bed. (St. Maarten day will be exhausting for us.)

Which brings me to a new question---We booked a private excursion for St. Maarten & will need to be off the boat early, like 8:30. Will DCL accomodate that for us? I believe I read somewhere that they schedule their own early excursioners off first.

 

[Daniellenbella]

We just got our "custom t-shirts" in, so we're getting ready to roll!

[/IMG]

Really cute idea!

 

[GreensboroKG]

Our plan is to wear them the 1st day so you can spot us. We ordered the shirts from Zazzle.com. We picked out the designs and created the text. They have a lot of different Disney images and not too expensive. Our DS picked out his design with the characters in the car. He's very into watching the MM Clubhouse show and it reminded him of that. Scott and I are old school with the Lady & the Tramp designs. I love Si and Am.

Love your pix of your babies. You've got more than a back seat driver there. When is the meet and greet for the folds on this board?

We're planning - weather permitting - on going to Magic Kingdom on Fri 11/4 - the day before the cruise. Does anyone want to meet up to say hi?

 

[LovesToRun]

So sad to tell you that we have jumped ship. We will be cruising on the Norwegain Sun on November 5 out of Port Canaveral instead. We have very good friends that we cruise with sometimes. We had originally booked on the Sun with them last winter, but they cancelled due to illness in the family. Well things are looking up for them and they decided they wanted to go last week. Unfortunately, the Disney Magic was cost prohibitive for them. My brother has a cruise agency, Cruise One of Plano, and he sure scrambled to get us great cabins with the same special from last winter (I'm sure he isn't happy with me after having to cancel my Disney cruise and rebook the others at the last minute but that is what brothers are for. lol)

I will really miss meeting you all. I was enjoying the disboards so much, this was a first for us writing on Disboards.

Kathy, Mom x 4 , you really do a great job getting everyone all pumped up for the cruise! You give such good info and advice out! I would like to have told you that in person.

Kathy, Loves to Run, I was really looking forward to meeting you and your family. It seem like our sons would have really hit it off. Brandon is very upset that he does not get to meet Tyler and Ryan. And of course he will not get to see the planes take off at Maho Beach.

I will look forward to the Disney Dream in May. We are planning to go May 10 which is Mother's Day weekend. I am sad to cancel this cruise but I know I will have a great time with our friends. They have twin daughters that Brandon is very close to.

Happy Sailing to you all! I will think of you as I sail out on the Norwegian Sun! I will cry if I hear the horn blow "When you wish upon a Star"

JetFlyer/Lyn -- Oh no! We'll so miss meeting you, and our boys will miss meeting each other and talking flight simulators/planes, etc... BUT, I totally understand your situation. It is really great you are able to cruise with your friends... it is so much fun to cruise with good friends. I'm sure it was a tough thing to do to cancel the Disney Cruise after planning for it and thinking about it, but you will have a great time with your friends and have a great trip! Hopefully you guys can make it to St. Maarten a different time and your husband and Brandon can make it to Maho beach.

Take care and nice to "meet" you here. Have a great time, and we'll wave to each other from our ships at Port Canaveral.

Kathy

 

[scrappinyogamom]

This is our first disney cruise and it is our 20th anniversary too!
Is there something I can sign up for as a surprise for my hubby? (at first I thought we should do something a little romantic....but tons of fun is a good way to celebrate too and also include the kids)

 

[LovesToRun]

Everyone is going to think we are nuts by scheduling ressies at midnight, but........we weren't even looking into Palo. We just wanted to make sure we got the excursions we wanted, plus the port arrival time. Our excursions are a bit limited with the kids ages. Feeling relaxed that all is booked but can't decide on what time we want to do our excursions. Our choices are approx 8:00ishor 12:00ish. If you have an opinion on which you'd choose and why, I'd like to hear from you.

I would go with the 12:00ish one, unless you are a true morning person, and you can all easily get up early and be ready to get off the ship at 8 AM. BUT, depending on what you are doing in your excursion (sorry... if you wrote in an earlier post what you are doing, I missed it... sorry!!), but if you are doing something like snorkeling, sometimes the early times are best because that is when the water is the calmest. But, if it's not snorkeling or not something where it makes a difference if the water is super calm or not, I would definitely go with the 12:00ish one.

BTW, if you did happen to decide to go with the 8:00ish one, I would order room service for breakfast that morning. For breakfast, you can order it the night before and set a time for it to be delivered. We do this when we have early morning excursions.... it's great....we just wake up, and then 5 minutes later, there is a knock on the door, and our breakfast is there! So, we eat while we are getting ready to go. That is the best way to get ready to go for early morning excursions.

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Love the dog pictures! Scooby on the dryer is hilarious! We have a fur baby also. His name is Joker and we rescued him from a shelter (the one we got him from was no-kill but he had been at a kill shelter in VA and our shelter (we are in NJ) rescued him from there). He'll be one next month. We call him a Whippador Non-Retreiver. We know he's part Black Labrador but that's it. Based on his personality, physique, and ability to run FAST, we think he is also Whippet. And he won't play ball like a retreiver, he'll go get what you throw but he will not drop it for you to throw again.

We had Rott who we had to put to sleep a year ago, he was 11 and we had him since he was a puppy. He was very sick, cancer throughout his body, with a really nasty mass in one eye. I completely understand the paw prints Kathy, my DH is really regretting not having a print made of Rommel and having it tattooed on his shoulder blade. (My DH has NO tattoos, so it is something that would be very meaningful to him.) I had Rommel's name tag put on a leather cuff for DH and he keeps it in his car.

We also have a guinea pig who was a rescue. We got him at the same time as Joker. They get along quite well. I'll post some pics of them.

Jetflyer, sorry to hear you aren't coming. But I completely undertand your position! We have friends who we found out are going to be on the RC on the same exact days & same itinerary as our DCL except that their days at St. Maarten & St. Thomas are opposite of ours. I really wish we had know they were going to be cruising at the same time & we would have for sure booked something with them. But I'm too excited for *this* cruise to change now!

So our TA switched us back to 2nd seating for dinner, I'm very releived about that! And maybe now someone who needs 1st seating will get it

NC2WDW--I agree, I'd go with noonish. 8 am is early. For our St. Thomas Jet boat excursion, our choices were early morning, or noon, or 2:00. I went with the 2:00 b/c I did not want to have to rush off the boat and drag DD out of bed. (St. Maarten day will be exhausting for us.)

Which brings me to a new question---We booked a private excursion for St. Maarten & will need to be off the boat early, like 8:30. Will DCL accomodate that for us? I believe I read somewhere that they schedule their own early excursioners off first.

It's true early excursions get off first but when your docked not tendering its easy ot listen for the all clear announcement, then head down to get off the ship. You may be standing in a line with an excursion group. But it moves along pretty fast. They just need to slide your KTTWK through their machine so they know your off the ship and then you can walk right off.

At St. Thomas since we are tendering they really try to just get the excursion people onto a boat together, then a few others can go. Just so they can keep on their time schedule.

But St, Maartin shouldnt be a problem for you. Some times they will make an announcment asking those who do NOT have an excursion to wait a few minutes before disembarking so those who do have excursions can get off in time to catch their tour. That would include people with private tours.

Believe me, your not the only one with a private tour who will be getting off early.

Is Joker timid in new situations? Whippetts and Greyhounds are known for being timid or skiddish. Pixie's dad was greyhound and she is extremely skiddish.
Can't wait to see your 4 footed furry kid too.
See, now we know one thing that many of us have in common. Many of us are dog lovers When the kids were young our DD had a Hamster but it did after a short time, so we go ther naother one which also died after just a few short weeks, so we said NO more. It was to hard on her to keep getting hamsters that kept dying.

Kathy

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Our plan is to wear them the 1st day so you can spot us. We ordered the shirts from Zazzle.com. We picked out the designs and created the text. They have a lot of different Disney images and not too expensive. Our DS picked out his design with the characters in the car. He's very into watching the MM Clubhouse show and it reminded him of that. Scott and I are old school with the Lady & the Tramp designs. I love Si and Am.

Love your pix of your babies. You've got more than a back seat driver there. When is the meet and greet for the folds on this board?

We're planning - weather permitting - on going to Magic Kingdom on Fri 11/4 - the day before the cruise. Does anyone want to meet up to say hi?

I would love to meet up and say Hi, just not sure yet which park we will be at on Friday. We will be there all week,
Of course we could meet after your day at MK too. Plus as long as they stamp your hand you can go in and out of the same park all day long. So maybe we can meet somewhere that day.

Do you have a cell phone? I do. So maybe we could exchange numbers before the cruise and can call each other friday morning to see what we are doing and try to figure out a meet. That might work best. MK is my favorite park so I would probably like to spend our last day at WDW at MK.

Kathy

 

[LovesToRun]

Our plan is to wear them the 1st day so you can spot us. We ordered the shirts from Zazzle.com. We picked out the designs and created the text. They have a lot of different Disney images and not too expensive. Our DS picked out his design with the characters in the car. He's very into watching the MM Clubhouse show and it reminded him of that. Scott and I are old school with the Lady & the Tramp designs. I love Si and Am.

Love your pix of your babies. You've got more than a back seat driver there. When is the meet and greet for the folds on this board?

We're planning - weather permitting - on going to Magic Kingdom on Fri 11/4 - the day before the cruise. Does anyone want to meet up to say hi?

I LOVE the shirts you made!!!! Sooooo cute!! Hmmmm.... maybe I'll do something like that for us. We've never done that sort of thing (I've seen families have matching shirts like this on the ship before), but it's something I've never thought to do. I'll have to think about it. The shirts are just so adorable!!

Oh, I wish so bad we could go to Magic Kingdom (or any park at WDW) before our cruise. We'll be flying in on 11/4, and staying at the Hyatt MCO. So, if anyone is staying at the Hyatt MCO the night before the cruise, let me know. Our plane arrives around 5:30 PM on 11/4.

We did consider flying on 11/3, and then spending 11/4 at WDW, but we decided not to for 3 reasons. 1) we didn't want our kids to miss more school... they missed 3 weeks in January for our Panama Canal cruise, and we worked that out fine with the school, but it was hard for the kids when they got back into school, so we decided this upcoming school year we'd not pull them from school for more than a week, and with this cruise, they will be missing a week already. 2) DS's (Tyler) 11th bday is 11/3, and we decided we didn't want to be actually traveling on his actual bday but rather be at home to celebratel his actual bday and 3) long story why, but the short is we are doing the 8-day Mexican Riviera Christmas cruise Dec 17-26 with my inlaws, so doing 2 cruises in 6 weeks of each other is a lot! So, we decided to not do a day at WDW just to save $$. So, I know that is way more info than anyone wanted to even know rotfl, but just wanted to say how MUCH I wish we were going to WDW before our cruise, but we aren't.... this will be the first Disney Cruise were we are not doing WDW before hand...

Kathy

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

This is our first disney cruise and it is our 20th anniversary too!
Is there something I can sign up for as a surprise for my hubby? (at first I thought we should do something a little romantic....but tons of fun is a good way to celebrate too and also include the kids)

DCL has room decorations for anniversaries and birthdays you can order on line and your room will be decorated when you first arrive on the ship. Let him walk in the cabin first to surprize him.
Its all on DCL website. Also they have cakes you can buy. Very spendy but large enough for a family to eat on for a few days.

Plus if you tell who ever you booked(TA or DCL) with that its your anniversary they will notify your wait staff and should have a small cake for 2 delivered at dessert time on that day. You do need to double check with the dining room manager to make sure they dont forget about it.
You will see every night people celebrating birthdays and anniversaries at their tables.

Plus there is a lady named Shirley who makes gift baskets that are great. She is in Cocoa beach and sh ehas an agreement with DCL to deliver baskets prior to the cruise and it will be waiting for you when you enter the room.
She has a web site but she will make a basket to your specifications. Example: Lets say your DH loves Hot Tamale candy. You can ask her to have 25 boxes of those candy in the basket and she will. If a person has young kids she can put a small disney stuffed animal in it, or if you need all sugar free candies she will do it. Her prices look high but once you see how beautiful her baskets are, you wont be regretting the price.
If you tell her an anniversary basket she will put together something romantic and throw in something for the kids too, if you specify it.

One of our kids sent us one of Shirleys baskets one time and it was awesome!!

Kathy

If you want her e-mail or phone number I will look it up for you.

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Wow, that was a lot of answering questions this morning. AWESOME!!!
Love seeing all those posts when I get on line in the morning.


We will easily get to page 30 today!!
In the last couple of weeks everyone has posted over 4 times the amount that was posted in 2 years on this thread.

Thats amazing!!!

I am trying to figure out what to do for my door signs this year. I have done so many I am trying to think about what I havnt used before and do that. But each time I think I have made a decision I realize I already have a sign from that picture I may have to google search for new ideas this trip.

I will be back in 3 to 4 hours, to see whats happening here.

Kathy

 

[LovesToRun]

This is our first disney cruise and it is our 20th anniversary too!
Is there something I can sign up for as a surprise for my hubby? (at first I thought we should do something a little romantic....but tons of fun is a good way to celebrate too and also include the kids)

Welcome!!! And, congrats on 20 years! Wow! So cool! We are 16 years this year, so on our 20th, we'll do something super special... we have 4 years to figure it out.

Hmmm... something special and romantic that is a suprise! There are lots of things, but not sure what kinds of things you and your DH like to do. Are you wine drinkers? And, what kind of stateroom do you have? Do you by chance have a veranda?? Does your DH by chance like the spa??? (A lot of men don't, but some men do). Well, here's an idea to throw out, but I have NO idea if any of these things work or are likes for you guys, but surprised your DH and book a spa treatment for him that he'd really like (or book the couples massage for the two of you... DH and I did that once and loved it!!). But, while he's at the spa, order a really nice bottle of wine or champange the two of you really love, and order the "All Hands on Deck" from room service (which is a cheese/cracker and fruit platter... works GREAT with wine, pre-arrange for 1 dozen red roses to be delivered to your room, and have the roses delivered while he's at the spa. Before you leave for the trip, find either silk or real rose petals in a package, and spead them all over your bed for a romantic look. Put the TV on a channel with romantic music, and get DH a super nice card, and write a really special note in it.... and maybe get him a gift wrapped up just from you. Then, IF you have a veranda, have the wine/champange and 2 glasses sitting outside on the veranda, with the red roses and the pedals on the bed waiting for him... then tell him after his spa treatment to meet you in your room, and then he'll open the door and see all these great surprises and total romance!!!

If you do the couple's massage and you both are at the spa together, I bet if you asked your stateroom host to set up your room like this, he/she would do it (maybe give him/her a tip to set up your room with the wine/champange/flowers/rose pedals, music.... since it's not something they'd normally do), and then you both can come back from the spa, open the door, and SURRISE!!

And, you can book Palo on this same day and tell Palo it's your 20th anniversary, and they will make it extra special, too.

Ok, so that is an idea, but probably you guys do not like wine/champange, your DH is not at all into the spa, and you are not big into flowers and you do not have a veranda room. That said, if that is the case, then this idea would not be a good idea.

 

[GreensboroKG]

Kathy MomX4 - will send you my cell # before the cruise in a private note. I am not sure of our schedule but we can definitely try to meet somewhere in WDW or MK if you are there. We'd love to say hi.

We did the shirts so it will be easy to track us in a crowd plus I thought it was something fun for our DS. He's starting to ask questions about going on the cruise. We told him the kids club is in the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and he got really thrilled at the thought of going there.

 

[NC2WDW]

Thanks to all your replies to our shore excursion time selection. I didn't think of ordering room service, if we chose the early one. We may have to decide what to do when we see how our sleeping habits become, but Im a planner, so we will consider all your thoughts for the next 2 months.
GreensboroKG: I wish we could go to MK, but we are driving down on Friday. Yes, I said driving and its about 11 hours for us, but this will be our 3rd time driving. We drove to WDW June 09 and Christmas 10. We are stopping at HH after the cruise!

 

[Mulanrocks]

Dh and I will also be park hopping on 11/4, we want to catch up on all the changes (new star tours) but we are ending the day at MK so we can see the new show at night.
GreensboroKG: those shirts are great. What a good idea!

My FE came in the mail today:

Now i'll just personalize it with our names and its ready to be packed.

Thought i would throw up a pick of my other four legged babies:

Mom is on the far right, and those are her two boys from the same litter. Both are a good 11lbs each now. Mom is only 6 but she runs the house! (even my dogs know to listen to her). The gray/blue, Mushu, does tricks with the dogs, he thought it was unfair that they got treats so he just started doing them too for his share. The Brown boy is Chein Po. Since the dad's name was Meeko all of their kittens had Disney names while at my house.

Last one:

This is kira's sister bear, she was only 3 when she passed, but what an amazing and sweet dog. She thought she was a lap dog and would start with just one paw on your lap and slowly slide more and more of herself until all 50lbs was snuggled up on you, like you wouldn't notice.

Question: Is it worth getting your own mask and snorkel for CC or easier just to go ahead and rent rather then take up packing space?
Alyssa

 

[GreensboroKG]

Thanks Alyssa. I love your 4 legged babies! Sooo cute. Great FE. We're waiting to get ours but the designer was on vacation so she's backlogged. Hoping to get it within the month. I was thinking about the snorkeling stuff too -- good question. My DH said let's rent not carry our own around. Agree with the idea but hope the rental ones are sanitized.