**@@** October 6th, 2007 Magic**@@**

[Laurabearz]

Everyone once in a while I work on plans for the cruise... So far I have managed to figure out our shore excursions...

Key West we are renting an electic car and zooming around to the Southrenmost point and the aquarium
Grand Cayman hitting the Pirate Ship cruise with beach swim
Cozumel just heading to the beach
CC, the banana boats with DD8 and snorkling


What I have NOT figured out is where to stay before and after and how to get to the port!!! Driving me crazy! Way way way too many options! I tried pricing out car rentals but right now there seems to be no deals to be had, which is sad... but could change.... UGH!!!

ANyone else overwhelmed with where to stay?? lol

Ok off to look up how early the DCL bus leaves from the various resorts... lol

 

[bamagirl@hrt]

Hi everyone!

I need to remove myself from this cruise thread, as we changed our plans. We decided for our first cruise that we'd rather do a land/sea package. Therefore, we're sailing on the October 7th Wonder, instead of the 6th Magic. If we love as much as everyone here says we will, we may rebook for the Magic next time!

Have fun planning!

 

[Laurabearz]

Awe sorry to hear that. But Have a BLAST doing the land and sea!!! Woot! Twice the fun!

 

[glassslipper2004]

Bamagirl -- We're going on the October 7, 2007 Wonder as well -- come join our (extremely short) thread (or start a new one? I'm not really sure how this all works). Myself, DH, DD-8 and DD-9 will be going. We'll then do three days at the parks afterwards, haven't decided where to stay yet.

 

[gouodux]

We'll chime in with a long note . .
After spending 11 days on the Wonder, and then 4 days at WDW in September - we don't want to have the girls miss that much school again. So, for this cruise in October (even though it is Fall Break) we will not add any days at WDW this time. Instead, the girls have begged us to stay at the NickHotel the day before the cruise. This is the plan at this time. We have already reserved. It actually looks kind of cool!

We have used FL Tours for our ground travel in the past and it is so easy. Our experiences with them have only been positive. Will most likely use them again for transportation to the port and the back from the port to airport.

Couple things for Arizona folks. We found a great trip on Princess going to Belize and Honduras during Spring Break (March 17th) out of Galveston, TX. It was such a great deal that we couldn't pass it up. Never have cruised anything but Disney, so we will see how it compares. It is at the least, half the cost of Disney. Don't get us wrong, we will continue with Disney, just had to find something for this Spring Break.

Last thing. Being on the "West Side", we had never been to the Melting Pot before. Went to the one in Ahwatukee last night for New Years Eve. My word!! Had heard rave reviews before, but after tip, cocktails, etc., the final bill was $880 for six of us. It was good, but it wasn't THAT good!

 

[stenogoddess]

Laura: I'll tell you, I'm overwhelmed too! The think I can't decide is to drive is the day before and stay at the port somewhere or just stay at the World to try to get in the Disney spirit. And then coming back, stay at WDW for a few days or head back home. When is the halloween party, cause would like to do that again. I thought about costumes (We went as Sandy and Danny this year from Grease) and thought maybe we could wear our pirate night stuff, BUT WE DON'T HAVE ANY PIRATE NIGHT STUFF and I'm not sure where to get any or what it should be. I haven't even thought about excursations yet at all I'm so caught up with this other stuff!

Goudoux: I'm not sure it's the same type place but the melting pot I've been to was a fondue place? Years ago my old roommate used to wait tables in there and she still jokes that I wouldn't even let her come in and take her shoes off before I was like, shower, shower, shower! She just smelled like hot oil. After a few months neither one of us could take it anymore so she found something else and we had to throw out her uniforms they smelled so much. As I recall, the deserts were pretty yummy though amd the resturant itself was very pretty.

I've heard good things about the Princess and I saw Honduras on TV the other night and it looked very pretty and lush. I hope y'all have fun.

 

[Laurabearz]

The Halloween party's are normally Sunday Monday Tuesday Thurs... so not really easy to tag onto the cruise without pullling the kids out of more school..

I have figured out how we we are getting everywhere for our trip... We will Take ME to and from WDW (hotels still to be chosen) and then have a Van service take us to and from the port. The van service is around 260 bucks rt, which is close to our DCL transfer cost, AND we get to arrive at the port when WE want to not when the DCL busses want us too. lol

I am also now leaning towards staying at VWL at the end of our trip, as we want to do Hoop De Doo the saturday we get off this ship, and VWL seems a good place to get to and from Hoop de doo... lol Still no clue on the first night hotel... I guess that really depends on when we leave Friday. If we leave AFTER the kids school we wont get into WDW until after 10 pm at night, so it doesnt matter where we stay... if we take them out a half day on that friday we will need a hotel with a good pool ROFL

Ooh just noticed I am missing one or two cabin numbers on our list... Also I would like to add Early or Late seating to our list, so if everyone could post when they are eatting... lol

Ok that's it for now!

Toodles

 

[glassslipper2004]

What's VWL? (I'm getting better at the DIS boards abbreviations but some of them get by me).

 

[Laurabearz]

Villa's at the Wilderness Lodge... part of the DVC family (Disney Vacation Club)

From there is would be a short boat ride over to Ft Wilderness for Hoop de doo....

 

[Laurabearz]

Ok here is a question for everyone....


How Formal is your family going to be on Formal Night??


I am up in the air... DH has a suit, but all my fancy Dresses really require him to wear a Tux... I mentioned it to him and he laughed, but I have my ways.... It's either rent him and the boy Tux's or ME having to buy a fancy, yet not to fancy dress.... Given the choice, I rather him do the TUX... lol But who knows, if I can really talk him into it or not......... giggle

Sooooooooooo has anyone else given this any thought or am I the weird one of the group... (that's not from AZ)


Ohohoh!!! I just saw the pictures of the changes to the spa!!! OMG the Spa Villa's are Devine!!!!!!!!!

Are we really still 270 some odd days out??? Arg!

 

[lenzs4]

We play down formal night. My formal dresses are to heavy to pack - I would end up over the weight limit so I will probably bring a long simple black dress. The guys will wear slacks and a tie and my DD will be dresses to the hilt!! - She would dress up for school if I let her!
Shirley

I just booked the week before the cruise at WDW - well at Summers Bay near WDW. We have remaining tickets from last time so that is covered. I will need to buy MNSSHP tickets. Everyone needs to do that - it is great!!! Virtually empty park, normally unseen characters roaming around (stationed around) great parade and fireworks plus CANDY - Ok that last part was the excitement of my kids - but we loved it last year and can not wait to go again!! No costumes, just matching outfits (we are tourists). My son - 8 - will not dress up for Halloween and I could not see packing costumes for one night when I am already packing clothes for two weeks plus formal and semi formal and pirate and ..... Thank heaven for laundry rooms near us!!

Well, we finally have approval to build our house on our lot. We got a water meter yesterday and everyone is lined up to start building except the pad and concrete - go figure!!! Hopefully dirt will start moving soon!!

Shirley

 

[Laurabearz]

We did MNSSHP last year and had a blast... I am sure if I looked hard enough I could still find some candy we scored from the event lol AND we have decide if we ever go to WDW in Oct again, the only time we will hit MK is during the party. We rode more in that 5 hours than we had the previous week! This past year we all dressed up as.... girls were Cheerleaders and the boys were Chicago Bears! Woot Bears!!! Light and easy to wear in the heat! I cant beleive how many FULLY costumed Incredible families we saw sweating their brains off, while we were nice a cool in our outfits... lol

Sadly we do not want to pull the kids from anymore schooling this year, so we are flying in on Friday and out on Sunday.... so no MNSSHP for us this year... sigh

 

[glassslipper2004]

We did MNSSHP this past October, and it was one of my best Disney experiences ever. I can't wait to go again.

 

[bamagirl@hrt]

Bamagirl -- We're going on the October 7, 2007 Wonder as well -- come join our (extremely short) thread (or start a new one? I'm not really sure how this all works). Myself, DH, DD-8 and DD-9 will be going. We'll then do three days at the parks afterwards, haven't decided where to stay yet.

I'll look for the other thread! My DD will be 9 also! I also have a DS who will have just turned 6. They are a little apprehensive about not being together in the kids' clubs, especially the younger one. DD makes friends very easily; I think (hope) DS will too. He is excited about the activities available, though. He's counting down the days until he can do flubber experiments!

We are staying 3 (possibly 4) nights at the Polynesian before sailing on Sunday. What stateroom are you in? We're in 6060, I believe. We're really excited about our first cruise, as well as our 4th WDW trip in 6 years! I just love it there and really wish we could go every year!! I'm hoping that the cruise will allow DH & the kids to get their beach fill for awhile. I like the beach, but I don't LOVE it like they do. DH said something about going to the beach in 2008, but I'm really hoping that Disney Destinations will do NYC in '08.

Well, I'll look for the 10/07/07 Wonder thread, so that I don't keep posting info here that doesn't pertain to others on this thread. Nice to hear from someone else on our cruise!

 

[Laurabearz]

Just bumping up... I added some information to the second post in this thread... dinning rotations and countdowns for when we can all book our shore excruisions etc online....

 

[stenogoddess]

First of all, thanks so much for keeping this thread up. I really appreciate it! Right now I've developed tendonitis in my right wrist, and so I'm not supposed to be doing any extra typing and saving my wrist for work. But I just had to ask a couple things! LOL I don't think one little post is going to be the one to push me over the edge personally.

Anyway, I didn't know and now don't understand about dining rotations. When we've cruised before it was early or late. We are always late and then go to the late show of whatever. I'm sort of picking up that that's not the case here?? Also what does APL, PLA and LAP mean?

I looked into the Dolphin Discovery thing online. I think we may have to do that. It looks like it might be cheaper to do a package through them so if anyone is thinking about it make sure to check out how much the packages are. From what I can tell from just reading it looks like the package includes entry into the park and haning out with Sea Lions along with your Dolphin experience for the same price as Dolphins alone. If I'm reading that wrong, somebody please tell me.

And lastly, someone asking about dressing up as of right now I'm totally going for it with a long dress and all. I wanted to do a full "gown" but decided I already had too much luggage as it is. But it's going to be long and possibly even have sequins of some kind on it. We never get to dress up so I'm taking whatever change I get.

Happy day to all. I'm off to ice my wrist, again.

 

[Laurabearz]

Ok dining rotations work as follows...

A = Animators Palete P = Parrot Cay and L = Lumiares...

On Disney you change restraunts every night... your severs stay the same(they follow you from place to place) and your table number stay's the same, and the relative location of your table is kind of the same in each resturant.

Once you get your KTTW card it will have one of the following listed on it... APL PLA or LAP. That is the order you will eat in each dinning room.. for our 7 day of course it's more than 3 dinners so you repeat APLAPLA or PLAPLAP or LAPLAPL

Following me so far?? I hope I hope...

Ok Soooooooooooo If you have APL you start eatting at either 530 for early dinning or 8 pm for late dining... every night, you will eat at 530/800 with the first restruant you eat at being Animator's palete, second Parrot Cay, third Luminares.. and so on...

If you have PLA you will eat at either 545 everynight or 815, again rotating restraunts everynight... but same time 545/815... and so on...

APL 5:30 and 8:00
PLA 5:45 and 8:15
LAP 6:00 and 8:30

The APL rotation puts you in Lumiares on formal night and Parrot Cay on Pirate night, so some people really really want the rotation...

I would LOVE APL rotation BUT HATE the thought of dining at 530 (since we are slated for early dinning) and I really dont want LAP rotation, but would prefer to dine at 6... SOOOOOOOOOOOO I am hoping we split the difference and get PLA (as Animator's palete would be nice on Formal night, and our pirate outfits kinda sort of go with Luminares decor... lol

Ok I hope that explains it rather than confuse you more! rofl

 

[Laurabearz]

Ok now on to shore excruisions...

We are booking all of ours via Disney. Why... because it just seems simpler and with my brood, simple is the way to go rofl.

BUT a lot of people book directly with varous companies for their shore excruisions. It is cheaper and often you can get more for less money.

A good place to reserach offsite places is cruisecritic.com Look under Ports of Call or something like that... Lots of great info there. Also Post on the DIS and ask others who they have used....

Oh a small word of warning about cruisecritic.com.. some posters can be... hmmm... can be rude there, but the quality of information is wonderful... so read between the lines on some posts... lol

I think the place your refering to is Chank Park (cant spell the long name for it sorry lol) I was there pre Wilma and the place was lovely, the staff was super friendly. I hear it is looking good, but the jungle that surrounds it is gone... but they are up and running which is good. We met a lot of people there. I did the SNUBA (snorkling with an airhose attacted to a raft above) and it was loads of fun. Saw lots of fish, nice reefs (which are mostly gone now thanks to Wilma)

There is GREAT info to be had on Chank Park on CruiseCritic...

 

[Rellyrooly]

Hi all-
I haven't checked in here in a while and for some reason, I haven't been getting my normal email notifications that people have been posting here.

I want to start by saying Happy New Year! to everyone. It has been a little crazy here for us. We have now owned our golf course for a little over a month and man are we tired! Also, last night my father in law had a heart attack and is in ICU at Banner Heart Institute. He is visiting us from Minnesota so he is a little out of his element. It was extremely scary; they had to air lift him from one hospital to the next and they were only a 15 minute drive by care so it was pretty serious. He is doing ok today so we're are holding on to hope that he will make a full recovery.

Now for the the cruise...yes, we dress up for formal night. DH rents a tux-not because he likes it, but he doesn't want to lug a suit for one night so he says it's worth the $85 for the ease of use. I wear a cocktail dress, DS wears a suit (heck, we invested in it so we want to use it!) and DD wears a nice dress. I actually just did her dress shopping this last week as all the stores were having massive sales. I actually got her quite a few dresses for the next couple of years because they were so cheap. Some came to only $10 or $15 and they were originally between $80-100! What a steal!

We are on APL/second seating. We LOVE that rotation. I like not having to rush back to the ship to eat and love being in PC for Pirate nite and Lumiere's for formal. We usually wind up in Palo for semi-formal nite and that is ok with us as the kids hate dressing up twice.

We are ina cat 3 but are still unsure of what room. We are trying to get our old room for last year plus we are traveling with some friends who are also trying to get their old room which is right next door. We'll see....
Cat 3's are nice because we don't have to do the whole booking excursions and Palo on the internet thing. We go through Concierge the day we board and can get anything we want at anytime. That ALMOST makes the price worth it...almost......

Well I hope everyone is well and now we are really counting down now that we are actually in 2007!

 

[Laurabearz]

Hey! Glad you found us again... I think when they did the new server thing the email notes went bye bye, you might want to set it again...

Also.. How do you know your dining rotation or are you assuming you can change it to APL because your Cat 3?? I do plan on requesting our prefered rotation, but didnt know if it was a lock... something to count on....

I thought about renting a Tux onboard for DH, but he is a hard fit... plus I figure our formal wear and pirate gear would fit in one suitcase (large lol) and all our other things could go in another large bag, since it will be hot and clothes for hot weather dont take up much room! rofl