October 20th 2007 Western Magic Part 4

[AverysMommy]

Passporter - I have heard people talk about this but I didnt know what it was. Now I realize its a book you can buy to help organize the cruise.

Is it really worth it? I cant believe it has any info that I cant get on this DIS board?

Thoughts - is it worth buying?

 

[AverysMommy]

Happy 4th of July - I guess all our American friends are out celebrating

 

[JLDSMD]

A few questions:

1. do we need to bring towels with us for the cruise
2. we woudl liked to be placed with another family at dinners - will this happen by default or do we need to request it
3. how good are the pillows?

Thanks

1. No. They have tons. You can take them off the ship as well. They have towel return carts when you come back to the ship to put them in.

2. Are you looking to sit with a specific family? If so, then yes, you will need to contact DCL and give them both reservation numbers. If you don't care who you're with, they will usually try to sit you with another party.

3. I never have a problem, but by the time I go to bed, I'm wiped so I fall asleep real quick.

 

[MinnMick01]

Happy 4th everybody

 

[JLDSMD]

POLL - who votes for the best night for dinner at PALOs (dont even know if all of these are available):

Saturday
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday

I vote Tuesday because it is my least favorite menu that night - Master Chef. Also, it will be the 2nd time in your first restaurant, which you will get to again on Friday. This way, you get to each of the 3 restaurants twice.

 

[AverysMommy]

How many people are going to the Halloween party at WDW before the cruise? We are going on the Thursday night - we are so excited.

I cant decide if I will just put the kids in their pirate night costume or take another costume down with them for that day

 

[JLDSMD]

Happy 4th of July - I guess all our American friends are out celebrating

Thank you. Not celebrating yet. We did get over 1/2 inch of rain last night, so I think I will make the trek up to the fireworks store today to get my own display for tonight.

 

[JLDSMD]

How many people are going to the Halloween party at WDW before the cruise? We are going on the Thursday night - we are so excited.

I cant decide if I will just put the kids in their pirate night costume or take another costume down with them for that day

We would have been going if they had it on Friday night like they have in years past. This year, the 19th is the ONLY Friday in October they are NOT having it. Oh well, we'll just hang out near port at the Ron Jon resort.

Lucky for us, when DS goes, he goes as a pirate, so it would only be one costume for us.

 

[JLDSMD]

Passporter - I have heard people talk about this but I didnt know what it was. Now I realize its a book you can buy to help organize the cruise.

Is it really worth it? I cant believe it has any info that I cant get on this DIS board?

Thoughts - is it worth buying?

That's a hard answer. The book is great and I used it for our first cruise. However, there is a lot of info available on the internet.

I'd say if it is your first cruise, I'd get it.

After cruising several times, we know what we want to do and some of the other "tricks" in cruising on DCL.

 

[MinnMick01]

Passporter - I have heard people talk about this but I didnt know what it was. Now I realize its a book you can buy to help organize the cruise.

Is it really worth it? I cant believe it has any info that I cant get on this DIS board?

Thoughts - is it worth buying?

Absolutly. I got the 04 copy, then I go the 05 copy and then I was so hooked that the 06 copy came out while I was in the hopsital having surgery and I made Scott go get it the day it came out so I could read it in the hopsital. I love this book.

 

[JLDSMD]

Who cares, you are just rubbing it in. What type of accountant are you if you can not keep track of your F.O.'s

In accounting there is a level of "scope" that is applied. If it falls under that limit, we don't care if it is correct or not. This would be one of those things.

In real life, it is funny how we look at things in the office. When we first got our new audit firm (7 years ago), the scope level was like $5,000 to $10,000. Now they have it set at $50,000 (it goes up as they get to know the client and how they do things). I have a couple of divisions that aren't even at that level. Guess we can just forget about them.

O.K., sorry to bore you with accounting talk.

 

[JLDSMD]

FO, FO, its off to work I don't go.

 

[JLDSMD]

Absolutly. I got the 04 copy, then I go the 05 copy and then I was so hooked that the 06 copy came out while I was in the hopsital having surgery and I made Scott go get it the day it came out so I could read it in the hopsital. I love this book.

Is there really that much difference between the editions to buy it every year?

 

[AverysMommy]

That's a hard answer. The book is great and I used it for our first cruise. However, there is a lot of info available on the internet.

I'd say if it is your first cruise, I'd get it.

After cruising several times, we know what we want to do and some of the other "tricks" in cruising on DCL.

Well this is cruise #1 so I better go and get it.

I noticed that there is a deluxe version and a plain version - do you know what you get with the deluxe version????

 

[AverysMommy]

We would have been going if they had it on Friday night like they have in years past. This year, the 19th is the ONLY Friday in October they are NOT having it. Oh well, we'll just hang out near port at the Ron Jon resort.

Lucky for us, when DS goes, he goes as a pirate, so it would only be one costume for us.

We were really hoping it would be Friday as well - so we made a big decision and decided to go down 1 day earlier so that we can do it. Kids miss 1 more day of school - but we will have a great time (I hope). Kids had to agree to do school work on the plane down on Thurday morning though

 

[JLDSMD]

Seat saving? Your one mighty brave lady Cass to suggest such a thing on here.

I was just talking about seat saving at lunch yesterday with my co-workers. It doesn't bother me too much in the night clubs. It does somewhat in the Theatre if it is like 10 seats some is trying to hold (i.e. one person for the WHOLE family - grandparents with two of their married children who each have 2-3 kids and only one person is in the theatre).

What I won't stand for is pool chair saving. I sat there in January for 2 hours (7:00-9:00 a.m.) alone at the Mickey Pool holding my seat (I'm up early and it is peaceful up there). There were about 10 seats with towels on them and no one to be found. The people didn't come until almost 11:00, and they were real winners. I told my co-workers I may be the seat saver police this cruise. I have no problem with some one holding a couple of chairs by the pool as long as you are sitting on one or near the pool. To come up at 6:00 a.m., drop a towel and a book on it and go back to bed, I hate. Have one person sleep in one of the chairs. I did actually pull the towels off the two next to us later that morning for a family to get a spot. Those people never came around at all that day.

It does say on the back of the Navigator - No Seat Saving. Make sure you have one of those handy if you plan on challenging someone on it.

I'm not flaming you Cass. I would gladly save you and Rob a couple of chairs in one of the bars. But then again, I'd be already sitting at the table. Now if you walked down there before dinner, put a sweater on a couple of chairs with no one else at the table/bar, and then proceeded to dinner, I would have a problem with that.

The funny thing is, we use to be big seat savers. I remember when we use to vacation down in Huatulco, I'd get up at the butt crack of stupid and go down and save two chairs for us. Go back up and not return until after breakfast. Guess I look at it differently now that I have a kid and the chairs at the Mickey Pool are a hot commodity.

 

[JLDSMD]

Well this is cruise #1 so I better go and get it.

I noticed that there is a deluxe version and a plain version - do you know what you get with the deluxe version????

Don't know the difference. I just got the plain one. It had more than enough info for me.

 

[oybolshoi]

Well this is cruise #1 so I better go and get it.

I noticed that there is a deluxe version and a plain version - do you know what you get with the deluxe version????

Don't bother with the deluxe version - there's no additional information provided. It just comes with a fancy cover and some inside storage pockets. Save your money and buy the standard version.

I loved Passporter for our first cruise - while it does have a lot of info that you can find on various internet sites the advantage with the Passporter is that it's all in once place in a handy little book. And I found that the authors included some really helpful personal advice about things other than DCL - air travel, MCO, transportation to and from Port Canaveral, hotels at the Port, excursion ratings...

 

[JLDSMD]

We were really hoping it would be Friday as well - so we made a big decision and decided to go down 1 day earlier so that we can do it. Kids miss 1 more day of school - but we will have a great time (I hope). Kids had to agree to do school work on the plane down on Thurday morning though

DS is off 2 of the days during the week of the cruise, so it was originally gonig to be 3 days missed. Then 3 1/2 if we took the afternoon flight, now we are on the morning one and we're up toe 4 days. Plus, he may miss one in November if I go to Vegas for work (Suz' best friend, who is like a grandma to DS, lives out there, so we'd all go).

We should have just came down on Thursday and made it a complete week of school missed. He missed 7 last year (this past Jan) and 8 in 2006 (he was only in Kindergarden though). As he gets older, we'll miss less.

He will miss 3 in 2008 (beginning of 3rd grade) because of the repo cruise.

In '09 (4th grade), we'll probably pull him out for at least 3 1/2 to do a cruise the last week of October (again, when he has 2 days off that week).

 

[JLDSMD]

Don't bother with the deluxe version - there's no additional information provided. It just comes with a fancy cover and some inside storage pockets. Save your money and buy the standard version.

I loved Passporter for our first cruise - while it does have a lot of info that you can find on various internet sites the advantage with the Passporter is that it's all in once place in a handy little book. And I found that the authors included some really helpful personal advice about things other than DCL - air travel, MCO, transportation to and from Port Canaveral, hotels at the Port, excursion ratings...

Brenda,

Would you buy a newer version? Or just reference your old one?