Overgrown 5-year olds with credits cards loose on the High Seas
Departing Cruisers
Con5421 - "I have got a answer from my boss and i can't do the TA this year. So we go whit Royal Carribean in August, i hope this will be a good cruisecompany to cruise whit. Connie"
New Cruisers
magic123 -
Margaret and
DH Norman (
grumpy1234) "first
Disney cruise and we are celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary and my birthday. We will be doing the Dolphin tour which I am really looking forward too, thanks so much TotallyAngelic"
poohluv2u - "Hi, I think what you guys need is one more Karen to join the group, so .. HERE I AM
My hubby Ed and I are signed up for this cruise. Our longest cruise so far was the 10 night Southern Caribbean back in 06, so we are pretty psyched to spend 14 nights on the Magic.
You must be a chatty bunch to already have three threads going, seems like you also pretty diverse - country-wise. I'm a bit of a misfit myself. My parents emigrated to Australia from England when I was 3, where I lived until I was 20 and now I live in the US with my sweet Yankee Boy.
You can't hear it in my posts but I speak with an American accent (according to my Aussie friends) thats tinged with Aussie (according to my US friends). Sadly the only thing British left in me, is my love of English chocolates, Clotted Cream and the BBC period dramas ... yes I love me some Mr Darcy "
Illnesses/Condolences
Brookspayne (Burnice from Perth, Australia) - Update 3/23: "Mum is well (better then the last week) and for the first time actually resting and doing as she is told. She has seen her local doctor and will be trying a new machine that will (hopefully) help with her breathing difficulties in the next month or so. So we are on track for the Disney Cruise, in fact I actually think she is looking forward to this holiday."
Pixie Dust for Me! - "Sorry I haven't posted much lately. My husband has a bad back and I've been spending far too much of my time fighting with "so-called" medical professionals of late. Unfortunately, it looks more and more like he is headed to surgery, but we are waiting to get into the same neurosurgeon that did his original back surgery nearly 11 years ago. So, in the meantime, it is pain management, doctor management, work-expectation management, and household management for me. "
Pinky166 - on March 29 "I had some sad news this morning, my 64 year old Uncle died during the night. So sad as he was found by his youngest daughter (15yo).
No one knows what happened, he hasn't been ill, he was fine yesterday. It is such a shock and so sudden. I really feel for my four cousins as their mother died several years ago of Breast Cancer and now their dad has been taken too."
Many prayers and thoughts extended to our fellow cruisers and their families.
Reminders
T-shirts
Pixie Dust for Me! - I do know that the price will go up, however, as the original $7 was based on a tshirt design that was much less intricate that we used on our past 2 Thanksgiving cruises."
PFlamingo - "If you've changed your cabin number since signing up for the FE, please PM me so I can make sure I've changed that on my list."
Namsupak (Lauren) - "Would it make it easier/more fun if we knew where everyone was staying? I'd be willing to organize a list of what people are staying in which hotel if everyone wants me too. Just PM me with your disname and hotel. If it's ok maybe we could post it on the first page.
If any one wants to PM me even if you're arriving the day of the cruise we can get everyone's dates on the list too. I'll get it all together."
Castaway Cay Happy Hour - BOGO Free
GA-yaya - "Was just reading someone's February 2011 blog about Castaway Cay. They said that they have an unannounced Happy Hour on Castaway Cay that is ALL alcoholic beverages are Buy One Get One Free! You need to ask the Bar when the happy hour is that day, since they change it for each cruise."
Cruise Check-in at Hilton Diagonal Mar
GA-yaya - "Disney had a separate table set up in the lobby with 2 CMs who basically did all of the check-in right there. We received all of our boarding stuff and they took our individual "pre-cruise" photo for your KTTW card at that time. ... We also received our
Castaway Club lanyards.
When we got to the port on sailing day, we went straight into the line for group photos and then boarded the Magic! It made the boarding process so much easier. "
"We checked in to the Hilton the day before the cruise. The Disney Check-in table was already busy when we arrived at the hotel at about 11AM - they were still there at about 4PM that afternoon - they were also there the next day (the day we boarded the cruise)."
birkner also reports that check-in is also available at Le Meridien;
DCL has two other hotels they use for pre-cruise stays which should also offer this service.
Madeira
LindaBabe - "Just a note, if there are any "plant people". I don't do mountain roads very well, so i'll be skipping the excursions in Madeira and taking a taxi tour to the Botanical garden, Monte Tropical gardens & the Orchid Gardens. My room mates will probably do Noel's tour, so I may have a couple seats available, if anyone would care to share."
St Maarten
JessicasMom - "What are people doing in St. Marten? Only thing on DH's list is to see the planes take off"
GA-yaya (Peggy & Roger) - "We're going to Dawn Beach!"
Namsupak - "We went to St. Marteen last Thanksgiving cruise. We had an excellent tour guide. He just drove us around the island and showed us things we wanted to see. He was great."
lovingthemouse (Caroline) - "When we get to St Maarten, I am heading to the shop of the Yoda Guy. Nick Maley is the creator of the YODA character in the "Star Wars" movies. He has an incredible shop and gallery, where you can look/purchase lithos signed by him. He is often in the shop and takes the time to greet guests. "
MandyGirl - "I think that is our shopping day. We have been to that beach (Maho) and it is GREAT! The sand really pelts you, so beware. Sunset Beach Bar is a great place to hang out and watch the planes from - that is where we hung out. Pretty much zero shade though...
Tod&Copper - "We hired a car last year and went to Maho Beach to watch the aircraft. It was great fun. We didn't get involved in the whole getting blown across the beach and hanging onto the fence, but sat at the Sunset Bar and got loads of great photos.
It really was a fun day out, it is amazing seeing the aircraft flying so low.
We just wandered up the town in the afternoon, with the compulsory trip to Diamonds International.
You have to be careful if you go across to Maho Beach as apparently the bridge opens in the afternoon to let the shipping traffic through and holds up all the vehicles in the process. All the websites warn you to get back across to the main town as early as possible in the afternoon so that you don't get stuck in the traffic and miss ship boarding time... apparently its happened before"
karentan - "so is everyone heading to maho beach on st maarten? we havent decided what to do but i really fancy going to one of the stables where they do the beach horseback riding and you get to go into the sea with the horses. think that'd be pretty awesome"
PFlamingo - "OMG!!! I found this while I was perusing one of the horseback riding sites. Now I'm seriously tempted!! Harley in Paradise"
steamboat will - "I popped into "yodaguys" gallery whilst I was in St Martin shopping last year. It's very easy to find, its on the main street in town about a 15 min walk from the boat.
It's very situated on the upstairs floor of a small building. As i walked by I was attracted by Star Wars music playing into the street. Around the walls are pictures and copies of production documents available for purchase.
To one side there was a doorway leading to a small exhibition area where some movie props and memorabilia are on view. I seem to remember there was a small charge to enter this area or it was free with a qualifying purchase from the gallery.
Yodaguy himself was there, and came over and chatted to me about his involvement in the film, his plans to set up a full scale movie Museum, and also offered to personalise any purchases I made in the gallery.
If you google "thatyodaguy" you can find out more info about the gallery and yodaguy himself."
Photos of the shop are on Thread Part 2, Page 238, Post 3562
Most Enjoyable Memory/Activity on DCL?
Dgentrysim (DisneyDeb) asked "what would you say was your most enjoyable memory/activity you did on previous Disney cruises? Was there a little known joy you discovered on the trip that you could share with everyone? Like maybe a "sleeper" event that most people would bypass thinking it wasn't worth trying or a place on the ship that you think everyone should try at least once.
I'm just curious because I have found some of the most special/enjoyable things I have done in the past were based on what other people recommended that maybe wasn't in a tour book or talked about a lot. The little things in life can wind up being the most pleasureable! "
granmaz - "We enjoyed the tour of the ship. Not the general one they do on embarkation day, but ones they have on the Navigator occasionally. I can't remember what the tour is called though. We went on someone's recommendation and really found it interesting and enjoyable.
We also enjoyed the Galley Tour and Theatre Tour.
The ship tour is advertised, but for some reason they seem to have stopped advertising the Galley tour. Go straight to Guest Services and book one as they do book up quickly. I think the ship tour is called The Art of the Ship tour or something like that."
karentan - "we really enjoyed the galley tour last time and would like to see more of the ship if they do other tours"
GA-yaya - "We have enjoyed the Chef Series of cooking classes (with wine, of course ), and the Galley Tour."
TotallyAngelic - "I think on the WBTA one of the most memorable and enjoyable experiences I had personally was the evening where they did "Once Upon a Song" . This was a show consisting simply of the entertainment cast singing Disney songs and it was done very simply with no bells and whistles and was beautiful. I find a lot of Disney music very emotional and for most of the performance I was in tears.
I also enjoyed standing at bow of the ship at sunset, watching us sailaway from the ports with a cocktail in one hand, and the evening where we took a bottle of champange up on deck after dinner.
Oh and eating breakfast / lunch at Topsiders ... the restaurant with the best view in the world! and then there's Palo ..... say no more !!!!
And of course meeting and sharing the experiences with lots of lovely DIS friends which made everyting we did extra extra special. "
JessicasMom - "Honestly, one of the most fun activities was doing the FE/Secret Mickey exchange on last year's EBTA (plenty of time to do this on a 14-day cruise). But our favorite was the spa's Exotic Rasul (definitely great for a couple ). The game shows were also a riot, definitely good for a few ."
DISNEYFAN_SD - "We enjoyed the cooking classes on the ETA last year. Also my husband was able to go with some friends while they blew the disney horn...(won it during a bingo game). Enjoyed everything...not enough time to do it all."
PFlamingo - "First cruise, we really enjoyed the cooking demonstration given by one of the chefs. We got our picture with him - we're total foodies, so this was ultra-cool for us.
Second cruise, we participated in the adult costume contest in WaveBands (October cruise = Halloween fun!) and the games afterwards. We teamed up with another couple and had to find all kinds of crazy stuff. I was the designated "runner" - I ran up to the emcee with our stuff and ran around the room trying to get things we needed from other people. My favorite was "a tattoo." No one on our team had any, so I ran around the room looking at people and saying, "You there, you look like you have a tattoo! Come with me!" All the while, I was dressed in my Halloween costume:
auntlynne - "(1) Sarah/Tony and Sandy/Tony can attest to how much fun our Halloween '08 cruise was - significantly so due to the DISboard group. We had a cruiser named Shooshie (who went to work for Disney the week following our cruise) who was very good about getting others to join in the activities. I played trivia games, attended the nighttime adult cabaret shows (around 10:15 in Rockin' Bar D) and just felt so much a part of a happy group. It is great to walk into a room and have others wave you over (especially as a single) and have people to sit with and laugh and play.
(2) There are treats in Cove Cafe (scones, cakes, olives, crackers, sometimes chocolate-covered strawberries) that are free. Just walk in and serve yourself (this is an 18+ area)
(3) Nighttime watching anything on the Ariel jumbotron.
(4) making ice cream sodas with soft-serve and Hershey's syrup from the station next to Goofy's Galley (starboard, aft, just forward of Topsiders/Beach Blanket) and the cream and soda water from the drink station
(5) having dinner with DIS friends in the dining room - last summer in the Med joined with another DISer and her two kids, one of whom was the age of my niece (they had interacted on Facebook before the cruise).
(6) Serenity Bay at the end of the day is deserted! The water is so clear you don't need a snorkel.
Tod&Copper - "The entertainment we had on the last WBTA blew us away, we thought it was amazing. Bumping into celebrities whilst buying a t-shirt in treasure ketch and chatting to Paige Hemmis was wonderful. I have never seen Stevie starstruck before lol.
When I heard Jodi Benson singing "Part of your World" I had tears in my eyes and goosebumps listening to the song it was absolutely astounding and I will never forget it. Little Mermaid was one of my DD's favourite classics and we watched it so many times together whilst she was growing up, I was really sad she wasn't there to hear it herself, which was probably another reason why I choked up so much.
Again, meeting Don Ducky Williams was amazing, what a lovely man."
goofieslonglostsis - "Hmm what was best enjoyed on previous cruise? Palo, relaxing on deck 9 with a book in a quite corner, watching shows on the tv when not feeling upto going to the theater for whatever reason (they broadcast live, so no need to miss anything when tired, not wanting to be in the buzz or expecting kids to fall asleep halfway through and them getting cranky if waken up while walking back to the room), interacting with CM's and fellow guests (before you know it half the ship feels like old friends).
Also I went to the world premiere of Toy Story 3. Best place to do that is aboard the Magic! Did the TS-marathon. Watched one and two first in 3D and then it was time for the premiere. Another great time at the movietheater; joining the presentation about WDW-planning. Was a CM from imagineerdep. that held a great talk about WDW imagineerdevelopment, upcoming changes to WDW etc. Was around the time the new changes to WDW were just announced and we had a look of all of the drawings, plans etc. Perfect timing! All in all very enjoyable, esp. since the CM himself was new to DCL, giving such a talk and obviously enjoyed the DCL-experience but had to get over his first minutes fear during the speak. Loved the real love for the job he showed in all his newness and somewhat clumbsiness. Couldn't have faked that."
Disney Store Barcelona
karentan - "just to warn you though, they dont really stock anything different from the UK disney stores plus the exchange rate makes it more expensive than buying the same thing from the UK"
DVC Sales Onboard
DVC has information sessions onboard; drawings for gifts are made; if you have any questions about DVC, the following are some of our cruisers who are members:
Pixie Dust for Me!
Namsupak
Chirpee
Dgentrysim
Tod&Copper
MISC Things We Discussed
- What is a secret porthole room/obstructed view verandahs
- ALDI grocery stores
- Pinky166 (Claire, DH Lee) - check out her Dream Maiden Voyage Trip Report - link in her siggie
- Exotic Rasul
- #3482 page 233 link to Epcot in 5151 photos
- Example of what to do around between the airport and the cruise on Thread Part 3, Page 3, Post 95
- Disneyland Paris
News of the Week
Our thread is on Part 3
We have a Facebook Page
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=...52365544827288
- I certainly don't. 
you will always have friends on forums too, no-one is going to leave here
) and the EB site. Is that for this year's EB or from last year's?
We should definitely meet up in DLP. Where are you planning on staying in Barcelona? We plan on flying into Barcelona on Friday as well and want to try and do a little tour the day of the cruise. Maybe we could take a taxi or 2 together.
)
And of course it is a medical thing and not a dental thing... but if no insurance coverage, it is $2500! Um... hmmmm.... Think I will check with medical to see if I can cover it, and not worry with the machine, although I think it "flies free" as a carryon since considered a medical device. I swear, TSA is always getting to look at a CPAP or breastpump for me when I fly...
