September 3, 2005 --- Who is going?

[disneyfanforever]

Wow, you guys have been busy while we were gone on our mini-vacation to Branson. We had fun but it sure isn't Disney World or a Disney cruise. I did however get lots of school shopping done for my boys.

Congrats to Tina on your upcoming addition. I have been reading about the Rasul and from what I have heard it is very hot. I am not sure it is something you would want to do while you are expecting. I am not even sure if it is something I will do and I am not expecting. I am not sure DH and I are that wild and crazy.

I am not sure what we are doing about formal night. I can almost guarantee that my DH will not be in a tux (unless I swap the current one I have for another one which is very unlikely). My kids would think they were being strangled if I put them in ties so I don't know what we are going to do in that area.

Welcome omapcw1, this is a great group. I think we might have kids the same age but now I can't find your post where you said who was in your party. If so, that will be great.

We are making door signs. I haven't bought the magnetic paper yet. I didn't even know there was magnetic tape so I might check into that. My kids and I had lots of fun creating our sign that we decided to do one for each day of the trip so be sure to look for our changing signs.

It is getting so close!

 

[DisneyNutMary]

Wow, I can't believe I am just over a month away from leaving (we are heading down Monday prior to the cruise) So much to do, so little time.
I promised myself I would get the suitcases out and start organizing at the 30 day mark, which is fast approaching.
I have PS's (ADR's, whatever!) to make, and plans to make for getting to and from the airport. Shopping to do, clothes to try on.....where to start?

Tina, if I haven't said it already, congrats on your soon to be addition to the family. No champagne for you at Palo! But hey, it's worth it when your holding the baby.

Omapcw1, welcome aboard! And happy planning....you must be more harried than the rest of us, as I'd consider 1 month's planning to be "last minute"

I am toying with the idea of making a door sign, but I am so uncrafty, I'd probably muck it up....we'll see, maybe I can get some ideas when I am Back to School shopping for the kiddos.

 

[omapcw1]

I usually work about 60 hours a week and travel at least 2 weeks out of the month but "got lucky" and had surgery today. My doctor is adamant that I take all of next week off and no travel for 3 weeks!! I started making lists today and will begin packing on Monday which is the most organized I've ever been for a vacation! The nicest part is that I couldn't get stressed if I wanted to--better living through chemistry!

DH is active duty AF and gets deployed frequently so we can never plan very far in advance. So this trip is a breath of fresh air. (Although too much time to think leads to upgrades and spending $$. The current quest is pirate costumes for the group! It might turn into something reminicent of Clark Griswald's quest to see Marty Moose if I keep this up!)

As an aside, I happened to be in the disney store on Tuesday and noticed that PJ pals were $5.99 and that they had keychains for $1.34 and Stitch squirty toys for $1.00! I got Grumpy DH grumpy swim shorts for $4.00 and a handfull of toys to hand to crabby kids and got the kids wound up to go. For those of you still hunting for swim gear it's worth checking out! They even had an additional 30% off the clearance stuff.

Disneyfanforever: My monsters are DS 8 and DD 5. DD is a bit of a clingon but I think the chance to make new friends will be good preparation for the upcoming school year and DS not being with her will give him a break to focus on himself. He's kind of a mother hen with her (when he isn't beating her up; aren't sibling relationships odd??).

MickeyManiac: I admire your husband and family. Naval reserve is a tough gig! and the demands seem to be ever increasing. With AD you KNOW that your life isn't your own and that you can't have any expectations about where you'll be and when. The reserves make that 1 weekend and 2 week a year standard and I'm guessing that makes you think that there's a darn good chance that the rest of your life is your own...and then WHAM you find out that instability is your lot in life as well. I hope that your DS is doing well with the idea of Dad being gone. Hopefully they'll make some great memories to sustain him during dad's absence.

Happy packing to you and yours!

Patricia.

 

[MickeyManiac]

Omapcw1
Thank you for the kind words. I'm the one in admiration of your family. You really have your plate full with your husband gone so much and all the hours you work and travel. OMG, hey everyone...we found Wonder Woman!!! I hope all went well with your surgery today and you will be good as new for "the" trip. We do not know if my husband will go or not this year. He gets conflicting info (you know the Military) but we will be ready. Thank you to your husband and family for your continued sacrifice. I'm so glad you get this time together. 6 weeks to go!

 

[pogopossum]

frank and suzanne congrats on the anniversary, we'll be celebrating our 19th belatedly on this cruise. i guess i need to call that in to dcl. and jordan is looking forward to meeting your ds in the club.

as to a search for pirate costumes, we have party city stores in our area and i think that they are online as well, and last year they had the halloween costumes out in august and had all the pirate gear you could imagine, we told the kids that they could have them, but they had to wear them for halloween as well. i've got to find me a new parrot, and i'm still looking for a kind of floppy tricorn hat, ala jack sparrow. don't care much for the stiff felt with feather kind that are everywhere. i'll probably go with the mickey ears bandanna again.

mickeymaniac and patricia, hope that if you haven't done so already, you'll get to go to seaworld, we just visited san antonio and are so touched everytime we see the shamu show and the tribute to the troops and their families, and very happy that they are treating you guys to admissions and special discounts. it almost makes want to start drinking beer just so i can buy budweiser in support, i guess if i've made it 45 years, it's not the time to start. besides i get in enough trouble with my two margarita a month habit as it is. i've decided to take a more proactive stance with regards to our servicemen and their families and tell more of how thankful we are for their sacrifices. and glad that i'll be able to do some of that while on our cruise.

 

[captaincrash]

To Frank & Suzanne; and Pogo:

Happy anniversary - and we'd like to share that we will be having a quiet little toast over probaby lemonaid to our 11th year incarcerated to one another. Actually we've been dating for 10 years before that so we've been "together" for just over 2 decades. The 21st anniversary of our 1st date is not until November though.

As for pirate costumes - it sounds like great fun to dress up a bit for the occasion as our daughter is usually thrilled with Peter Pan and all things involving Pirates - or at least so far as a 4 year old views the pirate world! So we are casually looking for pirate garb!~

At any rate = we have yet to start on our door signs - but I have something in mind. Just have to get started. Now - I don't know about making a sign for every day - but I migt make 2 to switch midway - or I might come up with something that has ... MODULAR potential.

And - I'd like to chime in with my support for our noble folks overseas in uniform - working a tough and probably dangerous job.

Adios.

 

[pogopossum]

this is kind of spooky cap'n, our first date was dec 4, 1984. i think we may make up two signs, i got two sheets of paper from the church. i don't think i'll do more than that, since i'm laminating them and i don't want to take too much advantage. i think i'll see what kind of die-cuts they have, maybe palm trees or something else tropical. to think that only 6 weeks from now we'll be sailing our way to the virgin isles, enjoying the moonlight from topside, with maybe a boat drink in hand, can hardly wait.

 

[captaincrash]

OK...

.... just so we don't "spook" pogo's cruise I'll file for seperation from my significant other - then we won't have a similar trac - AND I'll go for THREE signs instead of two.

Seriously.... you have GOT to be kidding. From your wording I though you folks were MARRIED 19 years. However - if it's your 1st date you're referring to .... We actually lead your first date by about a month as our first "hand holding" stroll was on November 5th, 1984. SO.... we were only celebrating our 11th year married. There are probably more differences than similarities - HOwever, IF not ....then we should immediately hire a ghost script writer and copywrite it then submit it to the studios. Maybe someone will pay us for the screen or comic rights and then we'll have enough "mad moola" to get INDIVIDUAL DCL unlimited internet accounts for every member of our respective parties! AND - probably we'l have the funds to buy magnetic material for SEVEN days worth of signs..... OOPS.... oh Nooooo!!!! If we both did these things AGAIN ... then we would have ANOTHER spooky cruise. Yarggggghhh! Two families with 7 magnetic signs and every cabin mate with individual unlimited internet accounts!!! What are the odds that two thick headed sorts would actually PAY for every cabin mate to have a seperate unlimited account! Plus seven door signs... sic.

OK.... that's it! I'm moving my cabin res - and now I want crews' quarters - something for an officer please. I would not necessarily want captains' quarters as then the crew might expect ME to start directing where we sail the ship. In which case - you might not want to board MY sailing since you would not want to find out how skilled I was at parking a 90,000 ton ship at St Maarten! Our first port call would be our last - er, at least until the salvage team repairs the ship and pier! - Now.... that's assuming your "California Captain" gets us that far! Remember..... my DIS screen name isn't "Captain Crash" for nuttin'!!!!

OK.... maybe it will be safer if they just put my family (seperated on paper but together for-ever otherwise - my spouse is the only one who does the laundry so I CAN't exactly leave her! I'd go broke buying underware and socks in no time!!! ) as I wuz saying.... it might be safer if we did not get Captain's quarters - so we'll settle for the Walt Disney Suite. Ahem,.... Please make the arrangements for us.

 

[pogopossum]

you had it right on the timing, first date dec 4, 1984, at least you didn't say that you went to a really mediocre chick flick and dinner at one of the trendy yuppie restaurants in town (dalt's), like we did. i actually tried to get her to go see bruce springsteen about a week before thanksgiving. wenwere engaged thanksgiving 1985 and married august 9, 1986. i guess we've hit our stride and are in it for the long haul.

 

[Mom2boyz2000]

Thanks Captain...It has been a fast 19 years. We'll all have to get togther for an anniversary drink.

Pogo...Happy Anniversary to you and yours too! Yes I guess we are in it for the long haul too.

We are trying to get everything ready for the cruise nd for back to school. It is all speeding towards us! At least we don't have much of a trip to get to the port. Although my husband says we must be packed Fri night so that we can leave first thing Sat. AM. Hope that happens. I wonder if anyone will sleep Fri night.

Have fun everyone.

 

[pogopossum]

i got strange directions from rand mcnally, my trip down and back routed us through jacksonville instead of orlando, until i put in our stop for the night in crestview, fl which is about 45 miles east of pensacola, then it changed to orlando for the trip to port, but when i entered a stop at lafayette, la on the way home, there was no change from drive through jacksonville. i know that in theory it might be faster, but we are talking about driving on i-95, and that route sure seems to have heavier traffic. not to mention why the two trips would be different.

 

[captaincrash]

Well....

..... I'm gonna want a root beer float to toast with!

So.... tonite we just booked our hotel through Hotwire and Upromise. We went with a 3.5 star "resort" condo near Seaworld - it cost $56 + fees came to about $65 per nite (less $1.30 for the 2% Upromise rebate). And if you're not familiar with Hotwire - they don't identify the hotel name until AFTER you pay. So... we just paid and the hotel we're getting is the Westgate Lakes Resorts and Spa. Orbitz has this place listed for the same date at $82 + their fee(s) comes to $96.50. So our savings came to about $33 a nite or $66 for the two nite stay.

So - having NEVER heard of this place before booking it - I had to google it. And the Expedia pix and reviews seem nice and or tolerable. However, it is a time share property. So - some reviews said they try to get you to sit through a time share presentation.... yuck!

Oh well... aside from the hotel thing..... we have settled down to just packing and last minute detail type planning. I was also watching a Travel channel show on the Disney Cruise that I copied through the DVR. I kno.... I'm a nut.

OK.... gotta go!

Adios!

 

[JanDave]

Hi: DH and I will celebrate our anniversary (wedding date - 9/22/84) on the cruise -- 21 years. Amazing since it was a second marriage for both and we had three kids. It's worked! Kids are in their early-30s and we have 5 beautiful grandchildren -- all under the age of 3. We knew each other from a church we both attended, but re-met in January of 1984 and got married 8 months later.

Last Magic cruise was 9-18-04 when Hurricane Jeanne interrupted our fun.

Five weeks and 2 days until I fly out of Michigan.

Jan

 

[DisneyDadJax]

CC, that's too funny! We stayed there for a short vacation in May. A day at Disney Quest, a day at Wet and Wild and 2 days at Sea World. Convenient to all the area parks and lots of restaurants nearby (Lake Buena Vista a few miles south). Plus you can do some last minute cruise shopping at Downtown Disney! Not a bad place to spend a couple of nights. We had a 2 bedroom unit. Lots of space and plenty of pools, and a huge whirlpool tub in the master bedroom! We never got the Time Share pressure pitch. Let me know if you want any more info.

DW went outlet malling today. Bought the kids tons of new clothes and pillowcases for autographs.

Time to start working on the cabin door signs! I'm a man on a mission.

A little over 5 weeks!!! YEEHAW!!!

Frank

 

[captaincrash]

DDJ

We had some curiosity with booking at this property.... and now that we KNOW the name of it - we had even more curiosity. Off hand - it seems you had a good experience with your stay so we are relaxing a bit. We envisioned having a kitchenette and better furniture in a more comfortable setting - and that was what drove our decision to book. Plus the dirt cheap price.

Afterwards, we were curious about the timeshare thing. We don't mind if they try to engage us in a presentation - as we know how to decline politely - unless they offer an incentive of sufficient interest.

But - DDJ - if you had no adverse expereinces while at this property that's good enough for us. On the other hand... we've read/skimmed a couple dozen postings from folks who say they stayed there - so we are prepared to deal with a handful of potential minor annoyances. And if you have any adminishments for us - well then we're all ears - better make that "we're all mouse ears".



So - we just got a call today - we have some relatives who are going to meet us in Orlando for Thursday evening and Friday - plus possibly Sat morning so .... we may not pile in line to board first now. Unless our relatives run off to WDW early saturday - in which case we will continue as planned for Sat and board early. We may "firm up" the expectations in the next week or so. Or we may not and end up playing it "by ear" til Saturday morning!



In any event we plan on being aboard before 3pm so we'll make the DIS meet. We have set out that we will only stay in Orlando til lunch is done - then we depart for port canaveral by about 1pm at the latest. Or at least that's the plan.

 

[pogopossum]

well i saw from another thread that repo cruisers are starting to get calls from ta's that their docs hava arrived. i guess we'll be getting ours soon. since there is no new cruise the week directly before us maybe a little earlier than normal.

well our first hurdle has been cleared, dw was having trouble finding birth certs, and today i was able to locate them in a desk drawer that we both looked in before, but i was back to looking through all of the drawers again and found them this time, hallelujah, we can go now.

i guess i better get the taxes finished and in the mail, got to work on that this weekend. hope that it gives us some money for the cruise. and i guess we're ready to start the packing process. it'll be here before we know it.

 

[salbythec]

Hii everyone
Pete and I are celebrating our 19th anniversary of wedded bliss on Jan 3rd. We also met in 1984! So we are going to use this vacation as a early anniversary trip.

37 days to go

 

[omapcw1]

First, thanks for all the kind words for hubby and the other GIs. Life has changed a lot for them all recently and they all seem to be responding admirably.

Next: The costumes are here, the costumes are here...we're pirates now!!! I let the kids decide what they wanted to do about pirate night and they were excited to go for costumes. We went online and found some cute things; the first of which arrived today! The excitement mounts!

Finally, the "TALK." Background: There is no easy way to say it but DH is a grump. He hates vacation and thinks that I spend too much $ and that the whole thing is ridiculous. He's been off this week while I've been recovering (forced time off as he currently has accumulated 75 vacation days and can't carry anymore than 60) and has still gone into work every day for at least 2 hours so it's clear that he hates being away from work. He also HATES to spend $$. Not for things he thinks are important (the $20k Harley that sits in the garage and the assorted toys that go with) but for things like appropriate clothing that fits, underwear without holes...dinner out....

Usually I just avoid the fight and take the kids alone or with a relative or sitter that they enjoy. However, they want a family vacation and I don't think that is unreasonable.

As for me, I grew up very poor as the youngest of 7 kids and never took a family trip. Never had a vacation until I sold greeting cards to pay for summer camp one year. It was fun, but I didn't really have anyone to share it with. So for me, trips with the monsters are a BIG deal. I have worked hard, have the money to do great things and I want to do them. More importantly, I want to do them with people I love.

I was dreading getting things together for the trip as I know that hubby doesn't have a single pair of dress pants appropriate for dinner (that would fit!) and at the mention of shopping, the little vein in the center of his forehead would start to throb.

I gathered my courage, took an extra pain pill and dove in. The vein throbbed, he was irritated with the whole idea of the trip and the fact that it required pants but agreed to go shopping. It wasn't nearly as painful as I thought and I reminded him that part of the deal of "family" is learning to participate and embrace the things that other family members enjoy (which will come back to bite me in the butt when he wants me to ride on the harley).

Took him shopping and found a ton of stuff he LOVED! Alterations are in process and there was no blood shed. Perhaps this will be a "magical" vacation! This was the only part I was nervous about and it's over.

So to each of you with your getting everyone on the same page worries, jump in. If my curmudgeon had a reasonable reaction the planets must be aligned.

Thanks for sharing my victory!

Patricia

(does this mean there is hope that someday he'll say: "Honey I'd love to attend your [partnership meeting] [Christmas Party] [Annual Firm Dinner] [Charity Ball] [...]? I'm pretty sure there isn't enough pixie dust in the world but I'll take what I can get with a big, happy smile!)

 

[captaincrash]

Patricia....

.... and collectively everyone with common fisrt dates in or around 1984 - - I think it is strangely WONDERFUL to be chatting with so many folks with some similar history. OK - not exactly similar history but similar accumulations of differing histories. It is actually sort of charming to hear of how many of us are mixing an anniversery into the trip. I used to think we were one of a few hopeless romantics running around the ship.

And Patricia... we wanted to extend a general invite to SHOP with US if your hubby decides the last bout of shopping was too much fun. We're happy to help watch the herd of little critters with ya while we explore for fun things to bring home - and he can hit the ship and surf the web to catch up on work or news!

I imagine you'll do just fine without our offer to shop - but heck - just in case .... go ahead and ring our room and hint at your preferred shopping schedule and we'll probably "shift" our agenda a bit to match. My spouse enjoies wandering the little shops ashore and she has a few favorite shops where she tends to find things.

Aside from that - the trip is destined to be loads of fun. Even after last years' hurricane adjusted 7 nite cruise was cut to 4 I was wondering at times (before we reached the ship) whether it was such a good idea to travel to make the sailing. Well.... once aboard it turned out to be nicer than expected. Crazy thing, eh?

So... the only exception I can think of which is sort of funny to share - is we have some friends who had never cruised before and they were being encouraged to come to the Magic with us. Well... as a trial run they booked a little 3 day trip that sailed from LA (no flying). Uh-oh.... they booked the Monarch of the Seas... a really old boat with tiny cabins. They had a pretty tough trip with their 4 year old getting lost aboard the ship at one point and on another occasion they were ashore on Catalina island where they have no cars - just golf carts and a cart ran over their son... er... rather a cart clipped their son and ran over his foot. No real harm but shocking none the less. Among other marginal moments - their end result was they would pass on a cruise for the time being. THIS had to be an exception to having a fun time on ANY sailing.

My spouse and I sailed the Monarch of the Seas about 4 years ago and had a decent time - but the boad was quite old and seemed quaint in it's own classic sort of way.

At any rate - Patricia - I take it your spouse went shopping and has some new things being fitted. Sounds great - as in another tux like rig to add to the fun. OR ... were you getting pirate gear tailored? And I thought I was silly.

Adios!

 

[JanDave]

Five weeks from tomorrow!!! I can't wait for Labor Day weekend to get here.

Patricia: As an alternative for dining, if your DH doesn't want to wear pants on any given cruise night, Topsiders is open for dinner and shorts are fine to wear. We haven't had dinner at Topsiders but friends did on our last Magic cruise and enjoyed the peaceful, quiet atmosphere.

1984 was a great year!!!

Jan