Sept. 26, 2009 Magic

[goofieslonglostsis]

hi everyone

me(birthday 36), dh, dd(will be 2), dgrandma(birthday 52) & dgrandpa will be there on our first(hopefully of many) disney cruise. we are so excited. Any helpful information will be greatly appreciated.

Welcome 'aboard'! Yet another birthday-bash. That makes 5 of us, I think? Pam, sounds like we need a big 'celebrate birthdays party'.

We will have a larger than life balcony, but somehow I'm thinking the group is becoming to big to celebrate out there.

Just got off the boat September 14, 2008...lol...
Me (33), DW (30), DS(3). Looking forward to meeting you all...had a great time with our last DIS Meet Group...

Also welcome "aboard"!

And of course, you to Drea.

I am hoping all you smarties can answer a ? for me. We booked our 9/26/09 cruise when we were on board 9/14/08. We got the on board credit of $200 I think, but I have heard of people saying if you switch to DU you can get more on board credit? Can someone explain this to me? How do I switch my ressie? Thanks in advance to the advice. The 9/14 was our first cruise so there is a lot for me to still learn. We were on the Wonder, btw and had a blast. I am trying to catch up on the thread. Hope to chat with ya'll later![/I]

It's very easy; mail the TA you want to transfer the reservation to and tell them you want to transfer the ressie. They've got forms to do this and it's SO easy.

You might want to shop around a little, though. For me personally, DU wasn't the best deal by far. I asked a couple of TA's for a quote, for the most affordable 7 day cruise somewhere between august and october (got to love the abbility to travel any day). DU quoted me a cruise for almost $4000,- for august solo. Sure, they offered me $200,- OBC but when you can book another sept. cruise much cheaper through DCL it isn't that attractive. Anyhow, one TA came with a very attractive offer. Pricing on tier 1 and eventhough the OBC was lower than some other TA's, the basic price (price minus OBC) was the cheapest by far. The TA even upped my OBC later on when stumbling upon a cheaper one -with no OBC-. And that happened to be for both this cruise and the Western a week before. Anyhow, I really want to do St. Maarten, so that was an easy pick. Just for fun I also asked a DU a quote for this specific cruise. The quote was significantly higher and the difference in OBC didn't cover that. So I ended up booking through DCL and transferring it to my current TA.

Shop around and see which TA can offer you the best deal for your family. It really can differ sometimes. (personally I only wanted to deal with DCL-expert TA's, but there are enough of them out there)

 

[ebony]

Hi everyone, just been catching up on this thread and would like to say HI to all the new cruisers registered. There are so many of us already.

I am really interested in all the things that people are suggesting we do like the ' Jammy breakfast ' ' Meet on boarding day after life boat drill' ' Walk on deck'. These all sound like they could be soooo much fun.

I would just like to say that I have seen a few posts, with people suggesting supporting different charities for the walk and wondered if maybe we could all just support, our own prefered charity and have our own T-shirts made for this. It could work by us all having the same colour t-shirt, with just our prefered charity on it.
I have a son with Cystic Fibrosis and also Heamophillia, so would have some sort of design to incorporate these on a T-shirt. We could than all have the same lanyards as suggested by another poster.
Anyway this is just a thought.

Is anybody else visiting Disney over this coming Christmas period ?.
We are and are really looking forward to being there over Xmas and hopefully having lots of sunshine.
The weather here is not too bad at the moment ,but we have had a bad summer with not many long spells of sunshine !!.
After this Xmas trip I know I will be getting very impatient for our next cruise.

I will try now to keep up a bit better with this thread, and anything that I can do to help, just give me a shout. Sorry this post is a bit long !!.

 

[goofieslonglostsis]

Ebony, we'll be doing WDW just before christmas. (dec 2nd-15th) Looks like we'll be just missing eachother this year.

 

[Disney Sweetie]

Hey Everyone!!

We are getting a large group and I think I am gonna ask for volunteers in certain areas. Several of you have offered to help and I think since you know what talents you have, you will know what area you want to work better than me assigning them to you!

So think about what area you would like to help in and let me know....You will be responsible for organizing the event. If you need help, just let us know and we can get it for you.

1) Jammie Breakfast....needs to be on a Sea Day...need to set this up with Disney and maybe have Shutters take a group photo prior to the breakfast. Start a list of participants. Maybe eat at Lumiere's, have picture made in front of Mickey statue and eat as soon as they open?

2) Secret Mickey.....2 or 3 gifts to be delivered during the week with maybe a get together on the last Sea Day to find out who was your Secret Mickey. This can be broke down into adults and children..if enough children want to participate. You will need to gather info for everyone wanting to play and then have a deadline for signing up so that the gifts can be bought BEFORE the cruise. You will be responsible for assigning the Secret Mickeys and getting the info to the appropriate person. Also need to set a price limit for the total of gifts bought per person.

3) Charity Walk....needs to be on a Sea Day...maybe early morning while it is still cool. Set up a time and meeting place to start walk...deck 10? It has been suggested that maybe we wear a tshirt for our favorite charity in a pre-arranged group color. Start a list of participants.

4) Lanyards...responsible for design and getting these ordered. Start a list of participants. Make payment arrangements with each person...maybe make an ID card with our name, DIS name and our group logo on it to go into the pouch.

I think this is all that has been discussed on here. We dont want to over do our time on the ship with to many extra activities, but we want to make it fun and have times to visit and meet each other. All activities are optional....by no means do you have to participate in any of them in order to be a part of our DIS group! We just want to make this a fun time for everyone.

If you have anymore suggestions or comments, just let us know. Lets make this fun!!!!

Cant wait to meet everyone and put a face to the names!

348 more days!!!!

 

[FatCat]

Suggestions for meets.

3:00 in Promenade Lounge (4:00 is muster drill)
Good place in A/C to meet and have that first drink

First Tequila tasting on sea day

 

[goofieslonglostsis]

Pam, you can put me down for the Secret Mickey.

 

[sftnslky]

Wow I don't keep up with the tread for a while and WHAMO 10 pages later... But as many of you remember we were going through some tough times... DH had been without a contract for 2? months we we joined the thread and we were not sure if we would really be able to go... Sooooo just shy of 3 months later HUBBY GOT A CONTRACT ...Things got REALLY scary ... over 4 1/2 months with no job...and I don't work...would be hard since I homeschool our 4 younger kids. We came really close to having to give back our home ... We have lived in our home 9 years..and the stress about loosing it was one of the MAIN reasons I wasn't on the thread. Orginally DH's contract was for 3 months, but then they told him he was actually replacing a staff member so would he be willing to stay longer???? Well, YES!!!! lol And the same head hunting compnay that found him the job has two other folks who have contracts with this company and they have been there over 2 years...

All I can say is....THANK THE LORD that we had over 2 months of savings..or I don't know what we would have done..Its funny you 'look' at your savings and think.."oh we are good" and then you have to fully support your total household bills on it and it isn't nearly as much as you thought it was... and you find out what you can really live without and what is important.

So from this day forward I promise to keep up with the thread.

 

[sftnslky]

I am hoping all you smarties can answer a ? for me. We booked our 9/26/09 cruise when we were on board 9/14/08. We got the on board credit of $200 I think, but I have heard of people saying if you switch to DU you can get more on board credit? Can someone explain this to me? How do I switch my ressie? Thanks in advance to the advice. The 9/14 was our first cruise so there is a lot for me to still learn. We were on the Wonder, btw and had a blast. I am trying to catch up on the thread. Hope to chat with ya'll later![/I]

We rebooked on board this past June for this coming up cruise.. We also got the $200 obc per cabin...we have connecting cat 6 cabins..so that was $400 total... We also used our Disney Chase Visa and got $25 per cabin..so $50 total...and then once we got back home a few weeks later we filled out the online transfer of reservations with Dreams Unlimited and they also gave us an additional $200 per cabin so we will have a grand total of $850 waiting for us when we board. It is super easy to transfer and we have used DU on our past curise and they are nice to work with..they aren't good at "hand holding" but we already knew what to do so no big deal.

 

[sftnslky]

Not for me..but our DD Jennah who will turn 13 two months before the cruise, would love to have a friend prior to the cruise. Someone she can email back and forth with and get to know so they can hang out during the cruise. Our other DD Macy has started emailing Emily so she is covered. We are pretty old fashioned, so no disrespect, but we need her pen pal to be a gril pelase Just send me a pm and we can get them hooked up.

 

[Disney Sweetie]

Not for me..but our DD Jennah who will turn 13 two months before the cruise, would love to have a friend prior to the cruise. Someone she can email back and forth with and get to know so they can hang out during the cruise. Our other DD Macy has started emailing Emily so she is covered. We are pretty old fashioned, so no disrespect, but we need her pen pal to be a gril pelase Just send me a pm and we can get them hooked up.

Hi and welcome back!! Yep we have really grown since you last visited with us. I listed a kids thread that has been started for our cruise. Maybe your girls can chat with some of the other kids going.

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1970529

Pam, you can put me down for the Secret Mickey.

Gotcha down!! Thanks so much for helping!! If you have any questions, just ask. I have a little experience in doing the Secret Mickey. Its lots of fun.

 

[thepanmanman]

Hello:

Just moved our reservations to the Sept 26th Eastbound cruise. I am Jack (aka Boomba) and my DW is Lisa (aka Yayo). We rebooked on the Double Dip a few weeks ago. That was our first cruise and we fell in love with Disney Cruise Line. We transfered to AAA for our cruise and got and additional 250 onboard credit. They are running a special cruise week program this week. So that gives us a 450 onboard credit, thats a lot of t-shirts.

We enjoyed the FE gift trading and would like to participate again. I can't believe all the particpants, it was the best. We would also like to get the lanyards, it was a great way to break the ice and meet a lot of great people.

Glad to see so many from the double dip move to this cruise. Fatcat, how about we have a cigar and a drink this time. Look forward to seeing you again.

Hope this board is as active as the last. Look forward to meeting all of you.

Jack

 

[Disney Sweetie]

thepanmanman!! Let us know your names, kids ages, and cabin number and we can add you to our lists on page 1 and 9.

Looking forward to meeting you!!

 

[Bareacuda]

Welcome to the Group!

I know what you mean about falling in love with DCL !
We've been on since the maiden voyage of the Magic back in 1998!

Welcome again....

Ann

 

[thepanmanman]

thepanmanman!! Let us know your names, kids ages, and cabin number and we can add you to our lists on page 1 and 9.

Looking forward to meeting you!!

We are Lisa (55) and Jack (61) ages at time of cruise. We are in room 7552.
Traveling alone. Would like to be added to both FE and Lanyard list.

 

[FatCat]

We are Lisa (55) and Jack (61) ages at time of cruise. We are in room 7552.
Traveling alone. Would like to be added to both FE and Lanyard list.

Boomba. You think you can keep up with the FATACT!!!!

 

[thepanmanman]

Boomba. You think you can keep up with the FATACT!!!!

No, thats why I said A drink.

 

[Maggie62677]

Again, to all the 'new' families that have just joined the group! it's amazing to see that in just what... ... 2 days there have been over 20 people added! THAT IS AWESOME!!! I look forward to getting to know you all before the cruise!!!

Hi all thought I better get over here and intro myself... I too am one of those Double dippers that booked this cruise while on board 2weeks ago (Hi Jen, Maggie, Chris and Paul... did I forget anyone?)

Secret Mickey was also fun. Im more then happy to help with either of these as I was incharge of it last time so its still fresh in my mind LOL.

DREA!! So great to have you back!!! I must say, you really outdid yourself with all the planning and all the organizing you helped with...you really were one of the cornerstones of the 'DD' cruise! That said, I wish I would have gotten to talk with you more, I saw you a few times and everytime you were having a blast with your family...hey, that's how it should be! Think I even sat next to you in Palo...heck, we were so close we could have pulled our tables together!!!

Anyway, glad to see you'll be a familiar face...look forward to lots of planning with you!

 

[sftnslky]

Hi and welcome back!! Yep we have really grown since you last visited with us. I listed a kids thread that has been started for our cruise. Maybe your girls can chat with some of the other kids going.

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1970529 .

Hi, thank you so much for the link, my 12 year old has posted a few post already, her and Chappel have ALOT in common. I am so glad that she is able to met someone before the cruise, that way she won't feel all alone.

 

[hal001]

thanks to chappel for hosting the kids thread. DS7 wants to introduce himself (he wants a sig of his own but i'm not sure i want him to have that much power just yet )

i also think the lanyards are a great idea! i wish i could help but i wouldn't know the first place to start looking to order something like that . I do think same-colored t-shirts are a great idea for the walk. Hopefully there's a color that everyone likes that is bold enough for us all to get noticed for the causes we walk for .

?? about OBC: we booked thru AAA but were not offered OBC at the time. Should I ask? It would seem they should have said something . I also have to remember to ask onboard for the price to rebook to see if its any less than what i have now

gotta go - dinner awaits

 

[kaydoggy]

Hello,
Just back from the 10/4 Western on the Magic and we liked it so much we rebooked for this cruise next year. Me, my wife and 6 yr old twins. We have also conned my mother and aunt into going as well. this time.

Mark