Panama Canal Eastbound Sept. 14, 2013--it'll be WONDER-ful

[twokats]

Sorry, folks, but today we cancelled this cruise. That means the wine tasting in the Walt Disney Suite will have to be taken over by the lucky guest who books the cabin that we've now vacated!

We did book the same sailing for September 2014 in the same suite, so if anyone goes on that Panama Canal cruise as well, maybe we'll see you then! But for a whole variety of reasons we decided to spend a couple of weeks at Aulani again this September rather than take this cruise. We hope you all have a wonderful sailing, and will tip a tropical beverage in the direction of San Pedro on embarkation day!

So sorry we won't get to meet you this time, but we hope you enjoy whatever you decide to do.

 

[Denine]

I have been MIA for months. It has been a long winter. Dd was sick for all of it. She was diagnosed with celiac disease in January. She is finally feeling better. We ran away to WDW last week. At least it was a break from the cold and snow!

When is everyone planning on flying out for the cruise. We want to spend a little time in DL, but I am nervous about flying on 9/11. But leaving the 12th doesn't really give us any time at DL. We can't leave on the 10th since that will be even longer that DH is out of the office. UGHH!!

 

[MommaluvsDis]

Steve and I are flying out on 9/11. I personally feel that security is at its highest on that date.

 

[Sparky47]

Hi there - there will be four of us traveling (4 adults, 2 cabins) on this cruise. We have our flights booked so it's official! We have our transportation from LAX to Grand Californian (Super Shuttle for $14.40 per person - normally $16 but I found an online coupon for 10% off). We still need to get from GC to the port and from the port in Galveston to Hobby.

After a number of calls to DCL we were told that "soon" they will begin providing transportation from the DL hotels to San Pedro so we'll hold off a little bit to see what those times and prices look like.

In the meantime, have not been able to find anything reasonable for transport from Galveston to Hobby. Does anyone have any suggestions for 4 adults (with approx 8 pieces of luggage!) ?

I'm usually a lurker on these boards and pop in every once in awhile to ask OR answer a question. I am amazed at the quietness of this board.

Thanks!

 

[disneymiracleand2]

Well, I finally got to read all of the posts in this thread, and I am sad to see people having to cancel.

I guess I should add some more information. Since we live in Northern California we will be flying in on the day of the cruise. We go to DL several times a year, actually going in late April, so we dont need to do DL before the cruise.

Since this will be our second Disney cruise (third overall) with DD, we know it is best for her sake to do the early dining. Trying to have a toddler stay up until late dining just invites the meltdown monster.

Like I mentioned before we are looking at using Babies Travel Lite to get diapers and other items delivered to our stateroom. For other parents travelling with little children, you might want to look into this company. I can't post the link because I do not have a high enough post count. Just web search for the title i mentioned above.

I hope we can still put together a wine tasting group, because we would love to bring some wine from Northern California. By the way what is a FE?

I have not mentioned what room we are in because we are planning on upgrading when we check in. We purchased our current inside state room with DVC points. The last cruise we did to the Mexican Riviera on DCL, we were able to upgrade to a veranda for $500.

I put a request in to join the Facebook page, my name is Todd Baxter.

Hope to keep chatting with you all, either here or on Facebook.

 

[MommaluvsDis]

Did you book on points and then ay to upgrade on your last cruse? If so, I might want to do something like that.

 

[twokats]

I hope we can still put together a wine tasting group, because we would love to bring some wine from Northern California. By the way what is a FE?

I have not mentioned what room we are in because we are planning on upgrading when we check in. We purchased our current inside state room with DVC points. The last cruise we did to the Mexican Riviera on DCL, we were able to upgrade to a veranda for $500.

I put a request in to join the Facebook page, my name is Todd Baxter.

Hope to keep chatting with you all, either here or on Facebook.

The FE is abbr. for Fish Extender which is a gift exchange. You can do a search and find out how to make them order them and a lot of info on the gifts given and made. It is a lot of fun and I have been involved in the FE on all my cruises. I have a lot of the websites bookmarked if you want me to refer them to you.

Looking forward to chatting and getting to know y'all before we sail.

 

[twokats]

Hi there - there will be four of us traveling (4 adults, 2 cabins) on this cruise. We have our flights booked so it's official! We have our transportation from LAX to Grand Californian (Super Shuttle for $14.40 per person - normally $16 but I found an online coupon for 10% off). We still need to get from GC to the port and from the port in Galveston to Hobby.

After a number of calls to DCL we were told that "soon" they will begin providing transportation from the DL hotels to San Pedro so we'll hold off a little bit to see what those times and prices look like.

In the meantime, have not been able to find anything reasonable for transport from Galveston to Hobby. Does anyone have any suggestions for 4 adults (with approx 8 pieces of luggage!) ?

I'm usually a lurker on these boards and pop in every once in awhile to ask OR answer a question. I am amazed at the quietness of this board.

Thanks!

Glad you are joining us.

 

[CrusinLattas]

I have been MIA for months. It has been a long winter. Dd was sick for all of it. She was diagnosed with celiac disease in January. She is finally feeling better. We ran away to WDW last week. At least it was a break from the cold and snow!

When is everyone planning on flying out for the cruise. We want to spend a little time in DL, but I am nervous about flying on 9/11. But leaving the 12th doesn't really give us any time at DL. We can't leave on the 10th since that will be even longer that DH is out of the office. UGHH!!

The kids and I will fly on 9/7 and DH will join us on 9/13 - he didn't have three weeks and is not as into the parks as we are.

Welcome new folks! I have added a couple to our Facebook group - sorry to hear we are losing others!

 

[catdreams]

Just checking in from Texas. Our cruise is in 170 days! I would love to hear opinions and experiences from our seasoned travelers for Port Adventures for Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta and Columbia. I've done a little bit of looking at Cabo and saw a non-Disney company offering a sea kayak tour that sounds fun. We are leaning toward more adventurous excursions especially since we have so many sea days to spend lounging by the pool. Thoughts? Suggestions?

Welcome to the newcomers! This is going to be a fantastic trip! Sorry to see cruisers dropping off the list. We're gearing up for our wedding and this cruise is going to be a much needed vacation after family and friends come to town to celebrate with us.

We are definitely still interested in a wine tasting. We have already picked out a Texas Hill country wine. Any ideas on how we pull that off?

We are looking forward to meeting all of you in less than six months!

 

[disneymiracleand2]

Did you book on points and then ay to upgrade on your last cruse? If so, I might want to do something like that.

Yes, used points then paid for the upgrade. At the check-in area there is a desk for customer service. Just check there for upgrades available. I guess I should be a little more specific about the paying part, I can not remember if you could pay cash at the customer service desk, because DW did all the work. We put it on our bill which charged our CC at the end of the cruise.

 

[disneymiracleand2]

The FE is abbr. for Fish Extender which is a gift exchange. You can do a search and find out how to make them order them and a lot of info on the gifts given and made. It is a lot of fun and I have been involved in the FE on all my cruises. I have a lot of the websites bookmarked if you want me to refer them to you.

Looking forward to chatting and getting to know y'all before we sail.

Ahhhh. Fish extender. Last cruise we saw a lot of those. Since my daughter will almost be 2 yrs. old on the cruise I think she will really enjoy something like that on the door. So how does the exchange work? I am assuming you put gifts into other peoples FE. Anyway put us down for being involved in that, sounds fun. I will start now working on getting a nice personalized one for our door.

 

[Denine]

We decided to fly on 9/11 and booked our airfare this morning!

 

[disneymiracleand2]

Just checking in from Texas. Our cruise is in 170 days! I would love to hear opinions and experiences from our seasoned travelers for Port Adventures for Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta and Columbia. I've done a little bit of looking at Cabo and saw a non-Disney company offering a sea kayak tour that sounds fun. We are leaning toward more adventurous excursions especially since we have so many sea days to spend lounging by the pool. Thoughts? Suggestions?

We are only in Cabo and Puerto Vallarta for about five hours each. For that short of time I would recommend you stay with the the excursions offered by DCL. Cabo has really upgraded the harbor area with some nice shops and restaurants, also downtown is walking distance away. At Cabo you tender into the harbor.

As far as Puerto Vallarta, our last cruise we took an excursion that was way out of town, so I have no experience or knowledge whats around the port. I do know that the ship will actually park (probably not the right nautical term) at the port there.

 

[twokats]

Ahhhh. Fish extender. Last cruise we saw a lot of those. Since my daughter will almost be 2 yrs. old on the cruise I think she will really enjoy something like that on the door. So how does the exchange work? I am assuming you put gifts into other peoples FE. Anyway put us down for being involved in that, sounds fun. I will start now working on getting a nice personalized one for our door.

We will accept staterooms for the exchange til about 30 days before we sail. If we have any that join after that it will be up to the individuals concerned. On our some of our last cruises we had a few join after the cutoff date and some were able to add them to their list and others could not. Some do a customized gift that requires time plus a lot of effort and that is the reason we try to have a cutoff date.

It is totally up to you how the gifts are done. Some do a stateroom gift, others do something for the kids in the room along with something special for the adults - the only limit is your budget. Please don't worry if it is not much. I have received many different things from bookmarks, magnets, themed cups and coseys (those things that can go around a canned drink) and little bags of various candies. I have also received things that people have done that were state specific and also country (some past cruises have included new friends from Canada).

I have found a lot of threads on the DIS that give great ideas for the FE and gifts plus magnets.
These are the ones I follow and believe me there is a lot of great pictures and information. Be prepared to spend a lot of time on these.

This one is called Homemade FE Gifts (Part 2)
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2907032
What do you make for your vacation
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2179996
Fish extender gift ideas for the not so crafty
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2473209
Fish extenders?
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1219607
Homemade FE gifts photo thread
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1980639
Fish extender gifts
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1774643

These are two individual posts that give the basic concept behind the FE and the directions for the no-sew FE. I have made 2 and pretty much followed the directions with a few modification to suit me. Any questions please let me know and I will try to help. I am in the process of making another for this trip. My first one had four pockets my last one only had two pockets and this one will have three pockets.

FE 101 Basics http://www.disboards.com/showpost.ph...81&postcount=2
Directions to make a no-sew FE http://www.disboards.com/showpost.ph...&postcount=609

This is a great one for magnets and milliepie (one of the disigners) is great! (She is due to start her own thread soon, so I don't have that yet, but there are a lot of disigners out there) She has done a few for me.
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2897587

This one is the Creative Disigns thread which has a lot of disigners that do a lot more than magnets. But most of the disigners give their photobucket accounts and such that you can go look at and get ideas and other things.
http://www.disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=105

I know I have overloaded you here and don't think you have to read all of them. It took me a while to find them all, so save them for future use, and I hope it answers some of your questions.

Again, to the group and I look forward to getting to know you and everyone else in our group!

 

[catdreams]

We are only in Cabo and Puerto Vallarta for about five hours each.

I see that on the DCL website but when you look at the Navigator's from this itinerary in the past the port times are longer. I'm hoping the same is going to be true for us. We don't have very many port days. It would be a real bummer if they are short.

 

[Paragd911]

Looks like we'll have our ship to ourselves still. lol We will be up for the FE. We always have fun with that. (or I do) lol

On a serious note, My wife had a small stroke last 10 days ago. The doctors think it is because of birth control. She has no risk factors, she is only 47
The Nuro surgeon thinks she be fine for the cruise

 

[pahrumpgirl]

I see that on the DCL website but when you look at the Navigator's from this itinerary in the past the port times are longer. I'm hoping the same is going to be true for us. We don't have very many port days. It would be a real bummer if they are short.

We are waiting to make our port excursions until the official DCL ones come out. By then we should know for sure how long we will be in port. Don't know for sure but they may be cutting port time because of all the trouble in Mexico. I know that on our PC cruise in 2008, every Mexican port we stopped in we were met as we got off the ship with men carrying big guns. Saw them in other locations in the cities, too. It was a little disquieting.

 

[pahrumpgirl]

Looks like we'll have our ship to ourselves still. lol We will be up for the FE. We always have fun with that. (or I do) lol

On a serious note, My wife had a small stroke last 10 days ago. The doctors think it is because of birth control. She has no risk factors, she is only 47
The Nuro surgeon thinks she be fine for the cruise

Sorry to hear about your DW. Hope she is better soon.

 

[MPS516]

Wow, that is horrible, really hope everything works out for her. Yes we must have the ship to ourselves, just not seeing the activity we normally do. Our 2014 Mediterranean thread has nearly as many posts as here already.