November 5th 2011 Eastern on the Magic

[melissar112002]

Hi everyone,

Well, I have to say that I'm very proud of myself because I went way far out of my comfort zone and chose to make our own FE! I've been dragging my feet on making it because the more I thought about it, the more intimidating it was to me because I'm SOOOOO not crafty AT ALL!! And, I don't sew! But, because we are now so close to when we leave, I decided it's too late to try to buy one online in case it doesn't arrive on time! So, my procrastination forced me to make it (which was my original plan, and now, I'm very happy I chose to make it!)

But, today, I ventured to Michael's (not sure if you all have that store where you live... it's basically a large craft store), and I bought some fabric that was on sale, I found these little canvas tote bags that they were selling 3 for $1.00, and then I got glitter sticker letters, I found some Disney stickers with Disney characters on them, and I bought some sparkly ribbon... and at home, I already had a glue gun.

So, I took the measurments from the New Sew FE just to make sure I make it the right length and width. Then, I cut the fabric and folded the fabric in half, so is doubled over, if that makes sense.

Then, I cut off the handles of the little canvas tote bags I bought so they turn into little pockets. Then, I put the Disney stickers on each of the pockets. Then, I put the glitter letter stickers on each of our pockets spelling each of our names. And, then I had extra letters, so I was able to spell "our family" at the top.

Then, I used a glue gun to glue the sides of the fabric together (since it's doubled over), and I used the glue gun to put the sparkly ribbon on as the border of the FE, and I used the glue gun to glue the pockets onto the fabric.... and Wa-La!!!!

And, best part about it.... This FE only cost me $14.00 to make!!!! It took me about 1 - 1 1/2 hours to make. It was actually really easy to put together.

And, Eric, and the kids love it, and I do too!! Eric was stunned that I made this because I seriously never make things!

Here are pictures...

This is a close up of the top half so you can see the detail better:

And, here is a close up of the bottom half so you can see the detail better:

Ok, so now we have our FE.... now I have to start thinking about FE gifts!!

-Kathy

It looks great!! It's funny because I made ours in a very similar way - using the tote bags from Michael's and cutting off the handles. But I did sew mine - even though I DO NOT sew. I employed my Mom-In-Law's help and she guided me thru using her machine, so it came out looking cute. I don't know if I can post a picture or not, but I will try. Anyhow, good job on the FE and now you can have fun with the gifts. I have gone a little overboard on ours, but it's been fuuuun!

Melissa

 

[melissar112002]

Who can tell me how to post a picture? The "insert image" button above doesn't make sense to me. I cannot browse to pick the picture I want. Help!

 

[MouseinMelbourne]

I've been checking twice a day for a Family cabana to open up and NOTHING!

But I just looked and Cabana #18 is open on the adult side of the island. Thought I'd post so someone could snatch it up. Wish it were me.

 

[Agent555]

Your FE is beautiful, Kathy!
I really enjoyed the video-I had read her trip report but this was even better-loved the backround music. It's hard to believe in 4 weeks (!!!) we'll be on deck. I was hoping to watch the webcam today, but we have to go out in a few minutes.
Happy Thanksgiving, Canadian Disers! Will they have the Christmas decorations in your stores next week?

Jenny,

I use to have all the family over for dinner but now I have passed the torch on to my oldest daughter and we all try to gather at her house.
She lives just over 100 miles away from us.

Enjoy your ham. I agree the pie is the best part of dinner!! I usually volunteer to make a couple pies to take.

What are your family traditions Jenny?

Kathy

Thank you everybody I know your Thanksgiving in November will be fabulous!

Hi SLM,

HAHA No Halloween still comes first but yesterday when I was looking for more Halloween decorations for my office our Zellers (your Target) had Christmas decorations on display... I'm still shocked!!!!!

Hey Kathy,

Our biggest "tradition" if you can call it that is just getting everybody together! No tv or anything just friends and family together! and I guess the ham we don't do the turkey dinner because we are only 5 people and it would go to waste.

I'll be back enjoy you weekends!
Jenny

 

[LovesToRun]

Thanks everyone, for your nice words about the FE I made. I just hope it doesn't fall apart when we are on the ship since it's just all glued together with a glue gun!! I can just see it now.... I come back to our room, and there are pieces of FE all strung all over the hallway becuase it just suddenly fell apart! But, it seems pretty stuck together, so I think it'll be fine. I'll test it before we leave and put stuff in the pockets to make sure they really are stuck on, but I think they are.

WOW your FE looks great!!! I can't wait to finish mine!!!

SO it's Thanksgiving weekend over here!!! I am starving for our Thanksgiving Ham!!! (We don't have enough people for a turkey). MMM Ham, Potatoes, Stuffing and the best part PIE!!!!!!

Hehe does anyone else have fun Thanksgiving traditions?

Happy Thanksgiving to all the Canadians!!!

We used to have big Thanksgivings with family, but now everyone has moved to different parts of the counrty, and DH's parents who live in Oregon, we rarely get together with them because the drive down to Oregon over Thanksgiving is horrendous with traffic.... it takes double the time to get there (rather than a 5 hour drive, it can easily take 10 hours), and so we don't even do that drive anymore during Thanksgiving.

So, either we do a really small Thanksgiving with just my parents if they are in town, or we'll go to a friend's house, or one year, just Eric, the kids and I went out to a really really nice Steak house on Thanksgiving day and dressed all up and had a really nice dinner!!! That was really nice, because there was no stress for cooking, cleaning up, etc. etc. But, was weird to not have a home cooked meal on Thanksgiving day.

-Kathy

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

I finally got my door signs done today YEAH!!!!


Next project, My FE!!

Then my shirt!

Kathy

 

[NC2WDW]

Question for some of you seasoned Disney cruisers. It is my belief that the Disney cruises are cheaper the farther out you book. So, if that's true, would it have been cheaper for us to book from home (well in advance) for 2012 rather than waiting to get the discount by booking onboard, on this upcoming cruise? I realize its obvious that it will be cheaper to book for 2013 (if schedule is available) on this trip and also get the discount to book onboard.

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Question for some of you seasoned Disney cruisers. It is my belief that the Disney cruises are cheaper the farther out you book. So, if that's true, would it have been cheaper for us to book from home (well in advance) for 2012 rather than waiting to get the discount by booking onboard, on this upcoming cruise? I realize its obvious that it will be cheaper to book for 2013 (if schedule is available) on this trip and also get the discount to book onboard.

Prices vary from cruise to cruise. So its hard to say which way is the best way to save.
We have book in advance form home, then while on board sat down with the person who books the cruises and she did the math to see which way would save us the most money. That time it saved us to book on board, including the OBC they gave us. So she cancelled our booked cruise, then rebooked it right then, so we still had the same room.

That may not be the case all the time, but it was for us that time.

Kathy

 

[LovesToRun]

Question for some of you seasoned Disney cruisers. It is my belief that the Disney cruises are cheaper the farther out you book. So, if that's true, would it have been cheaper for us to book from home (well in advance) for 2012 rather than waiting to get the discount by booking onboard, on this upcoming cruise? I realize its obvious that it will be cheaper to book for 2013 (if schedule is available) on this trip and also get the discount to book onboard.

Generally, that is true. What we have done when we really want to go on a cruise and want to make sure we get the best price, is we'll book it when it first is released and not get the 10% off, on board credit, etc. So, we know we got the opening price on the cruise at least.

Then, what we do is when we do go on our next cruise, if the price of the cruise we already had booked is still the same or even if it's a little higher, but still cheaper with the 10% off, etc, we just re-book on board. We have the TA cancel our current reservation, and then re-book the exact same cruise at that moment as a new reservation, so I get the 10% off, $200 OBC and only have to do the 10% deposit.

It's super easy to do it that way. We did this for our Panama Canal cruise. We booked that cruise the day it opened up in Oct of 2009 since it was a specialty cruise, so it was likely it'd sell out fast, and if not, it was likely the price would jump up very fast. However we had a 7-day Eastern cruise planned for Feb 2010 (the Panama Canal cruise was not until January 2011), but we were afraid to wait until end of Jan 2010 to book on the ship because even though the Panana Canal cruise would be almost 12 months away, we were afriad the prices would be SO much higher by then or just plain be sold out, and we REALLLY wanted to do that cruise.

But, when we went on our Jan 7-day Eastern cruise, we discovered the prices of the Panama Canal cruise had only gone up just a tiny bit, so acually booking on the ship with the 10% off would have given us a better deal. So, that is when we cancelled our reservation right there on the ship, and in the same transaction re-booked a new ressie at 10% off, we got our same stateroom still (nobody snatched it up in that 2 minutes it was probably free), and we ended up getting a great deal!!

So, I guess the overall answer is if you really want to do a specific cruise no matter what, I would book it when the prices first come out just so you have the best price at the moment. Then, when you go on your next cruise, if the price has not gone up, or has gone up a little, but will still be a better deal with 10% off, then just cancel your first ressie with the on board TA and re-book a new ressie at the 10% off... and there you go!

Hope that helps!
Kathy

 

[LovesToRun]

Prices vary from cruise to cruise. So its hard to say which way is the best way to save.
Kathy

I agree with this, totally! It's not common, but we experienced a cruise price actually DROP after we booked on board!

This was our Mexican Riviera cruise we have booked in Dec of this year (The 8-day Christmas cruise). We booked that cruise on board during our Panama Canal cruise in January and got 10% off, etc. It was a good deal (the MR cruises are generally cheaper than the Caribbean, I think because Mexico right now is less desirable...).

But, what happened is over the summer, Disney came out with the Kid's Sail Free to Mexico, and our cruise qualified!! But, our TA told me that if we took the Kid's Sail Free promo, we'd lose our 10% off, $200 OBC, 10% deposit deal from booking on the ship because you can't use both offers together... you have to use one or the other. So, our TA said in order to keep our 10% off, etc., see if there is another cruise we want to book, and she'd transfer our current Mexico cruise to a new cruise, and then we'd get the 10% off, etc, on that cruise, and then she booked us on the same Mexico cruise (got our same stateroom) with a brand new ressie with the Kid's Sail Free offer... so, at this point, our cruise price for the Mexico cruise was already cheaper than the price we booked 5 months earlier on the ship with the 10% off. (By the way, this is when our November 5-12 7-day Eastern cruise idea was born! I hadn't made plans for my 40th bday, so we decided to do a Disney cruise for my bday, and since we had to move the 10% off, $200 OBC, 10% deposit to a cruise, we moved it to this upcoming cruise... which is a huge reason we decided to do this cruise!! So, if it hadn't been for the Kid's Sail Free offer on the Mexico cruise, we would not be doing this upcoming Nov cruise ).

But, in August, after we had booked the Kid's Sail Free, I was checking the cruise price for our Mexico cruise (I do that all the time... until I'm paid in full, or past the cancellation date, I check the cruise price I have booked pretty often to see if the price has dropped at all for any reason, and if it does drop, I call my TA immediately to have her adjust the price!)

But, like I said, in August, I was checking the price of our upcoming Dec MR cruise, and I was so amazed!!! I actually had to check it like 5 times to make sure I was seeing things right. But, our cruise had dropped in price by a total of $1,200!!! That really is unusual, but it CAN happen, like Kathy (gma) said above. I called my TA immediatly, and she checked and sure enough, I was right! So, she adjusted our price, and we all of a sudden got a WAY WAY lower price than when we had originally booked on board because we got the Kid's Sail Free, AND an additional savings of $1,200!

So, our cruise price for this upcoming Mexico cruise literally is about 40% cheaper in price for us than what we booked on the ship at 10% off back in January.... so you NEVER know!

But, you never know what Disney will do with the prices or promotions, so like I said in my other post, if it's a specific cruise you know you really want to go on, I'd book it right away when it first comes out, or when you think it's a good price, and then just re-book on board if that ends up being cheaper, but keep watching the price because like us, it CAN go down... it's not common, but it can, and if it does, if it's before you pay in full, you can adjust the price.

This is another reason why it's smart to wait until your Pay in Full date to pay off your cruise... some people like to just pay off their cruise early just so they don't have that big bill hanging over their heads, and they know it's paid. BUT once your cruise is paid in full, you cannot adjust the price at all, so if the price does drop, if you are paid in full, you are out of luck on getting the lower price. (although, I don't think it's really common for people to pay in full before the pay in full date, but I am sure there are some who do...).

-Kathy

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Howdy everyone,

we had lots of rain last night but right now we have a sunny morning to enjoy. Soon rain will return.

I hope to get a good start on my FE today, we shall see how much time I actually have to work on it. First I have to do.

Anybody got a question for today?

I will check back later today to see if someone has posted one by then.

Have a Magical day everyone,

Kathy

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

I have a challenge for today for everyone.

We just started page 99 this morning,
Lets get to page 100 by the time everyone signs off for the night





Kathy

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Hey,

remember to watch the port canaveral web cam today at 5 p.m. Eastern today to watch the Dream pull out. It may not be our ship but its still fun to watch a Disney ship pull out knowing in just 4 weeks we will be pulling out that same channel.


Kathy

 

[clj1410]

Happy Sunday everyone

3 weeks and 6 days to go....

I have been racking my brains for a question, i have a feeling this one has been asked, but the only one I could come up with is…

What is your favorite memory either from the cruise or from WDW?

Mine is, we were In the Magic Kingdom when DD was nearly 3, and DS was 6 months, we went to see Winnie the Pooh and friends, and DD ran over to give Winnie the Pooh and gave him a hug and Winnie bent down and he rub noses with DD, such a cute picture and memory Also when DS was about 2 1/2 years, he was visiting Minnie Mouse, she bent down and DS kissed her on the nose

 

[LovesToRun]

What is your favorite memory either from the cruise or from WDW?

Good morning, everyone (well, afternoon for you East Coasters!)

Wow, so many memories.... I have two:

1) My first best memory is being on the Disney Wonder going through the Panama Canal... no words can describe how amazing that was! It was a LONG day (took about 11 hours for the ship to get through the entire canal). But just absolutely amazing, and our family would do it again in a heart beat!! Maybe they'll move the Magic over to the West Coast, and then we'll have another chance!! I know.... wishful thinking.... but you never know! I do hope they keep the Wonder on the West Coast, though, becuase it's really nice for us West Coasters to have a Disney Cruise option on our side of the country (cheaper flights, easier to get to, same time zone!)

2) My second best memory is, as you all (or most of you) know, I injured my back pretty bad last December (that is not the best memory , but it has to do with my best WDW memory!). Well, I injured it JUST before Chrsitmas day last year, and we celebrate Christmas in our family (it's our favorite holiday of the year). Well, because I was in so much pain, I really felt like I missed out on Christmas at home last December. It was a bummer... I was on so many pain meds that I don't remember much of Christmas day, and my DH had to pretty much do everything with the kids on Christmas day while I just rested. Well, we left for WDW on the morning of Dec 31 (so we were at WDW for New Year's Eve... not in the parks, but we watched the fireworks from the Polynesian, which was REALLY amazing, despite my injured back). Well, on January 1st, was our first day in the parks. I, sadly, could not do any rides because of my back, so I pretty much just had to sit on benches in the parks while DH and the kids did rides. BUT, the most amazing memory, and seriously I just felt was a blessing to me, is the parks were TOTALLY decorated for Christmas everywhere you looked, Christmas music was playing from all the speakers all over the park.... it just felt like Christmas all around me! And, I just remember sitting or walking "slowly" around while I waited for DH and the kids to get off rides, and just feeling like I was celebrating Christmas since I really missed Christmas at our house. It seriously felt SOOOO amazing, and even though my back was hurt, my spirits were lifted so high because I felt like I got a second chance to really celebrate Christmas. We were in the parks until Jan 5, and they started taking down the Christmas decorations on Jan 4, so I got to enjoy to the fullest all of the Chrismtas decorations and music for most of our time there, so it felt like one big Christmas celebration to me. And, that was and still is an amazing memory for me!!

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Favorite memory:

WDW
Our first trip there. We had 2 of our kids with us and also brought our 5 year old grandaughter(Ana)with us.

Having Ana along so experiencing all the Magic through her eyes as well as my own was truly Magic. She made many wonderful memories for us and she never cried even once and never complained about all the walking.

She woke up early with a smile and went until midnight with a smile.
I can still hear her happy little voice when she woke up at 6 a.m. saying Grandpa, what are we going to do today??

We have had our kids and grandkids out to WDW many times since then and those were all amazing trips but none had that special Magic of our first trip to WDW with Ana.


Of course we also took all of the family on the cruise too and shared wonderful memories too, but I think the first WDW trip was the best of all of them.

Kathy

 

[NC2WDW]

Kathy (Gma) and Kathy (LTR), Thanks for the advice on booking. I have been looking at future cruises and I see that they are mainly using the Dream and Fantasy out of PC for 2012 and those two ships are much more expensive. It's sad they are doing that because even though the Magic will sail from NY to the Bahamas, it obviously lengthens the trip which also makes it more expensive. They should really leave one of the older and one of the newer ships in Florida, since its closer to the Caribbean, where lots of people want to go. I don't know what we will book onboard, just something to get the discount. Glad to know the discount follows you if you change reservations though.

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Been trying to watch the Dream pull out on the web cam. Its 40 minutes late and still sititng there

Hope it pulls out soon,

Kathy

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Hey Magical cruisers we need mpore posting to get us to page 100 today.

Lets keep those posts coming. Photos would be nice too.

I'll be back in a couple hours to see where we are.


Kathy

 

[LovesToRun]

Kathy (Gma) and Kathy (LTR), Thanks for the advice on booking. I have been looking at future cruises and I see that they are mainly using the Dream and Fantasy out of PC for 2012 and those two ships are much more expensive. It's sad they are doing that because even though the Magic will sail from NY to the Bahamas, it obviously lengthens the trip which also makes it more expensive. They should really leave one of the older and one of the newer ships in Florida, since its closer to the Caribbean, where lots of people want to go. I don't know what we will book onboard, just something to get the discount. Glad to know the discount follows you if you change reservations though.

I know what you mean! It's hard that for 2012, the only options for out of PC are the bigger newer ships, which do cost more money. I mean, for us, it's expensive no matter what because we have to fly across the country, but I'd much rather sail out of PC than NY or Galvaston, TX.

What I'm bummed about is that all next summer, the Wonder will be sailing out of Seattle!!! I mean, literally, she will be docked a 20 minutes drive from my house... but the only option is to sail up to Alaska, and I have zero desire to sail up to Alaska since that is where I grew up. It's like "been there done that", and plus, just because I'm from Alaska, I don't think the itinerary that Disney has is really that great, so if I were ever to do a cruise to Alaska, I would go with Princess Cruises.

But, it's going to be torture for us next summer knowing the Wonder is literally RIGHT here and we aren't going on it. There is a repositioning cruise when the move her back down to Los Angeles, but it doesn't work with the kid's school schedules.

But, it'd be neat if they did a regular Seattle -> San Francsico cruise or something like that. But, I know that'd never sell well... but I'd do it!!

But, I am sure the days that the Wonder is in port, we'll drive over to see the ship, and maybe watch her leave and do the Mickey Whistle... as we salivate wishing WE were on the ship!!

Kathy