Sept. 23, 2012 Pacific Coast - Wonder Cruise

[atmail35]

Thank you for the info erbie! I sent you a PM.

 

[BigDisneyOE]

AussieMumma - I'm with Renata, come with us to formal night. Most people don't have the luggage issues you and I have, hauling stuff across the ocean for kids etc (are you taking Miss 3's carseat? we have two of those in huge sacks going with us too). I've just sent you a PM with the FE instructions amongst other things. Remember the FE stuff you are giving away will not be with you on the way home.

Renata - I'm going in black pants, nice top and ballet flats. I'm already over two inches taller than DH, if I were two inch plus heals I'm over six foot and he gets antsy.

 

[erbie]

I normally wear a floor length gown to formal and a cocktail dress to semi, as well as bring full pirate outfits for the whole family, but I'm not really feeling it this time. Maybe that will change, but if not, I have a nice black pants outfit that will work for formal night and a couple of dresses that I've worn to weddings that I can wear for semi formal and Palo. I just don't think I feel like lugging the huge garment bag this time. And DH will be happy if I just make him bring a suit and not a tux. We've done the full dress up for pirate, which is fun, but maybe I'll just bring the kids' outfits and not make DH dress up. He hates it.

And this time, I'm bringing my workout stuff, so I need the room in my luggage. That settles it!

 

[bbangel]

What's the temperature like in the restaurants? Would I be cold in sleeve less?

I'm usually slightly on the chilly side in the restaurants. I would say they keep them on the low side of room temp (about 17/18 degrees)

 

[BigDisneyOE]

I'm usually slightly on the chilly side in the restaurants. I would say they keep them on the low side of room temp (about 17/18 degrees)

AussieMumma will be cold then, she's a Sunshine Coast gal! Actually I'll be cold too as I feel the cold, so that's really useful information bbangel.

 

[glindamood]

Happy Friday!! All this packing talk - you would think we were all going somewhere !!

Do come to formal night - you will find some dressed up and some not so much. It isn't so much of a ladies thing as it is a guy thing when it comes to packing for that I think - suits and men's dress shoes take up a lot of room! That is why I have considered going the tux rental route since I am sure it would push me over for into that third bag.

And speaking of bags, remember that while you won't have to bring what you are giving for FE gifts home, you do need to take home what you get.

Nothing else to report from here. Knees are doing OK, I managed 5 minutes on the air climber last night and I can walk this morning and have not noticed a difference. Now to get back to where I was 3 months ago.

Take care and enjoy!

 

[jetskigrl]

I'm starting to get concerned about packing our bags! Normally we take three medium suitcases inside three larger suitcases and two of us share each one and it gives us plenty of room for all of our shopping that we bring home. But with the cruise and having to have nice clothes and shoes for dinner, plus pirate night stuff, FE & gifts, etc etc I'm just not sure my usual system is going to work!
Major first world problem I know, but I like my system it has always worked well for us
We've already decided not to go to formal night, so at least that's one less outfit per person to worry about.
See normally the boys and dh would just take one collared shirt and one pair of good pants on a USA holiday as we only go to a restaurant once a week due to the cost, but on the ship they will need at least two sets so I'm not washing everyday and they aren't wearing the same thing to dinner every night Plus we would normally get to the shops and buy new clothes so we don't take as much in the first place, but we are only arriving the day before the cruise and wont have any time!!!!
I might have to resign myself to taking more clothing and using the larger suitcases right from the start

Renata, thank you, that does make me think twice about going. I thought dh would have to wear a jacket to formal night and there is no way we can bring a jacket bag as well! Should he wear a tie? He only has one lol.

What's the temperature like in the restaurants? Would I be cold in sleeve less?

OK, I'm going to chime in here with everyone else and say please don't skip formal night because of clothes. There will be plenty of people that aren't dressed up as much.

Since we don't have a luggage issue, Dh will probably bring his suit on this trip. But next year when we have to fly to FL, he will just bring a pair of dress pants and button down shirt that he will wear for both formal and semi-formal. He will just bring different ties and maybe add a vest on formal might to dress it up a bit more.

I normally wear a floor length gown to formal and a cocktail dress to semi, as well as bring full pirate outfits for the whole family, but I'm not really feeling it this time. Maybe that will change, but if not, I have a nice black pants outfit that will work for formal night and a couple of dresses that I've worn to weddings that I can wear for semi formal and Palo. I just don't think I feel like lugging the huge garment bag this time. And DH will be happy if I just make him bring a suit and not a tux. We've done the full dress up for pirate, which is fun, but maybe I'll just bring the kids' outfits and not make DH dress up. He hates it.

And this time, I'm bringing my workout stuff, so I need the room in my luggage. That settles it!

I'm on the fence about pirate night attire also (especially if there are no fireworks). But we will probably bring ours anyway. I might as well get more use out of them since we won't be taking them on our Fantasy trip next year (luggage issue again, LOL).

Happy Friday!! All this packing talk - you would think we were all going somewhere !!

Do come to formal night - you will find some dressed up and some not so much. It isn't so much of a ladies thing as it is a guy thing when it comes to packing for that I think - suits and men's dress shoes take up a lot of room! That is why I have considered going the tux rental route since I am sure it would push me over for into that third bag.

And speaking of bags, remember that while you won't have to bring what you are giving for FE gifts home, you do need to take home what you get.

Nothing else to report from here. Knees are doing OK, I managed 5 minutes on the air climber last night and I can walk this morning and have not noticed a difference. Now to get back to where I was 3 months ago.

Take care and enjoy!

I'm glad to hear the knees are doing OK.

I agree about the FE gifts. Even though I gave out all our stuff on our previous cruises, I still had a ton of stuff that I received to take home. I dedicated a whole carry on bag to FE gifts, LOL.

Happy Friday everyone (or Saturday by the time some of you see this )
I hope everyone has a great weekend. We are heading to DLR tonight for a special passholder viewing of WOC (that comes with the special Glow with the Show ears...nice perk). The showing isn't until 11:45 tonight and I was up at 5:00 am so this is going to be a long day.

 

[glindamood]

Happy Friday everyone (or Saturday by the time some of you see this )
I hope everyone has a great weekend. We are heading to DLR tonight for a special passholder viewing of WOC (that comes with the special Glow with the Show ears...nice perk). The showing isn't until 11:45 tonight and I was up at 5:00 am so this is going to be a long day.

At some point this afternoon - it may be siesta time!

 

[fshagan]

We are booked on this cruise with several other family / friends:

Us: Frank and Jan, mid-50's (how the hell did that happen?)
Family: Mother and Sister (86 and 65 ... they have always been old)
Friends: Mike and Pepper ("young" people like us), and Pep's mother

We have been on several DCL cruises out of Port Canaveral, but choose this cruise because our older family members don't have to fly. Jan and I usually cruise NCL these days, mainly due to costs. We've had inside, porthole and verandah rooms on DCL, and porthole, balcony and two bedroom suites on NCL. For this cruise we are going the cheap route: the least expensive inside cabin. My mother and sister booked a navigator's verandah, and Mike and Pepper booked a suite.

We have family in SFC, so we will probably spend Tuesday with them, but are thinking about heading over to the Disney Family Museum on Wednesday. Admission is $20 each (as opposed to the excursion's $55), and we're thinking I can get my brother to come and drive us there! Or take a cab.

Does anyone know where the Wonder will dock for the SFC stay?

And regarding fireworks, on other non-DCL California coastal cruises, the ship is in international waters (you can't see land at all), so I would imagine any sea day could accommodate fireworks.

 

[erbie]

We are booked on this cruise with several other family / friends:

Does anyone know where the Wonder will dock for the SFC stay?

And regarding fireworks, on other non-DCL California coastal cruises, the ship is in international waters (you can't see land at all), so I would imagine any sea day could accommodate fireworks.

Welcome! Glad to have you with us.

The ship docks at Fisherman's Wharf. I forget which pier it is, but it's next to the one the sea lions hang out at, toward the Bay Bridge side of the Wharf. It's very convenient, accessible to plenty of public transportation.

I can't remember if there were fireworks on the CA - Vancouver repo. I think there were but it was so cold I wasn't spending much time on the deck during the pirate party. I'd bet we'll get fireworks after SD as we head into Mexican or international waters.

 

[AussieMumma]

Thank you all so much for your comments about formal night, I feel so much better about the packing now. I still think we might have to use one of the "spare" suitcases right from the start but even without the formal wear there's still the pirate gear and FE stuff.
What are you all wearing for pirate night, what type of costumes? I'll probably be boring and just wear a bandana or pirate hat.

Marian, I will go check my messages, thank you I'll be in flats also, my dh is a couple of cm's shorter then me (not that he admits to that) so I tend to keep away from the stilettos!

Frank, welcome to you and your family! Hopefully we might meet on the ship, look for the crazy Aussie family with four kids and then quickly run the other direction!!!
The ship docks at pier 35, I was looking into that the other day as the Alcatraz tours leave from the pier next to it 33

The sun has finally come back to the Sunshine Coast, it was a gorgeous 22 degrees (celsius) today with not a cloud in the sky, this is what a Queensland winter should be!
It's 4pm on Saturday afternoon, which is wine o'clock in this house. I'm enjoying a nice glass of white while looking over the canal from our deck ahhh
DD 13 has a dance eisteddfod last night in Brisbane which is an hour away, we didn't get home until after 10:30pm, her group performed really well though, proud mummy moment for sure!

 

[BigDisneyOE]

Welcome to BlondeJungleBookFan and also to Frank and his family.

We'll be the Kiwi family with the twin boys heading in seperate directions or probably chasing AussieMumma's youngest girl!

AussieMumma, there are benefits to having short men. I do not ever bend down in the supermarket for stuff as DH does that and I reach the very high top shelf for him and all the oldies. My brother thinks it's Wine O'Clock at any time (or whisky or whatever) as it's always 4pm somewhere in the world. Who are you guys flying out with? I've read our Ts&Cs for Air NZ and one extra bag is $70US. DH is hoping to get Koru Club in his work negotiations and that takes him to an extra bag, which means a total of six bags of 23kgs between the four of us.

I ran 10kms today. First time ever. Ever. Did the last 2.5km on pavement and it was very easy compared to the dunes and rocky hill tracks I normally run on. It was cold going as the wind died but the temp dropped to -1C this morning.

Right off to get this new sewing machine out to play with, I bought the fabric I needed for the FE yesterday and need to get a wriggle on now.

 

[AussieMumma]

Marion, -1c I could even leave the house if that was the temp!!
We don't have flights yet but it will be either Qantas or Virgin Australia. We get heaps of luggage allowance, between the six of us it's like over 240kg!!

bbangel, I meant to thank you for the info on the temp in the restaurants, I think i'll need so etching to cover my shoulders

 

[BigDisneyOE]

Marion, -1c I could even leave the house if that was the temp!!
We don't have flights yet but it will be either Qantas or Virgin Australia. We get heaps of luggage allowance, between the six of us it's like over 240kg!!

bbangel, I meant to thank you for the info on the temp in the restaurants, I think i'll need so etching to cover my shoulders

You don't want to know how cold it gets at Gail's place then! They go ice fishing up her way! To be honest -18C in Ankara was warmer than -5C here once you'd taken the wind chill factor and the gales into the mix. Mid you a six monthly swing from 46C to -18C is a lot too!

How can you not have your fares sorted? We booked ours last October as we got a third off the price.

 

[AussieMumma]

Brrr you're making me cold just talking about that weather!!
We've been waiting for a flight sale, the 22nd Sep is the first day of the spring school holidays so there may not even be a sale, but Flight Centre is having a USA expo on the 21st July so fingers crossed for some good prices!

 

[fshagan]

Welcome! Glad to have you with us.

The ship docks at Fisherman's Wharf. I forget which pier it is, but it's next to the one the sea lions hang out at, toward the Bay Bridge side of the Wharf. It's very convenient, accessible to plenty of public transportation.

I can't remember if there were fireworks on the CA - Vancouver repo. I think there were but it was so cold I wasn't spending much time on the deck during the pirate party. I'd bet we'll get fireworks after SD as we head into Mexican or international waters.

Thanks for the welcome!

I found out the "cruise ship dock" is Pier 35 ... http://www.worldportsource.com/ports/map.230.467.php That's right next to the ferry that goes out to Alcatraz. But I know sometimes Disney does their own thing,so I wasn't sure that was the dock! They will be building a new cruise ship terminal at pier 27, but that's only a few hundred feet away.

I guess a cab is the easiest way to get to the Walt Disney Family Museum; public transit takes at least three connections. Cab fare was about $21 in December (there's a DIS forum thread on it somewhere). There's a free shuttle on weekdays called PresidiGo that supposedly goes from the pier area to Fisherman's Wharf.

 

[BigDisneyOE]

I've found a Walt Disney Museum $3 off coupon valid over the period we'll be in SF. If you want a copy PM me and I'll forward the link.

 

[DisDiana]

I've found a Walt Disney Museum $3 off coupon valid over the period we'll be in SF. If you want a copy PM me and I'll forward the link.

Just sent mine, thanks for sharing!

 

[fshagan]

I've found a Walt Disney Museum $3 off coupon valid over the period we'll be in SF. If you want a copy PM me and I'll forward the link.

I sent you a message!

Also, I found out the WDFM gives a AAA discount (for those US AAA members).

 

[peja]

Its been quite on here. I assume everyone is either celebrating Canada Day or preparing for the Fourth of July. CHEERS TO EVERYONE