October 30, 2011 Wonder - A Haunting on the High Seas

[Dreams83]

Wanted to wish everyone who is going on this cruise a MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY HOLIDAYS

 

[stefanie.cadell]

Hi Everyone!

I'm Stefanie. Vince & I are getting married on 10-29-11 & sailing on the Wonder on 10-30-11 for our honeymoon!! :

We're both Disney fans & annualpassholders for Disneyland. I have worked for Disneyland (in research) and on Disney Cruise Lines (in entertainment). Neither one of us has ever been on a cruise (as a guest for me).. We are so excited..

CanNOT wait to get to know others on our same cruise. Looking forward to start on our fish extender (which I always LOVED to see as a crew member- as crew we would make notes on which staterooms were the cutest of the week & spread the word for other crew members to check out)..

Also! I love to be helpful so if I can answer any question or give any insight to anything, I would love to. I don't know everything & I'll be honest, but I do have a lot of tips..

 

[happytime]

Hi everyone,

Just to let everyone know our family has moved our cruise to the east coast for Halloween. This move would include the following posters on this thread to date: fastpaks, dreams83, ajaysmom825 and us, happytime. We wish you all the best cruise.

It came down to the expense of airfare, car rental, and hotels in L.A. plus the problems of L.A. traffic over driving to Florida and less stress.

Enjoy!!

 

[stefanie.cadell]

Hi everyone,

Just to let everyone know our family has moved our cruise to the east coast for Halloween. This move would include the following posters on this thread to date: fastpaks, dreams83, ajaysmom825 and us, happytime. We wish you all the best cruise.

It came down to the expense of airfare, car rental, and hotels in L.A. plus the problems of L.A. traffic over driving to Florida and less stress.

Enjoy!!

Truly hoping you have fun on the east coast!

 

[valbob89]

I was originally scheduled on the 11/6/11 Wonder but then realized that schedule wasn't going to work, so I bumped it up a week and here I am.

Who is joining me and my family for some Haunting on the High Seas? It's only 18 months away Maybe this thread will help the months pass more quickly.

p.s. I am totally up for a FE, too.

Looks like it is just three of us on this boards now. Hopefully others will join us soon.
Bob & I just got back last night from our Panama Canal cruise on the Wonder. We visited the ports our November cruise will visit so have some ideas on the excursions based on the ones we did and feedback we got.

Hi Everyone!

I'm Stefanie. Vince & I are getting married on 10-29-11 & sailing on the Wonder on 10-30-11 for our honeymoon!! :

We're both Disney fans & annualpassholders for Disneyland. I have worked for Disneyland (in research) and on Disney Cruise Lines (in entertainment). Neither one of us has ever been on a cruise (as a guest for me).. We are so excited..

CanNOT wait to get to know others on our same cruise. Looking forward to start on our fish extender (which I always LOVED to see as a crew member- as crew we would make notes on which staterooms were the cutest of the week & spread the word for other crew members to check out)..

Also! I love to be helpful so if I can answer any question or give any insight to anything, I would love to. I don't know everything & I'll be honest, but I do have a lot of tips..

Stefanie & Vince - Congratulations on your up coming wedding - it will be here before you know it. We look forward to meeing you. Stefanie, did you sail on the Wonder? We would love to hear any tips you might have. Especially from the crew perspective. They are all so wonderful, what do they appreciate/enjoy having the cruisers do, i.e. thank you notes, little gifts, help to free up so time for them? Any thoughts?

Hi everyone,

Just to let everyone know our family has moved our cruise to the east coast for Halloween. This move would include the following posters on this thread to date: fastpaks, dreams83, ajaysmom825 and us, happytime. We wish you all the best cruise.

It came down to the expense of airfare, car rental, and hotels in L.A. plus the problems of L.A. traffic over driving to Florida and less stress.

Enjoy!!

Hope you and your family have a wonderful time on your east coast cruise.

 

[stefanie.cadell]

Thanks so much! Time is flying already.. In fact, I'm heading out today to try on gowns with my mom & bridesmaids!! Yay!!

I sailed on the Magic. Currently I do have a few friends from the Magic on the Wonder & the Dream.

As far as crew appreciation, I worked in entertainment in Youth Activities so it's a little tough. I know that pretty much every other crew member (bartenders, dining room servers, room hosts etc.) get tips from guests. But for our department we are not allowed to receive money or gifts. If a guest insists on giving us money we turn it into management & it is all put in a pot for crew parties etc. Thank-you notes are always wonderful. If a letter is sent to our department after a cruise it is read at our weeklly staff meetings. If you specifically name individuals, they get special recognitions from management.

I know a lot of us really enjoy it when guests would bring (uneaten) food from the dining room to us in the children's spaces (the Club/Lab/Ocean Quest/Stack/Aloft) for us to eat. For example: one of the mom's ordered a pizza for an appetizer from Palo & didn't end up touching it. So the crew in Palo wrapped it up for her & when she came to pick up her daughter, she gave the pizza to us! It was a wonderful surprise & a great treat. As crew, we don't ever really get to eat what the guests eat in the dining rooms. We had a father on another cruise that would fix a plate of goodies at the midnight chocolate buffet & send it up to us in the Lab via his children. It was amazing..

One more way to really make us feel loved is to ask to take a picture with us if your child/children really bonded with someone or a team of someones. That happened for me four times & I willl always remember them because I bonded with them too..

Oh! And please don't hesitate to ask questions! We're more concerned with making sure you have a fabulous vacation than repeating ourselves..

 

[valbob89]

Stefanie, thanks for the tips. I'll remember that asking for pictures with the crew is not intruding on their time but confirming how much we appreciate and value their input to our wonderful trip.

Are you having a large wedding? Will your wedding party be taking the cruise with you?

I am surprised that this thread is so quiet. I am use to threads that have up to 10 parts, 250 pages each, by the time of the cruise. I would think this is a popular cruise since it is over Halloween. I hope it doesn't mean having the Wonder on the west coast isn't going to be a success.

val

 

[nenis]

Hello all!
I would also like to be added to the group.
My hubby and 2year old daughter will also be cruising with me. This our my second cruise, and first meet. I've read about cruise meets on the boards, so we are naturally curious on what to expect. What do you do at a cruise meet?
My DH and I are former WDW Resort castmembers. Since we've moved to Minnesota (to start our family)we miss anything Disney, so Ive become obsessed with DCL.
I would love to be added to the FE list too please. I want to start making my gifts, so I have enough time to make them all. Will there be a list of participants so i know how many treats (non-edible) to make?

By the way...is there a thread that can instruct me on changing my count downticker? Mine is obviously off!

sorry i have so many questions....i guess im an "over planner"

cant wait to meet you all!

 

[stefanie.cadell]

We are having a huge wedding. Six attendants on each side & 400 guests to be invited. And 400 is the lowest we could cut our lists down to!! EEK I'm a bit stressed out.. Oh well, it's going to be SO fun.. Just got my Disney music all sorted for the ceremony

I'm starting to plan our FE gifts too! Beyond excited to try & make a FE for the two of us!

 

[valbob89]

I was so happy to check this board and find both of you had posted messages.
Stefanie, with a huge wedding to plan I understand completely if you don’t have much extra time to come to the thread but really hope we get to know you before the cruise. How are your wedding plans coming? I would be really interested in hearing anything you want to share concerning your plans.
Nenis, could you tell us a little more about yourself and DH & DD?
This will be our 7th Disney cruise. The last was the Panama Canal, bringing the Wonder to LA, on 1-21-11. It was a 15 day cruise with over 300 DISboard members on board. Many of us had been on the 14 day Westbound Transatlantic in September so we had cruised together before.
The ‘Meet & Greet’ has been different on each cruise; it is whatever the DISboard members make it.
I organized one on a 7 day cruise that was held the first day of the cruise, before the lifeboat drill, in one of the lounges. I was very lucky to have about 6 of the officers, including the cruise director come. It was a no host bar and we met for about an hour talking.
On the WBTA DIS members came to Divisions the first day. Different board members had organized different things that members signed-up for, i.e. cruise lanyards, cruise tee shirts, cruise wristbands, scavenger hunt instructions. We came together and picked up the items we had pre-paid for and/or pre-signed up for. While there we met the people we had been corresponding with, many over a year.
On the Panama Canal Cruise one of the DISboard members organized a wine and cheese M&G. It was held in the Cadillac Lounge the third day of the cruise. We each brought a bottle of wine from the area we live and paid our host the DCL $18 corkage fee per bottle. That was really fun but I think our host ended up paying for a lot of it himself.
It would be great if we could organize events on this cruise too. Of course a lot will depend on how many more join the board. I’ve organized a number of events which I can tell you about if you are interested. Some of the things I organized for the PC cruise were: VistaPrints tee-shirt site with DISboard PC Cruise themed logo (I setup the site and paid the art setup fee and then everyone could just select, order, pay for and have shipped on their own); Champagne Girls wine tasting (ladies wear pink boas and tiara and have champagne); 2 mixology/Hawaiian shirt contest tastings (we had instruction on making cocktails and then made our own); book exchange; room tour (toured different category of cabins, including the Disney Suite); two private shore excursions (chartered a sailboat and snorkeled and chartered buses and a naturalist to take us through the rain forest); postcard FE exchange; pre-cruise meet and greet; ship bridge tour.
Looking forward to planning a great cruise with you.

Val & Bob

 

[nenis]

Nenis, could you tell us a little more about yourself and DH & DD?

Val & Bob
sounds like you guys are my type of people! i hope to enjoy as many Disney Cruises as much as you have!
Our family travels alot too (mostly for buisness purposes) so our daughter Coqui (22 months,whos nicknamed after a puerto rican frog. i love frogs and my husband is Puerto Rican) has already been on 32 airplains!
my husband and I were both cast members at wdw. I worked the back office at fort wilderness, he was a coordinator for the lake patrol at the seven seas.
when we were ready to start our family we decided to move to minnesota, where my parents were leaving a house for us (they moved to dubai)
I grew up learning about different cultures by experiencing them in person. last year however was a first. my husband has been on about 12 differnet cruises, something that has never called my attention. after being away from wdw for 2 years he finally convinced me on a 4 night cruise aboard the wonder.
Coqui 16 months at the time was THRILLED, watching her beaming at the characters over joyed me in ways i can not explain! i was sold! after the sail away party i promised my husband that we had to come on a cruise every year! so here we are trying to start a family tradition...every october we have to go to any disney place...

am i wrong to have counted 9 DISmembers in this group meet?

 

[valbob89]

Nenis, could you tell us a little more about yourself and DH & DD?

Val & Bob
sounds like you guys are my type of people! i hope to enjoy as many Disney Cruises as much as you have!
Our family travels alot too (mostly for buisness purposes) so our daughter Coqui (22 months,whos nicknamed after a puerto rican frog. i love frogs and my husband is Puerto Rican) has already been on 32 airplains!
my husband and I were both cast members at wdw. I worked the back office at fort wilderness, he was a coordinator for the lake patrol at the seven seas.
when we were ready to start our family we decided to move to minnesota, where my parents were leaving a house for us (they moved to dubai)
I grew up learning about different cultures by experiencing them in person. last year however was a first. my husband has been on about 12 differnet cruises, something that has never called my attention. after being away from wdw for 2 years he finally convinced me on a 4 night cruise aboard the wonder.
Coqui 16 months at the time was THRILLED, watching her beaming at the characters over joyed me in ways i can not explain! i was sold! after the sail away party i promised my husband that we had to come on a cruise every year! so here we are trying to start a family tradition...every october we have to go to any disney place...

am i wrong to have counted 9 DISmembers in this group meet?

Sounds like you know a lot about Disney and your husband has a lot of experience to share about DCL.

I hope I am wrong but I think there are only three of us left participating on the board for this cruise. Happytime wrote 'Moved our cruise

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi everyone,

Just to let everyone know our family has moved our cruise to the east coast for Halloween. This move would include the following posters on this thread to date: fastpaks, dreams83, ajaysmom825 and us, happytime. We wish you all the best cruise.

It came down to the expense of airfare, car rental, and hotels in L.A. plus the problems of L.A. traffic over driving to Florida and less stress.

Enjoy!! '.

 

[stefanie.cadell]

Hi!!

Thanks for understanding!! I canNOT wait to meep up with everyone. Even if we just meet at the adult pool one afternoon or whatever..

Wedding planning it crazzzzzzzzzzzzy! We've got our flourist, ceremony & reception site & music all set. In fact, my gown just got deliverd to David's Bridal so that's all set too! Now we just need to nail down our food guy (we're having a taco man), a photographer & favors. Only 8 months & 9 days left!!

We're having a romantic theme with lots of fun details.. Like my dress, it's a lace back with vintage style buttons up to the base of my neck. And my bridesmaids are walking into a duet that's a melody of "The Wishing Song" & "One Love" both from Snow White.. Any other details, I'd love to share. I just don't want this to turn into a Vince & Stef's wedding board.. Know what I mean?

CanNOT wait till October!!

 

[nenis]

just a little friendly reminder:
8 MONTHS 2 DAYS TO GOOOOOOOO

IM SOOOOOOOOOOOO SIKED!!!

 

[stefanie.cadell]

YES!!!!!!!!!! Just read a trip report from Valentines day for our cruise! AND just registered our reservation # with my DCL account.. Can't wait to make Palo reservations..

Any thoughts on a meet up?

 

[nenis]

i say we do a triple date at palos...or we could even meet up somewhere for drinks!...just saying...its only 3 couples so i dont see how we could do a big cruise meet..
i am disapointed that we wont be able to participate with a FE, seeing that my daughter will only be the only child doing this....

p.s. stefanie...how are you holding up?

 

[stefanie.cadell]

Currently on the phone with Vince & we think drinks would be a great idea!! How about we meet over our first sea day?

I'm holding up ok. My dress is in. My bridesmaids have less than a month to order their dresses (all but one still have to order) and there's lots of planning left.

 

[valbob89]

i say we do a triple date at palos...or we could even meet up somewhere for drinks!...just saying...its only 3 couples so i dont see how we could do a big cruise meet..
i am disapointed that we wont be able to participate with a FE, seeing that my daughter will only be the only child doing this....

p.s. stefanie...how are you holding up?

We would love to meet with you. I think one more couple will be joining us, they are planning on booking tomorrow. We might also get more people that join up if they keep dropping the prices on the cruises.

We love doing the FE but it is funny, it seems it is either feast or famine on the cruises we have gone on. The last cruise we were on over 125 cabins were in the exchange, that was over 300 cruisers. I thought that was way to many. On another cruise it got so big we divided up into groups of 25 for the exchange.

If we don't get more people I know we will still have a good time. We have a really large verandah with the room we currently have. So if you wanted we could meet there or we can go to a lounge.

Stefanie - can we see your dress on David's website? What colors are your bridesmaid's dresses and flowers? I've coordinated biggish weddings for my sisters and friends so I know how much work it is and love to hear about weddings. I watch all the wedding shows; say yes to the dress, four weddings etc. So tell us all about it sister

Val

 

[stefanie.cadell]

We would love to meet with you. I think one more couple will be joining us, they are planning on booking tomorrow. We might also get more people that join up if they keep dropping the prices on the cruises.

We love doing the FE but it is funny, it seems it is either feast or famine on the cruises we have gone on. The last cruise we were on over 125 cabins were in the exchange, that was over 300 cruisers. I thought that was way to many. On another cruise it got so big we divided up into groups of 25 for the exchange.

If we don't get more people I know we will still have a good time. We have a really large verandah with the room we currently have. So if you wanted we could meet there or we can go to a lounge.

Stefanie - can we see your dress on David's website? What colors are your bridesmaid's dresses and flowers? I've coordinated biggish weddings for my sisters and friends so I know how much work it is and love to hear about weddings. I watch all the wedding shows; say yes to the dress, four weddings etc. So tell us all about it sister

Val

Holy cow that's a huge verandah! Is that 6 aft? 7 maybe? We're in 7130 I think. We have a navigators verandah (that's perfect for us honeymooners ) A verandah party would be way fun I think! AND I think we should do FE anyway just because it's fun & something to bond even this little group of ours.




Here is a link to my dress (in white):

http://www.davidsbridal.com/Product_Cap-Sleeved-Satin-Side-Draped-A-Line-Gown-9T3090

My veil:

http://www.davidsbridal.com/Product_Cathedral-Length-Veil-with-Beaded-Metallic-Edge-VCT258LONG

The bridesmaids' top:

http://www.davidsbridal.com/Product_Print-Ruffle-Top-and-Pencil-Skirt-84271-84137

The bridesmaids' skirt (in black):

http://www.davidsbridal.com/Product_Satin-Strapless-Top-with-Short-Skirt-83366-83389

The shoes the women in the wedding party will be wearing (me, bridesmaids & flower girl's shoes will be dyed watermelon & my mom's will be in lapis):

http://www.davidsbridal.com/Product_Satin-Peep-Toe-Platform-High-Heel-with-Bow-Maribelle

My mom's dress (in lapis):

http://www.davidsbridal.com/Product_Strapless-Chiffon-A-Line-Dress-with-Draped-Skirt-F13723

Hope you like it! I'll post links to the music next!

 

[valbob89]

Stefanie - your dress is beautiful and I love the shoes!! Are your shoes going to be watermelon too? I love the black and white for your girls. Are they carrying flowers? What time is the wedding?

I spoke to my girl friend who isn't going to book until tomorrow. We feel we are going to do a "Champagne Girls" even if it is just the two of us. Do you two want to join us? Have you even been to a Champagne Girls Gala on a DCL cruise? So much fun. Here is a picture of the last one I organized. You can see Daisy Duck joined us.