October 22, 2005 Roll call

[pdarrah]

Hi Eric95403,

Welcome to the thread! If you have been following it, I assume you know about our website. (The link is in my signature) If you would like to be added to the "Who's Going" list - just let me know.

I wonder how DCL sends out the docs? Now do they select they order they print them?

Dyerneeds - Last year our docs took forever to get to us because our travel agent just didn't care. Everyone else was getting theirs and we didn't. We tried following up with her and she just kept saying "don't worry". Finally, I called DCL and got a tracking number and proved that they were at her "Main office". They then sent them to her (I still don't know why there was more than one office involved) and she finally sent them to me. We only got them a few days before our trip! That is the biggest reason we did NOT use a TA this year - we want our docs to come straight from DCL to us! I have also heard that if you book airfare through DCL it makes your docs come later since the flights aren't actually assigned until closer to sailing. We always book our own air, so that isn't an issue for us.

We still don't have them yet - but checking the mail is a "big deal" nowdays!

Pdarrah

 

[Timon]

I believe Disney still sends out their docs FedEx..I hope to find out soon! In exactly three weeks from this very minute, we will be on a flight to Orlando!! !

 

[Eric95403]

I see cruisers have been slowly receiving their docs. We've never been so anxious to get the mail. Just checked the mail... skunked again.

The mailman didn't deliver ours. I believe UPS did. I went downstairs and saw the DW thumbing through that familiar brown box. She said it was on our doorstep when she went out to get the morning paper. Believe me, our mailman would not get outside to drop this off at our door when there was plenty of room in the mailbox. I never did see the outside wrapper, but our UPS guy is famous for leaving stuff at our door (so I'll assume it was UPS). I hate that...since we never use our front door and packages could sit there forever. We're lucky it was still there in the morning is all I have to say.

Oh well....I'm going on a DC!!!!!

 

[SCDizneyDawn]

Hi everyone!

We have not recieved our documents yet, but we are cruising on DVC points, so I bet they take longer.

Welcome to Eric95403

I am working 6 day weeks every week now until our vacation, so I will be REALLY ready for this vacation!

 

[pdarrah]

Hi Everyone!

I have added a few more families to our "Who's Going" list in the last few days - I think we are up to about 90 people listed!

So far, we only have 1 DIS meet setup (3:00pm, Oct 22, Mickey Pool). There was some talk earlier about some other ideas, but I don't think anything has been finallized. Any thoughts on this? Do we want any other meets? I expect that the 1st day meet will be the largest, but do we want to setup any other 'meet oportunities'?

A few ideas:
Something at the Pirate Party - pick a location and party together.
One or two evening "lounge" meets - since I didn't make it to any of the lounges last time, I have no idea if this is a good idea.
Another afternoon Mickey Pool meet for the kids - parents can just chat (sort of leaves the kid-free folks out unless they like being around a noisy pool - maybe also have a separate adult chat meet at the coffee place.)

OK - let's brainstorm!

Pdarrah

 

[marnight]

Wow, I feel so "out of the loop". Haven't visited in awhile and I can't believe how close before we our trip. I've barely had time to check my closets or think about packing. I'm sure I still have shopping to do! I definitely need new formal wear. Haven't decided on the pirate costume yet. Anyone else dressing for pirate night?

Does anyone know if it's too late to order gifts for the cabins? I'd like to send some wine and chocolates to my parent's room.

See you guys soon. Praying everyone survives Key West this week. Hopefully we will still be able to enjoy our stop there.

Maria

 

[American Scrapper]

Welcome Eric95403!

Oh, people are getting their docs? I haven't checked my front door yet today. I guess I will be checking it more often now. We too don't use our front door, so I will have to keep my eye open.

Kathy

 

[janohiomom99]

Hello fellow cruisers...my family is officially booked on the DCL for Oct 22 Western. I am very excited to be cruising for the first time with Disney. Hubby and I have cruised before and we are anxious to share this experience with the kids. We have 4 children .. boys ages 14 and 11 and girls ages 3 1/2 and 18 months.

We booked two cabins and we are taking along a fun friend and he will be the adult in the boys room as we have adjoining cabins. It should be a great time. The boys are interested to find out if the cruise is really an all you can eat affair each day. Boy will they be impressed. My 3 1/2 yr old daughter is practically beside herself since I have told her we will be going to Florida to see Cinderella. Naturally she has no concept of time and tells everyone we are going "tomorrow". The 18 month old hasnt a clue, but once we get there and she actually gets to see a princess or Mickey Mouse she will be very excited!!!

As for the subject of documents, my travel agent told me to expect a call from her about 21 days prior to arrival,which means sometime at the end of Sept we should be getting our docs from her.

I can't wait for the cruise, I just hope hurricane Rita doesnt eliminate Key West as the weather men have been predicting.

Thirty days and counting...wooohooooo

 

[lilmamadee]

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome.
As far as dressing up for the Pirate night, I think I'll leave that to our kids. Tyler will be wearing full pirate regalia from an old Halloween costume or two and Chelsea is excited to wear a new renaissance costume we purchased (I'm not sure if it's pirate, but it's definately period, and there's no talking her out of it!)
Pdarrah-I'm up for any meets you set up. All your ideas sound great to me. I am interested in a walking buddy (or buddies) in the AM every morning. I am on Weight Watchers and dreading the weight gain during the vacation. It will relieve a lot of rich food guilt if I at least exercise daily. Any takers???
Dee

 

[Timon]

welcome to the new cruisers!

I was just checking cabin availability on DCL and more cabins opened up. Last week and for many weeks prior there were only CAT 4, 5 & 6 available. Now they are showing 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 & 9's!! 6 through 9 are all GTY's and 4 & 5's all have 8 cabins which probably means there are more than just those 8 cabins available. Hmm I wonder why all of a sudden all those categories have opened up?

As for pirate night, both hubby and I will be fully dressed up Our favourite holiday is Halloween And we will also be attending MNSSHP twice during our trip but only wearing the pirate outfits on Halloween night.

This will be our first Pirates IN the Carribean party as we last sailed on DCL in 2002 when there was no such thing. Looking forward to wearing our costumes while riding Pirates of the Caribbean in WDW

 

[scrapperjill]

Oh man...the board was busy yesterday. Welcome...to all the newest members . I just love to hear about people from our dis meet getting their docs...it just means ours can't be to far behind We went with a TA (the same one as last year...although I'm not sure why)...and for some reason this time around I just don't have alot of faith in her. But I guess until she proves otherwise I should just back off and give her the benifit of the doubt.

As for Pirate night...I think were planning on dressing up...somewhat.

Other dis meets...I think for sure we should plan more out before the crusie. The big question...WHEN?? Maybe something on each sea day...and I suppose something on Pirate night could be good...hadn't really thought of that. I don't know if a variety of times and places would work best...or if one general place and time would work better...any ideas?

Well I just about have the buttons that are on my list done...I have a few new ones to add...and have decided I'll take button requests up until October 10th...that'll give me about a week to finish up the last of the requests and make sure they all get packed safely with our things.

Trip dreams I had a whopper of one the other night....it was totally weird. We were at WDW and for some reason DH couldn't stay long...he had to get back to something...but when I realized what time he left it just didn't make any sence because he left...REAL early. Like I said the whole dream was WEIRD. Plus when we were on Splash mountian...it was like a cheesy fair ride...real small and real short.

 

[pdarrah]

Yep - we're dressing up as pirates! DS6 was a pirate captain for Halloween last year - he actually had decided on it and Grandma was making it before we even planned last year's cruise. Once we had booked the cruise, he had decided to bring it with him because "it's a ship and pirates go with ships!" Then a month or two before we sailed, DCL created the Pirate Night thing so it worked out great. DS actually had already decided to wear it for Formal night (" 'cause all the girls get to wear costumes") which he did - but he also wore parts for Pirate Night.

This year, he convinced Grandma & Grandpa that we should ALL dress up as pirates. Since we are also doing the MNSSHP on the 20th, we figure we get at least 2 uses out of packing the costumes. My costume is being made by a lady we found on Ebay - it will be shipped in the next day or two. It is a "renessance wench" type of costume. DM has put together something that I guess is somewhat of a "gypsy wench" type of thing (female pirates are a little hard to figure out!) Both DH and DF will be the pirate crew (DS is the captain of course!) We found striped cotton "lounge pants" that we are ripping below the knee and they both have white cotton loose shirts. One is going to wear a vest and the other a sash and I assume eye-patches or something. DH says he could not shave for a few days ... but I am voting against that idea!

Thoughts on DIS Meets - I think planning a few meets would be good since if people miss one or two, there are still one or two they might be able to make. However, I have not real experience with this so if anyone else a counter opinion, please speak up! On our last cruise, we had 3 - 2 of them worked out pretty well and 1 was a flop. However the flop was an attempt at a photo between early & late dining and the timing just didn't work.

If we setup a meet at the Pirate Party (just pick a location where DISers will hang out?) it could be pretty casual since you can't really TALK at that event but it might be nice to see each other's costumes (maybe a try for a photo?) and if only a few show up it isn't any different than just attending the party on your own.

I saw on another thread that someone here (I'm sorry, I just noted it was one of "our group" and didn't note the name) mentioned on another thread having nice meets up on deck 9 at night. We walked up on deck several evenings after dinner and it was VERY nice up there - pleasant weather, often a band was playing (but not TOO loud), not too crowded,...

pdarrah

 

[scrapperjill]

pdarrah...that may have been me mentioning about the meetings on deck 9. It seemed liked Jesse and I would either be sitting at a table on deck 9 (while the kids played in the pool) or strolling around deck 9 and run into ThreeSmiths and/or American Scrapper and their other halfs nearly every night. From there we'd all pull up chairs, hang out and enjoy the evening. Some nights we'd plan to regroup at Rock-n-bar D in a few...or we'd just all get up and go then. Either way..we seemed like we were alway meeting up totally unplanned on deck 9....near the Mickey pool.

Either way they did work out nicely. The kids had something to do (swim or eat ice cream) while we hung out and had a good time. Plus some nights they did have a band and other things going on.

I wonder what deck 9 will be like this time with the huge screan?
And I think we stuck with 9 instead of 10 because of the wind factor. It seemed like we were always gaurded from the wind and rain by the plexiglass.

 

[SuzPasq]

We just found out yesterday that we're going on the 10/15 cruise instead of 10/22. I'm bummed to be doing the Eastern for the third year in a row, but this is a work trip for my husband, so I can't complain. Well, I shouldn't complain, but I will. <G>

I hope you all have a great time!

 

[pdarrah]

Hi SusPasq - Sorry you won't be joining us - have fun anyway!

Hi EVERYONE - I'VE GOT NAVIGATORS!!!!

Kelly from the 9/10 Western cruise mailed be copies of all the navigators (not kid's ones however) and the Welcome Abord, Welcome Home, Castaway Cay-vents, & the TV schedule!

I'm just digging through them now, so I'm not sure of all the changes yet. I'll post a summary when I have it all together. I'm not sure the pages would scan well enough to work on the website - I'll try it and see....

First few things I have noticed - (1) the "Mousketeer" show seems to be gone. They had a movie on Sunday night and a Cabaret type show (ventriloquist) on Wednesday. (2) the THURSDAY day-at-sea navigator lists the kid's "Celebrate the Journey" show - so maybe they aren't doing it on Castaway Cay day anymore? (3) there is now an "Art Gallery - Deck 4 Midship" and Live Art auctions during the cruise. (4) Twice Charmed is on Tuesday (Grand Cayman day)-

If anyone has specific questions, just ask and I'll look stuff up for you. Of course, things could change after the drydock, but this is probably the closest we'll come to info for our cruise....

Pdarrah

 

[afoss]

Pdarrah- I'm so excited about seeing the navigators. Are you going to get the kids too or not? At least we have something to work off of now. Time to get my spreadsheet going

No docs here. I'm afraid they are going to my TA first which will delay them. We leave on the 19th so I hope they make it.

Sorry I haven't been on the board. Tons has happen. Adopted 2 cats from CatSnap. It's been interesting with a 3 and 2 year old with cats. What was I thinking?

Second- We just found out last week that my DH is getting transferred to Bloomington. So guess what??? We need to list our home and find a new one starting the MONDAY WE GET BACK FROM THE CRUISE! Is that stressful or what? If we had known this 8 months ago, we would not have booked the cruise because we are now in a serious money crunch with homes in BLM being higher. Oh well. Less knick knack patty crap to be bought now.

Meets: Maybe we could do one at Castaway Cay? A DIS beach party, if you will. I'm game for anything.

 

[scrapperjill]

Pdarrah...I can't wait to sneak a peak.... Post them soon.

SuzPasq...sorry you won't be joining us...But I'm sure you'll still have a great time.

 

[American Scrapper]

SuzPasq - Sorry you won't be joining us! I am sure you will have fun either way! Hey, and maybe you can jump on the boards while on board and give us a sneak peak at the changes that they made ! Yes, we are all over obsessed and need to know what everything looks like before we get there! Especially the Movie Screen on deck 9.

Pdarrah, everything sounds good so far! It sure would be nice not to have to run around after Castaway Cay to get to the kids show

Kathy

 

[Skallywag]

We still have not got our documents, keep looking out for them hope we get them before we leave England.

Wonder why some people have their documents and others not you would think they would all go out together but perhaps thats just my logic.

Anyone had an upgrade for our cruise yet - havent heard any whoops of joy so assume not.

Still have piles of things on the bed in one of our spare rooms, just wondering how I am going to get it all into cases. :

 

[Skaught]

I just saw my cabin assignment, which was added since I check yesterday about this time. I think I've been upgraded! I booked a Cat. 8 cabin (no verandah), but the cabin number listed is #7024, which appears to be a Cat. 5 room with verandah, from the maps I've looked at. So, tentatively, WHOOP!

Scott