Our Thanksgiving Fantasy - Nov 22-Dec 1 - COMPLETE!!

[afwdwfan]

Wow. That looks like it must have been an epic Thanksgiving trip.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Joining! Sounds like a great itinerary and certainly a much warmer Thanksgiving that we had here!

Looking forward to your latest adventures!

 

[jecskc]

Hi Susan-

Following!

Hey Judy !!! So happy you stopped by !!

I am on board !!!!!!!!
Ready to cruise!

Yay Janet !!! Glad you are along, girl !!

Looking forward to it. I won't spoil the ending, though...



~S

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

Hey Shawn !! Glad you are following along !! Yes - don't spoil it .. haha.

Hi, Susan!! It's Kim. I'm following along!!! I can't wait to hear more! And I see you booked a Christmas Cruise... AWESOME!!!!!!

Hey Kim !! Thanks for following !! Actually, we didn't rebook due to DCL's stupid new change. I just need to reset my countdown in my signature.

Oh sure now you start this Susan just when I'm leaving... everything will be a cliffhanger for me!!! Seriously though a cruise!! AWESOME!! I do want to read all about it so I will catch up soon.

That's an awesome photo of you and your hubby.

Hey Brenda !! We will still be here when you get back !!

Wow. That looks like it must have been an epic Thanksgiving trip.

Hey Andy !! It was !! We were sooo excited about it. Fastest 10 days of my life.

Joining! Sounds like a great itinerary and certainly a much warmer Thanksgiving that we had here!

Looking forward to your latest adventures!

Yay !! Thanks for joining !! It was really a Fantastic trip !! Haha - see what I did there ??

 

[jecskc]

The Beginning, Planning and Fish Extender stuff

We booked this cruise last year in April. So when we booked, it was almost 500 days away. I looked on the Disboards and since no one had started a page yet, I went ahead and started one. I also started a Facebook page. I don’t mind being an administrator and no one else took the reins, so I jumped in and started organizing.

The main thing to organize was the Fish Extender List. What is a Fish Extender you ask?? An excellent question. When you take a cruise on a Disney ship, there is a fish (or a starfish) outside your stateroom door. It looks like this



And then you hang this thing with pockets on it called a Fish Extender. Mine looks like this.



On a side note, we decorated our stateroom doors with printable magnets. Here is what ours looked like.



There is a whole sub-culture on the Disboards dedicated to magnets and Fish Extenders and gifts in the Cruise Forum. Lots of Etsy stores sell the Fish Extenders. Some really super cute ones. I made mine.

A group of cruisers get together and have a group which participates in a gift exchange. There is a list of cabins and the people in the cabins. We actually had 3 different lists. Our first list became too large, so we split it into 17 cabins each. And then we had several people who joined late that still wanted to do it and their list was 17 cabins. We even had someone organize a super last minute list of about 7 or 8 cabins after that.

Anyway, it is really fun. Some people give little gifts every day and some people give just one gift per person and then some just give one give for the whole cabin. Lots of neat and creative stuff gets exchanged. I’m crafty, so here are the things I made:

Coin Purses for the ladies.

I found an easy pattern,



some super cute Disney fabric





















and some clasps on Etsy.



And got to work.



These turned out so cute. I hope the ladies enjoyed them !!







I also made them some tissue holders



Continued next post ....

 

[jecskc]

Planning - Part 2

I got flashlights for the guys. I know … lame. But my DH and DS really enjoyed theirs and still use them so maybe not too bad of an idea.

For the older boys, I made cups. I got some cups from the Dollar Store and some cute Disney punches.







I got some durable stick on vinyl and made these.







I loved these, too and made a couple just for us.

For the teen girls, I made make-up rolls.









The younger girls and boys got crayon rolls.



This was my prototype, I ended up making the final ones smaller. Each held 8 crayons and 4 coloring sheets.

And for the little boys six and under I made car wallets.





As a reward to myself, I made this bag from leftover fabric.





Anyway, it was super fun making the gifts and receiving them.

I also organized a kids meet for our first day. DCL allowed us to use the D-Lounge on the boat. We had over 100 kids on the list.

Well, that is it for planning stuff, up next – Day 1 – Part 1.

 

[jedijill]

Those gifts are all so cute and creative! I need to cruise with you all.

Jill in CO

 

[jecskc]

Those gifts are all so cute and creative! I need to cruise with you all.

Jill in CO

Thanks Jill !! They were fun to make !!

 

[MEK]

You are hired for when I take my cruise. I need someone creative to make my FE gifts. I am so NOT creative. Those coin purses are adorable. Nice job. Everything is too cute!

 

[jecskc]

You are hired for when I take my cruise. I need someone creative to make my FE gifts. I am so NOT creative. Those coin purses are adorable. Nice job. Everything is too cute!

Thanks Mary Ellen !! I am seriously thinking of opening an Etsy shop. Just let me know when you are cruising !!

Susan

 

[TCB in FLA]

LOVE!!!! your FE presents!!! Awesome! Those coin purses are incredibly cute!!! Hard to make? I love small projects like that rather than ones that take weeks or months and never seem to get finished (in my case).

 

[jecskc]

LOVE!!!! your FE presents!!! Awesome! Those coin purses are incredibly cute!!! Hard to make? I love small projects like that rather than ones that take weeks or months and never seem to get finished (in my case).

Hey thanks for following !! And thanks for the compliments. I thought they were easy to make, but I am an accomplished sewer/quilter so my perspective may be different. I have a few UFO's (unfinished objects) floating around the house, but for the most part .... I like to finish things.

Susan

 

[annie170]

Your gifts are adorable! I love the fish extender, also. So talented! Was it easy to find such a great variety of disney fabrics?

 

[starbird]

Wait, you were 7162??? I called/texted your wave phone a few times trying to get my wife. We were 9162 and for some reason, I kept thinking 7162 because on the Magic we were always deck 7.

And wasn't deck 7 were the side by side rooms had the HUGE Clemson and Gamecock magnets?

 

[jecskc]

Your gifts are adorable! I love the fish extender, also. So talented! Was it easy to find such a great variety of disney fabrics?

Thanks !!! I found it all on Etsy. Amazing stuff on that site. I have tons left. Will maybe open an Etsy shop myself and sell some of the things I made. I have also started a Disney quilt. Fun stuff.

Susan

 

[jecskc]

Wait, you were 7162??? I called/texted your wave phone a few times trying to get my wife. We were 9162 and for some reason, I kept thinking 7162 because on the Magic we were always deck 7.

And wasn't deck 7 were the side by side rooms had the HUGE Clemson and Gamecock magnets?

Yes we were in 7162 !! Haha, that is funny. I probably just thought you were one of my son's friends. He made a lot of friends on the cruise and they called each other constantly.

Yes on the magnets. My DH talked to those people. There were two brothers. One was a USC fan and the other a Clemson fan. Ironically, each brother married an opposite fan. So the USC fan married a wife that pulled for Clemson and vice versa. It was a fun story. They all seemed to laugh about it. But I bet things got real serious last Saturday. Go Gamecocks !!

 

[LifeIsDis]

YAY !! I am so glad you are here !! It was so great to see you and your Mom on Saturday. Sorry that you caught me at such a whiny moment, but I was truly peeved about the fact that I wasn't allowed to pull another fast pass. I did get the guy at Maelstrom to get those for me and that was nice of him. I hope you got to ride.

Did you ever get out to see Frozen yesterday??

Susan

You too! No worries, I understand how awful the whole system is.
And YES! OMG IT WAS SO GOOD! I got the Anna animator doll right after

Btw, your FE gifts are amazing.

 

[jecskc]

You too! No worries, I understand how awful the whole system is.
And YES! OMG IT WAS SO GOOD! I got the Anna animator doll right after

Btw, your FE gifts are amazing.

It is awful. I really hope they get it modified or they are going to lose A LOT of customers. DH said he would not have renewed our AP's if he had known they were only allowing 3 FP's per day at only ONE park. It is horrible.

DD had to have the Elsa doll. She nagged us for days and as you will see, I broke down and got her one later on in the trip. I want to save it for Christmas, but she was persistent.

Thanks !! They were fun to make. Thanks for being one of my test subjects.

 

[jecskc]

Friday, November 22 – Day 1 – Part 1

DH likes to drive at night, so we got up around 3 AM and were on the road by about 3:30 AM. The kids love the Waffle House (I hate it), so we stopped in GA to get some breakfast.



DD always orders a double waffle. She swears she can eat it all – and she never does. So I always order nothing and end up with plenty to eat.

Another 3 and half hours and we were seeing this glorious view



You know you heard angles singing ….



We were spending the night pre-cruise at Saratoga Springs.











So this was about 10 AM. We checked in just so we could get a room number, but we were surprised to discover they had a room ready – YAY !!! So we decided to go ahead and go over and bring up our overnight bags.

The lobby was all decorated for Christmas.





DD checked out the pin board, but all of our pins were packed up in the car, so we didn’t get anything.



Check-in took some time because of the dreaded magic bands. So I kept snapping photos.





Finally, we were set and DD wanted a picture on the carriage.





She couldn’t get down so DH had to lift her down.

Our room number was 2623



We decided a studio would be fine for one night. Besides, we were about to spend the following 7 nights in an even smaller room on the ship.





View



Kitchenette



The bathroom



Vanity



We got our stuff settled and then headed down to the dock to catch the boat over to Downtown Disney.

 

[MEK]

I am cruising next October. We were supposed to go this October but, for a variety of reasons, pushed it back a year. So if you are crafts are for sale I am IN!

Nice view from your SSR room. The lobby looks so pretty at Christmas.

Denny and I are doing a quick 5 nighter to Florida in Feb. We decided we need a winter break. We are actually going to spend 3 nights on the gulf coast (which we have never been to), but since it was cheaper to fly back from MCO we are spending the last two at SSR. It's my home resort and I haven't stayed there in years (except the treehouse) and I am really looking forward to it. I can't wait to walk around those pretty grounds.

 

[jecskc]

I am cruising next October. We were supposed to go this October but, for a variety of reasons, pushed it back a year. So if you are crafts are for sale I am IN!

Nice view from your SSR room. The lobby looks so pretty at Christmas.

Denny and I are doing a quick 5 nighter to Florida in Feb. We decided we need a winter break. We are actually going to spend 3 nights on the gulf coast (which we have never been to), but since it was cheaper to fly back from MCO we are spending the last two at SSR. It's my home resort and I haven't stayed there in years (except the treehouse) and I am really looking forward to it. I can't wait to walk around those pretty grounds.

OK. Remind me !! I'll hook you up with some awesome FE gifts !!

Yes, we really love it. We love all of the DVC resorts. Never had a bad stay.

Susan