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

[rdy2bpampered]

Although I am tempted to book the Dolpin Encounter via Disney even though it kills me that it's more expensive than booking directly, but DCL's times are better (booking it directly I could only get 330, and that is way to late)

We are looking at the Dolphin (the one that you swim a little but not the big one-just the medium) but are planning on doing it ourselves. We think a day a Chaakanaab (sp?) with dolphins/beach/and SNUBA... yes we are doing the snuba!!.. Our day is planned. Snuba at 2:30 and Dolphins at 3:30- works for us.

We have a group of 6 with ages ranging from 8-86 so we need something that spans the ages... ...

Need the sand wheelchairs too!
Considered the pirate ship excursion but the only one that would get a real kick out of it would be the 8 yr old. (and me too of course!)- so to keep from having to deal with the teenage - we will probably not do the pirate thing...<sigh> I think it would have been neat!
Well, for now it's all just planning...and ideas... ... still a work in progress..

 

[Laurabearz]

I did SNUBA on my girls cruise to Cozumel. It's fun. You will have a blast!!!

 

[rdy2bpampered]

I did SNUBA on my girls cruise to Cozumel. It's fun. You will have a blast!!!

I hope so -- It's hard to figure out what you want to do when you've never been to these places. DS wants to scuba but we don't even snorkel so I thought snuba would be a way to try scuba without all the training and equipment.

Also, since you're never sure if you will get to go on another cruise you want to do the GOOD stuff and make sure you will like the excursion. Just really hard to decide!! So much to pick from!!

We are definetly doing the Palo-- I get to do it twice!! Once with my DH and then with my DM and DGM-- girls day out!! Probably will do both as brunch.. still trying to decide! IF...we can get ressies!
It's getting better becuase the ticker is runnin' down!! I added another ticker so's I can keep an eye on our reservation window!! (Thanks Laura for the idea!)-- I copied! Hey, imitation is the highest compliment right?? And let me tell you-- I compliment alot of people!!

Have we had any more ideas for the pins or magnets?? I haven't designed anymore-- too busy camping to concentrate on design!! Summer is here and boy, am I glad!!

 

[aw24]

We have booked the royal swim for our DS thru Shoretrips.com. I booked this back in Feb. so we were able to get a 12:00 swim. I heard about them from The Incredibles trip report. I didn't know you could book direct with DD at the time, but oh well we do have a good time slot. We were told by the reps. at shore trips.com that DH and myself could go out on the pier and watch our son. Because he is only 14 I think they require one of us to be there, I hope there is no problem with that because we both want to watch him. We plan on spending most of the day at the park, hopefully we will run into some of you guys.

We are having trouble deciding what to do in Grand Cayman. Thinking about an Island tour and then maybe going to Sea Grape Beach. What is everyone else doing?

Ann

 

[CM_Mom]

Haven't posted in a while but we're still going. Right now we're waiting to see if MIL gets her birth certificate or letter of no record in time to get a passport - and whether she feels well enough to go. We're planning on renting a wheelchair for her -whether she wants it or not - but she probably won't want to use it. However with her bad knees, we want a little insurance against any rough weather.

We bought our airline tickets last week. Surprisingly we found a better deal with American than with AirTran and the American flight is nonstop. Three hours beats five hours any day, especially if you save a little bit.

Counting down. I think we're going to finish paying pretty soon so we can make Palo ressies at 90 days out.

 

[CM_Mom]

For those of you coming in Friday - where are you staying? We're planning on staying somewhere near the Port but don't have any experience with anywhere down there. Moderate price is fine and we don't need kids activities but will need one room with handicap access. Any suggestions?

 

[rdy2bpamperedmom]

don't know where or when,but we are going down a day before too. DD DSIL DGD DGS and DGMom and me.,just mom. she has arrangements with disney to stay somewhere, where they will pick up our luggage and us and take us to the ship on time. have to get her to talk to u about it. u all are welcome to join up if u like DGM will be using a wheelchair whenever, her balance sometimes gets shaky.

 

[rdy2bpampered]

For those of you coming in Friday - where are you staying? We're planning on staying somewhere near the Port but don't have any experience with anywhere down there. Moderate price is fine and we don't need kids activities but will need one room with handicap access. Any suggestions?

We are staying at the Radisson. Our TA is arranging everything. DH just found out that the pool there is really neat with a waterfall... can't wait to see it. Not sure yet what we are doing on Grand Cayman.. thinking of the middle sub experience. Need something tame that DGM can enjoy too!
We really liked the idea of no-touch luggage so we are letting our TA handle everything.. some excusions we are doing on our own.. just because of the $$ savings. but all the travelling -- is going straight thru her. She will check everything over before we even get it to make sure all is good!! Makes it worth it. Especially since this is our first time doing this and it's alittle daunting!.... Thank goodness for these boards.. a wealth of info!

 

[Rellyrooly]

For those of you coming in Friday - where are you staying? We're planning on staying somewhere near the Port but don't have any experience with anywhere down there. Moderate price is fine and we don't need kids activities but will need one room with handicap access. Any suggestions?

We had VERY good luck staying at the airport Hyatt. It is located right inside the terminal which was so easy for us. We got off the plane, got our luggage, and went right to our room. There are a ton of restaurants and shops in the terminal so between that and the roof pool, we never left until it was time to go to the port the next day. DCL has their transfers that leave right from there (very organized) and they take your luggage for you right from your room. It was so easy! I would totally recommend staying there. We would stay there again except we are coming in a few days early so we are actually staying at the Renaissance near Discovery Cove and Sea World. I have no idea how we will get to the port; probably use the same limo service we have used in the past.

 

[bellastella227]

Hey all! I haven't posted in a while. Work has been really busy with the end of the school year. Graduation is Sunday and it can't come soon enough! Once summer begins, I can focus more on the cruise again.

In the meantime, I was at Walmart last week and found this on the clearance rack...

I had to snag it for $7! I just hope it fits DD in October. She is teeny tiny and I bought it in the next size up. I thought it would be perfect for the cruise! MIL also got her a pirate costume last Halloween season, so I hope that fits, too.

We have not received anything by mail from DCL but we are also not paid in full. I can't wait to start receiving information and then exploring what we can book online. I still have to figure out which night to do Palo. I am hoping for the APL rotation as we have lots of small kids...does that even relaly matter? But then I also want to be around for pirate night and the other themes...so when to do Palo? I think it has already been discussed so I will just have to go back and browse when I have the time.

I hope everyone is doing well! I can't believe we are at 4 months away!!!!!

 

[rdy2bpamperedmom]

see, i told u she was organized. i just told her about u and she got right to it. she is such a DD, makes me glad to be her mom. she got me into this computer thing, u can probably tell i'm a newby. just got it at christmas. having lots of fun with it. join us if u want, we are easy going, and friendly people, and like i said, GGM has to use a wheelchair part of the time because she is unsteady on her feet. what ages have u in your group? we are 86 -63- (that's me) DSIL (around 46) DD41 DGS13 DGD 8. a fun loving family.

 

[gouodux]

We are trying something new and staying at the Nick Hotel the night before. We have 10 children in our party, so . . . . . . . .

After the cruise we are going to stay a night at the Grand Floridian and hit a park for the day.

 

[CM_Mom]

and did the DCL transfers for the luggage. I agree that it's really the easiest. Also for your first cruise, DCL transportation is really fantastic. However, since we will probably have six people and want to get to the terminal really early Saturday morning, we decided to rent a van this time and stay somewhere near the terminal. I checked rates at the Radisson and they are more reasonable than I expected. I just don't like "cancellation fees" when I'm not sure how many folks are going yet.

Has anyone stayed at the Country Inn and Suites? That also looks promising.

We're scheduled to arrive in Orlando about noon on Friday so we're renting a van and may go to Downtown Disney for dinner. A lot will depend on when the rest of our group gets in.

 

[CM_Mom]

rdy2bpamperedmom - There's DH-62, me-59 and DS-31 and DIL-23. And hopefully we'll have DMIL-83 and DSIL-50. Then we'll see CM-DD-28 and CM-DSIL-26 on the ship when they're free. We have late dining and we're hoping that our two favorite CMs will be able to join us for dinner at least some of the time.

DD has instructed me to book Palo for Saturday night since it's the least busy then. I'll probably also book a brunch, maybe for Monday and just NOT eat any breakfast that day. I know from past experience that it WAY too easy to overeat at the Palo brunch - but MMM mmm good.

Oh - and hang in there on the computer. We all started at the same place, knowing nothing about em. Some of us have just been messing with them a lot longer. Like me, who makes her part of the family income "messing" with computers.

 

[rdy2bpamperedmom]

good to hear from u. ages kind of go along with ours except with the kids, who are a lot younger. but they will want to do a lot of more active things, with their mom and dad. i just want to enjoy the scenery and eats mainly. and have the new experiences of cruisen. change of routine etc. broaden my horizons. say i did it once in my life.

 

[CM_Mom]

With DD getting married and she and her hubby working on the ship, somehow I think I'll need to cruise more often to spend time with them. Hasn't been too bad the last three years cause she works for 20 weeks and is off for 10. But Manila will be "home" after July so she'll be spending less time with us. And believe it or not, a 7 day cruise for 2 costs LESS than two round trip tickets to the Philippines.

How true about our kids being younger. We've been dealing with that our entire marriage. We were 25 and 28 when we got married and didn't have the first one for three years. Most folks our age in our Sunday School class have kids 7 to 10 years older. Oh well, you're only as old as you feel and my mom is still going strong at 86 so I plan to be around for the grandkids weddings - at least I could plan that if I had any grandkids.

We're still waiting to see if Paul's mom can get her BC and then passport. But telling her that there's another 80+ on board that will be using a wheelchair cause she's "not too steady on her feet" will definitely help her to feel that she will be included.

 

[rdy2bpamperedmom]

MIL ever been on a cruise? my mom has had a dream of going on a cruise for years and never been. we are hoping everything works out so her dream can come true. she is such a good mom and asks so little, always afraid she will impose on our lives. we just want to see her have a good time. she lost my dad in 2001 after their 60th wedding ann. he had cancer and we knew he wouldn't last much longer. they did a lot together over the years, so she took that real hard. we worried a lot at the time, if she'd even make it thru . so now she is doing fine, and we like to see her enjoy what's left of her life. that's why we really pushed her to come with us. now she is really getting ready to have a trip of her dreams. i had my second child when 38 so talk about being older than others, i have u beat by a mile. i'm 63 and my son just turned 26 lol isn't that a good one.

 

[Laurabearz]

Another OLD mom here too! I had my first at 35 and my last at 40. I swear I could be the mother of just about all the parents of my son's preschool class.

Do you know my OB had the nerve to hand me on my 6 week post pardum appt, with my boy, not only the new baby book.. the the Mature Woman book... a guide through menopase!!! I told them they were CRUEL, tossed the Mature woman book at them and said, I am NOT Mature!

Now as I am approaching 44 I am kinda of looking aorund for that book


- sigh -

 

[stenogoddess]

I know we're getting off topic here, just a little But when I was 28 my OB told me I needed to really think about having kids because my eggs were getting old. I almost fell off the table. In my mind I imagined my eggs all wrinkled and coming down the tube in little walkers all depressed.
You give me hope that I can still do it if we want to.

Another OLD mom here too! I had my first at 35 and my last at 40. I swear I could be the mother of just about all the parents of my son's preschool class.

Do you know my OB had the nerve to hand me on my 6 week post pardum appt, with my boy, not only the new baby book.. the the Mature Woman book... a guide through menopase!!! I told them they were CRUEL, tossed the Mature woman book at them and said, I am NOT Mature!

Now as I am approaching 44 I am kinda of looking aorund for that book


- sigh -

 

[rdy2bpamperedmom]

rofl wonderful story, i know it wasn't funny then. when i had my son at 38, my DD was 15 and looked 18. in a store some lady told me what a cute grandson i had. i straightened her out pretty quick, but my daughter and i had a good laugh out if it. and childbirth classes, that was a trip too. fat old pregnant woman (me) and all those 20 something young fat pregnant women. lol was real strange. we ought to have a lot of stories to tell on the cruise. look forward to meeting you all.