November 7, 2009 ~~~~ AHOY ST.CROIX ~~~~

[mom x4 grandma x4]

I took this photo of our FE gifts thinking we were all done and then more arrived. But here are a good deal of them.

 

[GoofyTraci]

Speaking of Facebook, somebody mentioned to me about setting up a Facebook page for all our cruise pics to share. Forgive me, I can't recall who that was right now, but I love the idea!

It was me. Krista and I talked about making an Ahoy St croix group for only us that cruised together to join so we could all keep up with each other. Krista is probably better than me at setting that up. I had to take a break from FB my friends were telling my business for everyone to know.

Anyway long day today. Still tired. Linda glad you are checking in and doing ok. I have a new cruise friend called Bonine. I was able to bum a couple from some nice Dissers. So after I took that I was fine. So yes we will cruise again. And not quite ready for another one yet but soon. We booked the mexican reviera cruise in 2011 march 12 I think.

I also felt so tired and exhausted on the cruise. All of the time changes and sea sickness the first couple of days wore me down. That was the reason why I didnt make it to the swap. The meds I was taking made me so sleepy. But I did go door to door to pass out the pages and was so happy for the ones I received. They were awesome.

Well gotta run. I had a blast and sadly I miss you guys.

 

[yargrnhoj]

Sorry we didn't get to meet all of you (or maybe we did and didn't know it). DW was sick the first day of the cruise so we didn't go down to the DIS meet. But we were on the West End Highlights Tour on St. Croix and the Barefoot Catamaran on St. Thomas and spent a lot of time in R'b'D, so maybe we met anyway.

I agree on the food. Very disappointing dinner and we were not impressed with our server. But appetizers and soups and especially Palo were great.

We skipped a lot of the shows -- too much been there, done that for us. We'd like to see them update the shows and stop bringing back the same entertainers -- and we had not been on the ship since 2006!

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Morning everyone,

well it looks like about everyone made it back safely and had a good time despite some rocking seas.
I am on FB but only check it out every 4 or 5 weeks, but if anyone ever wants to find me my name there is Kathleen Templeton and I think most of you have my e-mail address by now anyway or of course you can always PM people here if you know their posting name.

I still need to fold up laundry and get it put away this morning but things are getting back to normal around here. Its pouring rain and we had 50 MPH wind gusts last night that really rocked the RV. On the coast here the wind were 89 MPH, so it was quite a wind storm we had, now the rain is following.

Wish we were back in Florida at 85 degrees.

Have a good day all,

Linda and Gail,
I hope your Western cruise is smoother for you. Be sure and let us know how its going


Kathy

 

[sokay168]

It was me. Krista and I talked about making an Ahoy St croix group for only us that cruised together to join so we could all keep up with each other. Krista is probably better than me at setting that up. I had to take a break from FB my friends were telling my business for everyone to know.

Anyway long day today. Still tired. Linda glad you are checking in and doing ok. I have a new cruise friend called Bonine. I was able to bum a couple from some nice Dissers. So after I took that I was fine. So yes we will cruise again. And not quite ready for another one yet but soon. We booked the mexican reviera cruise in 2011 march 12 I think.

I also felt so tired and exhausted on the cruise. All of the time changes and sea sickness the first couple of days wore me down. That was the reason why I didnt make it to the swap. The meds I was taking made me so sleepy. But I did go door to door to pass out the pages and was so happy for the ones I received. They were awesome.

Well gotta run. I had a blast and sadly I miss you guys.

I can make a group and make it private so noone can see the group but members. I would have to request you as a friend first or vice versa then I can send you an invite out. Once your added to group to can delete me as a friend (some people like their privacy) but we will remain in the group together.

Still sick but feeling alittle better.

Donna - Your welcome for the bracelets. If you think of it take a pic of all the girls with them on and i can show our troop.

Krista


Krista

 

[stampinshauna]

It sounds like most people agree about the food on the ship. It used to be better. I hope everyone let DCL know on the surveys that the food wasn't up to par. While this was a fun cruise, it ranks at the bottom of 5 for me--due to the food quality, ship rocking, having to switch rooms, and DD getting sick. HOWEVER, it was #1 as far as DISers. I had a lot of fun at the meet and chatting with some of you throughout the cruise. The page swap and FE swap made it great too.

Right now we are in the air on the way home. I'm ready to be home since we've been gone almost 2 weeks, but I'm sad to leave Disney. We had a great time in the parks after the cruise. We did Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party for the first time and it was well worth it. It wasn't crowded at the party and we were able to walk right onto every ride in Fantasyland and had them all done in an hour--now that's the way to do the parks with a 2 year old.

GoofyTraci--glad to hear you joined DVC. We love it! Where did you buy in? In FL or CA? We first learned about it on our first cruise.

Thanks for sharing the photos Kathy.

Hope everyone is doing well and is adjusting to cooking and cleaning and being off the ship. I loved the weather and now it is home to 40s and snow.

 

[GoofyTraci]

Hey Shauna glad you are on the way home and all is well. We bought DVC at Animal Kingdom Villas in Florida. We are super excited about it. Have you had any good or bad issues with DVC?

I went back to work today for the first day and man by the end of the day I was beat.

I think I need a vacation to recoup from this one.

Well hope everyone is doing ok. I miss u guys!!!!

 

[Laurie from London]

Hi everyone!
We are back safe and sound. I came on Sunday to catch up on reading but I just didn't have it in me to post anything... too much post cruise blues, disembarkation sickness and general zombie like state to do anything on Sunday. We did laundry and bought groceries and slept, that was it. Luckily we had done two loads of wash on the ship so the laundry was not too crazy out of control.
I am still dizzy today, but it is getting less. No seasickness while on board, but this land sickness (my made up name for it) is no fun at all. DH, DD, and DS think I am imagining it...
Went back to work yesterday to a major restructuring of the company and substantial layoffs/terminations. Not me luckily, but the whole company structure is changing, so there are interesting and exciting times ahead.

My impressions of the cruise, as a DCL first timer:
The food was pretty good I thought, not amazing but pretty good. The kids menus were the biggest disappointment. I really expected they would do a better job of the kids food, and not just feed them junk for a week. I was less impressed than I expected to be with our servers also. Lots of other crew members impressed me a heck of a lot more.
Also I hated being on early dining, it really got in the way of my afternoon fun having to go back and get ready for dinner at 4:30 or so every day. Who eats at 5:45 anyway? Even at home we don't eat unil 7 most nights. DMIL and her big ideas...
I am sooo very glad to have found this group for all of the great advice and so that we knew some people when we got on board. Thanks to everyone for being there.
FE gifts were amazing and so generous, creative and wonderful. Who made those awesome autograph books? What about the book marks? All of it was just so impressive. We had a lot of fun with the gifts, and not just the kids!
Such special souvenirs.

The page swap was also such a wonderful idea, the pages are amazing. You are all such creative geniuses.

I wish that we could have squeezed more in... it flew by in a flash. The only way I can describe it is that it was like living in a dream for a week. Then came the rude awakening... ugh.
Anyway, there is only one thing for it, that is to plan another trip! I give the ILs until about Christmas to get the itch again. We all enjoyed travelling together and I think we will do it again.

I love the Facebook idea, count me in (Laurie Rintoul).

Can't wait to hear more about everyone's experiences and impressions.

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

We actually found the food to be pretty good. We are as a group though pretty adventurous eaters, so the fish, venison, and lamb were right up our alley. It helped that we had fantastic servers- Louis and Denis. Louis wouldn't let you order anything he didn't think was good and always brought out an extra entree or two to try. Louis was also hilarious! So glad he is moving West with the Wonder- hope to have him on our Mexican cruise.

Tracy, we are totally loving Kidani Village. It's amazing. We need less time in the parks and more time here! Kyle asked why they always say, "welcome home." I told him, "this is our vacation home. That's why they say welcome home." To which Rachel replied, "No...the ship is my home away from home!"

I'm in also for a FB group! Sounds fun.

Christine

 

[stampinshauna]

I'm not on Facebook, but I'll think about it.

We got home safe last night, and almost an hour early--wahoo. We had tailwinds which were unusual because flying west almost always has headwinds. I've never gotten in that early, and it was great because by that time we were sick of traveling. DD was an awesome traveler too, she slept the whole second leg of the flight and DH and I got to watch a movie and I surfed the net a bit. I was really stressed about keeping DD happy on the flights and it was no big deal.

Traci, I love DVC. We stayed at Kidani before the cruise and it was great. The only bad thing, I get spoiled with DVC and when I stay in a "regular" hotel room I miss my DVC rooms. I also like not having them clean your room everyday because then I don't have to put everything away and I don't have to worry about them being in the room when I want to be there.

I'm excited to go through my pictures and put them on my scrapbook pages so I can have some scrapbooking done.

 

[minniemouse71]

Hi everyone!

I am sooo very glad to have found this group for all of the great advice and so that we knew some people when we got on board. Thanks to everyone for being there.
FE gifts were amazing and so generous, creative and wonderful. Who made those awesome autograph books? What about the book marks? All of it was just so impressive. We had a lot of fun with the gifts, and not just the kids!
Such special souvenirs.


Can't wait to hear more about everyone's experiences and impressions.

We are also home, trying to get back into the swing of making our own beds and dinners. Finally got the laundry done, and we are trying to finish work on the back deck before the snow hits. It was great meeting everyone, and I can't wait to get busy on my scrap book for this cruise. The scrap pages have given me a good head start. I love all of the pages and also the FE gifts. Brought the candy home to the grandkids who loved it.
Laurie, I made the autograph books, as well as the bookmark that had the Mickey heads on it. I only made autograph books for the kids, so only cabins with kids got them. I hope that they enjoyed them. My original idea was to write their names on the first page on the black so that they looked like the mose ears that you get in Disney, but try as I might, I could not find something that would write on that black paper. Oh well, it was a thought. Hmmm. I didn't try a gold or silver gel pen, that might have worked. (I only tried my scrapbook pens) I will have to try it, in case I ever decide to do those again. Glad to hear that everyone had a good time, and that you are home safe and sound.
I have never done facebook but am willing to give it a whirl. Let me know. I think it would be great to keep in touch with everyone.
Have a good nite everyone,
Vickie

 

[Laurie from London]

Well thank you Vickie, the kids loved the autograph books and I loved that I didn't have to buy one on the ship for them.

I am almost not dizzy anymore...

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

Vickie, the autograph books were great! My DD used hers today at Cinderella's Royal Table and all the princesses were fascinated. It will be great since I can unhook it and have each autograph on the scrapbook page next to her picture with each princess. So cool!

I feel your pain on the laundry. We got to AKV on Sunday and spent hours doing laundry! At least I had a Savannah view as I folded.

Christine

 

[TiggerzFan]

Vickie, LOVE the autograph books! So clever! My girls can't wait to use them the next time we go to the parks.

Christine, you must be loving this weather we're having this week. It's just perfect for parks.

Laurie, my boat has stopped rocking, too!

I'm through all my laundry and am now trying to get all my cruise gear away - the pirate stuff, family outfits, etc. And just yesterday I convinced DD7 to finally take off her Kids' Club bracelet. We go through this after every cruise...it takes days to wean her off the wristband! LOL!

Hope everyone has some nice Thanksgiving plans. DH's family will be cruising the new Carnival Dream (out of NY) and they port in Port Canaveral on Turkey Day! So, we'll be off to the port to pick them up, bring them to our house for a feast and then "shipping" them back to the port by 5pm.

 

[minniemouse71]

Glad that the kids liked them. I had fun making them, I even made a couple extra for my grandkids to have the next time they go with us.
I forgot about the "land rocking" I was wondering why I felt so weird the first couple days back to work. I am always on the computer and just didn't feel right. Thought I was really coming down with something, but after reading everyones posts, I think that was it.
Quote:
DH's family will be cruising the new Carnival Dream (out of NY) and they port in Port Canaveral on Turkey Day! So, we'll be off to the port to pick them up, bring them to our house for a feast and then "shipping" them back to the port by 5pm.
Donna, this cracked me up! That is what I would like to be able to do with some of our Family during the Holidays. Don't get me wrong, I love the Holidays and enjoy the company, but sometimes being able to "ship em off" would be a good thing.
Well, I'm off to put some dishes away. Will check back later.
Take Care,
Vickie

 

[iamdaisyduck]

Hey everyone!

The FE gifts were incredible!! Sorry for my Ghetto looking CD's I forgot my labels at home so you all got the generic looking ones, but I tried to put a lot of the music on them that was heard on the ship. If I missed anyone let me know and I will snail mail one to you. There were some cabin changes so I couldn't find everyone (I think I might have missed 1 or 2).

People that were on deck 5, when we were giving out your FE gifts we noticed a boy who was also on deck 5 following us around the ship. To both my DH and I it appeared that he realized that we were giving stuff out and was watching us. We just moved on and didn't do deck 5 until the next day but it would not surprise me at all if some things were taken out of your FE's when you were not around!! (or it's just my paranoid NY mind thinking the worst of a kid who was just curious)

I am still rocking at times, weird feeling!!

The food was not good at all I thought! Why in the world would they have no beef on the menu one night?? Venison?? Sorry that was just weird to me!! If they want to put venison on the menu then put it on the menu but don't not have beef too!! We wound up eating in Top Siders for dinner that night.

Entertainment...same old same old...it's time for Disney to change the shows on the magic!! I like John Charles, I didn't like 2 guys from LA (not sure of their names). I only watched the first night teaser with them but I wasn't impressed with them at all). The hypnotist....wow!! completely fake and unbelievable. Ventriloquist...not as good as the one who was on the ship last year.

Did anyone else notice how much repairing was going on this week? I don't ever remember being so inconvenienced with the sprucing up before.

A woman I met complained that there was a lot of banging next to her room (they were redoing the room next door). They refunded her $150, so if any of you had problems with noise complain complain complain, you may get a refund too

We booked another DCL cruise while on board August 16, 2011...Let's hope the food is better on that ship.

 

[bjkjoy]

Hi again to every one. It's fun to read what everyone is up to now that most of us are home again. We too want to thank everyone for the FE gifts. I think it was the highlight of the kids cruise to come back to see what was there. One problem was they opened them all at once and I don't know what the got from who most of the time. So....all I can say is thank you to everyone for everything.

We too have the wash done but I'm not going to do the ironing because we won't be wearing the summer gear again until next summer. I am putting it away and will iron it next May.

We are having our family Thanksgiving at Donna so we had to put all the gifts away. I put most of them in a box and the kids will have to "divide" them after the holiday. Also thanks so much for the adult gifts. Donna and I will be using them also.

If you are getting together a Facebook group, count me in. Let me know what you need and I'll send it to whoever is going to do it.

We had a lot of banging outside our room every afternoon when we were in port. It kept me from my grandma nap but I did live through that. Loved our room otherwise. Am glad we upgraded. Probably will never have that type room again so we enjoyed it while we did.

Didn't the menu used to have chicken, steak, and a fish as the optional meals on the bottom of the menu? Now all I saw was chicken and salmon. I am not an adventurous eater and don't like spicy foods and that's what it seemed everything I ordered was. The kids liked baked potato and strawberries and they had that for almost every meal. They were happy.

Again, it was good to meet everyone and would like to keep in touch.

Bonnie

 

[sokay168]

Hi Everyone!!!!

I set up a Ahoy St. Croix Group on facebook if anyone would like to join.
I have made it public for right now so everyone can join without hassle. I will leave it that way for a week or so for everyone to join after that I will make it private so no stalking on our page. Here is the link:

http://www.facebook.com/groups.php?ref=sb#/group.php?gid=178711915834


Krista

 

[KiwiMatt]

Hello everyone

Wanted to drop in and add my 2 cents. We had a great time and it was wonderful to meet all of you. Thanks to all who participated in the FE program, there were some great gifts there and our little one loved finding new things everyone contributed.

We loved the food (esp Palo) although I don't have much to compare against having only done one other cruise. Having said that, I did notice the kids menu wasn't the healthiest and was very similar every night.

We also booked again, for the 14 night transatlantic crossing in Sept 2011. The price was very attractive.

Cheers
Matthew

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Hi Matt,
too bad you didnt do the 9/18,2010 TA cruise, we are on that one. Looks like we will be missing you by a year.

Did all of you know that the kids can have anything off the adult menu too?
They are not limited to the kids menu.

Kathy