Who lets their 7 yr old read "On Board The Titanic" before a Magic-al cruise!

[purplepeg]

I knew I shouldn't have let him register and start posting that darn dh. I know he will answer all of your questions and I see he has done so while he was supposed to be "working" today I thought he worked hard but apparently I'm mistaken. I also believe he meant 4 countries not counties. He's cute but apparently can't proofread

 

[Mozart]

Thanks for that! I have a lot of friends who are very big into this right now.

But I was under the impression that the coordinates are not exactly given and hints are then given to get you to the actual cache? Am I right or misunderstanding another aspect of the game?

You're thinking of a different game called letterboxing. Very similiar concept except that instead of using a GPS, you're having to solve some sort of puzzle to get to the prize.

Letterboxing is a lot less common, though. There are about 250 caches in the county I live in, and only 2 letterboxes.

 

[pillow]

I hope that helps explain a cool hobby that essentially is a high tech treasure hunt!!! (There is also a part of the geocaching game that allows you to send an item out in the world and track where it goes, let me know if you want to hear more about this!!!)

Now back to Purplepeg’s trip report!!!!!

That sounds very interesting. I think my 11 year old son would LOVE it! What is the cheapest GPS that I can buy that will work fairly well. I think this might make a good b-day present.

And please do tell us about sending an item out in the world and tracking where it goes.

Jodie

 

[purplepeg]

Very much so enjoying it! As you'll soon see from our trippie, we ended up not doing pirate night in the dining room so it's neat to see what they did in there. Your daughters are sooooooo cute!!!! I love their little pirate costumes.

Thanks , I thought they looked quite cute too. Now I'm curious about why you didn't do the dining room on Pirate night. I guess I have to be patient. Did you notice dh's comments on geocaching? Boy, you let them answer one question and they take over the tr I have to say though, I believe it has brought out some lurkers. What do you think? I'm happy for any and all comments.

YEAH!

Thanks for TWO INSTALLMENT! That was awesome to wake up to this morning...

Thanks. I know there is nothing like getting to read another installment on a tr. Thanks for hanging in with me

On our first Disney cruise last Nov, DH brought his GPS and I thought he was nuts. I'm sure he'd love geocatching? please tell us more- we are going on an Eastern in June of 09.

I thought my dh was nuts too but I did go on deck wth him a few times to get readings and it was really neat to see where we were.

Purplepeg,

Thanks for posting the picture. That was great.

Love your trip report. You have beautiful kids! Your pictures are so nice too.

Can't wait until our cruise. This will be the first cruise ever for us and I am getting more excited reading your trip report. We will be on the May 2009 cruise.

Thanks again for your help.

Anytime, I love helping out because alot of people helped me with my questions. You will love it

 

[Geodoc]

That sounds very interesting. I think my 11 year old son would LOVE it! What is the cheapest GPS that I can buy that will work fairly well. I think this might make a good b-day present.

And please do tell us about sending an item out in the world and tracking where it goes.

Jodie

Thanks for your comments and interest in geocaching.

The best I can tell you about getting a GPS is to do some research and see what products your local electronics stores offer. If you go to the geocaching.com site they have a link to a forum just like Disboards and I know there are threads about what GPS units to look at. Both sites are free to sign up for. My personal preference have been for Garmin units. The nice thing about these is that it is the only brand that geocaching.com allows to download coordinates from the computer to the GPS. All other brands you have to put the coordinates in manually.
Hope that helps and I will be happy to answer any other questions you have. I will try to add a small post about a trackable thing called a geobug soon(If purplepeg lets me!!!))

Geodoc

 

[Mozart]

Thanks for your comments and interest in geocaching.

The best I can tell you about getting a GPS is to do some research and see what products your local electronics stores offer. If you go to the geocaching.com site they have a link to a forum just like Disboards and I know there are threads about what GPS units to look at. Both sites are free to sign up for. My personal preference have been for Garmin units. The nice thing about these is that it is the only brand that geocaching.com allows to download coordinates from the computer to the GPS. All other brands you have to put the coordinates in manually.
Hope that helps and I will be happy to answer any other questions you have. I will try to add a small post about a trackable thing called a geobug soon(If purplepeg lets me!!!))

Geodoc

I'll put in a vote for Garmin units as well for multiple reasons. The two major handheld ones on the market are Garmin and Magellan, and the Garmins just seem to be much more user friendly. Plus, there is a difference in the way that Garmin and Magellan units calculate their coordinates. Since most geocachers use Garmins, it would probably be a little easier starting out to use the same system. Personally, I recommend the Garmin etrex Legend for geocaching.

Also, if you're interested in using your GPS for geocaching, please notice that you need a handheld unit. You can't use the type that most people are familiar with that provide you road directions in your car. I also have a Garmin nuvi that I use in my car for driving, but like I said, the two operate very differently. The handheld units operate more like maps where you have to read them yourselves, while the in-car units pretty much tell you where you need to go.

Now, I'll butt out and let you get back to the trip report....

 

[purplepeg]

I'll put in a vote for Garmin units as well for multiple reasons. The two major handheld ones on the market are Garmin and Magellan, and the Garmins just seem to be much more user friendly. Plus, there is a difference in the way that Garmin and Magellan units calculate their coordinates. Since most geocachers use Garmins, it would probably be a little easier starting out to use the same system. Personally, I recommend the Garmin etrex Legend for geocaching.

Also, if you're interested in using your GPS for geocaching, please notice that you need a handheld unit. You can't use the type that most people are familiar with that provide you road directions in your car. I also have a Garmin nuvi that I use in my car for driving, but like I said, the two operate very differently. The handheld units operate more like maps where you have to read them yourselves, while the in-car units pretty much tell you where you need to go.

Now, I'll butt out and let you get back to the trip report....

Not a problem. I told Geodoc he needs to start a geocaching thread of his own because there's obviously an interest

 

[purplepeg]

Here is the Pirate Night installment.

During dinner dd7 had lots of tummy pains and lots of trips to the br for not much success. We looked around the shops after supper and then went back to the room.
These were waiting for us when we got back to the room.
The DVC invitation for the information session. I thought this was the coolest thing, but it doesn't take much to impress me

The towel animal for the night. I also thought this was cool.

Dd7 I think had too much sun during the day. We both napped and then dh woke us for the pirate deck party. I really didn’t want to go. I was tired and after I nap I’m pretty cranky. We did finally decide to go and we made it there when there were still lots of room to move around. I had brought lots of glow bracelets for the party so both girls had lots of bracelets and a necklace. Dd7 went right to the front area in front of the stage. It’s funny how after you’ve been on the ship for a while I loosened up a bit about not having her right beside me. I could see her tights and every now and then they would pan the front with a camera and I would see her. I did keep going over to check on her as well. Although she did seem better after her nap she had such a sad/mad face on every time they showed her on the screen.
On the big screen.

Cm entertainment that was fabulous.

The big screen. Made sure everyone could see what was happening on stage.

dd7 at the frony having a great time.

She said she had a good time but she didn’t look like she did. Oh is this a glimpse into the teen years? I hope not. Dd3 had such a good time dancing on deck. She danced so much on this cruise and loved every minute of it!

Dh and dd3 enjoying the festivities.

See the glow bracelets and necklace?

dd3 entralled with the stage show. Does she have enough bracelets on?

Goofy with the cast.

The songs were really great that they were playing and even though I know the cast does this every week they were really into it(or did a really good job of faking it) It was such a great time, I’m so glad my dh made me go. The whole show they do is so great, the music really put me in a good mood, there are lots of characters in their pirate gear, and it was a beautiful night. They apparently stopped the ship to launch the fireworks and during the deck party there was no wind.
Fantastic fireworks!

More fireworks!

We went to the buffet after, the regular one and the dessert one, because we ate early and were actually hungry again. It was very busy but we found a table. The kids were really happy, they had such a good time and the fireworks were fantastic!

The ice sculpture.

Big Banner near the buffets.

The girls enjoying their snack.

The buffet.

They were showing POTC on the Ariel view T.V. after. If we didn’t have the kids we probably would have stayed to watch it. Yeah right! I was the tired cranky one remember? We went back to the room. We had to put the clocks ahead an hour so now it is midnight! I was trying to get to sleep and dd7 is crying because she can feel the ship moving and rocking! No different than any other night but now she thinks we could sink at any time after seeing the lifeboats out at Grand Cayman! I try and calm her down but that didn’t work so she ended up sleeping with dd3 who was sound asleep. I left the T.V. on for a while too to try and take her mind off the motion. It must have worked because she finally fell asleep.

Tomorrow another sea day and shopping!

 

[purplepeg]

Here are some more general Pirate Night photos.
Rodent pirate.

CM having fun.

Minnie.

Yet another Rodent pirate

Note dd7 on the screen, does she look happy or what?

The bad pirates invade!

Villan

Pirate Stitch.

The hook man and his sidekick.

Loved seeing Captain Hook!

Mickey comes to save the day!

Mickey.

This really is an awesome party, don't miss it

Another shot of the buffet decorations

POTC on the Ariel View T.V.

 

[Hypermommy]

Now, I'll butt out and let you get back to the trip report....

Wait, wait! Before you butt out, what's a geobug?

 

[Hypermommy]

Great report on the pirate party! Excellent picture of the "logo" for the party on arielview. I don't think mine came out near as well. If so, do you mind if I use a copy of yours in my scrapbooking? Loved seeing the buffet. Being such morning person does have its disadvantages as I wasn't awake long after the pirate party. Yummy looking. Guess I'll just have to cruise again and this time turn my internal clock around

 

[Mozart]

Wait, wait! Before you butt out, what's a geobug?

Wikipedia's got a better explanation than I can give:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travel_Bug

 

[Geodoc]

I'll put in a vote for Garmin units as well for multiple reasons. The two major handheld ones on the market are Garmin and Magellan, and the Garmins just seem to be much more user friendly. Plus, there is a difference in the way that Garmin and Magellan units calculate their coordinates. Since most geocachers use Garmins, it would probably be a little easier starting out to use the same system. Personally, I recommend the Garmin etrex Legend for geocaching.

Also, if you're interested in using your GPS for geocaching, please notice that you need a handheld unit. You can't use the type that most people are familiar with that provide you road directions in your car. I also have a Garmin nuvi that I use in my car for driving, but like I said, the two operate very differently. The handheld units operate more like maps where you have to read them yourselves, while the in-car units pretty much tell you where you need to go.

Now, I'll butt out and let you get back to the trip report....

Thanks Mozart, this sounds like me, I Use a Gamin Etrex Legend for Geocaching and use a Garmin Streetpilot in the car(I actually started geocachng with the Streetpilot and it worked not bad)

Notice the Pirate with the GPS on his hip!!!
Its the modern version of Captain Jack's compass

 

[Geodoc]

Wait, wait! Before you butt out, what's a geobug?

A geobug or travel bug is a dog tag that has a tracking number on it that can be attached to anything you want. The idea is then to place your object or hitchhicker in a geocache and hope it gets discovered and taken to another cache. The idea is that hopefully your geobug will travel all over the place. Each one has a webpage dedicated to it, and its location and distance traveled can be tracked.

So here is an example, we discovered a geobug in one of our caches back home, it belongs to a liitle girl in England. It started its journey in New Zealand last August and found its way to Manitoba. I took it on the cruise and left it on Castaway Cay. A few days later it was taken back to Florida and as of this week it is heading for Vienna Austria!!!

Hope this helps explain another cool thing about geocaching.
Perhaps if there is lots of interest I will need to start a separate thread!!
Happy hunting

 

[purplepeg]

Great report on the pirate party! Excellent picture of the "logo" for the party on arielview. I don't think mine came out near as well. If so, do you mind if I use a copy of yours in my scrapbooking? Loved seeing the buffet. Being such morning person does have its disadvantages as I wasn't awake long after the pirate party. Yummy looking. Guess I'll just have to cruise again and this time turn my internal clock around

I don't mind at all. You should post some of your scrapper pages on your report. I would love to see them.

 

[purplepeg]

So we set the alarm for 7:30 am so we can get to Lumiere’s for breakfast.
This is how the girls look after having to sleep together because dd7 is so upset at bedtime because of the ship's movement!

Aren't they precious?

I really like being there for breakfast and they close at 9:30. We got there about 9. I took a pic of the French toast with grilled pineapple. It sounded better than it tasted, but I managed to choke it down.
The rose in Lumiere's I loved this.

The mural in Lumiere's. I didn't even realize this was here until we went for braekfast one morning and spied it.

Grilled pineapple and french toast

Dd3 got hold of the camera, her strawberries....

And her froot loops. Just in case you didn't know what froot loops looked like.

After breakfast we went to shutters to look at our pictures. The pictures of the girls from pirate night are amazing! I will get Geodoc to scan some and I’ll post them. Dd3 was pretty whiny today, too little sleep maybe? We went shopping with the girls with our 20% off coupon. The girls got HSM2 t-shirts (matching). We had given the girls a set amount of money before we left home. Dd3 bought her Hanna Montana costume at downtown Disney the night before we left and that took most of her money. She had enough for the t-shirt. Dd7 sold her bingo winning shower radio to us for the t-shirt. She didn’t buy anything at DD. They got some pins and I bought more photo albums (that I still haven’t developed any pictures for), dh got a polo shirt and we bought the beach towels for the girls with the ship and Mickey and Goofy are the clouds. I love that picture and it looks great on a towel. I thought they had a really good selection of towels. I hadn’t bought my sister anything yet and when I called her from GC I asked if she would wear flip flops (swarovsky crystal ones). I went to pick up a pair and looked at the price…. $140!!! I guess she’ll be getting something else.
The kids wanted to go to the club so we dropped them off. On our way we noticed all the Princess banners up in the lobby. I guess it was a princess greet in the lobby. I consulted the Navigator and there it was so we got in the huge, did I mention Huge line up and that was before it even started. Once the princesses arrived it moved pretty smoothly and we got to see Snow White, Cinderella and Belle. There was a dad in front of us that had a daughter around 3-4 I would say and for each princess he had the matching costume for her. He would change her before each photo. We had to wait for him each time but I thought “ what a great idea” but I didn’t think to bring all those costumes. I was really trying to pack light.

Banners in the lobby

Snow White and wearing their new HSM2 t-shirts

Talking with Snow

Belle

Cindy

. We wanted to go see National Treasure 2. It conflicted with the DVC presentation so we chose the movie. We really wanted to see the DVC but we don’t get to movies too often by ourselves. Something about a movie on board ship was really appealing. I think we fed the kids some lunch before they went to their clubs and I think today was mostly playing at the clubs and finishing up what they had missed so far. Also getting ready for their “graduation” later was on the agenda. Dh and I went to shutters after the movie to pick out all the photos we wanted. Cost us way too much money but we couldn’t leave them there, they were so good!
Dd3 paged us because she was tired, I was so surprised she paged us. When we got back to the room she actually fell asleep! It was semi formal night so we picked up dd7 and everyone got ready for dinner because the “grad” was at 5 until 5:30 and we had first dinner seating at 5:30. It was going to be tight. We all got ready, woke up dd3 who was now really cranky! Uh oh. We really wanted her to go her “grad” but we were also being realistic. Of course once we got to the theater and she woke up a bit more then she said she wanted to go but now it was too late. She took this news pretty well, considering how cranky she was. The Celebrate the Journey was really cute. They all march in down both aisles and we hoped we wouldn’t miss dd7 with the video camera and we didn’t. We couldn’t really see her much when she was on stage. There were so many kids there! That staff sure earns their money. They played “I’m on my way” from Brother Bear and showed a whole bunch of photos of all the kids. I assume that they try and get photos of all the kids because we saw both the girls once. We didn’t notice it until we were at the club and they were playing it again for the kids and I saw dd7 with her flubber glasses on ( or were they for the volcano?) Anywhoo, when we got back home and we were showing the video of our trip to our families I noticed dd3’s shirt and realized she was in it too but I cut her head off because I was trying to film dd7 on stage. Oh well. As soon as this was done we raced to pick dd7 up at the club along with every other parent! We then raced to dinner.

The theater

The curtain

The D Sea U Logo

getting ready

That’s it for now, more tomorrow. Happy Mother’s Day to all you Mothers out there. I’m hosting brunch for everyone tomorrow so I plan to commandeer the computer later and finish this installment. I can’t believe after that I’ll only have Castaway Cay and going home to talk about!

 

[TheDisneyGirl02]

Love the last installment!

What is on the t-shirts the kids are wearing in the 'graduation ceremony'? Did you have to buy them or did they give them to the kids? Don't know why I'm so curious...I don't even have kids for the clubs! LOL!!!

Happy Mother's Day!

 

[TiaMaria]

Purplepeg,

I am REALLY enjoying your trip report and your fantastic photos - thanks so much for including them - it takes me right back on board!

You have a lovely family - your girls are just dolls.

I am especially enjoying your DD7's "Titanicphobia" - the obsession with that movie/ship must begin with girls of a certain age. 2 years ago, when my niece had just turned 7, we had the touring Titanic exhibit here in St. Louis at our Science Center - you know the one with all the artifacts and the fake iceberg? There was a replica of a First Class passageway and stateroom as well as steerage. You also got a boarding card telling you if you were in 1st Class, 2nd, 3rd or crew - and at the end - you found your "name" on a large board and got to find out if you "survived" or not. Well my niece and nephew (her older brother) both LOVED it. We also got to do a "Camp In" there (my back did not enjoy sleeping on a concrete floor! ) with scavenger hunts and other games.

Fast forward to our Magic cruise last April/May. My niece was upset because she forgot to bring a lace handkerchief that she had received for her First Communion - she wanted to wave it at the railing upon embarking - just like that girl in the beginning of the movie!! Also, as we were walking down the hallway on Deck 7 when we were allowed to go to our stateroom, my niece says "Wow, Auntie! Are we in First Class!?". I tried not to crack up - just said, "Yes, sure, honey". Too funny!

Surprisingly neither one of them had any fear - I was surprised, especially by my niece - she went through a few years of being obsessed by death and dead bodies - but it didn't faze her at all.

I am looking forward to your next installment. In the meantime - Happy Mother's Day!

 

[purplepeg]

Love the last installment!

What is on the t-shirts the kids are wearing in the 'graduation ceremony'? Did you have to buy them or did they give them to the kids? Don't know why I'm so curious...I don't even have kids for the clubs! LOL!!!

Happy Mother's Day!

The shirts have the logo on them from "Disney Sea University" or "D Sea U". Here's the picture.

Some of it is covered in clouds but you get the idea. The kids all got a t-shirt and their mortar board ears for the grad, even dd3 who was too tired to attend. We just mentioned it the next time we went to club. The staff were really great. They weren't any extra cost. Thanks for the Mother's day wishes. Sometimes it doesn't matter if the question applies to you, you just have to know

Purplepeg,

I am REALLY enjoying your trip report and your fantastic photos - thanks so much for including them - it takes me right back on board!

You have a lovely family - your girls are just dolls.

I am especially enjoying your DD7's "Titanicphobia" - the obsession with that movie/ship must begin with girls of a certain age. 2 years ago, when my niece had just turned 7, we had the touring Titanic exhibit here in St. Louis at our Science Center - you know the one with all the artifacts and the fake iceberg? There was a replica of a First Class passageway and stateroom as well as steerage. You also got a boarding card telling you if you were in 1st Class, 2nd, 3rd or crew - and at the end - you found your "name" on a large board and got to find out if you "survived" or not. Well my niece and nephew (her older brother) both LOVED it. We also got to do a "Camp In" there (my back did not enjoy sleeping on a concrete floor! ) with scavenger hunts and other games.

Fast forward to our Magic cruise last April/May. My niece was upset because she forgot to bring a lace handkerchief that she had received for her First Communion - she wanted to wave it at the railing upon embarking - just like that girl in the beginning of the movie!! Also, as we were walking down the hallway on Deck 7 when we were allowed to go to our stateroom, my niece says "Wow, Auntie! Are we in First Class!?". I tried not to crack up - just said, "Yes, sure, honey". Too funny!

Surprisingly neither one of them had any fear - I was surprised, especially by my niece - she went through a few years of being obsessed by death and dead bodies - but it didn't faze her at all.

I am looking forward to your next installment. In the meantime - Happy Mother's Day!

Thanks so much for the kind words. I'm glad you are enjoying the photos. I agree with you. It puts me back on board too. There have been times when I couldn't remember what we did and then a photo will remind me.


I love your story about your niece Some days it really is hard to keep a straight face with the things they come out with. That exhibit sounds really great, I never saw it, kinda makes me wish it came here but we don't have a science center.

I am having a wonderful Mother's day so far. My beautiful daughters made me flower pots and homemade cards. They were so excited Dh got me a gc from my favorite clothing store, so it's early but it's all good today

Have a great Mother's Day everyone

 

[Hypermommy]

So here is an example, we discovered a geobug in one of our caches back home, it belongs to a liitle girl in England. It started its journey in New Zealand last August and found its way to Manitoba. I took it on the cruise and left it on Castaway Cay. A few days later it was taken back to Florida and as of this week it is heading for Vienna Austria!!!

That sounds like a lot of fun!!! Maybe I'll have to get into that one day. Nahhhh... any spare penny I get is going into the cruise jar 'cause I just gotta get back on board one day.

I don't mind at all. You should post some of your scrapper pages on your report. I would love to see them.

You should know better by now than to encourage me. I've posted some of them in the DCL scrap thread but maybe I'll commandeer KC's thread a bit and show some of them off.

I loved the picture of the strawberries and absolutely love the picture of the fruit loops! Hey, mom's taking pictures of the food -- why shouldn't mini Montana? And that's what's important to her! You just let that baby take as many pictures as she wants!!

$140 flops???? That sure beats the $85 pair I saw in (I think) Key West. For that kind of price they'd better do the walking for me!

I wanted to see Nat Treas 2 while on board too but I ended up not going to any movies. I guess I figured I could see it at home and wanted to do more "ship" things. And what I ended up doing was hanging out on deck 9 most of the time watching the sea go by!

Love the pic of Mickey in his grad gown. We got DS12 one of those t-shirts too. He didn't do the program (spent most of his time in Quest) but they had some on the counter when we went to turn in the beeper. I asked about them and they said we could have one. Even though he didn't do the program I didn't turn it down. How often do you get freebies from Disney, eh?

Can't wait to read more!!!!

Happy Mom's Day!