October 17, 2009 Western

[lucky1]

Technical not cruise-related observation here. Does anyone use Mozilla Firefox as their internet browser? Somehow Flash is no longer working and I can't get Mozilla to load in order to renable Flash. I'm not sure what to do. Lots of things won't load without Flash. It's rather inconvenient. At the very least, I can't play Bouncy Ball on facebook and I can't see the countdown timers on Dis.

No I use IE I did pull up firefox (which I use from time to time) and said I had to upgrade to Adobe Flash vs 9.0 to get to bouncy ball. (Darn you are the one that got me addicted to it and I still can not beat your score) But my update failed and could not get it installed.

Try using IE to see if you can get to it.


Laura

 

[TheDawnPatrol]

seems like most of you have all been on a disney cruise already?! How would you rate disney cruise to other companies?

It's my first cruise, I hope we'll like it. I am worried that the Quiet cove pool seems kinda small... is there enough space, even on sea day?

AK

Hello,

My wife and I cruised Princess cruise line about 4 years ago, and since then have been on two DCL cruises with our third coming up in October. While we didn't have the kids with us on the Princess cruise and do have them on DCL, we still rank DCL much higher over Princess. In our opinion, the rooms and food are better on DCL. Princess had only 1 dining room that was free (excluding buffets) all the other specialty restaurants cost something to eat at. DCL all the food is included except for Palo, which is still relatively cheap. The list kind of goes on and on in favor of DCL. That is just my two cents.

Regards,
Pete

 

[lucky1]

seems like most of you have all been on a disney cruise already?! How would you rate disney cruise to other companies?

It's my first cruise, I hope we'll like it. I am worried that the Quiet cove pool seems kinda small... is there enough space, even on sea day?

AK

Have only cruise (4 day) on DCL before, but I think most cruise ship pools are small. The sales brochures just make them seem bigger, by showing them empty or with 1 or 2 guest in them. I remember that I was shocked seeing the pools for the first time, because I thought they would be much bigger. Maybe just as big as some backyard pools. I remember the hot tub in Quite Cove always being PACKED! But then again, we are not cruising for the pools, since we have one at home, so we will probably not spend much time there except for when DD7 wants to go down the Mickey slide.

Laura

 

[missusem]

seems like most of you have all been on a disney cruise already?! How would you rate disney cruise to other companies?

It's my first cruise, I hope we'll like it. I am worried that the Quiet cove pool seems kinda small... is there enough space, even on sea day?

AK

YESS!! The Cove Pool is big enough. I've never been on any other cruise but there was definitely enough space on our ship during the 3 At Sea days on the Eastern Cruise I went on ..

 

[missusem]

So time for a QOTD

Favourite type of food - Asian/ Arabic/ Fast Food/ Mediterannean.. American..or....

Go on tell us I was looking at the Food 'Porn' Thread (FAQs thread has the link) and getting hungry...

 

[yazee1]

I don't know why but the Flash is working again. Thanks for trying to help me when it wasn't.

Favorite food - like my favorite color which depends on what I'm coloring - depends on what I'm in the mood for. I'm not big on Italian or Greek cuisine. I don't think I've ever turned an offer to go out for Thai, Indian, Chinese (American version, not native), Caribbean, Cuban, or a sea food restaurant.

I used to not care for Mexican food, but that was when the only "Mexican" food I'd eaten was from Chi-Chi's and before I went out west and to Mexico.

 

[lucky1]

QOTD... Hmmm I have a hard time picking one type of food that is my favorite. I love to eat. Mexican, Italian, Japanese, American, Greek, India, Persian, German, Hawaiian .. (But I really don't care for American Chinese food, but don't tell DH as he just made Orange Chicken for dinner.)

But... I would have to say Dessert is my favorite


Laura

 

[MommyTo5]

QOTD...
Mexican! Mexican! Mexican!

My family says they agree!!!

 

[AnkaG]

Hi,

My favorite is sushi, for SURE! I hope there will be some on the cruise?

I have been reading the thread to catch up... only at page 18 of 68!!! So what is a fish extender (FE)???? And the gift exchange and all that?

So I understand that there will be a meet on the cruise... so maybe you guys talked about it in the posts I haven't read so far... but was anything decided yet? or I read about a group name?

I am totally hooked on the forum... I think I spent half of my day today reading (and yes, I was at work, oops!) I want to learn as much as I can about the little things to know...

Anyway, Yazee1, if you are still collecting the names of people coming, you can put me (27) and will be husband in august (32). yay!

I think I am more excited about the honeymoon than the actual wedding!!!

 

[lucky1]

Ugh...I just learned that Even though DH and I are castway club members, we can not book DD7 for excursions until the 75 day mark for her. We can book our excursions at 90 days ahd hopefully be able to add her at the 75 day mark the excursions we want.

Has anyone done this before?


Laura

 

[yazee1]

100 Days to Go

 

[jeanneg]

Ugh...I just learned that Even though DH and I are castway club members, we can not book DD7 for excursions until the 75 day mark for her. We can book our excursions at 90 days ahd hopefully be able to add her at the 75 day mark the excursions we want.

Has anyone done this before?


Laura

Are you sure about that? If the cabin was booked with a Castaway member as the primary and you make your final payment by the required day, I would think that everyone in that stateroom would be eligible for booking at the 90-day mark, especially if that person is your own child!

 

[TheDawnPatrol]

Ugh...I just learned that Even though DH and I are castway club members, we can not book DD7 for excursions until the 75 day mark for her. We can book our excursions at 90 days ahd hopefully be able to add her at the 75 day mark the excursions we want.

Has anyone done this before?


Laura

That seems very odd since that could result in you all being split up from your DD on excursions if they book up. Would definitely call DCL and get another opinion.

Pete

 

[frndofpooh]

I guess passing the 100 day mark is as good a time as any to return to this thread after 17 months of self-imposed exile. Hello to yazee1 and everyone else who has joined since my last post!

As we approach 90 days, we're entering full planning mode. We already booked the Dolphin Royal Swim at Chankanaab in Cozumel directly with Dolphin Discovery. Booking directly rather than through Disney saved a HUGE amount of money. If anyone wants more info, feel free to let me know. We also plan to book the Pirate Encounter at Grand Cayman directly through Disney when the 90 day window arrives. For Key West, we'll be on our own instead of booking an excursion.

Just like others have already said, we are going to try to book Palo for dinner on Monday (formal night) to make sure that we don't miss one of the regular dining rotations. After looking at the new menus, the Golden Mickeys menu seems to be the least appealing to us, so Monday night for Palo makes sense for us. We're also going to try to book Palo brunch for Thursday. I just hope they don't assign us the Character Breakfast on the same day!

Looking forward to sharing the excitement with everyone as October 17 gets closer!

Mr. FoP

 

[lucky1]

Wow 100 days. Thank goodness you all are counting.

10 more days until we can make our reservations. Thinking about Palo's Brunch for Monday and Palo's dinner for Sun, or Tues.

Have not decided on Coz on what to do there, need to do a few more days of research. In GC, orginal plan was to do boatswian, but that is an all day excurision and might not have enough time to hit the port sights. On CC, thinking of doing the Stringray interaction.


Pete and Jeanne - Thanks, I plan to contact my Travel agent again about booking excursions for DD when we book ours and then DCL. If anyone else has any experienced about having non-castaway club members on your reservation, that might help me.

Laura

 

[lucky1]

Got a response back from that travel agent and here is what she said...

"After speaking with several different cast members at Disney Cruise, the consensus was that you should be able to make the reservations for everybody on the same reservation at the 90 day mark. I guess the computer used to differentiate but now it is open for everybody in the same cabin."

Whew... Laura

 

[yazee1]

I guess passing the 100 day mark is as good a time as any to return to this thread after 17 months of self-imposed exile. Hello to yazee1 and everyone else who has joined since my last post!

Welcome back! You were missed. I think you, Angie (Momof5) and I are the only ones with teenage boys.



As we approach 90 days, we're entering full planning mode... Booking directly rather than through Disney saved a HUGE amount of money.

I'm with you on booking your own excursions. Saved lots of moolah, especially on our last Western cruise when I was able to haggle with a vendor on a snorkeling trip. In the past, we've booked directly with Captain Marvin's for the Stingray City excursion. Both times the group was much smaller. Now that I think of it, all the excursions we've booked ourselves have included smaller groups.

After looking at the new menus, the Golden Mickeys menu seems to be the least appealing to us, so Monday night for Palo makes sense for us.

That's an interesting thought. I'll have to look for a link to the new menus. We're not interested in the Golden Mickeys but I never thought to check out the night's menu.

Looking forward to sharing the excitement with everyone as October 17 gets closer!

Mr. FoP

You've really been doing your homework. Can't believe we're 10 days from the 90 day mark. It still seems so far in the future to me.

Another milestone I'm looking forward to is September 30th- 83 days away. If the price of oil stays below 70.00 a barrel, the fuel surcharge will be refunded in the form of OBC.

 

[yazee1]

Got a response back from that travel agent and here is what she said...

"After speaking with several different cast members at Disney Cruise, the consensus was that you should be able to make the reservations for everybody on the same reservation at the 90 day mark. I guess the computer used to differentiate but now it is open for everybody in the same cabin."

Whew... Laura

Good job, Laura! It's unsettling how inconsistent the DCL customer service is with the information they dispense. I don't blame the reps, it must be a problem higher up the food chain.

 

[missusem]

Here's our QOTD:

Do you have 'creative-type' hobbies in your family: Scrapbooking/Woodworking/sewing/handicrafts..?

What family activity do you do together?


I'm crazy about scrapbooking.. but as a family, we like to play Singstar/Rockband indoors and we hang out at the beach outdoors and window shopping..

 

[frndofpooh]

Another milestone I'm looking forward to is September 30th- 83 days away. If the price of oil stays below 70.00 a barrel, the fuel surcharge will be refunded in the form of OBC.

Oil has been down again in the last few days. This morning it dropped below $60.00. A lot can happen in the next 83 days, but it's looking good so far.

I don't think we were charged a fuel surcharge. I assume it would appear as a separate charge if it's included. Is this right? How much is the surcharge?