October 25, 2008 Western DD

[*love*2*shop]

*love*2*shop~ My DD will be 7, and her name is Madison. My oldest DD will be 9. My DH and my mom will be with me as well. Looks like we have a lot in common!

Thats great! we had a BLAST on our Halloween 2005 Cruise and cannot wait to go again! My kids *LOVE* the CLUBS! onboard and we have a SUITE this time( last time we had a cat 4 and it was NOT Big enough)
We have added my mom to this cruise( she has NEVER been on a cruise)
My son kyle IS ad/hd with behavior issues so that is Why we Moved our oct 2007 trip to OCT 2008( we;ll chat more later)

Hopefully with the kids being a whole year older, it will be better for ALL of us! Hence the postponement...

ANyway, again, my kids are SAD we arent going THIS OCT, BUT hey..who are the parents lol.....
( Hubby and I were in Disney for a WEEK without the kids 2 mos , so I am sure they arent happy about that either)

 

[shrpgrl]

Count us in. We went on the regular western in 2006. We thought CC was the best part of the trip. When we got back my DH said book us on a DD in 2007. I was surprised they did not have any for 2007. So we are going to Alaska on RCCL in Sept . It is the repo one so we end up in Los Angeles and we are doing DL. As soon as I heard about the DD cruise I asked DH about it and he said Book it. It will be one day after my birthday so Happy Birthday to me. I really am looking forward to it as well as the wonderful cheese plate from room service late at night while sitting on my balcony. Can't wait to meet everyone there.

 

[Kimmielee]

Was trying to avoid taking DS out of school for 6 - 7 days... but he's an awesome student... and it's saving $2100 - $2700 by doing Halloween vs. Thanksgiving or Christmas!!!

Just me (47 then - OUCH) and DS who will be 9!

Already doing the Halloween 2007 cruise (Hi to Sean and Christine)! We are trying to recruit others as well!

 

[praisehisname]

I finally got this booked yesterday. Got quotes from Dreams Unlimited and DCL. DCL came in lower, so I booked with them and then transferred the ressie to DU for the shipboard credit!!!

Anyway, it will be: (all ages are at cruise time) me (Denise 39), dh (Tom 45), ds (Lee 14), dd (Sarah Jo 12), and dd (Maggie 10).

This will be our 3rd Disney cruise, and we can't wait! We have connecting Category 10's on Deck 2. Last cruise was connecting Category 9's, but the savings was worth giving up the window. We're planning on spending 3 days at the parks beforehand, so that was another reason to save the money.

Hope to get to know you all better over the next 20 months!

Denise

 

[sg4Disney]

20 months! Thank goodness we have each other to pass the time!

What is everyone doing this year? I think I am constantly planning trips for myself or my friends. We are DVC members and are going to check out HHI for the first time in June. I plan on spending the first night in Savannah. My mom and I hope to take the girls to DW in October. DH will stay home as he has been the past two years and gets worn out with the park thing. He likes something more laid back, which is why he loves the cruise.

What about everyone else?

 

[Stewy]

sg4Disney: I feel the same way, always planning for me or someone else. Unfortunately, it is usually for me. Anyway, our plans for this year are Disney for Easter - 53 days til we go ; Family reunion in Emerald Isle, North Carolina for August and since we are all the way down there , we are throwing in a trip to Disney, still trying to talk DH into doing a 3 day cruise right before DS school starts. Then for Christmas, we are heading to the Yacht club for 2 weeks. I love to wake up in Disney on Christmas morning. We are AP holders so when we have tickets, we try to go for 10-14 days, 3 times a year to maximize the value DH says the APs cost us a lot more than we save on the discounts .

My DH does not go to the parks as much either, he spends his time at Typhoon Lagoon during most of the days and we meet up for dinner and whatever in the evenings. He was not enjoying our vacations and he was destroying our enjoyment (me and DSs) until we started to split up. Now we are all happy with vacation. Have a great day everyone.

Cheryl

 

[shrpgrl]

Well we are headed to Alaska in Sept. It is a 10 day cruise that ends in Las Angeles so we can do DL. I have never been so I am getting excited.
We are DVC members also and we are headed to the BWV in May. My son is going with us . He stopped going when he was 15. He was bored(can you believe it) with the whole Disney thing. When he turned 21 he asked if he could go with us . I almost fell off my chair! He told me he wanted to go to the clubs and check out the places he couldn't go before. So we are going for a week between his classes.
My mom keeps hinting that she wants to go on a cruise again so now I am thinking about a girls only cruise next spring. She usually goes on vacation with us but this year I am doing several overnight trips with her since I did not include her in my Alaska trip. I too think I spend alot of time planning But I kind of enjoy it. It is my escape from reality.

 

[homrjay]

I'd love to hear all about your Alaskan Cruise! My dh and I keep saying that is what we are going to do for our 15 year anniversary! We'll see if that happens. Our girls will be plenty old enough by now, though.

Well we are headed to Alaska in Sept. It is a 10 day cruise that ends in Las Angeles so we can do DL. I have never been so I am getting excited.

 

[praisehisname]

Well we are headed to Alaska in Sept.

We are headed to Alaska in September, also! It's not a cruise, though. My step-son is stationed at Fort Wainwright, and his wife is expecting their first child. We were really hoping he would get transferred before the birth, but it's not looking good. Oh, well. At least now we have a reason to go see how beautiful Alaska is!

Denise

 

[homrjay]

I am so jealous. I can't wait to go to Alaska, but I guess Disney will do in the meantime. HA! Hey, maybe Disney will go to Alaska by the time I get there and I can have my cake and eat it too!

 

[dznyacct]

We too are DVC members (VWL is our home resort), so WDW is a favorite vacation destination. DS (17) and I are headed to WDW in 44 days (not like I'm counting or anything!) for a 10 day Spring Break trip. He is a straight A++ student in a private Catholic high school (and he is NEVER sick, knock on wood!), so I'm taking him out 2 1/2 days before the official start of Spring Break. I usually do this every year and his teachers are great about giving him homework ahead of time (it gives him something to do in the airport). DH is staying home as he is not the WDW fan that DS and I are (aaaccck!). I would like to do a weekend trip to Chicago via Amtrak after school is out, as Jake (DS) has never been on a train and wants to go on one.

In June, I will have the ultimate test....we are having our own "grand gathering" of sorts at WDW. DH's family (15 of us in all) will be together for a week (after everyone goes home, my immediate family will stay for another week to "recuperate!!). There will be: Brian (DH), Jake, me, Jake's best friend Matt, Brian's brother Scott, Scott's wife Kathy, their daughters Hannah & Claire (4 and 6 at the time), Brian's brother Stan, Stan's wife Emilee, their 3 kids (Sarah - 9, Nicholas - 4 and Cora - 1), and Brian's mom and dad. Brian's mom and dad and Stan and his family are renting a house off-site to save $$$. I know that I am VERY spoiled, but I don't think I could stay off-site. Oh well, it's their choice. The rest of us will be in a 2 BR at OKW. Of course with 30+ trips under my belt, I am the designated travel agent/vaction planner. I am having a ball!! Stan's family is driving (from Indiana) and Scott and his family have a long flight from Colorado, so I'm making up bags of things to keep the kids occupied (coloring books/crayons, books and other misc toys). I also have a TON of glow necklaces/bracelets that I got at Target's Dollar Spot on clearance and the light up spinning toys from The Disney Store. The "renting the house" group does not want to eat any sit down meals at WDW (they want to save $$ and eat breakfast and dinner at the house) and we are doing the DDP. I've made our PS for Cinderella's Gala Feast at GF, Wolfgang Puck Cafe, Le Cellier, 50's Prime Time and dinner at Chef Mickey's. This is the first WDW for everyone (except a trip as an adult for Kathy and Emilee, and my immediate family), so I can't wait to see everyone's (especially the kids) reaction to everything. Jake was 4 when we first went as a family and he was so awed by everything. I think that's when I really fell in love with WDW.

I'm really hoping that the free DDP is offered to the general public again in September. Brian and I did this last year with friends (who just happen to be old enough to be our parents, but are VERY young at heart!) and had such a great time. A friend of mine from work went with her family then (the first WDW trip for all of them) and LOVED it. I saw her this weekend and she asked if she could tag along with us if we went. Of course I said YES!!

Well, in my long-winded way, I guess I've told what our vacation plans are for the rest of 2007. I'm already figuring on a week or so pre-cruise WDW stay in 10/08. It just wouldn't be right to be in Florida and NOT go to WDW, right?! I knew you guys would understand! I can bet that there will be some other WDW before the cruise. I start going through WDW withdrawal if I don't have a WDW trip or two in the works!

 

[shrpgrl]

I'll let you know how Alaska goes. I just can't figure out how to pack. Need warm clothes for there and summer clothes for DL. Maybe I will pack things I can layer up.

Hey Dznyacct, I see you are from Indiana too. Good luck with your grand gathering. We have done similar trips with my family and discovered it worked best if we were at different resorts and just met for a few hours each day. The first trip we were all at BWVs and by the end there were some people who were not speaking to others. Actually made the trip home quiet. Not neccesarily a bad thing. They all got over it and no one wanted to stay home the next trip so it must not have been so bad.

 

[dznyacct]

shrpgrl ~ Yeah, a fellow Hoosier. How 'bout those Colts last night?!?!?!? We're in Lafayette and MAN is it cold here tonight!! Jake had a 2 hour delay today and has one tomorrow. When I got to work at 8 today the windchill made the temp -18º!!! Florida is sounding REAL good about now! I'm glad I have my heated mattress pad warming up now!!

I really wonder how our trip in June will turn out. Scott and his family have stayed with us the last two summers for ~ a week and we all got along great. The "house" people only will be meeting up with us for 2 or 3 days because "you don't need more than a few days to see WDW" according to them (foolish mortals!!). Oh well, Brian and I tried telling them how much there is to see and do and the fact that it will be June (hot and crowded).

We did a trip in July 2003 with 14 people total (friends and my family). Our friends are who we had the most trouble with. We told them many, many times before we got there that we like to split up so everyone can see/do what they want. Well, she must have thought I was kidding. She wanted to stick like glue to us and it made for a very stressful trip. Jake and Matt were WDW veterans at the ripe old age of 13 and I let them go off on their own. Our friend's daughter (who was also 13) wanted to join them, but wasn't allowed because it was a family trip. My friend hinted that I really shouldn't let Matt and Jake go off together if her daughter couldn't go. Uhhh, no. They keep hinting about a return trip with us, but somehow I don't see it happening. The ironic part is, we "paid" for their lodging using our DVC points. Live and learn I guess.

Stay warm tonight!

 

[disneybride96]

Hey! It looks like an all Hoosier cruise...although let's call it a Boilermaker cruise! We are going too with a group of 11! Our last cruise we got to see the colts on Monday night football on the jumbotron! Very cool.

Gotta take the dogs to the vet....I'll post more about our crew later!

 

[shrpgrl]

Hate the cold here now. Only thing helping me deal with it is the thought of lying on the beach at CC with a nice cold drink and listening as the waves gentley caress the warm white sand. Sigh.
Got up this morning and took my son to IU. His van is such a junker that it takes forever to warm up and he had not started it since fri. I hope we get away from this cold soon. I can deal with the snow just not this below zero stuff.My son said he can finally understand why we want to move to fl. some day.

 

[dznyacct]

disneybride96 ~ Glad to hear that another Hoosier will be on the cruise!! I am a true Boilermaker (graduated from Purdue quite a few years ago) and my son Jake will be attending there in the fall of 2008. I'm not sure where you are in Indiana, but up here in Lafayette we got ~ 6 inches of snow today and the temperature is still only ~ 10º. How 'bout a Disney cruise right now!!

 

[sg4Disney]

I cannot imagine living in those kind of temps! The high has been in the 30s the past few days in TN with lows in the teens...and I thought we were freezing.

I tried the family trip last year with both sets of grandparents minus my dad. (He claims he has done his WDW time taking me when I was smaller.) It was too much stress for me! I won't be trying that again, not all of them at once anyway. My mom travels with us a lot, and she will be on this trip. We just don't travel well with his parents, too many differences of opinions I think!

 

[dznyacct]

sg4Disney ~ We have been very lucky as far as winter goes until the last few weeks. We had many days in late December with temperatures in the upper 50s (very unseasonable for us) and very little snow. I guess it's payback time! Oh well, I guess it will make me appreciate our WDW Spring Break trip all the more!

About our family trip. It started out that it was going to just be Brian's brother Scott's family. We invited them to go and offered to "pay" for lodging using our DVC points. The rest of the group just kind of invited themselves along, which gave me a bad vibe from the get go. Then MIL started telling me that we should rent a car so we could eat dinner at their house every night and so we could go to the beach and Kennedy Space Center with them. Uhhhh, this is a WDW trip (and Scott and his family will only be there 6 days)!!! We never get a car and stay surrounded in the magic 24/7. I finally told Brian that he had to be blunt with her because she obviously was not understanding me. He did, but they are all still kind of pouting. They'll get over it. We are doing DDP with Scott's group and we will NOT feel guilty that we're not hanging out at their house every night. We can "hang out" here in Lafayette, why go to Florida to do that?????

I have talked to Scott a lot about this trip and we are both on the same page about what kind of vacation he and his family wants, and by gosh I will make sure they have it!!

 

[sg4Disney]

We stayed off site once. I will never do that again. I agree with you disnyacct, I like to be surrounded by the magic 24/7. It is just not the same when you stay offsite.

Are any of you Survivor fans? We love it. Another season starts tonight. I can't wait.

 

[shrpgrl]

Okay, I have just about had it with the snow and the cold here. How many more days til the cruise? sg4Disney, I don't watch survivor but feel like one with this cold. Maybe they should do one season here in Indiana instead of those warm weather places. They could build igloos and go ice fishing. They would be too busy trying to keep warm to fight and they wouldn't want to vote anyone off because they would need all the body heat they could get. Sounds like a whiner.. winter...I mean winner to me.