Oct 30 2010 7 Night Western

[Nik's Mom]

I'm thinking of trying the dolpin swim in Grand Cayman. It's supposed to be a brand new facility. They are across the street from the Turtle Farm.
http://www.dolphindiscovery.com/grand-cayman/cayman-location-overview.asp

 

[gometros]

I'm thinking of trying the dolpin swim in Grand Cayman. It's supposed to be a brand new facility. They are across the street from the Turtle Farm.
http://www.dolphindiscovery.com/grand-cayman/cayman-location-overview.asp

I'll have to keep that in mind, since I owe my DD a dolphin swim.

 

[Pudo]

Funny thing...

We have been on two Westerns before, but have yet to go to Key West or Grand Caymen.

Both were double dips -

The first was in 2005 before the official double dips. Over Thanksgiving the Magic would go to Castaway Cay twice because of a boating event at Key West. I think that is where they got the idea in the first place.

The second was in August 2006 when the double dip included Costa Maya.

The one time we were scheduled to go to Grand Cayman the water was too rough to tender so we didn't stop.

This will be my wife's 8th Disney cruise, and my 6th. Two easterns, two westerns, a 15 day EB repo, and a couple of 3 days.

Jeff

 

[jblb1020]

Hi Everyone!!! My family will be joining you all on this cruise as well!! We where on the Disney Magic for the Western Nov.1-8th 2008 and rebooked for this year but decided to stay in our Disney timeshare and let the kids do the parks this year and switch to next years cruise!! This will be our 5th Disney Cruise and we LOVE it! I'm Jeanette, my husband is Brian, my son Logan will be 10 at the time we cruise and my daughter Kelsey will be 7 the time we cruise!! It seems like a long way off but half the excitement is all the planning!! Can't wait to meet everyone!

 

[Pudo]

Hi Everyone!!! My family will be joining you all on this cruise as well!! We where on the Disney Magic for the Western Nov.1-8th 2008 and rebooked for this year but decided to stay in our Disney timeshare and let the kids do the parks this year and switch to next years cruise!! This will be our 5th Disney Cruise and we LOVE it! I'm Jeanette, my husband is Brian, my son Logan will be 10 at the time we cruise and my daughter Kelsey will be 7 the time we cruise!! It seems like a long way off but half the excitement is all the planning!! Can't wait to meet everyone!

Hey, we are practically neighbors, we live in North Brunswick. Our family of four includes two girls, Catherine 17 and Sarah who will be a couple months short of 7 at the time of the cruise.

I created a website to post photos of our EB repo cruise in August. One of these days I'll get around to adding photos from all 15 days.

Jeff

 

[podsnel]

Hi Everyone!!! My family will be joining you all on this cruise as well!! We where on the Disney Magic for the Western Nov.1-8th 2008 and rebooked for this year but decided to stay in our Disney timeshare and let the kids do the parks this year and switch to next years cruise!! This will be our 5th Disney Cruise and we LOVE it! I'm Jeanette, my husband is Brian, my son Logan will be 10 at the time we cruise and my daughter Kelsey will be 7 the time we cruise!! It seems like a long way off but half the excitement is all the planning!! Can't wait to meet everyone!

Hi Jeanette!! Maybe we'll actually get to MEET this cruise!!

Ellen

 

[Nik's Mom]

Hi Everyone!!! My family will be joining you all on this cruise as well!! We where on the Disney Magic for the Western Nov.1-8th 2008 and rebooked for this year but decided to stay in our Disney timeshare and let the kids do the parks this year and switch to next years cruise!! This will be our 5th Disney Cruise and we LOVE it! I'm Jeanette, my husband is Brian, my son Logan will be 10 at the time we cruise and my daughter Kelsey will be 7 the time we cruise!! It seems like a long way off but half the excitement is all the planning!! Can't wait to meet everyone!

Hi Jeanette! Welcome to our group!

 

[tom31b]

Hey, we are practically neighbors, we live in North Brunswick. Our family of four includes two girls, Catherine 17 and Sarah who will be a couple months short of 7 at the time of the cruise.

I created a website to post photos of our EB repo cruise in August. One of these days I'll get around to adding photos from all 15 days.

Jeff

Cool site! We had such a great time on that cruise. Have you seen the photo sharing site http://thepiratezone.smugmug.com ?

 

[Pudo]

Cool site! We had such a great time on that cruise. Have you seen the photo sharing site http://thepiratezone.smugmug.com ?

Hey Tom,

Thanks for the link. I checked out some of the galleries, hopefully I will have the time to look at the others. It is nice to see photos from other families, maybe we could do the same for this cruise.

BTW...I got motivated to finish the 15 day cruise pictures. I posted some Shutters photos from the first Formal night (day 3) and I should be able to finish the rest of the cruise this weekend.

Jeff

 

[Nik's Mom]

Happy Easter, everyone! The weather is kind of drizzly here, so we had an easter egg scavenger hunt in the house. We're all in our pj's, just enjoying our family time today. I love days like this.

Has anyone caught the thread on the cruise board where you can't book the dolphin swim on your own anymore in Cozumel. You must book through DCL now. Dolphin Discovery is no longer booking individuals coming from DCL anymore. And they specifically ask you what cruise ship you are on during the booking process. What's up with that! DCL marks up those excursion so much. It's not right!

 

[podsnel]

Happy Easter, everyone! The weather is kind of drizzly here, so we had an easter egg scavenger hunt in the house. We're all in our pj's, just enjoying our family time today. I love days like this.

Has anyone caught the thread on the cruise board where you can't book the dolphin swim on your own anymore in Cozumel. You must book through DCL now. Dolphin Discovery is no longer booking individuals coming from DCL anymore. And they specifically ask you what cruise ship you are on during the booking process. What's up with that! DCL marks up those excursion so much. It's not right!

We did our Dolphin Swim at Chankanaab- the price was better than what DCL offered at Dolphinaris AND DCL also did not offer the swim through Chankanaab. The Royal Swim included the foot push, which to my family was the highlight of the swim (it's where 2 dolphins push you at the same time and you go coasting on top of the water)- it was completely exhilarating! That was the other reason we chose going to Chankanaab over Dolphinaris. Plus, you could spend the day doing stuff at Chankanaab, it was a beautiful park. My understanding of Dolphinaris was that it offered Dolphin experiences, and nothing else. Although I wasn't there, so i don't know for sure. DCL only offered a dolphin experience at Chankanaab, and we weren't interested in doing that. Are they not allowing individual booking as well? Or is it just Dolphinaris? Do you have a link to the thread?

Happy Easter & Passover everyone!

Ellen

 

[Nik's Mom]

We did our Dolphin Swim at Chankanaab- the price was better than what DCL offered at Dolphinaris AND DCL also did not offer the swim through Chankanaab. The Royal Swim included the foot push, which to my family was the highlight of the swim (it's where 2 dolphins push you at the same time and you go coasting on top of the water)- it was completely exhilarating! That was the other reason we chose going to Chankanaab over Dolphinaris. Plus, you could spend the day doing stuff at Chankanaab, it was a beautiful park. My understanding of Dolphinaris was that it offered Dolphin experiences, and nothing else. Although I wasn't there, so i don't know for sure. DCL only offered a dolphin experience at Chankanaab, and we weren't interested in doing that. Are they not allowing individual booking as well? Or is it just Dolphinaris? Do you have a link to the thread?

Happy Easter & Passover everyone!

Ellen

Apparently, it's both parks that won't allow individual bookings. This new policy just started a few days ago.

 

[Pudo]

For as many cruises as we have been on I have never been comfortable booking excursions outside of DCL. I know the price difference can be considerable, but I like the one-stop-shopping aspect of DCL. Also, from a customer services standpoint it is more convenient. I don't necessarily agree with the restriction, but it won't effect us.

~jeff

 

[tom31b]

For as many cruises as we have been on I have never been comfortable booking excursions outside of DCL. I know the price difference can be considerable, but I like the one-stop-shopping aspect of DCL. Also, from a customer services standpoint it is more convenient. I don't necessarily agree with the restriction, but it won't effect us.

~jeff

We did a few group excursions outside of DCL on the EB Repo. In Cabo we did the beach, glass bottom boat and town as a group of 40 or so. In Puerto Vallarta we did zip lining in several groups, 30-50 per group. In Aruba we did snorkeling with a group of about 100 (2 boats). This worked well because of the numbers involved. Not sure I would have booked any of them alone.

 

[krisces]

Hey! Just wanted to drop in after our Spring Break vacation, wish everyone a Happy Easter and Passover!

Welcome to our newest families - can't wait to meet all of you!!

I am doing my semi-final planning for WDW this November, if anyone sees ticket deals or anything else, please let me know! We have been cruising so much that we are "out of touch" on the WDW scene!

Kristen

 

[podsnel]

Hey! Just wanted to drop in after our Spring Break vacation, wish everyone a Happy Easter and Passover!

Welcome to our newest families - can't wait to meet all of you!!

I am doing my semi-final planning for WDW this November, if anyone sees ticket deals or anything else, please let me know! We have been cruising so much that we are "out of touch" on the WDW scene!

Kristen

We're getting to WDW the same day as YOU in November!! The kids wanted to trick or treat in our town, since they didn't in '08 because we were at WDW before the cruise. Hope we can arrange a meet- a year in advance of our cruise!!

And did I ask you- do you know the Weiss family in Montville?

 

[ShannonR]

Hi everybody!! Long time, no talk! I can't believe it has been since January that I posted, but time has gotten away from me. I spent the latter part of last night catching up on all the posts since I last checked in and I really hope I can make this work! As you may remember, we live in Texas and we have a truancy law that is strictly enforced regarding absenteeism in school. Do any you that live in the north have such a thing? It is REALLY a pain in the butt, because you are forced to go on vacation when school is on break which means two things: #1 it is always crowded in the parks and #2 the prices are much more expensive. I have already called to see what it would be to move our date to either Christmas again or maybe New Year's and it is 3 times the cost than it is to go at Halloween!!! Not to mention, we REALLY want to take this cruise on Halloween. We had planned to go to WDW the week before for the MNSSHP, but that would mean two whole weeks out of school for the kids. I still don't know what we are going to do!

A teacher friend of mine that we have cruised with on the last two cruises, told me just to withdraw them from school and re enroll them when we get back, but my son is in GT and will possibly lose his place in the program and my daughter will be in her senior year of high school. What to do, what to do.... anyone have any suggestions??

It is already in the uppers 90's to lower 100's here in the south of Texas! How is the weather up north? I hope everyone had a great Easter!!

Shannon

 

[ShannonR]

P.S. Does anyone know how to change my ticker counter? It has been SSSOOO long since I made my Christmas one (June 2006) that I don't remember how I did it. When I try to go in and change it, it doesn't work so I KNOW I am doing something wrong!

Shannon

 

[Nik's Mom]

Hi Shannon,
Go to your User CP (up toward the top of the screen), then your signature and you should be able to delete the ticker.

That sucks about the school issue. When we were in California, they were pretty strict about attendance. But our kids were special needs, so they usually cut us some slack since special needs kids and crowds are a recipe for disaster.

Here in Kansas (where we live now), it doesn't seem to be an issue at all to pull your kids for vacation. I hear you about pricing out holiday cruises. The prices are insane!

 

[ShannonR]

Thank you so much for the help on deleting my old ticker!! Now, how to do I get a new one!! It has been so long since I made that one that I don't remember how to get started!

We couldn't believe how cheap it was for this cruise (especially what we had just paid for the Christmas cruise). I hope we are able to keep it because it would be a great trip since my little one...ours oops!! baby...DD4... is getting more fun with each cruise AND loves Halloween!

Shannon