October 15th, 2011

[LC30]

Hello. If you guys are ok with it. I'll start a running list of cruise mates. Hope you have a great Sunday.

 

[LC30]

LC30, your ticker says 6 months. Is your 180 day window coming up this week?

I was plotting my reservations during a blizzard in February. It was a nice way not to think about the snow.

Looks like you are headed to Disney in September. Going to MNSSHP? We're looking to forward to going again this year. I want to go twice while we are there, DH thinks its too much. Well, I've been busy planning this week.

If any of you have recommendations of favorite places to eat with little ones, I would love any suggestions.

 

[FigmentFinder]

We're not going to MNSSHP. It seems too early in September to go to a Halloween Party. I'm going the week after Labor Day. Planning was a little bit difficult as we hit two hard ticketed events, Night of Joy and MNSSHP (which moved around on the calendar).

My little one is now ten and 5'2" and not so little anymore.

For us the best thing when my son was younger was the buffets. Kids can have their pick from the standard kids foods or real foods. Plus they get entertained by the characters. The food at Crystal Palace is decent and Chef Mickey's really isn't that bad. My DS loves the Mickey Ravioli there. Tusker House at AK isn't a character meal for lunch and dinner, but they have mini-corn dogs and a DIY PB&J bar for some variety. At Epcot, Garden Grill is entertaining with the characters & rotating restaurant. But my son has always loved the cheese soup & breadsticks at LeCellier. (If you can get a coveted reservation)

However, we hated Hollywood & Vine at DHS. The only thing I liked there was the beet salad. Never ever eat multiple servings of beet salad, you might think you're dying the next day. 50's Prime Time cafe is fun and lets the kids have half portions of meat loaf & fried chicken if you're looking for something besides standard kids meals.


Next year, if MNSSHP is on Saturdays like this year, I'm thinking about going when we get back from the cruise.

 

[LC30]

We're not going to MNSSHP. It seems too early in September to go to a Halloween Party. I'm going the week after Labor Day. Planning was a little bit difficult as we hit two hard ticketed events, Night of Joy and MNSSHP (which moved around on the calendar).

My little one is now ten and 5'2" and not so little anymore.

For us the best thing when my son was younger was the buffets. Kids can have their pick from the standard kids foods or real foods. Plus they get entertained by the characters. The food at Crystal Palace is decent and Chef Mickey's really isn't that bad. My DS loves the Mickey Ravioli there. Tusker House at AK isn't a character meal for lunch and dinner, but they have mini-corn dogs and a DIY PB&J bar for some variety. At Epcot, Garden Grill is entertaining with the characters & rotating restaurant. But my son has always loved the cheese soup & breadsticks at LeCellier. (If you can get a coveted reservation)

However, we hated Hollywood & Vine at DHS. The only thing I liked there was the beet salad. Never ever eat multiple servings of beet salad, you might think you're dying the next day. 50's Prime Time cafe is fun and lets the kids have half portions of meat loaf & fried chicken if you're looking for something besides standard kids meals.


Next year, if MNSSHP is on Saturdays like this year, I'm thinking about going when we get back from the cruise.

How's planning going for your September trip?

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm having the hardest time getting into LeCellier. And we have ressies for Hollywood and Vine now, thinking of cancelling it at your recommendation and trying something else. We have tried out CHef Mickey's, Tusker House, and Crystal Palace and definitely have ressies for those too. My DH thinks I'm completely nuts with all the planning. But there's so much to do and I LOVE planning.

Yep. Depends on the date for MNSSHP next year. We might pull DS out of school early a few days and hit the party before we get on the cruise next year. Will just depend. I've been looking at the Dreams online and am getting the itch to go.

Have a great day! I gotta work on that list of cruisers for our cruise.

P.S. I'm so grateful you are on every few days, so I'm not talking by myself. Thank you!

 

[LC30]

A list of fellow cruisers joining in the fun!

firefighter chris - Chris(31), DW(30), DD(10), DS(4)
toverly - toverly, DH, DS(13) - DS Birthday Cruise!
TartanTinker - Judith, DH, DD(14), DD(12), DD(9)
mom2pirateNpooh - mom2pirateNpooh, DH, DS(12), DS(5)
FigmentFinder - Nicole, DH, DS(12)
christianweecare - christianweecare, DH, and extended family
LC30 - LC30, DH, DS(5)
ajmiller_19 - ajmiller_19(30), DH (33), DS(8), DS(7) and mom
barney1314 - Bert (39), Lisa (35), Charlene (17) and Murren (14) with other family members

 

[FigmentFinder]

For the cruisemates list. I'm Nicole, going on vacation with my DH and DS. It's both my husband's and son's b-day on the cruise. Colin (DS) will be turning 12. I'll be nice and not mention the DH's age.

All my reservations were made by my travel agent at the 180 day mark. I got everything I wanted including LeCellier for lunch and dinner. We're on the deluxe plan. It's an aggressive eating schedule. lol

The problem with H&V is everything looked good, but had no taste. But since your DS is young, if you're going for the character lunch (or breakfast), I'm sure you can find something to eat. SciFi is fun if your son isn't scared of the dark, just don't order anything ambitious.

We're trying Mama Melrose this year for the fantasmic package. Have you ever eaten there?

 

[LC30]

Happy Saturday. We've never done Mama Melrose. But am looking forward to trying Ohana. I finally snagged a lunch at Le Cellier. My sister is now joining us. Can't wait.

We're packing tomorrow and heading to Atlantis on Monday. I wonder if we will see the Wonder in the harbor. It will be really hard for me and DS to see it. We're missing some DCL action.

 

[FigmentFinder]

Have fun in Atlantis. Remember to post pictures!

 

[LC30]

Got to Atlantis today and had a wonderful driver pick us up from the airport. Since we were his only passengers, he gave us a quick tour of the island. We were talking about how much we loved DCL, so he drove by the port....there she was, the Disney Wonder just sitting beautifully there in the port getting ready to leave for CC. I loved seeing the ship! It brought back such wonderful memories, yet made me a little sad that I was watching the smoke come out of those stacks and she sets sail without me.

Oh well, I'm sure I'll feel better after spending a little pool and beach time. Have a great week everyone.

 

[FigmentFinder]

Are you back from Atlantis? How was your trip?

 

[LC30]

We're back! Our trip was GREAT! We saw the Disney cruise twice and made me want to book one right away. But the deal I got at Atlantis was truly amazing - as in $25.90/night. Can you believe?? DS got to swim stingrays for the first time and he had to 2 separate dolphin interactions at Atlantis! He loved that.

The pool was great. It was pretty busy though for low season. The food was ok but I still I gained 5 lbs on the trip. When I had to get my wetsuit on for the dolphin interaction, DH had to help push me into the suit. Seriously, I felt like a overstuffed sausage. Better start burning some calories.

I do really like that property. The pools are great, the beach is nice, the dolphin interactions were incredible!

 

[LC30]

Just checking in. How's everyone? Been pretty quiet on here the last week. Hope you are all doing well.

 

[ajmiller_19]

We just went on the 7 night western in March and had such a great time we booked a cruise on the Dream for Oct. 2011...then the DH decided 4 nights would absolutly not be enough! Also, my mother is joining and she really wants to go on the trip we just did so we are switching to this cruise! It will be myself(30 at crusie) DH(turns 33 on the cruise) DS(8 at cruise) DS(7 at cruise) and my mother...who refuses to allow me to post her age! Looking forward to meeting everyone and haivng a great time!

 

[LC30]

We just went on the 7 night western in March and had such a great time we booked a cruise on the Dream for Oct. 2011...then the DH decided 4 nights would absolutly not be enough! Also, my mother is joining and she really wants to go on the trip we just did so we are switching to this cruise! It will be myself(30 at crusie) DH(turns 33 on the cruise) DS(8 at cruise) DS(7 at cruise) and my mother...who refuses to allow me to post her age! Looking forward to meeting everyone and haivng a great time!

Welcome aboard! So glad you will be joining us. I know it can get addicting once you get on the Disney cruise. We are dying to go on the Dream too but after being on two 4 nights, we really wanted to do a 7 nights. 4 nights just wasn't enough. Your DH is so right!

What is everyone doing for the long weekend?

 

[TartanTinker]

Hi I am back after a busy few months have sold our house and we are building a new one.
Our girls can't wait until the cruise our last one seems so long ago. Has anyone done this cruise before?

 

[LC30]

Hello. Congratulations on selling your house and building a new one. Building a house is fun and at the same time is a big headache. The end result will be great. Glad to have you back. It's been so quiet on the thread. I've been lonely.

We have only done the 4 nights on the Wonder, so we are really looking forward to this. I keep looking up cruises now because I'm itching to go now! Good news is we'll be in WDW in October.

 

[ajmiller_19]

We just went on this one in March. It was our first ever and we had such a good time! When booking this one we picked a date and just took whatever cruise was going, it just happened to be the same one but there is so much we didn't get to see the first time (there just isn't enough time for everything!) that we didn't care that it was the same stops.

 

[LC30]

We just went on this one in March. It was our first ever and we had such a good time! When booking this one we picked a date and just took whatever cruise was going, it just happened to be the same one but there is so much we didn't get to see the first time (there just isn't enough time for everything!) that we didn't care that it was the same stops.

Hey there. Any tips? Favorite things? This will be our first time on a 7 nights. Really, really excited! Have a great 4th!

 

[ajmiller_19]

Well, the boys really liked the Pirates in the Caribbean deck party on Wednesday night. It was a pirate themed dinner that night as well so we decided to make a whole pirate day of it. We were in Grand Cayman that day and there was a Pirate Encounter excursion that was good for them. We even got my oldest (he was 6) to walk the plank and jump in the ocean. We also saw Peter Pan and Captain Hook on the ship that day so the whole thing played well into each other. My hubby really liked the adult lounge...Rockin D Bar or something to that nature. He went to every show/game they had there in the evenings. I think my favorite shore day was Key West as we didn't plan an activity. We had gotten some tour books from the local AAA branch and just made a list of things we wanted to see. We explored on our own and did eventually end up on one of the tour buses but we weren't set to a time schedule as we did it on our own. We did a dolphin encounter in Cozumel. It was fin but I don't know if we will get off the boat at this stop this time. I was very uneasy with the way the locals were with my children. You walk across a street on the raised walkway with stores and the workers were trying to lure my kids in. One even went as far as to grab my son by the arm and try to pull him over to these bracelets with names on them. He was 4 and I was very unhappy!

 

[barney 1314]

Hi all we are the Stevenson family and this will be our third Disney cruise. Our first was on the Wonder jan 09 and we were on the Magic for the eastbound transatlantic in april this year, both cruises were amazing for different reasons. There will be me Bert 39 time of travel, dw Lisa 35, dd Charlene 17 and dd Murren 14. 5 other family members will be travelling with us on this cruise so should be even better.