We're Baaaaack!! **The WLV's groupies & Trivia Thread chapter 3

[DisneyNutzy]

AAAKKKKKK. I hope they finish quickly. I do not do well staying at resorts under construction.

Hey Muushka,

I thought that was how I would feel about construction going on around me while on vacation. This past trip I was literally walking under ladders and on paint tarps to get my car from the valet stand at AK. I actually took some joy in the knowledge that they were painting walls and doing preventive maintenance to keep the place looking new.

 

[Dodie]

You got some great answers to the transport question, but I would suggest doing the parks first and then the cruise, much more relaxing that way!

I would second this recommendation. Think about it. The parks are go-go-go, while the cruise is more relaxing. It's so nice to do them in that order.

 

[Oshawa]

Thank you all so much for the great replies. I am really leaning towards 5 days at the park and then finishing off with a four day cruise.

I have another question for your awesome experts. Do you know if she ship is decorated for Christmas as well?

DisneyNutzy those are great pictures from AKL our other "home".

 

[KeepSwimmingDory]

Happy Friday groupies!

I just saw some beautiful pictures over on the resort thread of VWL.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=29989988#post29989988

 

[Muushka]

Thank you all so much for the great replies. I am really leaning towards 5 days at the park and then finishing off with a four day cruise.

I have another question for your awesome experts. Do you know if she ship is decorated for Christmas as well?

DisneyNutzy those are great pictures from AKL our other "home".

Great plan! I think our favorite vacation of all time was BCV 4 nights, VWL 4 nights, DCL 4 nights. Speaking of DCL Wonder, we did the Christmas cruise, which was awesome. They decorate the ship around Thanksgiving, so you should be all set. How fun will that be?????

Happy Friday groupies!

I just saw some beautiful pictures over on the resort thread of VWL.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=29989988#post29989988

Happy Friday! The pics were great!

 

[Oshawa]

Great plan! I think our favorite vacation of all time was BCV 4 nights, VWL 4 nights, DCL 4 nights. Speaking of DCL Wonder, we did the Christmas cruise, which was awesome. They decorate the ship around Thanksgiving, so you should be all set. How fun will that be?????



Happy Friday! The pics were great!

It will be an awesome time!! I can't wait to book it now!!

 

[Oshawa]

Happy Friday groupies!

I just saw some beautiful pictures over on the resort thread of VWL.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=29989988#post29989988

Great pictures!! I am even more confident that we made the right decision of buying add on point at VWL. We only saw some pictures of the resort and fell in love with it. We just new this would be the right place for our family.

 

[Muushka]

I forgot to mention how very handsom the Moosie looks on you!

PS If you asked the question of 3,4 or 7 day cruise for first time, just about everyone would tell you 7. We are in the minority, but at least we didn't recommend a 3 day cruise!

You might want to pose the question over on the cruise board to get different answers than I gave you, although a Groupie would never steer you wrong!

 

[Oshawa]

I forgot to mention how very handsom the Moosie looks on you!

PS If you asked the question of 3,4 or 7 day cruise for first time, just about everyone would tell you 7. We are in the minority, but at least we didn't recommend a 3 day cruise!

You might want to pose the question over on the cruise board to get different answers than I gave you, although a Groupie would never steer you wrong!

I love the options that you suggested and greatly appreciate it. I know for sure a Groupie would never steer us wrong.
Hubby and I love the ideal of the parks first and then the cruise. We would have never thought of that. Being the newbies we are! What a perfect way to end a trip...relaxing. (I am day dreaming right now).
Again thank you so much.

 

[Goofy's apprentice]

I am in total agreement regarding doing the parks first. I am no expert since we only have cruised once, but you just feel so pampered and relaxed...everything you need at your fingertips ! We just kept looking at each other and laughing because it was so wonderful!

Here's another thought. After the cruise we spent a few days back at WDW. Didn't do the parks, just got ourselves back into life. Didn't really need to eat much. I remember feeling happy that I didn't have to head to the airport right away. Just a thought....

The other great thing about cruising...everyone's vacation begins and ends together. None of the sad trudging away to the bus with your luggage while watching others arriving.

 

[twokats]

Welcome GA
One of the reasons we love WL is the boat trip. My DD was given the choice on the 2004 trip of trying AKL or going back to WL. She chose WL without skipping a beat. We feel so relaxed traveling across the lake even on a full boat load of people.

Muushka: One of the reasons I chose the 4 night cruise for this coming trip is that I was afraid the 7night would be too long for me since I have never cruised before, plus I wanted to do my usual 15 day vacation and I could not have afforded it with the 7. But with the 4 I can still do 11 days at WDW and I will be a happy camper!!

Hope everyone is having better weather. We had a pretty major Ice storm (for us) and I got a day off. . . . I don't do ice on our highways!!!
Have a good weekend to all.

 

[Inkmahm]

have a great (and hopefully snow free) weekend Groupies.

Who's up to bat next at the lodge??

FYI:

Illuminations fireworks show priemered today 1/30/1988

20 years and still my favorite night time show.

Illuminations- Reflections of Earth version was from the late 1990's though, wasn't it? We had an engineer friend who workd on the show for Disney and he gave us his poster that Disney gave him as a gift for working on the team. The show was put together for the millenium.

Was there an Illuminations show before the current one?

 

[Inkmahm]

The 7 day was too long primarily because the seas were very rough (30 feet!!!). But looking back, other than the weather, 7 days just seemed like a long time for both Mr Muush and myself. Now that we are cruising experts (we have taken 7, 4, 5, 7, 7) and just love cruising, we don't see ourselves taking a cruise longer than 7 days. We might be the rare ADD type of cruisers because so many people like to take long cruises.

With DCL, the cruises are so dang expensive, a 4 day for a first cruise is easier to finance, you can pretty much assume that it will be a great time and that you will be sad to leave the ship.

As far as not enough to do, we are not typical cruisers. We cruise for the actual being on the sea experience rather than the shows, meals, and activities that are going on. We enjoy the ship, so when visiting ports, we think great! everyone will be gone and we can be on a nice quiet ship!

Our favorite thing to do is to sit on the veranda and feel the sea breeze going over our toes. And if our veranda is not so big, sitting out on the promenade deck is our second favorite place to hang. This past 7 day DCL, we did not go to one show! We had seen them before and just didn't want to see them again.

Sorry for the long answer, I probably need more coffee to get me moving physically and stop dreaming about cruises!

Ah, I probably wouldn't do more than 7 days either unless there was a lot of time off the ship. We enjoy getting off and doing the activities in port. Our view of cruising is that we have a floating hotel room which just makes it easier to not have to pack and unpack to get to each of the stops! We've done Alaska twice and that floating hotel room description is exactly right for us.

We liked the 4 day Disney cruises we took, just didn't want to do Nassau again. Twice is enough.

 

[Inkmahm]

I forgot to mention how very handsom the Moosie looks on you!

PS If you asked the question of 3,4 or 7 day cruise for first time, just about everyone would tell you 7. We are in the minority, but at least we didn't recommend a 3 day cruise!

You might want to pose the question over on the cruise board to get different answers than I gave you, although a Groupie would never steer you wrong!

Nah, I'd recommend the 4 day for a first time cruise.

And definitely do the parks first if you can, then relax on the cruise.

We use the same theory in Alaska. Land tour first, then the cruise to recover.

 

[Muushka]

Illuminations- Reflections of Earth version was from the late 1990's though, wasn't it? We had an engineer friend who workd on the show for Disney and he gave us his poster that Disney gave him as a gift for working on the team. The show was put together for the millenium.

Was there an Illuminations show before the current one?

The first Illuminations (the one Eliza is talking about) is our favorite. They would showcase a country each night (America was my favorite, love Gershwin!) and play their music and shine the laser light on it. Loved it!

 

[Muushka]

Ah, I probably wouldn't do more than 7 days either unless there was a lot of time off the ship. We enjoy getting off and doing the activities in port. Our view of cruising is that we have a floating hotel room which just makes it easier to not have to pack and unpack to get to each of the stops! We've done Alaska twice and that floating hotel room description is exactly right for us.

We liked the 4 day Disney cruises we took, just didn't want to do Nassau again. Twice is enough.

Yup, they could skip Nassau as far as we are concerned. The only good thing about that stop is that they stay docked so long at night, that you can get great night shots of the ship.

I want to do Alaska so bad I can taste the ice! But my Mr Muush is not a fan of the flight, so we will probably not get there. Unless I can hitch along with someone!

Nah, I'd recommend the 4 day for a first time cruise.

And definitely do the parks first if you can, then relax on the cruise.

We use the same theory in Alaska. Land tour first, then the cruise to recover.

Oh good, you would recommend the 4 day for first time also.

 

[horselover]

otherwise there are too many pages to catch up on!

Welcome to all our newbies!

Muush & Disneynutzy thanks for the beautiful pics. My other home looks like it's coming along really nicely. Can't wait to stay there.

Muush what kind of camera did you use for those night shots? Last trip I didn't bring my good digital camera (Nikon D50) since it's a little bulky & I wanted to try out the new HD camcorder instead. I brought my other small digital (Fuji something or other) & it took terrible night pics. I'm thinking of getting a small, compact digital to replace the Fuji. Your camera took great night shots.

Well update on my anniversary trip babysitting dilemma. I'm one day short for a sitter. Unfortunately it's on Tue. so it's not like I could come back a day early to compensate for it (we're going Sat-Thu.) My niece (different niece than the one who just went to VWL with us) offered to take the whole week off from work to watch them, but I think that's too much to ask. I have the best nieces! Not sure what to do. I'm still trying to figure out how I could work it all out. If I let them miss 1 day of school they could stay at my sister's until Mon. & then my niece could watch them Tue & Wed. Lucky for me the schools aren't as strict here as they are in Maria's neck of the woods. I hate to have them miss more school though. It seems very selfish of me to pull them out for a day just so I can do to Disney with DH. I guess we'll see how it plays out. Keeping my ressie for now.

Taking DS10 & a friend to see Hotel for Dogs this afternoon. I hope it's good. Lucky for me I'm a dog lover so how bad can it be.

Have a good day all!

 

[blossomz]

Good Saturday morning groupies! All of those photos from the resorts keep me all warm and fuzzy on a cold morning! I'm also glad to hear that my summer cruise plans seem to be inline with whatever everyone is recommending! 5 days in the parks and then our first cruise..a 4 day! 142 days seems so far off! It will be worth the wait though once through this winter and the school year draws to an end! Unfortunately, this week's snow day has pushed our last teacher day to the next week..YUCK! Oh well..

 

[Muushka]

HL, going on a vacation kid-free is good for your marriage and subsequently good for the kids! Go for it!!

We have the Nikon D70. The secret to night shots is the tripod. We consider taking night pictures part of our vacation enjoyment, arguing about settings and framing!

We actually had to buy a better tripod when we got the new DSLR. That thing was so heavy it would shake the tripod when the picture went off. Now we have no worries. We always set the ISO at 200, aperature wide open (or not, depending on what we want) and use manual settings for the light meter.

I know, more info than needed, but we achieved some great pictures with our Kodak DC4800, so it has more to do with the actual picture taking (camera settings) rather than the camera.

Mornin' blossomz ! I can't wait for your cruise!!

 

[Goofy's apprentice]

Muushka

The first Illuminations (the one Eliza is talking about) is our favorite. They would showcase a country each night (America was my favorite, love Gershwin!) and play their music and shine the laser light on it. Loved it!

Cheers for the dancing countries !!! I really miss that part. I am not a big fan of the Globe although it is growing on me. I definitely like the older version better. But then....sometimes you just feel nostalgic for the version you first saw

Horselover

Well update on my anniversary trip babysitting dilemma. I'm one day short for a sitter. Unfortunately it's on Tue. so it's not like I could come back a day early to compensate for it (we're going Sat-Thu.) My niece (different niece than the one who just went to VWL with us) offered to take the whole week off from work to watch them, but I think that's too much to ask. I have the best nieces! Not sure what to do. I'm still trying to figure out how I could work it all out. If I let them miss 1 day of school they could stay at my sister's until Mon. & then my niece could watch them Tue & Wed. Lucky for me the schools aren't as strict here as they are in Maria's neck of the woods. I hate to have them miss more school though. It seems very selfish of me to pull them out for a day just so I can do to Disney with DH. I guess we'll see how it plays out. Keeping my ressie for now.

Hope it works out for you. We take an adult trip every fall (ours ar 13 and 16). It is so good for our own relationship as adults. I don't think it selfish to take them out of school for the day. You are giving them a day vacation they probably will enjoy. Depends of course on each kid. My son would love it. My daughter thinks school is a social event so she may not.