We're going on another cruise! PTR

[amberm0688]

Hello all! This is my first Pre-Trip Report so please bear with me and let me know if it's awful lol. I am fairly new to DisBoards and have spent the past few months silently reading and absorbing some wonderful information from all you guys out there. I was so inspired, I decided to try it out. We will see how well this goes.
As the title states, we are going on another cruise and Disney is the only way to go! Our travel party consists of Myself (Amber), My Wife (Jennifer/DW) and our 8 year old son (Aidan/DS).
My parents will also be joining us on this trip, We will call them Mimi and Pops.

This was us at MNSSHP in 2013. I (Amber) am on the left, DW is the one dressed as Lone Ranger and DS is Tonto!



The Parentals!
[URL=http://s1043.photobucket.com/user/amims0708/media/IMG_6806_zpsfb3slpde.jpg.html]



Family Selfie from St. Augustine trip this year.



We are HUGE Disney people, which I guess we all are to be on the Dis. LOL. My parents tolerate our obsession. They enjoy Disney but also like to travel other places. I visited several times as a child with my parents. My wife went a couple times growing up. She is a military brat so she spent a lot of time overseas. We took DS for the first time in 2013 and have been every year since then. DW, DS and I went with DW's family for 4 nights in April,2014. We stayed off park, which was new for me, and I hated it. We had a good time, but DW and I are def not off park people. We will never do that again. Her mother has never stayed on park and we could not convince her otherwise. DW, DS and I then went to SWW May 2015 to celebrate his BD. That was an interesting trip. We normally go in the cooler months and that was eye-opening. It was great though! We did our first Disney cruise in March 2015. We did a 4 night on the Dream to the Bahamas.



Yes we were that family to take a picture of the picture. Shame on us I know.

Ok so more about this trip. We will be doing 7 nights on the Fantasy - Eastern Caribbean with Halloween on the High Seas. We leave Port Canaveral on Oct 8th,2016. We are doing one night at MK on 10/6/16 for MNSSHP. We booked this cruise with a WHOPPING 372 days out. It has been a LONG LONG LONG wait. HOWEVER...


WooHoo! Double Digits Dance!!!

So far these are the plans.
We (DW,DS and myself) will leave home (GA) around 4:30 PM on Wednesday 10/5/16. We live about 5 1/2 - 6 hours from Orlando. We are stopping in Ocala, FL and staying in the Sleep Inn. We have some friends who are AP holders and DVC members that have stayed there in the past and said it was pretty nice. We are doing this to save a little money and to be closer to Orlando on Thursday. Thursday AM we plan on exploring Disney Springs. We have not spent much time there our past couple of trips, as they were shorter trips. We plan on eating lunch at Disney Springs. My parents will be leaving GA Thursday AM very early. They hope to be at Disney Springs around lunch.
We will be staying at AOA in the Little Mermaid room Thursday and Friday. We have MNSSHP tickets for Thursday.
On Friday, We have ADR at Kona Cafe for breakfast. This will be a first for us. Later, our friends are coming to Disney for Fall break and we are going to spend time with them at the pools and check out some other resorts for future planning purposes. We have dinner reservations at 8:00 at T-Rex. I recently enrolled in the Landry's Select Club as Pops' birthday is in October so we could cash in on those reward benefits.

Saturday, we board for 7 days of relaxation and paradise.
We have already booked some stuff at our 90 day mark. We have a few excursions planned and a Palo Brunch and the Pirate's League for DS. With 55 days to go, I need to finish up my FE's and get to packing! I think that's gonna wrap up this first post. I look forward to any input from you guys![/URL]

 

[CSkalski]

Hello all! This is my first Pre-Trip Report so please bear with me and let me know if it's awful lol. I am fairly new to DisBoards and have spent the past few months silently reading and absorbing some wonderful information from all you guys out there. I was so inspired, I decided to try it out. We will see how well this goes.
As the title states, we are going on another cruise and Disney is the only way to go! Our travel party consists of Myself (Amber), My Wife (Jennifer/DW) and our 8 year old son (Aidan/DS).
My parents will also be joining us on this trip, We will call them Mimi and Pops.

This was us at MNSSHP in 2013. I (Amber) am on the left, DW is the one dressed as Lone Ranger and DS is Tonto!



The Parentals!




Family Selfie from St. Augustine trip this year.



We are HUGE Disney people, which I guess we all are to be on the Dis. LOL. My parents tolerate our obsession. They enjoy Disney but also like to travel other places. I visited several times as a child with my parents. My wife went a couple times growing up. She is a military brat so she spent a lot of time overseas. We took DS for the first time in 2013 and have been every year since then. DW, DS and I went with DW's family for 4 nights in April,2014. We stayed off park, which was new for me, and I hated it. We had a good time, but DW and I are def not off park people. We will never do that again. Her mother has never stayed on park and we could not convince her otherwise. DW, DS and I then went to SWW May 2015 to celebrate his BD. That was an interesting trip. We normally go in the cooler months and that was eye-opening. It was great though! We did our first Disney cruise in March 2015. We did a 4 night on the Dream to the Bahamas.



Yes we were that family to take a picture of the picture. Shame on us I know.

Ok so more about this trip. We will be doing 7 nights on the Fantasy - Eastern Caribbean with Halloween on the High Seas. We leave Port Canaveral on Oct 8th,2016. We are doing one night at MK on 10/6/16 for MNSSHP. We booked this cruise with a WHOPPING 372 days out. It has been a LONG LONG LONG wait. HOWEVER...


WooHoo! Double Digits Dance!!!

So far these are the plans.
We (DW,DS and myself) will leave home (GA) around 4:30 PM on Wednesday 10/5/16. We live about 5 1/2 - 6 hours from Orlando. We are stopping in Ocala, FL and staying in the Sleep Inn. We have some friends who are AP holders and DVC members that have stayed there in the past and said it was pretty nice. We are doing this to save a little money and to be closer to Orlando on Thursday. Thursday AM we plan on exploring Disney Springs. We have not spent much time there our past couple of trips, as they were shorter trips. We plan on eating lunch at Disney Springs. My parents will be leaving GA Thursday AM very early. They hope to be at Disney Springs around lunch.
We will be staying at AOA in the Little Mermaid room Thursday and Friday. We have MNSSHP tickets for Thursday.
On Friday, We have ADR at Kona Cafe for breakfast. This will be a first for us. Later, our friends are coming to Disney for Fall break and we are going to spend time with them at the pools and check out some other resorts for future planning purposes. We have dinner reservations at 8:00 at T-Rex. I recently enrolled in the Landry's Select Club as Pops' birthday is in October so we could cash in on those reward benefits.

Saturday, we board for 7 days of relaxation and paradise.
We have already booked some stuff at our 90 day mark. We have a few excursions planned and a Palo Brunch and the Pirate's League for DS. With 55 days to go, I need to finish up my FE's and get to packing! I think that's gonna wrap up this first post. I look forward to any input from you guys!

Is there any way we can join your FE group?

 

[amberm0688]

Is there any way we can join your FE group?

I'm in the Goofy group. I think we are full. Are you going on the same cruise?

 

[CSkalski]

We are on the same cruise! If anything changes with your group please let me know. I would love to be an alternate.

 

[Kel-C_D27]

Excited to hear about your trip report. I want to go on a Halloween on High Seas but might not go for a few years... I am living vicariously through you!

 

[amberm0688]

We are on the same cruise! If anything changes with your group please let me know. I would love to be an alternate.

I will let you know. I think they recently opened up an option for those with extra gifts to maybe pixie dust those that did not get to do FE before they closed the groups.

 

[amberm0688]

Excited to hear about your trip report. I want to go on a Halloween on High Seas but might not go for a few years... I am living vicariously through you!

I'm excited you are joining me on this journey. I will try to have another update this week! We are also very excited about Halloween on High Seas.

 

[amberm0688]

Hey guys! I'm back! We are now at 33 days to go!!! Can't wait! I wanted to talk about the excursions and events we have planned. So we are going to MNSSHP on Thursday 10/6. This is also my dad's birthday! We will spend the day at Disney Springs until it is time to get ready for the party. I am disney bounding as Ursula. Ladies, if you arent familiar with LulaRoe.. you should get familiar! It is the most comfortable clothing line EVER! I will be wearing Purple Leggings and a Black Irma. The style is similar to this photo.

and then I have her shell necklace and these minnie ursula ears to complete the look.

I am super excited. DW is wearing a gaston costume t-shirt so we can be a "villian couple" she has been calling us "Gursula" lol

DS is going to be Indiana Jones. He has a toy whip that I was planning on using zipties to keep it closed. Do you think this will be allowed in through security?
Mimi and Pops are doing costume t's as Buzz and Jessie from Toy Story. I like to think my dad favors Buzz with their matching butt-chins.

I finished our matching shirts for boarding day! They are cute!

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I have also finished our Fish Extender Gifts! They are packed and ready to go. Here are a few of them. I did Beach Spikes for Adults.

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I also did the Tsum Tsum chapsticks and Key fobs for teen girls.

For teen and pre-teen boys I did the Hidden Mickey Cruise book and some candy.
Young boys I purchased the "I Spy" Disney Card game.
Young girls I did some Minnie lip gloss and nail polish.
I also did cabin gifts of bags of candy for the shows and movie theater.

As far as excursions and experiences for the cruise. Monday, which is our second day at sea, we have a Palo Brunch booked. We are very excited about this. My wife loves all different foods. I am a little on the picky side so she is very excited to have so much to try. My parents are also booked on this with us.
For Tortola, we have the Forest and Beach Excursion. I believe is a hike and beach day. DS is also scheduled for Pirates League that evening.
For St. Thomas we have the Catamaran Sail and Snorkle with Private Beach.

For Halloween Night on the Cruise, DS will be wearing his Kylo Ren costume from last year. I will be wearing the HerUniverse Boba Fett Dress and DW will wear a Darth Vader costume t-shirt. She's really into dressing up if you can't tell. lol
Mimi and Pops are doing Mary Poppins and Bert. I am super excited about this. They normally would never participate and I am so excited they are doing more this year! I finally got them to purchase magic bands last week. Pops got Tigger and Mimi got the castle and fireworks one.

I was able to book 2 fast passes for our time at MK before the official start of the party. We have one for Space Mountain and one for Peter pan. Since Mimi and Pops aren't registered as staying on park I can not add them to the FP until we are 30 days out.

I believe we are going to work on a countdown chain this weekend! And we are patiently waiting our Mickey Mail!

Alright, I think that's it till next time! Thanks for reading along!

 

[st0nehedge]

Following along.

Also a LLR fan!! We already have so much in common. LLR and Disney! Ha!

Looking forward to more!

 

[amberm0688]

Following along.

Also a LLR fan!! We already have so much in common. LLR and Disney! Ha!

Looking forward to more!

YAY!! I'm so glad to have you following along! Yes I love LLR!

 

[TCB in FLA]

Love your boarding day shirts! Excellent design!!!
Looking forward to reading about the rest of your planning and trip!

 

[amberm0688]

Love your boarding day shirts! Excellent design!!!
Looking forward to reading about the rest of your planning and trip!

Thank you so much! and I'm so glad you're joining along. My dad agreed to one matching shirt and that was it! lol

 

[amberm0688]

Hey ya'll! Sorry for the delay but I am excited to say we are 8 days away from our vacation!! YAY! I can't believe it. Things are wrapping up quite nicely I have us mostly packed and have made list after list after list. We do have some last minute things to get but nothing major. I ordered some awesome shirts from Etsy! We also got our cruise booklets in the mail!

We also got our magic bands for our AOA-Little Mermaid room stay!

Mimi, Pops and I all booked a 2 day pass for the rainforest room. This is new for us as we did not do this on the last cruise. We thought this would be a good value for trying the Spa. Mimi and Pops have also decided to go to MNSSHP as Buzz and Jessie! Mimi has been talking about how its much more exciting to know she will be participating in stuff this year. I think that is it as far as updates go. We are at that boring waiting period that seems to drag on!
However I will mention this as I know you all will understand my frustration, My cousin text me yesterday saying his 7 month pregnant wife, him and their 3 children are leaving for WDW THIS WEDNESDAY and he wanted to know what kind of tickets he should get. I almost had a stroke. lol.

Well I think that is it for now. I will try to do another update before we go. Thanks!