September 29, 2012 - Ropin' Some Magic in the Western Caribbean

[Texas lady]

Hi all! We live.in Flower Mound and always drive.down to Galveston the morning of cruises.

We have used EZ Cruise Parking for 12 cruises and we love them! $55 for 7 day cruise parking. You need to reserve a spot online before you go I believe. One cruise, we were already on the ship, almost sail time, and realized we had left Hubby's important meds in.the cooler in the car! He had a knee injury and couldn't run, so I went. The EZ lot is 2 blocked from the terminal, but the driver stopped what he was doing, took me directly to our car and directly back to the ship. I was gone for only 10 minutes total! I cried in the van on the way back to the ship because I was ready to either run the two.blocks myself.or try to.find a cab. EZ saved the day, and we have been faithful customers ever since!!

Awesome!!

 

[CrazyZeus1]

Thanks for the link! Looks like interesting plans...will have to check them out! We'll be knee-deep studying WWII then, so we'll have to see if I can fit pirates in there somehow. HA!

 

[CrazyZeus1]

I believe the Magic and Carnival Triumph are the only two ships leaving Galveston on the 29th.

That's GOOD there are only two and not three ships sailing that day. And the Triumph is a smaller ship (not the huge Carnival Magic). The parking gets hairy when they are unloading/loading multipile ships' worth of passengers.

We have been in port many, many times on the Carnival Magic & when Royal Caribbean is also boarding, and it hasn't been BAD, but it's been heavy sometimes.

Two "smaller" ships in port is a good thing!

 

[minniescout]

Yes, that is close!! Looking forward to the meet up!

Me too! Just trying to figure out FE gifts now. And try to do the 'no sew' FE - we shall see!

 

[minniescout]

Okay - I have been told conflicting information about formal and semi-formal nights. ONe person said -tux and after 5 is a must - others have said DCL is not as 'formal' - nice 'marrying/burying' wear. So...what is the real story? Also any ideas on where to get pirate wear?

 

[Piper]

Okay - I have been told conflicting information about formal and semi-formal nights. ONe person said -tux and after 5 is a must - others have said DCL is not as 'formal' - nice 'marrying/burying' wear. So...what is the real story? Also any ideas on where to get pirate wear?

I think it is up to you on formal night. I am wearing a "formal" blouse and skirt. My sister is wearing what she wore when my nephew married (mother of groom dress.) If you want to go formal--do. If not then nice clothes are fine.

As for pirate, I made Nancy and I striped scarves and white peasant shirts with long sleeves for that night. I edged the ends with trim. Since purple is Nancy's favorite color, hers is lavender and mine is pink (not pirate colors) We will probably wear black slacks with them.

 

[soccermom1422]

Okay - I have been told conflicting information about formal and semi-formal nights. ONe person said -tux and after 5 is a must - others have said DCL is not as 'formal' - nice 'marrying/burying' wear. So...what is the real story? Also any ideas on where to get pirate wear?

There are several places online you can order pirate wear, including disneystore.com and Oriental Trading. You can also google how to make your own pirate costume.

I needed to keep my costs down, so I went to Goodwill and found white shirts, pants, and belts that I thought looked pirate-like. I couldn't find pants for everyone, so I got black scrubs and cut off the bottoms. Then I had some help from my mom making the accessories from material scraps that I had - belts, vests, sashes, and eyepatches. Luckily my 2-year old has a hand-me-down pirate costume.

 

[Belle6000]

Most of our pirate costumes came from thrift stores. You can buy a pair of cheap black pants and cut them off. My husband has a costume that friend of ours made for her husband and gave to us. We still have most of our stuff from our last disney cruise, but the kids have grown since then so I still need to pick up a pair of pants for my son and a new white blouse for my daughter.
I have a long black skirt with a ruffle at the bottom that I picked up at a thrift store before our last disney cruise...it's the perfect pirate skirt. I bought a peasant blouse at Old Navy to go with it.

I cut red material into strips for "belts". We also have pirate eye patches and earrings. I think Disney gives you a bandana at the pirate meal that night too. Buying women's blouses in a size too large for you is a good option too. Google pirate costumes and you'll see a lot of options. And don't forget oriental trading has free shipping on any order through tuesday. They have some good pirate accessories that are inexpensive.

 

[Belle6000]

Okay - I have been told conflicting information about formal and semi-formal nights. ONe person said -tux and after 5 is a must - others have said DCL is not as 'formal' - nice 'marrying/burying' wear. So...what is the real story? Also any ideas on where to get pirate wear?

I think a suit is fine for the formal evening. I have a semi formal dress already so I'm looking for something a little more formal for formal night, but I'd like to be able to wear it again so it won't be an evening gown or anything. The last disney cruise we went on was a 3 night so there was no formal night, but I have a friend who has been on many disney cruises and she said you'll see nice dressy apparel all the way to completly formal with tux/evening gown.

We haven't decided exactly what we're doing yet, but I think my husband will probably just wear a suit and I'll wear at least a semi formal dress. I think it's kind of funny that they have a formal and a semi formal night since semi formal really seems to work for both of them.

 

[BendeleFamily]

I agree. Semi Formal works for both so that's probably what I'm going to do. My girls will wear princess dresses on those nights. Found some vintage Mickey pirate tees for my girls & plan on making them bandana skirts to match for pirate night. As for me, haven't quite figured out what I'm doing for pirate night. Can't wait!

 

[txtricia]

Hi all. I wanted to ask a new question. For everyone going down the night before, where is everyone staying? We're trying to pick our hotel this weekend.

 

[Belle6000]

Hi all. I wanted to ask a new question. For everyone going down the night before, where is everyone staying? We're trying to pick our hotel this weekend.

Were staying at the comfort suites on 89th st. We've never stayed there before but it got good reviews and they have free parking while you're on the cruise.

 

[Milio99]

We're treating formal night as semi-formal. Cocktail dress for me, dress shirts and ties for the guys. On semi-formal night we'll be at Palo.

As far as pirate night, we're all dressing up, even DH! Can't wait for those pics!

We just booked the Stingray excursion with Nativeway, sounds like so much fun. In Cozumel, we're going to Paradise beach on our own. And Costa Maya, DH and I are heading to the Tropicante by ourselves for a couple of hours to enjoy drinks and a massage, kid-free.

 

[kpaulson]

We are flying into Houston on Thursday and hired a town car to take us here...

http://innatthewaterpark2-px.trvlclick.com/

They have free parking for cruises, and also a free shuttle to the cruise port. They also have a mini golf course on site and say they are close to a waterpark and something called Moody Gardens. When we are a little closer to leaving I'll call and double check all the info

Figured being there an extra day, the attractions would help keep my little one occupied

 

[Piper]

We are going down to Galveston on Friday morning (I think.) My BIL and sister are very involved in the Gideons. They have either a state or national convention that weekend at the San Luis Resort. (I'm not involved, so I'm not sure which--I know they had an international convention a few weeks ago.) I will probably just be hanging around that day...not doing much. Then on Saturday, we will probably take the hotel's transportation to the ship.

 

[Texas lady]

We are flying into Houston on Thursday and hired a town car to take us here...

http://innatthewaterpark2-px.trvlclick.com/

They have free parking for cruises, and also a free shuttle to the cruise port. They also have a mini golf course on site and say they are close to a waterpark and something called Moody Gardens. When we are a little closer to leaving I'll call and double check all the info

Figured being there an extra day, the attractions would help keep my little one occupied

You will love Moody Gaderns! , it is great!
But Schlitterbahn (waterpark) will not be open until the saturday Sept. 29.

 

[kpaulson]

You will love Moody Gaderns! , it is great!
But Schlitterbahn (waterpark) will not be open until the saturday Sept. 29.

I kinda figured as much, but that's okay, didn't really want to do TOO much before the cruise, just flying down a day early as I'm paranoid about the airline losing our luggage (has happened to us 3 times in the past 5 years) so figured if they DO send it to china or timbuktu an extra day might be able to retrieve it before we board the cruise

Haven't really looked into Moody Gardens but the hotel has a package for it
TBH I kinda hope she's content with the mini golf

 

[Texas lady]

I kinda figured as much, but that's okay, didn't really want to do TOO much before the cruise, just flying down a day early as I'm paranoid about the airline losing our luggage (has happened to us 3 times in the past 5 years) so figured if they DO send it to china or timbuktu an extra day might be able to retrieve it before we board the cruise

Haven't really looked into Moody Gardens but the hotel has a package for it
TBH I kinda hope she's content with the mini golf

One of my many fears of flying, lost luggage!! So happy we get to drive!

Sent from my T-Mobile myTouch 3G using DISBoards

 

[Belle6000]

We are flying into Houston on Thursday and hired a town car to take us here...

http://innatthewaterpark2-px.trvlclick.com/

They have free parking for cruises, and also a free shuttle to the cruise port. They also have a mini golf course on site and say they are close to a waterpark and something called Moody Gardens. When we are a little closer to leaving I'll call and double check all the info

Figured being there an extra day, the attractions would help keep my little one occupied

I think we are going to do Moody Gardens that Friday afternoon. We also want to walk around the strand. I've never been to Galveston, but I think there will be lots of touristy stuff for us to do that day so the kids should be entertained.

 

[tajz90]

Hi all. I wanted to ask a new question. For everyone going down the night before, where is everyone staying? We're trying to pick our hotel this weekend.

4 points Sheraton is in a nice place. It is right across the street from Pleasure Pier.