October 22, 2005 Roll call

[ReneeQ]

ThreeSmiths, your husband sounds just like mine! He also doesn't want to dress up on vacation. And I must admit, I don't really either. We are the casual, home-body type. Last cruise we did go to formal night and were not terribly formal, but didn't stand out or anything. My husband will probably wear his dark jacket and dark gray pants. I haven't decided what I'm wearing yet. I have borrowed a nice black outfit from a friend, with a sequined top, so I might wear that.

Pirate night is more the issue with us than formal night. My husband has no desire to dress up piratey (is that a word?), so we're going to Palo that night. (Remember, we don't have any kids). I "would" dress up, but since we'd have to get all the stuff to wear, I'm okay with skipping it for Palo.

And yes, my in laws are quite lucky to have such great kids! But my in-laws are AWESOME, so we're all thrilled to give them the Disney cruise. Now I just hope they don't hike prices too much (due to fuel costs) for next year!

 

[scrapperjill]

MNmousecouple...you may be thinking of tendering in Grand Caymen..where the ship drops anchor and take smaller boats to shore and back...I could see that adding some time getting to the island and getting back to the ship. Myself I haven't done it...but from the sounds of it it's not to bad...and doesn't take to long. They somehow go by excrusion times if you have any.

ThreeSmiths...I don't think my parents (and my neice) or our other friends (and their kids) that are joining us are dressing formal either...Matter of fact I know they are not. So Eric would fit right in with our whole group on formal night.

 

[SuzPasq]

The last time we were in Grand Cayman, we were pretty impressed with the tendering process. There were multiple boats making the run from the ship back to the shore, and we really didn't have to wait more than a minute or two to get on. We weren't part of an excursion, and we were probably getting off around 10....

 

[American Scrapper]

welcome Walt & Di!

Ok, is anyone else ready for a Bahama Mama? I am! We are getting so close I could almost taste them!

Kathy

 

[Walt & Di]

Thanks Kathy,


Walter and I are very excited for our first DCL. It was my time for picking our two week vacation.

Been busy with grandkids, so Walter has been doing most of the reading. I will catch up this weekend.

Looking forward to meeting the group.

Diane

 

[scrapperjill]

Did I hear someone say Bahama Mama?? You bet I'm ready!!! I can see myself right......now standing on the deck DCL souviner glass in hand.......filled with yummy Bahama Mama Mmmmm.

Welcome Walt & Di ...Two week vacation??? What are you doing with the rest of your two weeks? Any big plans.

 

[MNmousecouple]

Thanks much for the information, guess we misread something

Here's another question, and maybe I need to post to general board but I'll try here first, when we cruised Alaska on RCCL 2 yrs ago they had a neat gps trip tracking system which they had running on a laptop in the main lounge and also playing over the onboard tv channel. It showed our position during the entire trip and I thought it might be cool to have the same/similar program to map our trip myself. I am curious if anyone knows what this computer program and gps system is and where I might look into acquiring it.

Thanks again for any information or advice

 

[SuzPasq]

Not sure about a GPS tracking system that you can buy, but in the stateroom there is always a channel which shows the position of the ship. I prefer to remain clueless about where we are, and just enjoy the view and anticipate the next port.

 

[MelissaE1]

Hi MNMouseCouple!

Hello Walt & Di!

Bahama Mamas... I'll be right there with you guys! Yum!

It's great to see the Magic back on the Port Canaveral cam.

Melissa

 

[Walt & Di]

Thanks for the welcome.

Walter and I are getting excited as well.

We are staying over at WDW until Nov 6th.

We are Disney Fanatics and season passholders.

This will be our third visit this year, Anniversary weekend in May, Two weeks in June with 2 DD,s , DGD and DGS and now, our very first DCL and then a week in WDW.

Diane

 

[MelissaE1]

We are Disney Fanatics and season passholders.

This will be our third visit this year, Anniversary weekend in May, Two weeks in June with 2 DD,s , DGD and DGS and now, our very first DCL and then a week in WDW.

My kids would like you to adopt them, lol. We try to take the kids once a year, usually in May, and about every third year we buy a resident seasonal pass so we can go twice on it -- late in May when we buy it and earlier the next May before it expires. It really came in handy last year, we evac'd there for Ivan and my kids got to stay for a week. It was their second trip for the year and they were ecstatic. This year they had to skip it as DCL years don't come with park visits.

I think it would be so fun to take grandkids there! I always run into people who are there with their grandkids and they are always having so much fun.

 

[MelissaE1]

Hey everyone... add me to the list of cruise dreams/nightmares! Last night I dreamed that we had boarded the ship and we met the most wonderful cabin steward just as we got to our room. I loved him, but as I was talking to him another little short, grumpy, janitor looking guy with an oatmeal personality came from behind him... and HE was our cabin steward. Arghhh! He clomped around and didn't even try to be nice. Then later in the dream I realized I had forgotten to send my pressing out and all I had was balled-up, wrinkled clothes to wear to dinner.

Luckily I never got to a part where I forgot my camera... I would have woken up screaming!

 

[Skallywag]

My main worry is not getting our tickets and documents before we leave England. We are coming to Orlando the week before the cruise and have asked our travel agent to ensure that they are with us by latest early October. Have also tried to get through to Disney Cruise line but am still awaiitng a reply from 23rd August. They confirm receipt of the email but that is all I get. Wish we had free call number from here it would be fine but this is my worry at present.

 

[scrapperjill]

Thinking about documents...I was snooping around the 10/15/05 cruise meet thread (looking to see if there was any mention on documents) and noticed someone recieved there documents the other day....must have been Friday because they said UPS droped them off. Could we really be that close to having our docs on the way??? Oh...how exciting. Of course it was only one person...but that's the cruise right before ours..oh they also said in their documents was a note from DCL that said the dry dock work would not be completed on time...and they would be continuing to work on it through out their cruise. I hope by the time it's our turn....they are finished or REAL close. The poster mentioned somehting about the spa...and the work on it would be in progress...from what I have read and seen the expansion on the spa is quite large...so it's no wonder they won't be finished durring the short drydock period.

Anyone ever purchased any of the stateroom gifts? I was thinking about getting something for the girls...and maybe the memory box thing for myself? Any ideas or opnions? I've heard mixed thoughts on the box...so say it's just a box others say it's perfect to store the navagators and cruise photos in. I also NEED to get my parents something...(it's an anniversary cruise for them) I don't nescessarly feel I need to order something from DCL for them...but I need to get them something..any ideas? Has anyone used Shirley at The Perfect gift? I'm courious as to how much her baskets range in price.

HEY!!! My countdown timer is back

 

[pdarrah]

Hi Scrapperjill,

I think I saw somewhere on the main forum that they have told the 10/15 cruise people that the excersize room won't be ready, but that the equipment will be available "elsewhere". Hopefully, the extra week is all they will need and it will all be finished for us!

I used The Perfect Gift last year. Shirley made a fantastic basket for DH & DS. DH had his b-day during the cruise (and will again this year). I made it a joint "basket" with a tote bag full of stuff for DH and a sand bucket of stuff for DS. Shirley tied them together so that there was only 1 delivery fee from DCL. If they were separate, they would charge her two fees. I don't remember what the fee was, but I thought it was pretty high for just dropping something off at a stateroom (she delivers them to the ship in the morning). Maybe around $15? I believe that my total cost for both "baskets" was around $65 (maybe plus tax?).

She is a wonderful person. When we found out we were rerouted to Costa Maya last year, we collected school supplies to take to the Kindergarden there (the town is very remote and they have trouble with supplies for the schools - although only a few ships stop there, there is an attempt on the cruise critic board to get cruisers to bring stuff to them.) My DS's kindergarden just loved the idea and we ended up with a LARGE box of stuff that would have been difficult to just carry with us on the airplane. I contacted Shirley and she was thrilled to have us ship the box to her and then pick it up right before we went to the ship. I tried to pay her a tip or small fee for the service and she totally refused.

If you have an idea what you want, just call Shirley (she seems to prefer the phone to email) and she will be able to give you a price.

Pamela

 

[Timon]

Scrapperjill,

When we cruised DCL in 2002, we received our docs about 6 weeks before our saildate. But I do know that not everyone gets them that early. We are about what..7 weeks away now? So I would say maybe in the next 1-2 weeks hopefully we start getting the docs for our saildate.

I hope we get them early as we will be leaving on October 11th to spend the night at the hotel airport and then flying out early the next morning.

Yet another silly cruise nightmare last night...We had just sat down to our first dinner and my dining room chair was more like a high chair, it was too small and was hurting so I got up to get another chair and I was looking and looking for another chair but there were none so I ended up looking all over the ship and got caught up in all these different things and when I finally got back to the table with a chair, all my table mates were just finishing dessert!!

I told hubby about my "cruise nightmares" and he laughed. I asked don't you ever get any??? He's said "ummm..no" So I said well maybe it just affects all of us "planners" since I figured if you are on this board as much as I am, then you must be the "planner". He just packs and shows up and says, ok...what are we doing today?? Which is the way I like it

Only 35 more days till Disney!!!

 

[UKANGEL]

My main worry is not getting our tickets and documents before we leave England. We are coming to Orlando the week before the cruise and have asked our travel agent to ensure that they are with us by latest early October. Have also tried to get through to Disney Cruise line but am still awaiitng a reply from 23rd August. They confirm receipt of the email but that is all I get. Wish we had free call number from here it would be fine but this is my worry at present.

Brenda, dont worry this is our third cruise with Disney and we've always had our docs well before we fly out

 

[Skallywag]

Thank you for your reasuring me - dont know what we would do if they did not arrive before we left.

Will watch for postings for our cruise with interest to see when they start being received. Believe documents for the 15th October have already been sent out from what I have read. Also that for this cruise the fitness centre is not to be open. Hope it is all up and running for ours as have booked the one to one training session for our daughter as a birthday present and she is so excited about it.
Brenda

 

[American Scrapper]

I hope all of you that are leaving early get your docs ontime. I am sure that everything will be fine. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

I am sitting here with 12 boys ages 8 & 9 for Anthony's birthday. I thought it would be nice to have a sleep over, just call me Crazy!! They are very active! We have a second movie on for them to watch otherwise they would be hanging upside down somehow! I should have realized as all of their parents were laughing when dropping them off that I was in for a LOooooooooNG Night!

Oh well, we only live once and Anthony is having a Great Time!

Kathy

 

[UKANGEL]

sorry its late....but Happy Birthday to Anthony

Bet you're exhausted having all those boys round!

I made dh get our suitcases down this morning so i could start putting things in......doesnt matter how many times we've been I get sooooo excited!