September 22, 2012 Fantasy Eastern "From Fantasyland to the Fantasy"

[livingis2me]

Just joining the thread, but have been anticipating this cruise since Easter of 2011. My Aunt and Uncle booked during their Dream cruise, and decided this one would be "adults" only. I told my Uncle that was a bummer (I'm 32), and he said that it just meant HIS kids weren't going. So long story short:

Jen (32)
Jamie (26) my cousin from my other uncle
Jeanie-my mom
Mel-my stepdad
Geoff-my uncle (mom's brother)
Collen-my aunt
Jon-friend of my aunt and uncle
Jeanne-friend of my aunt and uncle

All going and already counting down the days. It will be Jamie's first cruise ever, so I'm excited for her. I'm still reading through this thread, so PM me if you need anything else.

Thanks!!
Jen

Welcome! I've added you to our roll call.

Ron

 

[Patrickprincess]

Welcome to our new cruisers looking foward to meeting you.

Welcome! I've added you to our roll call.

Ron

Had some sad news from Centraila,washington near where i live one of our oldest historical building was lost to a fire on Tuesday. Everyone got out okay, Because it was too unstabble the inspector wasnt able to get into the buidling to find the cause of the fire. The bulding was first a bank then a dr office and then recourd store remmeber those There was no choice they had to tear it down it was so sad because ther had been five bussiness in there. Saw the new photos of the fantasy she's looking so good and soon we will be sailing her on our eastern caribbean fantasy until then see ya reall soon

 

[mouseears1]

Hello to all my fellow cruisers

I called Southwest on Friday and their agent told me that they are opening the booking time for their flights through mid November On February 20th, 2012.

I can't wait to sail and am counting down the days and hours

 

[skoi]

Sue 48, DH Ken 50, DD Amber 16, DS Kenny 13, DS Benny 13. celebrating our20th Anniversary. And DD sweet 16. SR 6610

What a great way to celebrate a sweet 16! Oldest dd would be so jealous.

And welcome aboard to everyone.

 

[skoi]

Have to apologize for not being around. We've had a very tense week learning that dh's entire department is being shut down by the city. He'll be transferred to another department (probably child welfare), at the same salary and job level, however, no overtime, which will cut into our vacation fund savings.

We'll still be on the cruise, but definitely with scaled back excursion budget.

 

[DLW8]

Hello to all my fellow cruisers

I called Southwest on Friday and their agent told me that they are opening the booking time for their flights through mid November On February 20th, 2012.

I can't wait to sail and am counting down the days and hours

JetBlue is opening theirs through early November as of tomorrow (Sunday) at Noon eastern. Hoping to find some good fares tomorrow!

Have to apologize for not being around. We've had a very tense week learning that dh's entire department is being shut down by the city. He'll be transferred to another department (probably child welfare), at the same salary and job level, however, no overtime, which will cut into our vacation fund savings.

We'll still be on the cruise, but definitely with scaled back excursion budget.

Hang in there - the Fantasy will be a great vacation, even with a scaled back excursion budget!

 

[jcemom]

I don't think we're going to spend a lot on excursions. We'll see I guess, but as of now I'm not planning to. Maybe we'll see if anyone else here is heading to a good beach on their own and tag along, or something, lol.

We are not into shopping, and while I'd enjoy it, DD wouldn't be very interested in sightseeing. I think we're either going to spend the day at a beach on both St. Maarten and St. Thomas/St. John, or if I decide to splurge, maybe do a beach day on one, and some sort of schooner-type excursion on the other. I've seen reviews for a couple different ones here on the DIS that looked like a lot of fun.

 

[Mdtwingles]

What a great way to celebrate a sweet 16! Oldest dd would be so jealous.

And welcome aboard to everyone.

She is looking forward to the teen spa.

 

[kpadalik]

We rarely ever do excursions. We've done the Butterfly Garden and the SkyLift thing on our own in St Thomas (right at the pier). And we've done Dunn's River Falls/Blue Hole/River Tubing in Jamaica. We live 30 minutes from one of the best beaches in the world (Siesta Key), so we tend not to do the beach excursions on cruises.

A couple years ago, we did St. Maarten on our own and had an absolute blast (even though it was SUPER hot!). I had read on the boards how to get over to Marigot on the cheap. We walked a couple blocks into Philipsburg and hopped a city bus to Marigot...cost us $2 each. Rode with the locals along the island - what a great experience! Met a man from the US who actually knew somebody from our hometown. The man had decided one day several years ago to pack up his stuff and move to St. Maarten. He operates the hot dog stands all over the island and loves his life there. He gave us some great advice and some history of the island. When we got off in Marigot, we shopped and walked a bit then we stopped into is open air hot dog cafe and had awesome hot dogs and cold beer! Then he gave our girls italian ices at no charge. He even left us alone at his little cafe while he ran over a couple blocks to a French bakery...he needed some bread for his hot dogs...nothing like fresh bread I tell ya! It was one of the most memorable experiences we have ever had on all of our cruises. We will probably do the same thing this time around! We felt like locals

I know my DH and DD want to do parasailing on Castaway Cay. They are so excited for that. I will do some relaxing and snorkeling. We really enjoy just hanging out on the ship when it is in port. Everyone gets off and the ship is so nice and quiet...we love it.

 

[kpadalik]

Kind of bummed about this. We had really hoped that somehow they would do MNSSHP the Thursday night before the cruise. It would've been a great way to start the vacation. Friday night would just be too exhausting to have to get up early for the cruise. Last time we did MNSSHP non of us could even think about getting out of bed before 10. We really try our best not to over do it the night before the cruise. It makes for a much more relaxed start of the cruise.

Ron

I know! I was hoping for MNSSHP on Thursday night too. We still might do it on Friday night, just have to see how the budget is and what the rest of our crew wants to do. We don't plan on getting to the port until 12-12:30 anyway.

 

[Patrickprincess]

We rarely ever do excursions. We've done the Butterfly Garden and the SkyLift thing on our own in St Thomas (right at the pier). And we've done Dunn's River Falls/Blue Hole/River Tubing in Jamaica. We live 30 minutes from one of the best beaches in the world (Siesta Key), so we tend not to do the beach excursions on cruises.

A couple years ago, we did St. Maarten on our own and had an absolute blast (even though it was SUPER hot!). I had read on the boards how to get over to Marigot on the cheap. We walked a couple blocks into Philipsburg and hopped a city bus to Marigot...cost us $2 each. Rode with the locals along the island - what a great experience! Met a man from the US who actually knew somebody from our hometown. The man had decided one day several years ago to pack up his stuff and move to St. Maarten. He operates the hot dog stands all over the island and loves his life there. He gave us some great advice and some history of the island. When we got off in Marigot, we shopped and walked a bit then we stopped into is open air hot dog cafe and had awesome hot dogs and cold beer! Then he gave our girls italian ices at no charge. He even left us alone at his little cafe while he ran over a couple blocks to a French bakery...he needed some bread for his hot dogs...nothing like fresh bread I tell ya! It was one of the most memorable experiences we have ever had on all of our cruises. We will probably do the same thing this time around! We felt like locals

I know my DH and DD want to do parasailing on Castaway Cay. They are so excited for that. I will do some relaxing and snorkeling. We really enjoy just hanging out on the ship when it is in port. Everyone gets off and the ship is so nice and quiet...we love it.

This sounds like alot of fun. I 'm going on this cruise with not alot of money and this sounds like this just may be the ticket. This is how far from the ship and did you bring your camera?

 

[skoi]

We were hoping to do one of the schooner trips this time. Oldest dd (who will be at school) never wanted to do anything like that, but the other three kids would love it. A little pricey for five of us, but maybe we'll still be able to swing it.

We rarely do excursions. Did one in Tunisia on the 2010 Med (which was a waste of money since I spoke enough Arabic to get by on our own), and then Florence on your own and on the TA Seville on your own. We usually wing it-- and let chaos ensue. But was totally looking forward to going on a boat at St Thomas or St Maarten for a day.

 

[livingis2me]

I know! I was hoping for MNSSHP on Thursday night too. We still might do it on Friday night, just have to see how the budget is and what the rest of our crew wants to do. We don't plan on getting to the port until 12-12:30 anyway.

We'll definitely miss the chance to start out our vacation with MNSSHP as it is my favorite way to enjoy the Magic Kingdom, but we've come up with an alternate plan. Since we've been waiting to see the "new" Fantasyland, we are going to do a regular park day on Thursday 9-20. We'll most likely buy FL resident 3 day passes so we can go back sometime in October to do "Food and Wine". Then we'll probably go back to Magic Kingdom in December to see the Christmas decorations.

So with this plan we'll still have all day to chill out at the Ron Jon resort and the beach on Friday the 21st. Then we'll hopefully meet up with some of you (Dis-ers) at Fishlips that evening. I'm hoping some of you will already be at the port to join us...

Ron

 

[livingis2me]

We were hoping to do one of the schooner trips this time. Oldest dd (who will be at school) never wanted to do anything like that, but the other three kids would love it. A little pricey for five of us, but maybe we'll still be able to swing it.

We rarely do excursions. Did one in Tunisia on the 2010 Med (which was a waste of money since I spoke enough Arabic to get by on our own), and then Florence on your own and on the TA Seville on your own. We usually wing it-- and let chaos ensue. But was totally looking forward to going on a boat at St Thomas or St Maarten for a day.

We did the Doubloon Turtle Cove Sail & Snorkel excursion on our Royal Caribbean cruise last September. They do the same excursion through DCL. It was not too expensive and we had a great time. You can check out their website at Doubloon dot com and click on the top left photo (which is the Doubloon) to get some info about this excursion. You can also check out Jen's (nenner1) trip report here on the Dis. You can check it out, click here if you'd like. that link will take you right to that excursion part of her trip report.

Ron

 

[DLW8]

Good luck to everyone that is looking for flights on SW tomorrow!

I checked JetBlue for our flights, and am going to hold off until the end of the month as I am 36 points away from getting 2 of our 4 flights for free! My AmEx statement will have posted by the end of the month and that would save me some money!

Just hope the fares don't skyrocket by then, otherwise, I will just hold out for a sale like I got last year....

 

[jcemom]

We'll definitely miss the chance to start out our vacation with MNSSHP as it is my favorite way to enjoy the Magic Kingdom, but we've come up with an alternate plan. Since we've been waiting to see the "new" Fantasyland, we are going to do a regular park day on Thursday 9-20.

We are looking at Thursday for a park day also. Our plan is to hit DHS, AK, AND Epcot. We'll get by on what we can do at MK during the MNSSHP, and if we can swing two MNSSHP (not sure about that yet) then that will be great.

I told DD that I think we can manage three parks in one day, although we've never tried it before, as long as she only chooses 3-4 attractions per park. She picked:

DHS -- Toy Story, RnRC, HISTK playground, and maybe Star Tours
AK -- Everest, Primeval Whirl, Boneyard playground
Epcot -- Soarin', Test Track, Figment, and maybe Ellen's Energy

 

[kpadalik]

This sounds like alot of fun. I 'm going on this cruise with not alot of money and this sounds like this just may be the ticket. This is how far from the ship and did you bring your camera?

Once we got to Front Street (which runs parallel to the water I believe), we walked back 2-3 blocks maybe until we found the city buses. They are run down, open-window, no seatbelt kind of buses, but we had fun (as did our girls). We just found a bus that said "Marigot" in the window and it took us there. The guy that we met on the bus, showed us a good area to get out that had lots of shopping, cafes, and an open air spice market nearby. Yes, I brought my camera.

We'll definitely miss the chance to start out our vacation with MNSSHP as it is my favorite way to enjoy the Magic Kingdom, but we've come up with an alternate plan. Since we've been waiting to see the "new" Fantasyland, we are going to do a regular park day on Thursday 9-20. We'll most likely buy FL resident 3 day passes so we can go back sometime in October to do "Food and Wine". Then we'll probably go back to Magic Kingdom in December to see the Christmas decorations.

So with this plan we'll still have all day to chill out at the Ron Jon resort and the beach on Friday the 21st. Then we'll hopefully meet up with some of you (Dis-ers) at Fishlips that evening. I'm hoping some of you will already be at the port to join us...

Ron

That sounds like a great plan!!! We usually go to MNSSHP with a large group from my DH's work (about 30 of us, including kids). This is usually the weekend that we go. They may still all go, not sure yet. We will be staying in Orlando (probably on property somewhere) for the 2 nights before the cruise. So we won't get over to PC until around 12-12:30 (hoping for that time frame anyway) the day of.

We are looking at Thursday for a park day also. Our plan is to hit DHS, AK, AND Epcot. We'll get by on what we can do at MK during the MNSSHP, and if we can swing two MNSSHP (not sure about that yet) then that will be great.

I told DD that I think we can manage three parks in one day, although we've never tried it before, as long as she only chooses 3-4 attractions per park. She picked:

DHS -- Toy Story, RnRC, HISTK playground, and maybe Star Tours
AK -- Everest, Primeval Whirl, Boneyard playground
Epcot -- Soarin', Test Track, Figment, and maybe Ellen's Energy

Have fun! Sounds like an awesome day for sure! Your DD didn't want to do ToT at DHS? Love that ride!

 

[jcemom]

Have fun! Sounds like an awesome day for sure! Your DD didn't want to do ToT at DHS? Love that ride!

Nope. I LOVE ToT, but she doesn't like it. She used to like it, when she was first tall enough to ride it, but a few years ago she decided that she doesn't like it any more, lol.

 

[alohabob]

One more thing I can check off the to do list, our flight home is now booked for Oct.4 thanks South West.
Welcome aboard to all you newbies.....we are going to have a great cruise!

 

[nenner1]

Nope. I LOVE ToT, but she doesn't like it. She used to like it, when she was first tall enough to ride it, but a few years ago she decided that she doesn't like it any more, lol.

Same with our daughter (Savannah)- she LOVED it at age 4- now at age 10 she won't go near it!!