November 9, 2008 4 day Wonder- who's in?

[MN Dis Fans]

The DW & I fly to Orlando tomorrow (Friday) afternoon. There are blizzard warnings out in Western & Central ND, and am starting to see school closure announcements. It is supposed to stay out to the West. It's been raining here all morning in West Central MN, and hope it just stays rain, and does not turn to snow!

I hope the rest of you have safe and uneventful trips!
See you on the boat!

Weather forecasts for Central Florida look lovely! Low to Mid-80's for highs, and lows of upper 50's! We'll definitely take that.

2 days at Castaway Cay! I like that rumour, keep it going. Maybe the DCL folks are reading our thread, and will take note!

 

[fbtbdisney]

This will be our 6th cruise this year and I am just now learning about the blog , so hello and my husband and I look forward to sailing with all ya'll.

 

[TiggerzFan]

Welcome fbtbdisney! This is our 6th cruise, too. Glad you found us. We're having a DIS meet at 4:45 on Dec 10 at the Sailaway Party. Come say HI!

 

[TiggerzFan]

I haven't followed the latest weather reports but fear not everyone.... the Captain always keeps us safely away from bad weather.
In 5 cruises we missed Castaway once..... in '04 when we sailed right in between Hurricanes Ivan and Frances. We were diverted to Charleston instead. I sure wouldn't be upset if we missed Nassau... been there done that too many times. But, PLEASE oh gods of cruising, do not let us miss Castaway.

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

we landed in Orlando this am at 5:30. The local morning news station said "if you are cruising to the Bahamas next week, you might not be..." yikes!!! Hopefully they are as prone to dramatizing the weather as ours are in California!
I did check with the CM at the Dcl desk just now. She said the cruise was definitely a go, they might just reroute or change the order of ports. She also did mention that CC might be the only port.
The only 1 I care about, haha!! Crossing all my fingers that we manage tohave good weather and a CC day.

 

[drdelsol]

They are definitely prone to the drama. Have to let you know they are important for job security. Captain Henry will see us through. My wife is packing all the daughters many princess outfits as I write this. She decided on Ariel to go over in.

Me and my two blonde ladies will see everyone Sunday.

 

[Dognut]

Just checked the weather online for Nassau. Isolated showers is all they have predicted. We leave out of LAX tomorrow, 11/08. I'm sure we will be fine. Look forward to meeting you on the cruise. Have a great time!

 

[TiggerzFan]

It was announced today on the DCL web site that the 11/8 Magic sailing, an Eastern, will now be a Western. No changes to our cruise but stay tuned!

 

[caligirl2000]

watching the weather reports closely, anyone else getting there early?

 

[TiggerzFan]

Unfortunately we were back home by 9:45 yesterday, having left the ship at 9:00am (we milk every minute we can onboard!). I'm SO sad I didn't get to meet any of you. We went up to Deck 10 briefly at Sailaway and I tried to look around, even asking a couple of folks (who gave me weird looks! LOL) and then the kids were begging to go to Deck 9.

Perhaps you noticed us in the terminal, we were lucky enough to be picked as the "Dream Family" and got to board first. That was pretty cool!

We had a BLAST, hope you all did, too. DD2, almost 3, was allowed to go to Oceaneer's Club with big sister so that was a huge magical boost! For the first cruise ever, we got short periods of down time. This was our 6th cruise and the first time we checked out Serenity Bay and then went to the Heads Up Bar for a Konk Kooler! Heaven.....

We entered in the Mickey 200, won a couple of pins at Bingo and a silver clock at the Castaway Club reception.

LOVED all the FE gifts.... thank you so much to everyone for being so generous. My girls loved coming back to the stateroom and seeing all the neat treasures. DH and I loved the goodies, too.

As always, there were so many magical moments.
We did rebook onboard for a Nov 2010 (2009 was booked onboard in May) sailing but primarily to take advantage of the 50% deposit discount so we can transfer that ressie to a 2011 sailing on the new ship!

Anyone else still feel the boat rocking? I'm feeling it right now as I type. A weird but happy feeling!

Hope you've all arrived home safely, or are still enjoying some post-cruise vacation time!

 

[Linda in sunny SC]

But I didn't get here until almost midnight due to airline delays and fog. I had a great time on the cruise. It was the best vacation I've ever had. Donna, I also won a clock, Mine was the last name drawn but I was going by my first name, Mary, so you probably didn't recognize me. I tried to go to the Sail Away meet on deck 10, but it was so loud that I didn't think I could communicate well enough to find any Diser's.

I hope everyone enjoyed their FE gifts. I didn't label mine but if you want to know which ones were mine, they were the clear bags with crayons and pirate tattoos and the Christmas ornaments. I know I thought it was a lot of fun and I got some cool stuff. Love the maple syrup from the Canadians on the cruise and all of the magnets. I wore my pirate bracelets on Pirate night. So, many thanks to all who participated! Everyone had such cute FE's too.

I thought the weather was just perfect. Did anyone else see that rainbow off the starboard side on Nassau morning. I couldn't get a picture because my camera was fogged up. It was spectacular. And Castaway Cay was so wonderful.

I thought about re-booking but my situation isn't real stable right now so I didn't. I sure would like to go again, especially on one of the new ships in a few years. I could just go on and on about how great this trip was, but you all know that already.

Thanks again to everyone for making this such a fun trip and I'm sorry I never met any of you in person.

 

[MN Dis Fans]

Sorry we missed you all at the Cruise Meet. I walked through the area at the scheduled time on Deck 10. It was like a zoo up top , mind you, nothing like Deck 9! Oh well, next cruise. I guess we all should have wore signs or something.

Did any of you see the dolphins off the starboard side as we pulled out of port?

I must say, Great FE gifts as well. The DW & I enjoyed all the "booty" left in our FE. We brought it all home, and now the 2x DS's are in possession of the goods, except the maple syrup from Canada. Mmmmm, that might just be going on our breakfast's tomorrow morning.

TiggerzFanHow cool to be picked as the Dream Family, and to win one of the CastaAway Cay Clocks. We never have any luck when it comes to that kind of stuff. Was it your DD that pulled your name from the hat?

Linda in sunny SC We're jealous that you managed to snag one of the clocks as well. I think we've gone to almost all the Receptions since we started cruising with DCL and have never won anything at them. Oh well, it's good to see that at least 2x of the clocks went to fellow DisBoarders.

We've got no more scheduled cruises until next X-mas (2009), so plenty of time to plan and save!

I hope all you folks had as great a time as my DW & I did!

 

[TiggerzFan]

TiggerzFanHow cool to be picked as the Dream Family, and to win one of the CastaAway Cay Clocks. We never have any luck when it comes to that kind of stuff. Was it your DD that pulled your name from the hat?

Funny, we usually don't ever have any kind of luck either! Six cruises, never an upgrade, etc. Dream Family was nice though the benefits ended as soon as we boarded! I must say it was really cool to be the first ones in Parrot Cay for lunch!
And, nope, neither of our DDs were on stage to pull names - though how funny was it that the little girl pulled her mom's name?

How did you like your stateroom? We have SPH next year.

 

[MN Dis Fans]

I thought the Dream Family got a bunch of extra benefits; pictures, concierge type services, etc.? Oh well, it would still be cool to be the 1st on the ship!
We're like you; 7x cruises, and not so much as an upgrade. Perhaps next cruise.
We've had SPH rooms in our last 6x cruises. We get the connecting one's when the DS's are with us. Love the location / price Down 1x to WDW theater, and 2x to (Beat Street or Route 66)
I also think the forward elevator see's less traffic than the mid and aft elevator's do. Note: We do try to make it a policy, no elevator unless it's more than 3x floors. (I know, pathetic, isn't it.), but we have to work that drink of the day off somehow.

 

[caligirl2000]

glad to hear everyone had a wonderful time. i didn't remember where your meeting place was, but my DD (4yrs old) had a melt down and we had to go back to the room for a short time. She was tired, hungary again and wanted to go to the Oceaner's club.

Cool that you got picked as the dream family. Did your DD's enjoy being 1st on the ship? Did you get any special pictures since you were picked as dream family?

We booked our next year cruise while on board the ship also, we are going on the same week ...Nov 8, 2009 Wonder again. 4 days is enough for us, and we have learned a lot from this cruise...what not to and what to do.

We stayed at a hotel on Thursday and flew out on Friday afternoon. The only thing that sucked as that we had a 2 1/2 hour drive from LAX to the house, traffic was INSANE and all we have done is sleep. Older DD and DH got sick on Saturday.

How many of you made it to the Pirate Party? We were up there, but I left early with DD's...they were tired and wanted to go back to the room.
DH said this party wasn't as good as last years party.

We are happy to be home.

 

[TiggerzFan]

I thought the Dream Family got a bunch of extra benefits; pictures, concierge type services, etc.? Oh well, it would still be cool to be the 1st on the ship!

When we were first picked, I too thought we were in for a whole bunch of magic - mostly maybe that elusive upgrade. I do remember hearing from DISers who were "Family of the Week" and that must be quite different (all the goodies you mentioned) from being the Dream Family. Once we boarded, that was it.

Cool that you got picked as the dream family. Did your DD's enjoy being 1st on the ship? Did you get any special pictures since you were picked as dream family?

.

Funny you should ask because DH and I kept joking about this photo during the cruise.
Yes, in the terminal we were told we were getting a very special photo opportunity with Mickey and 3 other friends - a photo that only we would get. Well we got our photo taken with Mickey & Goofy (no one else showed up!) but then we had to search for it and BUY it at Shutters!

Don't get me wrong, I am thrilled at any magic that comes our way, but it seemed rather funny that we had to purchase the photo! Ya'd think Mickey could spring for one 6x8!

 

[TiggerzFan]

We stayed at a hotel on Thursday and flew out on Friday afternoon. The only thing that sucked as that we had a 2 1/2 hour drive from LAX to the house, traffic was INSANE and all we have done is sleep. Older DD and DH got sick on Saturday.

How many of you made it to the Pirate Party? We were up there, but I left early with DD's...they were tired and wanted to go back to the room.
DH said this party wasn't as good as last years party.
.

Oh man, that stinks. Not the best way to end a magical vacation. You know, it seems like every time we get home from a cruise, the kids get sick the next day. Same this time, too. Both of them have coughs, runny nose, etc. I have to say that the last night of the cruise I started feeling a touch of that famous "cruise bug". Never fully got it, just enough to feel lousy for a day or two.
There's just too darn many germs hiding everywhere on the ship despite all the wipes and hand sanitizer.

We were at the Pirate Party til the end and watched a bit of the movie. DDs had napped and were ready to rock n roll. It seemed to be about the same as the previous ones we'd been to, however, I thought I rememberd Jack Sparrow being a bigger part of the show. I could be wrong - they all blend together after awhile.

 

[cece1970]

Unfortunately my entire immediate family and other relatives onboard got Norovirus (vomiting/diarrhea). It will be a long time before we take another cruise on any cruise line.

 

[TiggerzFan]

Unfortunately my entire immediate family and other relatives onboard got Norovirus (vomiting/diarrhea). It will be a long time before we take another cruise on any cruise line.

I'm so sorry that happened to you and your family. It sure does make for a bad cruise experience. It's definitely the downside to cruising, theme parks, etc. Did Disney help you out in any way? Will you be able to recover some costs with trip insurance?
Hope everyone is feeling better by now.

 

[cece1970]

I'm so sorry that happened to you and your family. It sure does make for a bad cruise experience. It's definitely the downside to cruising, theme parks, etc. Did Disney help you out in any way? Will you be able to recover some costs with trip insurance?
Hope everyone is feeling better by now.

I didn't know Disney did anything or that illness was reimbursable under the vacation protection plan. I will have to check into it.