I forgot this morning to say,
Everyone who is doing the FE
if your interested I have the FE list done in a great spreadsheet that Karen sent me. Thank you Karen
It has everyone listed by decks so its much easier to make sure you get everyone on each deck, without jumping back and forth on the original list to find everyone on deck 2 then deck 4 and 5 etc...
If anyone wants a copy of this spread sheet please contact me and I will gladly send you a copy.
Kathy
Good morning, everyone,
I have a busy day today later on today, but this also means the cruise is even closer! Oh, I can't wait!
Today is also school pictures for the boys.
I hope everyone is doing well!! Things are good here! It's supposed to be really sunny and warm today. Yesterday it got up to 70.... that is so unheard of for this time of year! I think today is the same...
Claire: I've been to London many times (I used to work for an organization that is in London, but I worked from home (obviously), but had to fly to London a few times a year)... but I haven't really been outside London, so not where you are from, but I have been to Bath... I visited there.
Danielle: You know, a Duct Tape FE is actually a great idea!! Tanya mentioned they make all different colors and patterns now in duct tape... I bet your daughter could make a really cute Duct Tape FE out of different colors, patters! That's be neat, and definitely unique! If I hadn't already made mine, I actually might have experimented with that!
BT: GREAT pictures! Your kids are adorable. I also hope you all get over your colds... you will get over them before the cruise. There is enough time for the colds to run their course, and get out of everyone's system. You'll be all healthy and great for the cruise!
Take care,
Kathy
Good morning all,
BT, great pictures. Looks like your son is ready to chow down on all those apples. The one with the deer is very precious,
Claire,
I have a dog who thinks she can help me type too. She thinks she is a lap dog most of the time. 80 pounds is a BIG lap dogI wind up typing with 1 finger when she sit in my lap.
Kathy
Anything that can help me be more organised would be great!
Hi everyone,
Ok, I have a question of the day:
Besides the Caribbean Disney cruises, if money or time was not an object, what Disney Cruise itinerary would you want to most do??
Right now, the options are:
7-day Mexican Riviera
14-day Hawaii cruise (LA -> Hawaii and back) -- offered twice in 2012
7-day Alaska
5 or 7 day Pacific respositioning cruise (Vancouver -> LA fall, and LA-> Vancouver end of spring)
3,4 or 5 day Bahamas
IF offered in 2013, the Mediterranian cruises (7, 10, and 12 days)
14 day Transatlantic cruise (if offered in 2013)
And, what is your main decing factor for your choice... is it the ship that offers this itinerary, the ports, the amount of days gone, the amount of sea days offered....??
Ok, here's my answers:
I would LOVE to do the Transatlantic cruise... crossing the ocean sounds SO SO awesome to me.
My main deciding factor (and DH and kids are the same) is both the length and the sea days! We love sea days, and we love longer cruises that do more unique routes...
For the Med cruise, there aren't many sea days, but we would love to see that part of the world, so touring the Med on a Disney ship would be awesome!
As for ships, we really prefer the smaller ships (Magic and Wonder). Haven't been on the Dream. And, at this point, don't have a huge desire to go on the Dream or the Fantasy.. maybe in a couple years when the newness is done and over and some of the kinks are worked out. But, I just love the classic ships... the Magic and Wonder are beautiful great ships!!!!
Now, will we ever do these cruises??? unless they offered the Hawaii or Transatlantic during school vacations, probably won't be able to do those... they offer them at the worst time of the year to pull the kids out of school. So, that is a bummer.
The Med... if they offer it in 2013 in the summer, time of year-wise, it works, but it'd depend on price. So, if they do offer the Med in 2013, and the price is right for us, I realistically can see us booking that. We'll see!!!
Kathy
Their prices for 2013 are crazy!! 
So i went on DCL and started looking, found a 7 night cruise on 3/23 priced very low (apparently it was a glitch) So anyway i was able to find a 5D stateroom for 2A 2C for $3500
I of course thought i have to book it, so went through the process very quickly, logged in, picked my room, enter everyones info and got to the payment page. It asked if i wanted to pay the $600 deposit or hold the stateroom for 5 days, so i hit "HOLD" and then "book" got the "congrats you have reserved your Disney Cruise" page........total cost $5400
I called DCL and she asked if i was sure i added the kids on to the booking? Was i saw i was looking at a 5D room? Then she told me i should be happy, because i was still getting a good price, because the price for my cat had already gone up. 
Just made reservations to join Alyssa/Spencer for a family cruise experience-poor Spencer not sure this was his idea but we love him too!! So now all Alyssa's family will be roaming the high seas with Mickey once more. Perfect time to visit WDW too-Food and Wine fest prior and Christmas lights upon return-Nothing more beautiful than the ice castle lights to get me into the holiday spirit and I need an extra shove this year!!
My 9 yr old plays on a basketball team and my 11 year old gets after school tutoring at the same time. But, I have it all scheduled where I pick up my 9 yr old from basketball, and then dash over to where my 11 year old gets tutored to pick him up, and it usually all works out time-wise. But, today, my son's basketball practice ran late. I could clearly see if I didn't leave at that moment to pick up my older son, I'd be late picking him up from tutoring, and they really like me to be on time. So, I just quickly told my 9 year old that I needed to leave and I'd be back in 20 minutes to pick him up from practice. So, I drove (in rush hour....grrrr) to pick up my 11 year old son, then had to drive back to basketball to pick up my 9 year old, and when I got back there, he was the only kid left... 
I found out about 5 minutes after I left, practice got out. But, luckily, he practices at our health club, so it's not like he was just in some place all by himself..... so it all turned out fine. My parents came with us on the Panama Canal cruise, and when my dad saw we were docked behind the Rotterdam, he just said, "well, looks like we are docked behind a Dam ship". ). Anyway, back to my story...
.... when we were on shore, there was this old couple (looked like 75-80) who commented on our boys, and asked which ship we were on (there were like 5 ships in port). We told them Disney. Then, they said their cruise ship, the Rotterdam, was completely booked, and there were ONLY 4 children on the entire ship!!! My boys heard that and after the couple left, my youngest said, "please please NEVER take us on that ship!" hahaha!!! I can't imagine 16 days on a ship as a kid with ONLY 4 total kids to play with... 
My HOPE is that they come out with the Magic and Wonder prices by Nov 5 so we can book on board and get 10% off!! If not, we'll book a dummy date on board, and then transfer it if the Magic or Wonder have itineraries that really apeal to us. Glad you'll be able to see! 
I'm blind as a bat, so I'm VERY thankful for my contacts.. (and glasses when I'm not wearing my contacts). I always bring a second/back up pair of contact lenses with me on our cruises JUST in case something happens to the pair I wear on the cruise. ), but that is what he loves about cruises... is we don't buy any internet package on the ship so we aren't tempted to check email.... I love that!! 
Just made reservations to join Alyssa/Spencer for a family cruise experience-poor Spencer not sure this was his idea but we love him too!! So now all Alyssa's family will be roaming the high seas with Mickey once more. Perfect time to visit WDW too-Food and Wine fest prior and Christmas lights upon return-Nothing more beautiful than the ice castle lights to get me into the holiday spirit and I need an extra shove this year!!
HI All,
Oh man, what a CRAZY afternoon/evening.... I had one of those experiences where I needed to be at two places at once. Don't know about you, but I still haven't figured out how to do that!!
But, I literally was trying to rack my brain on how in the world can I be at two places at one time! I guess when I turn into Superman(woman) I can do that!
Now, to respond to the posts from today:
Kathy: Thanks for sending out the .xls sheet! Karen, you did a great job!!!
Tim: Your Hawaii cruise experience reminds me of when we were on the Panama Canal cruise this past January, one port we went to was Aruba, and we docked right behind the Rotterdam, which tends to be an "old folks" cruiseline... (my dad calls the Holland America ships the "Dam ships", because they all end in "dam".
But, I think if you did Disney to Hawaii, it'd be a totally different experience in terms of age... on our Panama Canal cruise, which was in January, so during school (we pulled our kids out of school), there were still lots of adults our age (30's and 40's), and there were 150 kids on board, which is a very small amount for Disney, but a LOT for that length of cruise and the time of year! So, I think the Hawaii cruise would be similar.
Claire: Bummer about the pricing for the 2013 cruise!!! Grrrrrr! I'd be frustrated, too. I didn't even look at prices today (mostly because I wasn't home all day), but we are going to wait to see what the Magic and Wonder are offering.... I am not sure we'll cruise on the Dream or Fantasy in 2013... maybe like 2014 or 2015 we'll do that... but we'll stick to the magic or wonder for now... I'm holding out that the Magic will go to the Med in 2013 and that the prices won't be crazy high!!
And, yes, we'll have to talk about London and England all together on the ship after we meet!! I love Buckingham Palace... it's so pretty and amazing to see in person! When I travelled to London, I'd mostly stay in Knightsbridge, which isn't too far from the palace, so I've walked (it's a long walk, but a good walk) over to the palace before.
What kind of puppy do you have???
Michael: I can't wait to see the FE your daughter comes up with! And, I'm glad everyone is liking this idea of Duct Tape FE's!! Who knows, maybe this Nov 5 cruise meet group will be Trend Setters for the "new stylish duct tape" FE!!
Melissa: Ironically, my DH's cousin and her family lived in Littleton for a long time before they moved to Pueblo a few years ago, so we've been to Littleton (I just always say they lived in Denver because everyone knows where Denver is... but it was actually Littleton where they lived! Small World!)
Well, have a good night everyone!
Kathy
Ok,
I have sent the list to BT, Danielle and Melissa today. So if your one of those 3 and didn't receive the list please let me know.
I will check back later to see if anyone else wants a copy.
Kathy
Hi all,
So, this is a total non-cruise question, but I know a while back some people on this board talked a bit about what TV shows they watch (or don't watch). Just curiouse, if anyone here is watching the new show reality singing talent show called, "X Factor"?
Anyway, I am following it, and am so hooked!!
Just wondering if anyone else is watching it.
Kathy
