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

[Silly Little Pixie]

The DW & I booked today!

I hope you don't think we're bad parents, but we're going to leave the 2x DS's at home with Grandpa & Grandma.

We've not had any weekends / holidays away together for several years, so when I mentioned a day at the F&W festival at Epcot, followed by a short cruise, DW jumped at it!

See you all on board?

Now I can go back to full commando planning mode!

Welcome!!!! I see you are an experienced DCL cruiser. How fun to have a getaway together like this. DH and I very much enjoy our time away from the kids when we can get it, too. F&W festival is a great way to do that!

Tips for us DCL newbies?

Christine

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

Has anyone done the dolphin swim excursion? My DD is 6 and even though she doesn't know about the cruise yet (2 weeks before the big reveal ), she has mentioned several times that she'd like to swim with dolphins. I'm not sure if she would find it scary. I'd hate to pay for it and then have her not want to do it.

Any advice?

Marcy

We did the dolphin swim in Hawaii. It was at our hotel, and we could even see the dolphin's lagoon from our balcony. My DS was 5 at the time and he loved it. We didn't have to go anywhere, though, and it's hard to find a spot you're more comfortable in than beachfront in Hawaii! We didn't do a lot of "swimming" free with the dolphins. We had one meet us at a time, and we could pet it, learn about it, feed it, swim out and have it swim through hoops at you, swim underwater with it, etc. We met 5 dolphins in all in our dolphin experience, and it was all 4 of us together. No other participants other than our family. It was incredible!

I would ask, is your daughter comfortable around large animals? Is she afraid in the water? Will you be doing the swim with her? I probably wouldn't put in a youngster of that age without being with them through the experience... not just incase they get frightened, but because the experience itself can be so cool. We thoroughly enjoyed it. I think it depends though on the quality of the place giving it. If your child is just jumping into a pool with a dolphin, that might be a little overwhelming. It could be kind of scary if the child can't touch bottom, or watching how fast that dolphin is swimming at your underwater. My kids still talk about it today, I am sure it is something they will always remember.

Christine

 

[Cellthing]

Just wondering, has everyone registered their kids in the kids club and/or made their shore excursion reservations???? The date has officially past for our cruise to do both. I registered my kids but haven't book any excursions yet as we haven't decided what we will be doing.

If you have booked any excursions I would love to know what everyone ends up booking.

We are getting closer!!

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

Just wondering, has everyone registered their kids in the kids club and/or made their shore excursion reservations???? The date has officially past for our cruise to do both. I registered my kids but haven't book any excursions yet as we haven't decided what we will be doing.

If you have booked any excursions I would love to know what everyone ends up booking.

We are getting closer!!

Oooh, no I haven't! I will register the kids this week.

I haven't booked any excursions. I'm still thinking of beaching it in Nassau- since that's what I can afford! And Ds didn't seem to keen on the Stingray thing. He's seen and petted them before.

Christine

 

[disfan#2]

We haven't booked any excursions yet either - not sure yet what we want to do and do we really want to spend the money. We did book Palo though for the last night of the cruise. Is anyone else dining there? My sister-in-law said she tried to book the dolphin excursion for Castaway Cay and was told that it was sold out already.

 

[inukshuk]

Hi everyone,
Well I actually got my act together and registered my DD in the children's club and I booked the Atlantis Aqua adventure, we did it last year and loved it.
DisFan#2 you can do the dolphin encounter at atlantis as well. We wanted to do it last year and it was sold out (what the cruise had to offer) but when we got to Atlantis they had it there. It was amazing, a true highlight of the cruise.
take care
Jenn

 

[Cellthing]

Well, I decided to go ahead and book the Comfort Suites Paradise Island which by booking a room there we have full access to Atlantis (as if we booked at room there ourselves) but it is cheaper. We plan on doing the check-in/check-out at the same time. I was in debate if I wanted to spend the money also, but I knew that we wanted to go and check out the resort and after checking the cost of the excurisions from the cruise, I decided this was our best bet then we can just decide that day what we want to do. I have a DD5 who is not big enough to ride the slides at the water park (even though she would love to and is a great swimmer) so I hated to pay the price of the excursion to it not knowing how long we would stay since she can't do it all.

I think Castaway Cay is just going to be a beach day for us. We might walk around and let the kids decide what we will do while there. I'm still going to research all there is to do just so we know our options. I would still like to hear what others have planned for both days as your plans become final.

Also, for those that have cruised DCL before, I am looking for the "not to miss activities" while on the boat.

 

[MN Dis Fans]

The DW wants to do the Wine & Cheese Pairings at the GrayCliff Hotel. Yikes, it's pricey! Anyone else doing this?

Signing kids up for kids Clubs? Oh, that's right, we're not bringinig ours!

Cellthing: Things not to miss. Make sure you go to the shows!

 

[Linda in sunny SC]

I can't believe it is only 2 months until I leave for WDW and the cruise. I haven't booked any excursions except for the bike rental on Castaway Cay. I plan to relax as much as I can but I do really enjoy photography so I want to take many pictures on this trip and especially around the island. I don't plan on doing Palo because I thought it might be kind of weird going alone and also I don't really like Italian food that well. I'm sure I'll find plenty to eat in the dining rooms. In fact, I'm now attempting to lose a few pounds so I can enjoy myself eating at Food and Wine and on the cruise. I've already filled out oll of my online check-in forms. Starting to get excited.

 

[TiggerzFan]

oops

 

[Cellthing]

I can't remember if this has been discussed, but I need to book a room by the port for Sat. night. So my question is, where is everyone staying? Of course this only applies to those who are staying the night around port.

Another question, anyone renting a car for the day? We will need a day rental from Sat. afternoon to Sun. morning. I was wondering also if anyone got a good deal on a day rental. I will need another rental to get us to Disney after the cruise (I decided this is way cheaper than paying for Disney transportation and we have the freedom to go and stop where we want).

Thanks for any info.

Kristen and family

 

[TiggerzFan]

Hi y'all! Greetings from Central FL.

We just booked this cruise today, taking advantage of FL resident rates. We'd been bouncing around a couple of dates and this one seems to work the best for us. We live close to the port (about 40 minutes) so no pre-cruise planning needed.

I promise to get caught up on all the posts and cast of characters soon. And, if there's a DIS meet and/or FE exchange planned, count us in!

 

[TiggerzFan]

I can't remember if this has been discussed, but I need to book a room by the port for Sat. night. So my question is, where is everyone staying? Of course this only applies to those who are staying the night around port.

Another question, anyone renting a car for the day? We will need a day rental from Sat. afternoon to Sun. morning. I was wondering also if anyone got a good deal on a day rental. I will need another rental to get us to Disney after the cruise (I decided this is way cheaper than paying for Disney transportation and we have the freedom to go and stop where we want).

Thanks for any info.

Kristen and family

Hi Kristen -
I've rented cars on past trips and you're right, getting a car is often much cheaper than other transportation. I got my best deals from checking mousesavers.com. They always have the latest discount codes to use and other tips.

 

[neonurse]

Hi Kristen,
When I was looking for rental car for my dsis I found that it was cheaper to rent the car for the whole trip vs dropping it off and picking up another one after the cruise. She is thinking of getting a hotel with the shuttle and leaving the rental at the hotel. Alamo has some great rates for midsize using walmart discount code 428448. HTH

 

[Cellthing]

Thanks neonurse,

The problem is we are doing disney after the cruise (til the following Monday) so I don't want to rent a car for a week and a half. We won't need it while on the cruise or while we are at Disney. I've noticed a day rental is running a little over $50 a day for a full size car. That puts us at about $100 for coming and going and to not have to worry about parking while on the cruise. I am still going to check into it though just to make sure. I'm all for finding the best rates.

Still haven't decided where we are staying Sat. night. Need to get that reserved soon.

 

[neonurse]

Thanks neonurse,

The problem is we are doing disney after the cruise (til the following Monday) so I don't want to rent a car for a week and a half. We won't need it while on the cruise or while we are at Disney. I've noticed a day rental is running a little over $50 a day for a full size car. That puts us at about $100 for coming and going and to not have to worry about parking while on the cruise. I am still going to check into it though just to make sure. I'm all for finding the best rates.

Still haven't decided where we are staying Sat. night. Need to get that reserved soon.

But how are you getting from the airport to PC. Add that into the total cost. Parking is sometimes included in the cost of the hotel. I got a ressie for my sister for a midsize for $175 for 9 days.

 

[TiggerzFan]

Hey all, we're under 8 weeks now! Hopefully all the hurricanes will be long gone by the time we cruise. We are so thankful here in FL that Ike didn't come our way. Some folks in our region are still recovering from Fay.

Kristen, FYI, I just checked the Budget web site for a one-way rental on that Saturday and got $33.60 for the full size. I used the "walmart" discount code (which anyone can use) of W810011. Don't know if this helps you at all.

 

[disfan#2]

We are staying at the Radisson Resort at the Port (their web site says they are the closest hotel to Port Canaveral) it was $143.19 a night and that is the cruise parking package - cheaper of course if you only get the room. We are getting a rental for a week so we can drive to Disney after the cruise. We found that it was almost $500 cheaper to fly in the day before - even with the cost of the hotel for one night and a rental car it still came out cheaper to fly in the day before.

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

Anyone ever use FL Tours? I think I have convinced DH that it will be more of a hassle for us to rent a car as a series of 3 one-ways for this trip. I have booked it with FL Tours, but of course am a little sketchy about them picking us up 3 different times at 3 different places!

Also- I was planning on a grocery stop to buy some beer for the cruise, but then wondered- are grocery stores/liquor stores open and able to sell that on a Sunday morning? Here in CA it's not a problem, but other states are different...

Christine

 

[MN Dis Fans]

I was wondering the same thing about the liquor stores being open on Sunday morning. Does anybody know? If so, what time?

We're actually arriving Friday night, staying at Carribbean Resort (Friday / Saturday) We're doing Epcot all day Saturday, but I know that I will have no desire to go on a pre-cruise booze hunt anytime Saturday.

Makes the most sense to do this Sunday morning, I know there is an ABC liquor store just a couple of blocks from Avis in Cape Canaveral, so would be ideal to do it then.

Mind you, I'm one of those guys that wants to be at the terminal when they open, so I can get the "coveted" Boarding Pass #2! So, that would mean arriving at the Terminal very near 1000AM.

I always rent a car, as I find it so much cheaper, plus I find it a very easy drive both to WDW, and out to Port Canaveral from Orlando.

Historically, we alway spend the night at the Port somewhere, and I just do my booze buying the day before we cruise.

This Epcot side trip has thrown my scheduling all out the window! I suspect my DW will not be to sympathetic to my cause.