October 21, 2006~Magic~ Who's going?

Hey all. We are probably rebooking to this week, looks like my DS' fall break is this week. We are Carla (me), DS who will be 13 at cruise, DS who will be 10 and DH. This will be our fourth Disney cruise. We have done the Eastern twice and Western once (minus Grand Cayman, diverted to Costa Maya). A fair number of trips to WDW and DL. Most recent trip was to DL for a four day look at the 50th festivities. Looking forward to snorkeling and eating!

Carla
 
Bumping! Anyone here?

We have rebooked to this week. Just got an email from Cozumel Ian. Our favorite spot in Cozumel, little Dzul-Ha "beach" seemes to not be in great shape, sigh. This place had great snorkeling right from the beach. Now, where to go.....

Hoping this cruise to actually make it to Stingray City in Grand Cayman with Captain Marvin.

Carla
 
abitjaded said:
Bumping! Anyone here?

Hoping this cruise to actually make it to Stingray City in Grand Cayman with Captain Marvin.

Carla


Hi Carla,

We're here. We are really hoping to go to Stingray City too. The aquarium that we have a membership to has stingrays that you can pet. My girls love to stop and pet them...can hardly drag them away. Stingray City is my number one excursion choice!
 
Count us in for a swim with the stingrays. That is the only thing my DS has asked to do. :rolleyes:
 

We'd be disappointed if we couldn't do Captain Marvin's excursion again, but I'm sure we'll survive. LOL.

Nrsldy, you mean your son isn't interested in cooking lessons or bingo? (just kidding).

Speaking of bingo, my son and I played a few times including the big jackpot round in the auditorium. Wow, was it packed! We never won a thing but it was really fun... except for the last game in the auditorium when this group of super loud teenage girls right behind us screamed "YEAH BABY!" everytime a number was called.
 
Yazee, You have done Captain Marvins before? Which one? Did you make extra stops besides Stingray City?

Suz, are you in Denver? Our aquarium here also has a stingray petting pool.

Bell, one of my sons will be 13. What are your brothers into? Any Runescape fanatics there or among the other teens? My DS is pretty quiet, likes girls, but is too shy to open his mouth much around them.

Cheryl, wow! Plane tickets already. I'm beginning to obsess. We live in Denver and have few options to Orlando. Delta with stops that take all day or Frontier and United direct for outrageous prices. Hoping Southwest's new flights here will get the Orlando prices down a bit (running about $450 for direct at the moment). We would like to leave Friday after school, then return Sunday. Hoping also to check out Expedition Everest on Sunday. Keep us posted about MNNSHP! Would love to do that again. My kids even got to be in one of the parades once. Now if we just did have more than a one week break.... I'll miss not getting to do the Food and Wine Fest at Epcot.

Carla
 
abitjaded said:
Suz, are you in Denver? Our aquarium here also has a stingray petting pool.

Carla

Nope, the aquarium that we belong to is the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. It has tons of interactive stuff for kids to do.
 
Hi Everyone,

Well I am starting to get very excited. This is our first cruise. My Husband and I are traveling with our daughter ( 3 at time of cruise) and our son (11 months at time of the cruise), we are traveling with the group of 25 people.

Does anyone know if I should bring carseats for excurions? What about strollers? Does the Disney Cruise rent stollers or will I need to bring my own?
I am just thinking about everything I will be needing to pack for my kids and I don't want to have to bring stollers and carseats on the plane or cruise ship.

If anyone can help with this topic, any information would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Jenny
CantWait2Cruz
 
Jenny,

I THINK the ships have a few loaner strollers. No car seats, though. You can get car seats, often for an extra charge, from the car rental places, unless you specify vans with the integrated seats. But my advice would be to bring your own, sad to say. Then you know how they work (don't forget extra buckles for the seatbelt locking) and you have them every step of the way. You'll have them on the way to the airport (or on the drive down), you'll have them to the port and you'll have them to stick sleepy kids in everywhere in the parks, to and from, and the ports. It is much easier to just store all the things in your room rather than worrying if you can get them. The ships are not hard to push a stroller around in. I've even done wheelchairs, so trust me on this. With the ages of your kids, it probably would be good to have a couple cheap umbrella type strollers (get the type with a flip-up sun shade) that could be ditched post-cruise. And if the kids have seats on the plane, you definitely want your own car-plane seats. They will check all the stuff right by the plane gateway, strollers AND seats, if the kids do not need them on the plane. I also thought my kids did better on planes if they were locked in a seat. Even babies get to know the rules! I know it sounds terrible to schlepp all the stuff, but better than transferring a sleeping child. And don't forget, when you use up all that space in the luggage that the disposable diapers took up, you'll have extra space for shopping!

Carla (glad my kids are now old enough now I don't have to deal with all that!)
 
Thanks for the advice Carla.

Do you know if the airport requires car seats for children during the plane ride? I'm sorry for all the questions but this is my first cruise and my first time traveling with kids. So I have alot of new experieces to look forward to.

Thanks
Jenny :earsgirl:
 
I'm not sure about car seats being "required", don't think they really are. The best to do might be to post on the transportation boards. Someone there is bound to know the specifics. Never quite could figure this out myself. Sometimes our car seats seemed to be fine, but at least once we had a type that was not approved and had to be checked. I THINK there will probably be a sticker on the seat that will detail if it is approved for aviation.

Do make sure you are not in an aisle with an emergency exit, because you cannot have kids in those. Plus I always hated the bulkhead since the seats do not recline. The first rows often have trays that pull out of the arms, rather than drop from in front of you and that can be a booger with the car seats strapped in.

We always made up an "emergency carry-on" with all the stuff for the kids. Toys, treats and the like. Make sure to add a few disposable bags to put dirty diapers in, since the flight attendants cannot handle them. Add something for each child to suck on to keep little ears unplugged when the plane ascends and descends. And don't forget a change or two of clothes and wipes in case of accidents. I also STILL locate a few "barf bags" and place them within seconds reach. :crazy2: Something disposable to drape the toilet area in the bathrooms is also handy. Changing a diaper or pull-up in a plane restroom can be a real challenge.

Carla
 
Hi Carla,

Thanks again for all the help!

Cant wait to cruise, my daughter gets excited every time she sees Mickey or Minnie on TV.

Thanks Again,
Jenny
CantWait2Cruz
 
On our last cruise, my husband rented a tux. It was great, they delivered and picked up right in the room and included everything we needed. We didn't have to worry about packing it and/or cleaning it. But if we are going to start cruising I thought it might be cheaper in the long run to buy. Anyone have any thoughts on the subject? Rent vs. buy. Where to buy, etc.

By the way, hubby and I did the Long Beach Marathon this past October and got a chance to take the kids to the aquarium there. Nice aquarium! My kids love the sting rays, too. We did the Disney Magic in Oct. 2004 and the only excursion we had signed up for was the sting rays, and then our itinerary changed and we didn't get to go to Grand Cayman, so we are definately looking forward to it this time (hopefully). Any info on how the sting ray excursion on Castaway Cay is?

Julie
Redwood City, CA
 
Hey Julie,

Don't know about now, but Penny's (of all places) had tuxes before Christmas. They were quite nice and very reasonable. Pure wool with satin or velvet. More expensive department stores have them, too. Dillard's and Foley's here. Nordstrom's Rack always has had the full contingent, too. Shirt, vest, etc. for a bit less. Lots of people say get them from ebay, but most of this stuff is the rental type and made like iron, rather than made with comfort in mind. Nothing worse than a complaining guy dressed in formal wear.

Anyhoo, I was looking at the tuxes for DH, but he has a very good black suit that is no different in cut than the tuxes, it is only missing the satin or velvet lapel, button cuff and pant stripe. So decided he didn't need the tux, again. He says the suit is "suitable for weddings and funerals". But I did make bow ties and cut away tux vests for all my guys for other cruises. Been scoping cheap tux shirts, but no luck there yet (DS9, especially, wears a white shirt once and it is done for).

Carla
 
Hi All! How's everyone doing? We just got back from WDW so now I'm ready to get into "Cruise Mode"! I'm really looking forward to this cruise. My DH and I did one last July but it wasn't Disney.

Jenny..Jill wanted me to ask if you wouldn't mind not having anything with peanuts at your Cookie Social because Andrew has a peanut allergy. How's Baby Drew? Can't wait to see how big he's gotten!
 
:bounce: :woohoo: :cheer2: Nine Months to Go :bounce: :cheer2: :Pinkbounc
Okay, it's technically Monday now, but we just got home from being away for the weekend so it's still Sunday night to me.

We're heading to Florida in a few weeks to meet up with an old friend and visit my mom. Have any of you been to Discovery Cove? Do you think it's too late to get reservations this soon before the trip, only a few weeks out? I'll probably do some researching tomorrow when I'm more awake.
 
I think we'll wait on Discovery Cove. It's likely to be too chilly right now. I didn't think the webiste had much info so I did a search on the disboard. You know you'll get the lowdown here.
 
We went to Discovery Cove last June and it was awesome! I would highly recommend it but I am glad we were there when it was warm out. We had our dolphin swim early in the morning, I think it was around 9 or 9:30. The water that the dolphins are in is COLD and I don't much care for swimming in cold water but it was worth it to have the interaction with the dolphins and to be pulled across the lagoon by one! When we were done with our dolphin swim and picked out our pictures we went into the snorkel lagoon and the stingray lagoon and that water was not as cold but pretty chilly too but the sun was out and it was a warm day. The lazy river is heated though and that felt so very wonderful to float in. Any time I got cold I would get back in the lazy river to warm up! After lunch it got cloudy and DH and DD went back in the snorkel and stingray lagoons and I just hung out and enjoyed the scenery and then we all hung out in the lazy river for quite a while just floating round and round and DD worked on her snorkleing. We had a great time! Any questions I'll try and answer them.

Cheryl :sunny:
 
That was helpful Cheryl. Cold water is a factor. We're also considering a couple days at the parks. It's going to be one or the other. Don't know which yet. The kids have never been to Disney World so I doubt they would trouble themselves over which one to go to. Dh and I haven't been there in about ten years. We are thinking the two younger ones would get a kick out the Magic Kingdom while dh and I and our oldest would be more into Epcot. I'm not a big Disney fans like most of you guys so I haven't kept up on what's been built in the past 10 years. I'll be doing a little reading on the park boards I guess.
 

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