October 16, 2008 3 night

[ndepaola]

Hey all - if anyone is still around can someone email me the most recent FE list? I've been working hard and off the board for a couple of weeks!

 

[Crazy4Disney06]

Hi everyone!
Just wanted to say how fantastic our first Disney Cruise was. I'm sorry that I did not get to meet any of you. We left Oregon on October 11th for 5 nights at CBR prior to the cruise, so with out internet access I was unable to check back for the details of the dis meet or meeting up for the cab to Atlantis.

So what did everyone think of Atlantis? My family was kind of disappointed in it and wishes we would have done something else that day. One of the first things we did was ride in the "not so lazy river" and my son and my double tube flipped and I we got pretty scraped up in the rapids and I twisted my ankle. The sidewalks were also very slippery and I fell down in one of the "caves" and cracked my knee open, my husband also slipped a few times as well. The water sides just seamed pretty extreme compared to those at the Disney water parks. Just a little much for my 7 year old, however he did love the few smaller slides and the child's pay area. I also think it would be nice to have more time to spend at Atlantis to really check it out and hopefully form a better opinion of it.

Castaway Cay was out of this world! We just loved our time there and would have loved two days there!

All in all we had the perfect Disney Vacation and we can't wait to plan our next Disney Vacation and Disney Cruise!

 

[brucechase]

The cruise was the best!

I also didn't get a chance to meet everyone, but all those that I did get to talk to were the greatest! Time definately sped up for those 3 days. I didn't get a chance to do half of what I wanted.

Now we loved Atlantis, but my kids are a little older. No one but me did the most extreme slide but it was great. Definately much more than a Disney waterpark. I thought the not-so-lazy river was a blast. Sorry Crazy4Disney06 you had a mishap, I hope you are recovering well.

Castaway Cay was a blast and we couldn't do everything we want there either. We booked the extreme getaway which was the stingray adventure, 1 hour bike ride, snorkling equipment, and floats. Too much!!!!! One bad thing is our youngest (9) got stung by sea lice (baby jellyfish) at around 3:30. The lifeguard couldn't do anything so she went to the medical place that put some stuff on it. She didn't want to get back in that water after that.

All in all, a great time. I did not book another trip while on board, we were debating back and forth and we are just a little worried about the cost and the economy. If things pick up, we will go again.

 

[gillenfamily]

Hey everyone -
We also really enjoyed our vacation. And I want to thank everyone for all the special FE gifts. I don't know who gave out the little water bottles, but I wanted to say I really appreciated that (and the chapstick - it was a lifesaver)!
We enjoyed Atlantis and I want it known by everyone that I did BOTH the scary slides. And they were a blast. Yes, I was scared (shaking, in fact) but I did it! Oprah says you should do something that scares you everyday - I think I took care of it for at least a month with those two slides.
Bruce, I'm so sorry to hear about your daughter getting stung. If I had known those little things were out in that water bothering people I would not have even put my toe in the water. It totally freaks me out. I think I'm now going through post vacation blues. And I'm in "scrooge" mode because of all the money we spent. It's going to be a lean Christmas here at the Gillen house.
Take care everyone!
Shirley

 

[brucechase]

Did you like the water bottles??

I racked my brain trying to figure out a unique gift and I came up with that. It was very easy actually, just heavy to carry 36 water bottles in my luggage. As for the chapstick, we gave out the Nemo and Pirates of the Carribean, but didn't save one for us - should have thought of that.

I loved everything about the FE gifts! I really liked the CD (with the horn), the stuff Mary made (too much!), the chocolates that Jaycie made, the pen that Becky/Debbie made (which one is which?) and all the others. There was so much stuff, I couldn't get everything packed up! All the pirate stuff and little activity items were great to keep the kids busy for the 7 hour road trip home.

Also, there was a family across from us who had a 4 YO boy. He was just fascinated with the different color Mickey head magnets I made. I gave him about 5 of them but only wish I would have made more for others. I actually "lost" about 15 of them and I would gladly have given out more if I would have known that they were going to be so popular. All they were is the paint chip from Home Depot with a magnet on the back.

Shirley, glad you didn't know about the "sea lice - baby jellyfish" before you went. I'm sure you had a much better time not knowing . I can vouch for your slide if anyone questions you. I sympathize with the post vacation blues. Just checked my credit card statement and . Maybe Christmas came in October??!?!?!

 

[gatorcruiser]

Thank you! Thank you everyone for the FE gifts! It was so much fun to head back to the stateroom to see what was waiting for us.

It was great meeting those of you that we managed to bump into. I loved seeing the familiar faces as we prowled around the ship and Castaway Cay.

 

[Butterx3]

Well we are back and had a wonderful cruise for the second time with Disney. And also for the second time there are a ton of things I wanted to do but didn't get to, like play Bingo and I saw all the shows but "Dreams"... So I guess that means we will need to rebook in the future, so I can do those things too.

It was great to meet those of you who we happened across. Unfortunatley the drill went longer than we thought, by the time we got to deck 9 the sail away party had started. I am glad you wore the tie die Mickey shirts Mary, I at least got to meet you and give you a hug, and I met Bruce and his lovely family at the Raddisson and at certain points around the ship.

I have to agree Bruce the water was a great idea, I loved the stuff that had the cruise name and date on it. We all loved everything!!! My kids thought it was a blast to come back from something and find the fish extender with a little surprise in it. The crafts and things were great too for our plane ride home, and all the pirate stuff came in handy for Pirate night, since what I packed was minimal.

We couldn't have asked for better weather, upper 80's and not very humid!! Its like we paid for it or something! Oh wait a minute, I guess in a way we did! HAHA.

We didn't do Atlantis, now I am kind of glad we skipped it, I like the low key water parks, we did Typhoon Lagoon, and it was fun, but I would have preferred to do MK instead, but my kids saw the water park on some travel channel 10 best water parks thing, and wanted to do that instead.

It was fun to have a younger child who still was amazed by the magic of things. He fell asleep at dinner everytime last cruise, so this was the first time he was ever awake for a mickey ice cream treat and a first time for both of us to experience the pirate party! The look on his face when the fire works went off was priceless!!

Well, I could go on and on, I am glad we all concur it was a wonderful and unforgettable vacation. Thank you everyone for the gifts and Thank you Bruce and Carolyn for the FE to put the gifts into. It is great that we could all make each other's cruise just a little more magical than it already was!!!!

 

[Smiley22]

In the words of my teenager " My Bad" I really messed up on the last night of the cruise. I had every FE planned for each night. I liked to deliver in the afternoon that way things were there all day. ( I have to admit I got excited to see stuff in my FE, so for those who think it is only for the kids Wrong)
Anyway...time got away from us on Castaway Cay and we had to RUSH for our reservations for Palo. After dinner everyone had their FE down.

Long story short. I have something I would like to mail to everyone. Please PM me your address and I will mail this right away. BruceChase...if you would send your friends address I would be happy to send him one also. It would only take me a few minutes to make another one.

Pixie Dust at Home and a reminder of what a perfect time we all had.

I regret we didnt get to meet more of you. We too were not in time after the drill and missed meeting everyone. We did meet BruceChase and it was truly a pleasure. The creativity and thoughtfulness of the FE gifts were wonderfull. My husband thanks all that left candy .....he has such a sweet tooth

This was our first Disney cruise after going to Disney all our lives. We thought that we were done being WOWed by Disney...guess we were wrong. I can not say how much we loved this cruise. The servers ended up being your friends by the end. I even got hugs from Brenden and Jorge

We booked on board ......7 day next time

We tried to see if they would make a cruise where they just stay at Castaway Cay...wasnt it perfect. We didnt do an excursion at Nassau, we just walked and took a cab to Atlantis to look around. Cant say I would miss Nassau. Not sure why Disney even stops there. We were going to take the scooters for a tour but glad we didnt. At Castaway Cay we did the treasure hunt found our treasure, then got floats at the adult beach and then went and rented a water bike? Not sure what they call them. That was a blast..got to see up close and personal the Flying Dutchman.

I could continue for a long time talking about this cruise but guess who got sick after the cruise. Yep that would be me...at least not before or during the cruise or at CBR after the cruise. Going to make it an early night.

I just want to thank everyone from my heart for all the nice things left and really wish we could have met in person. We really need to keep in touch on this thread. I would think it would stay open as long as there is activity.

Remember to send me you addresses so I can get my last gift to everyone.

 

[zulaya]

Hey guys...we just got back last night...I'm still tired.

Bruce...my stuff was too much...sorry! It was too fun finding things that would work out.

Did everyone like their Pop Rocks? I found those in the Halloween colors and thought that would be a hoot! You can't find them often up here in MN...can you believe I found them at Michael's?

I'm sorry we didn't get to meet everyone. I hope you all had an enjoyable cruise.

We enjoyed experiencing a Disney Cruise. I have to agree with whoever said why does Disney stop in Nassau. We didn't even get off the boat. I guess that Atlantis must be the draw or if you've never been to the Caribbean? I don't know. I think that the ship is registered there so maybe that's a reason it has to be a stop? I'm clueless.

I can say that I am the Grand Champion of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. It was one of the activities onboard in Nassau. I have a huge trophy...I'm not kidding...it's pretty big... attesting to my prowess in racing wooden toads.

Castaway Cay was very fun. We were off the boat with the first group. My DH Bryan went on the 5K run with Pubmaster Jay - one of the activities guys who was just a hoot the whole cruise...we seemed to keep running into him.

The kids and I just swam around in the water...it was so blue. DD and I swam around more once DS had a ray swim up right next to him. Then he built the king of all sandcastles.

We did the Pirate Treasure Hunt and were surprised when we finished and the CM said we were the first family done at 11am.

We missed the Golden Mickeys...everyone was just dizzy from the rocky water. But enjoyed TS: The Musical and Disney Dreams.

We hit the parks after getting off the boat and were at BCVs. It was so weird because we were only at the resort for 4 days when we are usually there for 7-8 days. It felt a little more rushed than usual.

We went to MNSSHP on Tuesday as we had some friends who came in to WDW and were going that night. I've known the couple since high school and we all worked at the same pool together and our kids are pretty good friends, too. Our sons took off and did Space Mountain together. It's so nice to have older kids that you can trust to go off and do their own thing and check back with you later!

Anyhow...hope you all had a good time!

 

[Butterx3]

Welcome Back Mary!!!! My kids loved the pop rocks!

Riley and I snorkeled on CC and then he and a friend he met at the Raddison went snorkeling together and saw the sting ray too. The last cruise Riley and his father saw a baracuda. All four of us went snorkeling again but didn't get to see the stingray. We all found the sunken Minnie. I tell ya it took about a half an hour to get my tempermental and overtired daughter to snorkel, she was not fun when it came to getting the face mask and snorkel on right. Grady used the flippers and face mask, but didn't bother with the breathing apparatus, he just came up for air all the time.

I saw your family playing the racing toad thing game, I am glad you won.

Someone told me the cruiselines have to stop at Nassau. My son said that same thing when we were looking for the pirate museum.(Why would Disney stop Here?) We ended up about 4 blocks back into Nassau and it wasn't touristy any longer and I was actually nervous. Luckily some other tourists helped us find the Pirate Museum. Grady got bored and Brighty stayed on the ship. We took Grady back to the ship and I told Riley I wanted to go back onto Nassau and get some gifts I saw in a shop. It was cute my 13 year old who is a twerp the size of a 10 year old said, "Mom I don't feel safe with you going on that Island by yourself, I better come with you". So we ventured back for a few hours and had some nice one on one time together. One thing about him being small, I paid for him with the 10 and unders at Typhoon Lagoon!!

I am jealous you got to stay so much longer than me!!! Glad you had a good time.

 

[eeyoresmountainpals]

Life is finally returning to normal here and our cruise is starting to become just a memory! Wow, it sure went fast!

Thanks to everyone for the great FE gifts. It was so much fun to come back to the cabin and find goodies!

We did the snorkeling at Castaway Cay and Matthew saw the stingray and the barracuda! I didn't get to see either. We also took the snorkel trip in Nassau and it was FABULOUS! There were so many fish and they were so brightly colored.

Sorry I didn't get to meet up with any of you. Hope everyone had as much fun as Matthew and I did.