*Sept 10th 2011 WB Transatlantic* - From Spain to Space Mountain - Part 5

[kentgirl]

Hoping all goes well for you today Jaqueline and a very speedy recovery.

 

[Beauty & the Best]

Good Morning Everyone!!!!!

For those of you who want the plastic cups, I used mine yesterday and it is very nice. The top has a bit of rubber/plastic at the top of the cap and the cup so it seals really well and the straw has a little nub on it that keeps it from coming out of the top. The only caveat - it is not dishwasher safe.

We are hoping to grill out for dinner tonight....but only if it doesn't rain, so fingers crossed for that.

Thoughts are with you today Jacqueline. We are pulling for you!

I was thinking the same thing about bookings, esp. since DCL no longer offers the great GTY fares. I'm sure the cabin assignments will be coming soon (she says wistfully ).

I am not-so-patiently waiting too. They must still be working on the room assignments I guess.

 

[sinnika]

Welcome to all our new cruisers ... it almost seems like we could fill the ship just with DIS'ers on this cruise




We have some like this, you can use with or without water and just clips to our waist, especially nice in the Parks

http://www.coolfansonline.com/servlet/the-68/Carabiner-Hand-Held-Misting/Detail

If you don't get a chance to pick up a fan, when you get to Barcelona, you can get souvenier Spanish fans everywhere for 2 eruos. I only picked up a few, and packed them, then on the last day in Barca headed to Montserrat on the train, I was really "glistening" and started fanning myself with my hand. A Spanish woman sitting across from me whipped out her fan from her purse for me to use! Now I carry my fan in my purse! DH even used it on the plane going home when we first boarded and the air had not kicked in! I am going to pick up several more for all of my "glistening" girlfriends!

I bet they are getting close to making room assignments as I wonder how many people are still booking. What I got the feeling from the person who called me from DCL is that there was an existing booking that needed another room due to adding more people, not a new booking.

Just my thoughts...

We got room assignments about 45 days out for the Med cruise. How we could tell was there was suddenly NO rooms available to book and it looked like the cruise had sold out. Once rooms were assigned, rooms became available again. But DCL must have offered some more deals as we wound up sailing full. We also had more countries represented than I had ever seen before. (Lots of folks from Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil, lots of European and Asian countries). The World is discovering DCL!

 

[Lionessa]

Good morning to you all! We are one day closer to our special day. I find the time will fly by extremely quickly because we are all so busy in the summer. If this were winter, the time would be dragging.

I want to say a very special thank you to all your responses. It really helped. I was out all afternoon/evening, and returned to so much helpful information.

I want to make this as brief as possible without dragging, and taking up thread space so I will try to squeeze it in:

1. Karen...You are right. Contacting the company first would be a great idea. Perhaps my idea of trying to get a group together for a group rate is not as good. I'll stick to the idea of only asking for sharing a minivan/cab to the Dolphin Discovery. That would be a great help. We could cut out all the words about the deadline, etc and only mention about the sharing of cab.
Thank you for your help! What I need help next surfweb is a new idea I have (at bottom of this post since you can read it and tell me what you think)

2. Tubbsteruk...I would love to share a ride. Since your show is at 11, I will either book a 10 or noon excursion for ourselves. We can talk about this in detail later, but let's keep in mind.

3. Chirpee....Thank you so much for the info on planes at SXM. That gave me a load of info, incl the bridge at 3:30 being open. Oh dear! Perhaps a knowledgeable taxi driver would be better than renting a car myself. I had planned to rent a car to visit/see Orient Beach and Maho Beach. That would be all I'm interested in at St Maarten since I've been there many times before.
If anyone is interested in joining me, perhaps we could share a minivan or car rental.

4. Binkytell....yes yes I do talk alot but it's immediate then I'm gone for a while until I return with my beloved cup of coffee at my side.

5. Noel...thank you for your help and replies. Do you think we could do both east and west tours in Madeira? As for the Tortola tour and what we should include in the WElcome Package, I will revise the Tortola idea to just a ride sharing to the Dolphin Discovery instead. There may be restrictions and it may be too complicated for me to organize.

6. Lindabuke...thank you for the photo tip. Sounds too complicated for me.
I think I'll have to go photo-less for a while.

7. Thank you to everyone and cannot wait to meet you all on the ship.

8. I had an idea yesterday afterwards which may work if anyone else in interested in joining me. You see after my 2 previous cruises, I gained weight and kept it on. Now, my goal is to lose the weight I've gained from the 2 cruises (in less than 9 months of each other) and to begin this WBTA at my precruise comfy weight, to allow me to eat at all meals without guilt and comfortably. My idea would be to organize a group of pre-cruise Health Watchers (HW we can call it) since we will watch the food intake and exercise program pre-cruise on a daily basis, logging in somehow what is the goal, then daily accomplishment (as per advise from Noel & Karen if we can have this in the WP and front page) and then on the cruise itself we will plan to continue this, daily, by meeting and making a program, and seeing if we can stick to a daily program of eating X amount & exercising--sharing what we did, what worked & what didn't for that day. Male & female are welcome to join in. If anyone else has any ideas let me know. (a little about myself I am not a fitness addict, but I would like to lose this weight I've gained from previous cruises and begin a new cruise without it coming on board as well as to cruise in support of exercise, etc because it's tough to do it alone for 15 days)
Thanks!!

 

[kj_connections]

Looked at that page and then used Kayak to "price tickets" to find out which flights are arriving on September 20, 2011. There could be a JetBlue flight, but I couldn't find a ticket and didn't bother going to OAG to see the schedule for that month. They are listed as coming in from JFK at 2:12 pm today (Tuesday, July 19).

1100 ... KLM ... Amsterdam ... 747 **

1330 ... Air France ... Paris ... A340 **

1333 ... USAir ... Charlotte ... 757

1340 ... AA ... Miami ... 757

1545 ... Insel Air ... San Juan ... MD83

** these are the two big-boy jets; the 757 and MD83 are narrow-body jets. There are various island hopper prop planes, too.

Looks like optimal viewing would be between 1:30 and 1:40 pm. Our ship leaves at 5:30pm and the bridge between Maho Beach and the ship is open (lifted up - blocking traffic) at 3:30.

Thanks for the helpful info! When would be the latest suggested time to leave Maho beach and head back to the ship? I guess taxi is the only option?

 

[Dgentrysim]

Hi! I am going to London probably for the night of the 8th, all day on the 9th and flying to Barcelona via London City airport on British air on the 10th in the AM. I also might be taking a stop in Iceland, since the cheapest flight from Boston is Icelandair, and they have a 9 hour layover with their flight.
It looks like the entire city of london is connected very well with the underground (subway) so staying anywhere in a hotel shouldn't be a problem.
Lynne has succeeded in persuading me with her pictures as well.

The Underground subway is the only way to go. DH and I thought it was so easy to get around the city by subway. Hope you have a great time....so much to see in London....so little time!

 

[Lionessa]

Good Morning Everyone!!!!!

For those of you who want the plastic cups, I used mine yesterday and it is very nice. The top has a bit of rubber/plastic at the top of the cap and the cup so it seals really well and the straw has a little nub on it that keeps it from coming out of the top. The only caveat - it is not dishwasher safe.

We are hoping to grill out for dinner tonight....but only if it doesn't rain, so fingers crossed for that.

Thoughts are with you today Jacqueline. We are pulling for you!



I am not-so-patiently waiting too. They must still be working on the room assignments I guess.

I'm not certain if you are referring to the insulated beverage cups but if so, let me share something that happened to me on the EBTA 2 months ago. I brought 2 such beverage cups (great to keep things cold & contained against spillage), with a smoothie in one. My DD left it outside the Oceanears club (where all drinks/food have to be when you check in). DD returned to get her smoothie and it was chucked out. If you bring such a cup put your name on it. Ours had MickeyM stickers on it but our name would have seemed more personal. Some CM think it's garbage & chuck it out. I looked at Lost & Found repeatedly and was not able to get it. If you do bring them on board, you can leave it behind for the CM. They love those cups as well. Another tip for your Server/etc, is to leave your pirate hats behind. They are so appreciative of anything they receive. It's so nice.

Just to share, there will be a full moon out on Day 3 of our WBTA cruise, so get those romantic walks & cameras ready!

 

[Lionessa]

I'm not certain if you are referring to the insulated beverage cups but if so, let me share something that happened to me on the EBTA 2 months ago. I brought 2 such beverage cups (great to keep things cold & contained against spillage), with a smoothie in one. My DD left it outside the Oceanears club (where all drinks/food have to be when you check in). DD returned to get her smoothie and it was chucked out. If you bring such a cup put your name on it. Ours had MickeyM stickers on it but our name would have seemed more personal. Some CM think it's garbage & chuck it out. I looked at Lost & Found repeatedly and was not able to get it. If you do bring them on board, you can leave it behind for the CM. They love those cups as well. Another tip for your Server/etc, is to leave your pirate hats behind. They are so appreciative of anything they receive. It's so nice.

Just to share, there will be a full moon out on Day 3 of our WBTA cruise, so get those romantic walks & cameras ready!

 

[binkytell]

thinking of you today jacqueline

 

[binkytell]

Just to share, there will be a full moon out on Day 3 of our WBTA cruise, so get those romantic walks & cameras ready!

wow nancy you certainly are doing your research looking forward
to seeing this with aglass of champers in hand

i meant to say before my daughter has been emailing another cruiser same age for a few months now, i could pm you my dds email address if your dd would like to chat??

 

[cliffy97]

Um, DCL specifically asks people to not do this.

Yeah I know and I shoudl have said.. every Cruise line says the same thing.

 

[Dgentrysim]

Good luck today Jacqueline! Wishing you a speedy recovery!

 

[sue l]

I did not need much encouraging to buy the boots. ha ha ha. The website says they are 100% authentic. $300 is better than $800 Here's hoping.

Fantastic news Sue, sorry for encouraging you to spend a fortune I hope you love them when they arrive



We like the TV on too, DH was fed up last WBTA as I had all the Lost re-runs going all night



We live in a very small town with not very many big stores in the area, all my shoe shopping is done online








Paul, Helen and Grace

aboard all the new cruisers. We are Mary and DH Stevie from Scotland. This will be our 9th Disney cruise and we did the WBTA last year and it was fantastic.

We were blessed with amazing weather last year so here's hoping we get some of the same this time



Brilliant mask Sarah, loving the SM




That ice-cream looks fab !! I love Beaches and Cream. We are having a mini dis meet there next week so Rachel can meet up with some other kids before we cruise



Josh, you are on the same flight as us

I did not need much encouraging to buy the boots. ha ha ha. The website says they are 100% authentic. $300 is better than $800 Here's hoping.

 

[Chris&Jeremy]

Yeah I know and I shoudl have said.. every Cruise line says the same thing.

Somehow I think with this group there won't be a lot of rule-following going on.

 

[Dgentrysim]

to all our newbie cruisers to the disboards! Glad to have you on board!

 

[karentan]

Jacqueline, hope today's goes well and you feel better soon.

Welcome aboard to all our new cruisers


We have two spaces left on the minibus from the airport on the 10th. If anyone is interested please let me know

 

[LindaBabe]

I like the Hess station on property - and its little market has very reasonable prices, too (if you've got a car). I can get my Smart Food popcorn there (as though I were hungry enough to eat it).

I saw an article from June 2011 that they were considering fining gas stations $250/day for not having prices posted.

There is also a "cumberland farms" type gas station on the right hand side of Sand Lake between the Florida Mall and the airport that has very reasonable gas.

Besides those two "baddies" on Sonoran to avoid, also avoid - the gas station between Hotel Blvd and I-4, across from Crossroads. I think it might be a Sunoco - OUTrageous.

If you just go a little further on Vineland,past the entrance, under the underpass and past the exit, there's a station near the Walgreens at a convenient light that is also reasonable.

 

[hazelandannie]

There has been some interest in a possible meet up for anyone that lives in the Kent surrounding area. Bluewater seems the best option to meet and they have lots of different bars etc- and a Disney store!

I'm guessing that a weekend meet up is probably best. Hazel and I are free most weekends so I think if we throw some dates around to see whocan do when it'd be great to meet some fellow travellers face to face.

 

[Lionessa]

Jacqueline, hope today's goes well and you feel better soon.

Welcome aboard to all our new cruisers


We have two spaces left on the minibus from the airport on the 10th. If anyone is interested please let me know

I have purchased a transfer thru DCL on the 10th. Do you think I could cancel theirs and book with you to take your 2 last spots from airport to pier? What time is the bus leaving?

 

[Lionessa]

wow nancy you certainly are doing your research looking forward
to seeing this with aglass of champers in hand

i meant to say before my daughter has been emailing another cruiser same age for a few months now, i could pm you my dds email address if your dd would like to chat??

That sounds great. I don't have anything set up yet for my daughter, therefore she would be using my email address. Do you think it would be good as well to get our DD (and anyone else we can think of) to go on the kids thread to get to know each other as a group as well? What do you think? I see the kids' thread having very little activity and think it would be great if they could round up more friends as we are doing here for ourselves.