Who's sailing April 18-22, 2004 - gotta start this sometime!!

[goofy601]

Hello!

Bostonlass: I know many people that feel that all those plastic toys and other "throw away" items are must haves for their families. We have already told our children that we are going on this trip as a family - and that's a big gift...and that the Easter bunny would probably be bringing them a little this or that for the trip...we did that a couple years ago when we went to a resort in Canada - the gifts that they got leading up to that event were related to the trip...sand buckets for easter baskets, and sunglasses and flip flops added to the specific birthday gift, etc.
We want to have a great time on the cruise - but really don't want to rack up the credit cards on things that won't make the trip home either.

We feel we got a great deal on our cruise - we saved a lot of money by going the week after spring break - and even got an extra day out of the trip...plus spending a day here or there on the way down and back up - we even went with less expensive rooms - all I figure we're going to do in those rooms is sleep and change clothes -- since we're a larger family - we had to take two rooms - DH and the boys in one and me and the girls in the other...we have friends who booked a similiar cruise - for just the DH and DW and are spending almost 3x as much as we are for all 6 of us! Sometimes it amazes me how far a dollar can get stretched and STILL have TONS of FUN! We plan on having lots of fun -- but want to come home with our shirts at the same time...anything is possible! The only thing that I actually plan on spending extra (besides a possible excursion or floaties for the kids on Castaway Cay)...are a couple of photographs taken by the ships photographers - I'll be darn if I'm not sharing our great memories with EVERYONE in our Christmas cards! LOL!

We're getting closer...

 

[bostonlass]

I think it was just a healthy reality check for me to do the math and figure out exactly how much I really will need to bring. I think that now that I am looking at it in front of me I can see some things that I can eliminate here and there without eliminating any of the fun.

I can't wait!!!

 

[travel with kids]

Disneysailor- Just paid our balance and will go over the excursions this weekend. Will your DS be doing the Nassua teen group? I can not think of the name and DH has the books in his office (aka-bathroom). It is the night boat trip around the island--or something like that. My DS does not know if he wants to or not. Any thoughts about this on your end.

 

[travel with kids]

Originally posted by SCOTTOHIOCPA
I just ordered two green buttons for me and my DW. We'll wear them on Saturday at the Raddison and Sunday at embarkation.

I customized them to say:

SCOTTOHIOCPA
SCOTT
DISBOARDS
WONDER APRIL 2004

SCOTTOHIOCPA
JULIE
DISBOARDS
WONDER APRIL 2004

Here's the link:

http://www.disshop.com/store.asp

What a great idea. I will order my family some also. Did you order some for the kids or just the adults?

 

[SCOTTOHIOCPA]

Travel with kids -

We just ordered buttons for the adults.
They shipped my order the same day!

 

[disneysailor]

Hi all! Yeah, the cruise is paid for (well, sort of, we haven't received our credit card bill yet) and we are ready to go!

Scottohiocpa (and Mrs. Scottohiocpa!) welcome to this board. I'm sure my dd10, Becky, will enjoy meeting your dd11.

Mouse attack- I was so sorry to read that you will not be joining us. I hope you're able to plan another trip soon.

From travel with kids

Just paid our balance and will go over the excursions this weekend. Will your DS be doing the Nassua teen group? I can not think of the name and DH has the books in his office (aka-bathroom). It is the night boat trip around the island--or something like that. My DS does not know if he wants to or not. Any thoughts about this on your end.l

I'm not sure if my son will be doing the Nassau excursion. The deal we tried to make with the kids is that they will need to have dinner with us and hopefully go to some of the shows with us (they didn't really love the shows last time). Also, without knowing which dinner rotation we have, I don't know which restaurant he'll miss and I'm looking forward to getting some family pictures! I'm also not sure about having him go off on a boat by himself, it doesn't take much to make me nervous. If iit is something he decides he REALLY wants to do, we'll discuss it more. I think he is interested in doing the Wildside excursion on Castaway Cay though. Is there anyone else with a teenager? I don't think so- I feel so old!

Keep counting the days away!!!

 

[SCOTTOHIOCPA]

Our lime green DIS buttons arrived today via UPS.

Only 2 more days until we can book excursions!

We plan on going to the Blue Lagoon at Nassau and just renting floats and bikes at CC. We might rent a hobie cat, but it's been 20 years since I sailed so maybe we better stick to sea kayaks instead.

 

[goofy601]

WOW - you got your buttons fast! That is excellent - I still need to get on the ball and order ours!

Only 59 days to go!!! I am in desperate need of this vacation. I just got home from 6 hours in the emergency department at our local hospital. My youngest DS decided to take a header off of the oldest DS's bunk bed - we live in a slab house and our land lord did exactly use the thickest carpet or padding -- needless to say - he's bruised and a little scrambled - but OK! He did like the ride through the big donut (cat scan machine). He's been telling everyone that will listen to him that he rode through a giant donut!

Gotta run - the youngest DD is in need of mommy time!

It's almost cruise time!

 

[travel with kids]

Originally posted by disneysailor
From travel with kids
I'm not sure if my son will be doing the Nassau excursion. The deal we tried to make with the kids is that they will need to have dinner with us and hopefully go to some of the shows with us (they didn't really love the shows last time). Also, without knowing which dinner rotation we have, I don't know which restaurant he'll miss and I'm looking forward to getting some family pictures! I'm also not sure about having him go off on a boat by himself, it doesn't take much to make me nervous. If iit is something he decides he REALLY wants to do, we'll discuss it more. I think he is interested in doing the Wildside excursion on Castaway Cay though. Is there anyone else with a teenager? I don't think so- I feel so old!

Keep counting the days away!!!

Wow!! Some really good points. I would be really disapointed if he missed out on a great evening with his family. DH and I never even considered ds missing out on a dinner rotation. Of course, he will want to be there on certain evenings. I think we will wait and see what happens once we get on the boat. Ds is going to do the Castaway Cay teen excursion.

And yes, I too feel old!!!........Lee

 

[travel with kids]

Glad your ds is ok. That must have been very scary. How old is he?

Yes! I think we are all in need of this vacation!!

 

[goofy601]

Good Morning All!

travel with kids - my DS is 4 years old. He is quite the bruiser - but with the way he started screaming and the bruise on his face - it was panic city for me! Thankfully my other children asking silly questions put me at ease and I was able to drive him to the hospital...and of course - it was a holiday and a Monday and everyone in the free world was sick or injured! What a day! Thankfully it is over - we'll just keep an extra eye on him over the next couple of days -- and of course - last night we caught him back up on our oldest DS's bunkbed again - "I wanna watch toons with 'fifer!" (our oldest ds's name is Cristopher!)

disneysailor - I have fears of my children being on water without me also - my dd and her friends would like to do some excursions with the teens - my dd is 12 1/2 and her friend is 11 -- I don't remember from the excursions list which ones they will be allowed to do age wise - but they'd love to try everything if they could!! Hopefully they will just enjoy sitting next to the pool or by the ocean and just enjoy the view - ha! Not those two! Adventure is their middle name!!

Only 58 days to go...

 

[travel with kids]

OK...I can not find the Dis board buttons...?

 

[goofy601]

http://www.disshop.com/store.asp
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


this is the link from scottohiocpa!

 

[travel with kids]

 

[disneysailor]

goofy601- I am so glad your son is ok. What an awful way to spend your day. I don't imagine you'll be letting your younger son sleep on the top bunk on vacation!

I just wrote a long post but it all disappeared when I hit submit, so here is a short one. Have any of you had that happen? It's happened to me twice now.

 

[disneysailor]

From Goofy

I have fears of my children being on water without me also - my dd and her friends would like to do some excursions with the teens - my dd is 12 1/2 and her friend is 11 -- I don't remember from the excursions list which ones they will be allowed to do age wise - but they'd love to try everything if they could!! Hopefully they will just enjoy sitting next to the pool or by the ocean and just enjoy the view - ha! Not those two! Adventure is their middle name!!

Lisa, I don't think they would let the younger kids sign up for the teen excursions but there are only a couple anyway and I"m sure they'll be real happy with everything that is offered in the kids clubs.

How many of you have signed up for excursions? On our last three day cruise, I was as sick as I've ever been in my life for 24 hours of our trip. I do get motion sickness, but I defiantly believe this was escargot sickness. I don't know what possessed me to try it, but contrary to what our servers said, I'm sure the slimy stuff was the culprit since I spoke to another woman the last day of the cruise who was very sick and had eaten the same thing. NOw it seems that we would have both been quaranteened for the remainded of our vacation. My roundabout point is that I would like to enjoy as much on the ship as possible while I can since I figure most of the excursion stuff I can do on regular vacations. What are your thoughts?

 

[travel with kids]

disneysailor--yes, I too have had a message erase after I have typed it and hit the sumbit button.

Thanks again for the very helpful information you gave us (dh & myself) regarding the teens and their excursions. This is exactly why I love this board!! DS is going to wait until we are on board to make his excursion choices.

It is cold here today -4F. Stay warm ....Lee

 

[sopandbass]

i'm so glad your son is okay. how scary! i'm always amazed at how resilient kids are - probably more so than us older kids.

only a couple of months left until we leave for the cruise - oh, there I go, using that bad word.

 

[travel with kids]

Originally posted by disneysailor


How many of you have signed up for excursions? On our last three day cruise, I was as sick as I've ever been in my life for 24 hours of our trip. I do get motion sickness, but I defiantly believe this was escargot sickness. I don't know what possessed me to try it, but contrary to what our servers said, I'm sure the slimy stuff was the culprit since I spoke to another woman the last day of the cruise who was very sick and had eaten the same thing. NOw it seems that we would have both been quaranteened for the remainded of our vacation. My roundabout point is that I would like to enjoy as much on the ship as possible while I can since I figure most of the excursion stuff I can do on regular vacations. What are your thoughts?

This is exactly how we are feeling. We started out signing up for everything, then cut back. We had friends who went to Nassua last year (Atlantis) and returned with a 'don't bother'. We thought about Blue Lagoon, but decided that the next day we would be in Castaway Cay and we don't have to pay to get there!! DH, DS & DD are not the sit on the beach type people (I am) they have to do do do!!

As far as the seasickness goes.....I'm crossing my fingers!! We are usually not the motion sickness type, but just incase I'm bringing motion sickness medicine with us. And food poision...YIKES!!

.....Lee

 

[disneysailor]

Lee- Just a little word of warning, I have read on a few different posts that the teen excursion on Castaway Cay fills up quickly, so if your son decides he really wants to do it, you might want to sign up ahead. I don't remember the cost, but it didn't seem too bad, especially if you get to keep the snorkel gear all day since it is pretty expensive to rent it for the day. Does anyone have any information about this?