The Bahamian Rum Runners! May 18, 2012 - 5 Nights on the Magic!

[tinkmt]

Hi everyone. Just found this site this morning. We will be going on our First Disney Cruise this May. It will be my husband, myself and our 7 year old little girl!

Welcome! I have a 7 year old little girl too! She will be happy to know that there is another 7 year old girl on board.

 

[khorn2]

Oh good! I am so worried that she won't want to go to the kids center because she doesn't know anyone.

 

[tinkmt]

Oh good! I am so worried that she won't want to go to the kids center because she doesn't know anyone.

I hear ya! My niece and nephew are going too but they are older and will be in the next group up! We will have to introduce them!

 

[khorn2]

I hear ya! My niece and nephew are going too but they are older and will be in the next group up! We will have to introduce them!

Yea. We should. I heard that you should do the open house that the childrens area has so that they meet people right away.

 

[DVC Jen]

Hey everyone. We are slowly creeping closer and closer!

I need to talk to everyone that is planning on doing the fish extenders and get your HONEST opinions and feedback. I have a bit of an unique situation.

Since we have two rooms for our one family I am wondering what we should do. Myself and DH will be in one room and our adult daughters (legally adults but still living at home while they are in college) ages at the time we cruise will be 23 and 19, in the room next to us.

I was talking to my youngest DD last night and telling her about the fish extenders and asking if she would help with all of it as well as door decorations since she is pretty crafty and creative. We were trying to decide if we should make one fish extender with four pockets or two fish extenders, one for each room, with two pockets each.

Then I got to thinking - it wouldn't really be fair for us to expect all of you to chunk over two fish extender gifts for our one family if we are only handing out one per family. I don't want to do that to any of you. In my way of thinking that would be inconsiderate and rude

So if my daughters decide they want their own fish extender for their room - I am going to tell them they also have to "play along" and provide gifts for everyone else and not just expect to receive - but they also have to give.

If they don't want to deal with doing that then we will just have one FE hanging by one room for the four of us (not sure which room it will be - but we are right next to each other).

So my question is.... is that ok with all of you? It would basically be adding one more room to the list.

I have never done the whole FE thing before so I am not 100% sure how it works other than we exchange simple fun fairly inexpensive gifts - just because - it's fun.

So - is everyone OK if we decide to split our one family into two? I promise we will hand out two gifts if we are asking for them in return. One from each room.

I will talk to them about it SOON and let everyone know what they want to do so it can be noted on the list.

Thanks.

 

[Sir William]

FE gifts are usually done either for the individual or the family and is up to the participants to do decide what they want to do.

If you're doing it for the family then it doesn't matter how many cabins you're occupying, its still a family gift. The FE participants just need to know what rooms are under what family (in my last group we usually put the family gift in the DISboard member's FE pocket).

If you're doing it for individuals, then you need to know who is in each cabin - and age and gender is helpful for those who are doing appropriate level gifts. On my last cruise I did it by individual - so I had different gifts for adults and teens, boy and girl elementary school age, and toddlers.

Some gave a family gift but also some smaller things for the kids, like candy.

Its really up to the participants to decide how much they can afford to buy, have time to make, or want to transport (or ship) to the ship. Last time my gifts took up the better part of a small suitcase - both to and from the cruise.

There are really no hard and fast rules - we, as a Cruise Meet group, determine how we want to do.

We should also set a deadline or cutoff date so that we'll know how many are participating. This is critical for those making gifts.

Also, its nice if everyone put a note, such as "From Sir William", with their gift so we know who gave it.

 

[DVC Jen]

Gotchya.


I just really don't want anyone to feel uncomfortable if my older DD's decide they want to participate on their own and have their own FE.

I already spoke with Kylie our oldest.. and we came up with some cute ideas for something she could do that would be right up her alley. She loves playing around with graphic arts and is also in school studying to be an elementary teacher.

So I guess I just want everyone to know that IF my girls decide they want their own FE - they will also be handing out gifts. However we will not be slighted, upset or anything else if someone wanted to just do one family gift instead of doing two for us.

In a way this is also my way of teaching my older children that since they are adults - if they want - they gotta give. Instead of just thinking "oh Mom and Dad will take care of that for us".

I also agree that a time frame for signing up for it would be great. That way we know exactly how many gifts we need to plan for.

I am already thinking of taking another small suitcase on board filled with our FE gifts. What is one more small suitcase considering what we already bring? With three females in our family and with my camera equipment alone - my hubby needs to be a good packer of the old family "truckster". And thank goodness we drive instead of flying - paying for our luggage alone would be a nightmare.

This is the back of my car moments before we left our house last June for our WDW vacation. It has three rows with the back row of seats down and it was packed to the gills.

 

[tinkmt]

I agree about the deadline. That way we can know a final figure on what we need!

 

[Sir William]

Gotchya.

I am already thinking of taking another small suitcase on board filled with our FE gifts. What is one more small suitcase considering what we already bring?

This is the back of my car moments before we left our house last June for our WDW vacation. It has three rows with the back row of seats down and it was packed to the gills.

You've still got lots of room!

 

[MrsPotatoHead425]

I agree about the deadline. That way we can know a final figure on what we need!

totally agree... i keep finding stuff and buying stuff, hoping i'll get enough because i know if i need to go back, it won't be there! anybody have any suggestions on when the deadline should be?

 

[Sir William]

totally agree... i keep finding stuff and buying stuff, hoping i'll get enough because i know if i need to go back, it won't be there! anybody have any suggestions on when the deadline should be?

I suggest about 45 days prior to sailing - say 1 April. But certainly no less than 30 days.

At that time no new joins and everyone signed up is obligated to participate.

By this time we should have names, ages (for kids), gender, and cabin number (for those who have them).

When we have our DISboard meet on boarding day, we can update the cabin numbers.

 

[JMTStone]

I suggest about 45 days prior to sailing - say 1 April. But certainly no less than 30 days.

At that time no new joins and everyone signed up is obligated to participate.

By this time we should have names, ages (for kids), gender, and cabin number (for those who have them).

When we have our DISboard meet on boarding day, we can update the cabin numbers.

I "Owned" the FE list on our Aug 2010 cruise. We decided a cutoff date about 30 days prior to give the crafters time to make things. Even though we did this, someone joined the group a week prior to cruise and wanted to participate. It was hard to say no and she wasn't very happy (a few of us decided to still gift her some of our extras but couldn't ask anyone else to do it) because her kids were "looking forward to it". We had a wonderful crafter who MADE everyone cloth embroidered bags. They were great, but she had no more supplies and time that close to the sail date.

I for one will be starting my vacation in Vero Beach on 5/10 so if someone joins after that date, I cannot provide them a gift. I personally would like the cutoff 30 days.

 

[MagicFan75]

I personally would like the cutoff 30 days.

30 days sounds good to us, but I will probably start prepping long before that. Is there a place where we can look at the existing FE list so I can get an idea of how many folks we've got so far? Also, are you considering splitting it if the group is too large? On our last cruise, we were going to split it if the list grew above 25 families, but we came in right at 25, so it wasn't split.

Thanks!

 

[MagicFan75]

Maybe someone here can help me out. We get off our Magical cruise on May 23 and the Magic sails out of NY, NY on May 25. However, I don't see a two night eastern coast repo cruise on the DCL site. Was there a 2 night eastern coast repo cruise planned that has already sold out or is Disney really sailing the Magic to NY empty?

Thanks!

 

[Sir William]

Maybe someone here can help me out. We get off our Magical cruise on May 23 and the Magic sails out of NY, NY on May 25. However, I don't see a two night eastern coast repo cruise on the DCL site. Was there a 2 night eastern coast repo cruise planned that has already sold out or is Disney really sailing the Magic to NY empty?

Thanks!

Sometimes cruise lines don't book a short repo. It gives them a chance to do some maintenance without going into the yard.

 

[Prozac07]

I suggest about 45 days prior to sailing - say 1 April. But certainly no less than 30 days.
At that time no new joins and everyone signed up is obligated to participate.
By this time we should have names, ages (for kids), gender, and cabin number (for those who have them).
When we have our DISboard meet on boarding day, we can update the cabin numbers.

30 days sounds good to us, but I will probably start prepping long before that. Is there a place where we can look at the existing FE list so I can get an idea of how many folks we've got so far? Also, are you considering splitting it if the group is too large? On our last cruise, we were going to split it if the list grew above 25 families, but we came in right at 25, so it wasn't split.
Thanks!

I like Sir William's idea... April 1st. Easy to remember and plenty of time for people to put things together. I'm self-proclaimed "owner" of the FE list, and it's been posted on the thread several times over with updates, and is also on our 4Shared site (see the first post for email and password) in PDF and Excel formats. It's actually a list of everyone who's commented on this board that they were going and the information I was able to get from them thus far. I'll repost below.

If anybody definitely DOES or DOES NOT want to participate in the list, or if you have multiple cabins where some do/some don't, PLEASE either leave a post on here, or even better, PM me and I'll start making updates.

Has anyone had any ideas for a cruise name yet? I saw Sir William ask that before but everyone ignored him! It's too early and I'm too uncaffeinated to think of anything yet!

 

[Sir William]

Has anyone had any ideas for a cruise name yet? I saw Sir William ask that before but everyone ignored him! It's too early and I'm too uncaffeinated to think of anything yet!

OK, this is not meant to be a serious contender but just something to get the creative juices activated:

"Magic in the Bahamas"

I know there are much better ideas, so lets hear them!

 

[DVC Jen]

I am coming up totally blank when I try to think of a name. I will keep thinking though.

You are more than welcome to put our ages on the FE list I am 45 and DH (Ian) is 48. You already have our DD's ages.

Ok - this JUST popped into my head. Not a great one but I am tossing one into the "mix"

Mickeys Mates...storm the Bahamas

on second thought - maybe the word STORM is NOT something we want to use. LOL

 

[Sir William]

Mickeys Mates...storm the Bahamas

on second thought - maybe the word STORM is NOT something we want to use. LOL

I like it! But having endured a 2-day storm my last time in the Caribbean, I'm inclined to agree with your caution. I would prefer to actually enjoy CC this time around!

 

[DVC Jen]

I like it! But having endured a 2-day storm my last time in the Caribbean, I'm inclined to agree with your caution. I would prefer to actually enjoy CC this time around!

DH and I are storm spotters so we really get into them. LOVE then when we are at Vero - I have gotten some amazing storm photos there. HOWEVER - I am going to agree and say I don't want to be on a ship in the middle of a storm. Doesn't sound like fun at all.