The MAGIC is Back!!! ~ WBTA 2014 ~ Come & join the fun!

[Buckeye Gal]

You'll love it Sarah!

Love that you staged the Sauza bottle there in the middle. Nice choice of tequila!

I thought so myself!

 

[Julie2009]

Hi Kimberley I just used to lurk before the 2010 WBTA. I'm going to be a more active poster this time round

 

[Buckeye Gal]

Hi Kimberley I just used to lurk before the 2010 WBTA. I'm going to be a more active poster this time round

I'm so happy to hear that!!

 

[Chris&Jeremy]

Please can I ask a question about linked dining as I'm still not sure of how It's going to be set up this time.
Is it going to be linked so everyone is sitting in the same area ONLY
OR
Linked in same area AND the people you request to have on your table if you have a preference

I know Dan last time created tables himself. If people were specific in who they wanted to sit with specifically (like our table) he did that. Others who just wanted to be with other DISers, he got a list and then created groups of 8. He then submitted everything to Disney as "here are the tables of 8 we want." I know he also took into consideration people's requests like adults-only, people with similar-aged kids, etc, when creating the tables of 8.

 

[goofprincess]

Not totally on your own we are in 7129 and secret (lol) deck seven is our balcony, although we generously allow others to use it as well

. I'll share your balcony with pleasure

This couple is so sweet!!!!!! Don't miss your chance to meet them.

 

[geffric]

I know Dan last time created tables himself. If people were specific in who they wanted to sit with specifically (like our table) he did that. Others who just wanted to be with other DISers, he got a list and then created groups of 8. He then submitted everything to Disney as "here are the tables of 8 we want." I know he also took into consideration people's requests like adults-only, people with similar-aged kids, etc, when creating the tables of 8.

I only know on the PC cruise, the linked dining was set to include everyone and their wishes. From my understanding, there are 4 tops and 8 tops. So we can have a section of the dining room with tables set of dining campanions, Singles were with other singles of the same generation, families with other families or just themselves, adults with other adults of the same generation, and so on..

If this is not your understanding, i love love to be enlighten how to do this..

. I always use insuremytrip.com to check out insurance prices.

\
me too.. do we need to get trip insurance now or wait??

 

[Dgentrysim]

I'm late to the party, but here's my intro:


I'm Ginamarie- I've been going to WDW since I was a kid (first trip in 1980), but really embraced it after my fiancé (now husband) started to work for the Disney company. We took a trip to WDW and an Eastern Caribbean DCL cruise for our honeymoon in 2002 and were totally in love with cruising. We have been cruising and visiting WDW about once a year since. For awhile, I was practicing admiralty law because I was so fascinated with ships. Now I run my own general law practice. We have taken over 10 cruises now, but only 5 with DCL: eastern caribbean, western caribbean, westbound PC 2008, eastbound TA 2010, and Alaska 2011. We really wanted to do a WBTA in 2013, but when it wasn't offered, we wound up booking a WDW vacation and Freedom of the Seas for August instead. So e were very happy to see WBTA on the 2014 itineraries and jumped right at it!

Josh- my husband, former cast member, now working for HBO. We are in our 30s and enjoy all of the cruise food and activities.

Olivia- my oldest child, is almost 7. She loves all the characters and WDW. She is a huge fan of stitch.

Salvatore- my middle child- is very sweet and inquisitive. He will be trying the kids club for the first time in 2014. He is 4 now.

Owen- my baby! He is two right now and gets excited any time he sees something "dis-knee"

Rosemarie- my mom- is a pharmacist who loves DCL. W are leaving dad at home for this trip, since he is not as good a traveller as the rest of us.

Gillian- my 22 year old sister. She just finished the Disney college program and is looking for an engineering job now.

Giuliette- my almost 15 year old sister. She is a little nervous about being one of the only teens on the ship.

Grant- my youngest brother, who is 9 now. He is at that awkward pre-teen stage, where he's not sure which things are too "babyish" for him.

George- my slightly younger brother. He has been on the most DCL cruises, because he is doing back to back cruises on the fantasy this year.

Dawn-Marie- my sister in law. She is a pharmacist and works with my mom.

Salvatore- my nephew- is three weeks younger than my youngest son. This cruise will make him a gold castaway member!

Marie- my grandmother. She has never been to Europe before, so we are looking forward to taking her. My grandfather passed away at the beginning of the year, and we are making sure to keep her busy, since they spent the last 70 years together every single day. Grandpa loved to cruise, and so this is a good memory for her too. The 2008 PC was his last cruise before he became too ill to join us, but we had such a great time in that trip together.


I know, we're a big group!

Welcome Ginamarie and family! How awesome to have a big group of your family traveling with you on the WBTA! Lots and lots of memories are going to be made! Lot of disney history in your family so you should feel right at home on the ship! Welcome again!

 

[goofprincess]

BIRTHDAY BLESSINGS KRISANN

 

[Dgentrysim]

I managed to catch the chocolate buffet on my April 2011 Eastern cruise. There was a yummy dessert in a shot glass made with Bailey's.
I had a chocolate overload that night as I had choc. lava cake at dinner then a choc souffle from Palo (no dinner, just the souffle). But I still loved everything.

By the way, if we get to have a chocolate tasting.... would someone please bring 2 bottles of Mozart Gold? One for the tasting and one for me.

Kristi

Kristi.......make that 3 bottles!!!!

 

[poohluv2u]

NWmom- Great job with the recap for the week

Do share this back story in the main threads, this sounds hilarious along with the photo of the monkeys looking for Ed

I would be happy to tell the story but I'm afraid it would lose something in the translation without Ed acting out the part of the ape, and his pitiful expression as it took his candy maybe onboard ship?

How nice of you to share! Maybe the Deck 6 party-goers could crash

Absolutely!

I'm Ginamarie- I know, we're a big group!

Yes you are a big group, welcome aboard

We're your neighbors in 7127! I wish we could splurge for our old 6A verandah stateroom, 7134 from the 2011 WBTA, but we're going cheap this time around.

OK, looks like we have a complete takeover of the secret deck -
Don't worry, Chris, Debbie and I will be taking good care of 7134 !! It was my #1 choice, and since I got my call answered right away on the 13th, I did get it. Now, IF an upgrade call comes, it will make for a tough decision . . . . .
Question, is it true it does NOT have a steamer trunk ?

Howdy neighbors! Chris we love our 11a, in fact we requested it! Not really any such thing as cheap on a Disney cruise is there ... just less expensive

Ok here is my introduction to the group

I'm Julie, most of my friends call me Jools (that user name was already taken, so I'm Julie 2009 instead). I'm 54 and live in Newcastle which is in North East England. I have a son David who is 28 and recently married his American sweetheart. I also have a daughter Kayleigh who is 26, she has a little boy Ashton who has just turned 4 and is the apple of my eye.

I was happily married for 30 years to Bill and we had over 20 holidays to Florida and Disney. Sadly Bill died 3 years ago, I felt my world had ended and certainly couldn't contemplate ever travelling again. I mean apart from the huge hole he had left in my life how could I travel solo after always having him there? Well I was wrong (as I often am) as I did the 2010 and 2011 WBTA as a solo traveller and am doing the same in 2014 I travel solo but the fantastic thing about the Disney cruises are the great friends you find both online and onboard

I'm so looking forward to catching up with old friends and meeting new people too

Jools xx

Hi Jools glad to have you along.

Love the weekly recap ....

I have now booked 4 cabins although I still don't know who is coming for sure ... just felt safer having cabins booked which we could cancel than being stuck nest year when they all decide for sure that they are coming.

2 sideways 11B on Deck 5 and 2 regular 11B on Deck 6. Looking for a final 11B on 5 or 6 but none available at present.

Still not sure on the logistics of travelling with 9 other people but will soon find out

We cruised last year on the Fantasy on a family reunion cruise of 44 people, and Disney made it so easy for us. They seated us close together at dinner, and didn't even blink when we all sat with different people, at different tables every night. Wave phones became our best friends on that cruise. Someone in the group had laminated a list of everyone's room & wave numbers, so we could be in touch easily. Somewhere you asked about Palo's for brunch without the private dining room, they can accommodate that!

 

[poohluv2u]

Kimberly I found you on Pinterest through Claire

 

[Buckeye Gal]

Kimberly I found you on Pinterest through Claire

Excellent!!

 

[birkner]

me too.. do we need to get trip insurance now or wait??

Since I have paid for all but $100 of our trip (in case I want to make changes) I am going ahead and buying trip insurance.

 

[pharmjenn]

If you all don't mind, I would like to volunteer for arranging the book swap.

Finished a book? Looking for new reading material? Come over to cabin # 6128 to find the book bag at my door. You can exchange your book for a different one, just take a book, or just leave one in the bag. Let's make sure we'll all have plenty to read on this wonderful long cruise!
At the end of the cruise, I will take any leftover books to Guest Services to be donated to the crew library.

P.S. Our cabin # 6128 seems to be the perfect location - located far aft and thus close to secret deck 7 for relaxed reading, and at the same time on deck 6 where it all seems to be happening!

Book swap sounds great. It was wonderful to have on our last cruise. Got to read a few books I would never have glanced at otherwise and loved them.

I'm late to the party, but here's my intro:


I'm Ginamarie-
I know, we're a big group!

Ginamarie welcome to you and your family. My DS5 will be loving having a few new friends in your Salvatores!

Problem is none of us really know at this point what will or will not be in the cabins. One of the rumors of the extended dry dock is a complete overhaul of the cabins. New furniture? New bed? Just new linens? Virtual portholes?

We can discuss cabins based on past cruising history but we won't really know anything for sure until Fall.

I didn't think about that. I just changed from an inside to a secret porthole. If they put in virtual portholes, I may regret the decision.

Love the weekly recap ....

I have now booked 4 cabins although I still don't know who is coming for sure ... just felt safer having cabins booked which we could cancel than being stuck nest year when they all decide for sure that they are coming.

2 sideways 11B on Deck 5 and 2 regular 11B on Deck 6. Looking for a final 11B on 5 or 6 but none available at present.

Still not sure on the logistics of travelling with 9 other people but will soon find out

I considered adding a name to one of our cabins as a place holder for that reason, but haven't yet. I did just grab an open sideways, 5505, that may have been one you were searching for.

do we need to get trip insurance now or wait??

It seems that if you want pre-existing medical condition coverage, or I think cancel for work reasons than you usually have only 21 days after initial deposit to buy the insurance. So I will be purchasing ours this week, since I haven't even addressed the time off with my boss!

 

[Ginamarie]

Thanks for all th welcoming messages guys. I'm looking forward to getting to know this group. Some of my friends from the 2008 PC are still great friends today and I speak to them almost daily

 

[JessicasMom]

Thanks for all the birthday greetings! We went away for two nights and returned to find 10 new pages to read....you guys never disappoint!

So what part of the Poconos? I currently live in Hatboro, PA which is about an hour north of Philadelphia but spent my early childhood growing up in a little down called Tamaqua (just south of Hazelton). I still have family from my father's side of the family that live in the farmland west of Tamaqua.

And have a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

We're about 20 min. southeast of Scranton (and consider Scranton/WB our "local" area). I'm familiar with Tamaqua by name, but I don't recall having been there; we're rarely in the Hazelton area. We go to Philly occasionally (usually fly out of PHL or pass through on our way to AC or points south). Our "go to" spot (where we just went, as a matter of fact) is Lancaster....it's always relaxing. Larry is originally from Stroudsburg, where his family still lives. I'm a native of Tennessee but have been in PA since we married almost 33 yrs. ago.

I was happily married for 30 years to Bill and we had over 20 holidays to Florida and Disney. Sadly Bill died 3 years ago, I felt my world had ended and certainly couldn't contemplate ever travelling again. I mean apart from the huge hole he had left in my life how could I travel solo after always having him there? Well I was wrong (as I often am) as I did the 2010 and 2011 WBTA as a solo traveller and am doing the same in 2014 I travel solo but the fantastic thing about the Disney cruises are the great friends you find both online and onboard

I'm so looking forward to catching up with old friends and meeting new people too

Jools xx

This is why we try to travel as much as possible (there is never enough money or time to do everything we'd like to do, but we try anyway ) Life is so short; losing your life partner is everyone's worst nightmare, but sadly inevitable for many of us. Thank you for sharing your story...you are definitely inspiring!

I am loving everyone's bios, but I have to go back and take notes, because I can't keep it all straight!

 

[Beauty & the Best]

OMG guys I just typed a bunch of long responses and then Internet Explorer shut my window and I lost it all. Ugh! So frustrating!

That website looks familiar, so I bet I have some Pins from there. I'm bookmarking the blog so I can check it out more thoroughly this weekend! Thanks for the link!

As for food in general on Pinterest, let's just say I have so many food recipes that I have boards for specific types of foods, like soups, breads, cookies, pasta, etc. If you are interested, I can PM you a link to my Pinterest page so you can see if what I Pin is of similar interest.

Another Pinterest lover here....I too pin loads of naughty cupcakes!

Just had a look at that blog, YUM!!!!! Thanks for that, i'm now drooling.....

PM'ed you both with my Pinterest page. Hope you'll do the same!

Kimberly, do you have a recipe for lemon frosting? I am making a white cake with lemon frosting this Thursday for my book club. I was thinking a lemon buttercream or something??

Claire, Naughty cupcakes? This brings to mind a very interesting use of frosting......

Marie- my grandmother. She has never been to Europe before, so we are looking forward to taking her. My grandfather passed away at the beginning of the year, and we are making sure to keep her busy, since they spent the last 70 years together every single day. Grandpa loved to cruise, and so this is a good memory for her too. The 2008 PC was his last cruise before he became too ill to join us, but we had such a great time in that trip together.

I know, we're a big group!

The more the merrier!
I think its great that you keep your grandma involved and experiencing the world. I'm sure she is very grateful to have you all.

I was happily married for 30 years to Bill and we had over 20 holidays to Florida and Disney. Sadly Bill died 3 years ago, I felt my world had ended and certainly couldn't contemplate ever travelling again. I mean apart from the huge hole he had left in my life how could I travel solo after always having him there? Well I was wrong (as I often am) as I did the 2010 and 2011 WBTA as a solo traveller and am doing the same in 2014 I travel solo but the fantastic thing about the Disney cruises are the great friends you find both online and onboard

I'm so looking forward to catching up with old friends and meeting new people too

Jools xx

Jools, you are never alone on a Disney cruise! Especially with this thread, you are definitely among friends
My mother is a widow also and she has cruised with us but hasn't taken that step to travel on her own. I think the first trip must be the hardest, but everyone moves at their own pace in life. I admire your spunk in getting back out there.

We are Ron (49) and Marieke (DW 36).

We have no kids but we love dogs, sadly we lost 2 dogs in the last seven months, but luckily we still have our 2 jr old Sussex Spaniel named Walt.

We have been in Disney Paris, Disney Tokio, Disneyland and Disney World. On the 13th of September 2002 we even got married under the Gazebo at the Yacht Club, so we are celebrating our 12th anniversery on the cruise.

Our first cruise was in September 2012, we fell in love and booked again onboard which leads to the October Magic DD first cruise after the dry-dock.


This will be our longest cruise ever and we are looking forward to meet and greet you all.

Greetings,

Ron, Marieke and Walt

We are also a couple without children but we love our dog dearly as a family member. My heart aches for you to lose 2 of your dogs in such a short amount of time

 

[PinkPug]

Hi Jessicamom
I'm glad you had a wonderful birthday.

 

[Buckeye Gal]

.....PM'ed you both with my Pinterest page. Hope you'll do the same!

Kimberly, do you have a recipe for lemon frosting? I am making a white cake with lemon frosting this Thursday for my book club. I was thinking a lemon buttercream or something??

Great! I'll send mine to you as well!

Here's my favorite lemon buttercream recipe. I am a huge fan of Meyer lemons, and it works wonderfully with those as well!!

Lemon Buttercream
4 Tbs. unsalted butter
2 cups powdered confectioners’ sugar
1 ½ tsp. lemon juice
1-2 Tbs. milk

 

[ludari]

I am on this cruise as well.