Dec 5, 2009 -- now traveling to Tortola

[NHdisneylover]

Originally Posted by amyngary

While I am new to DCL, we have cruised 5 or more times. I do expect that first day to be pretty busy though.

I am happy to design the nametag (and can provide it electronically to everyone in advance - great idea - or print them if needed), order the lanyards, and bring it all to our first meeting. How important is it for me to be available at the terminal? We are planning to leave BLT by 10am and stop for a bottled water purchase, but I don't know how long it takes to get to the terminal.

I am curious how much these will end up costing? I guess if I do all the color printing, the total cost will be higher, but the lanyards themselves seem pretty cheap, right? Just trying to get a ballpark idea to figure out how many people will need to chip in.

I'd love to have the recommended lanyard supplier info - just PM me or post it here. And if Erik already has a template for the design that is the right size, etc., send that my way too. Can you send attachments in PM? If not, let me know and I can give you my e-mail address.

Thanks so much for your help!

--Amy

I have many things i want to respond to after German calss--was just glancing through before running the kdis to school. I only have time to respond to this now. AMy I did PM you the lin to teh website--I am not sure why you did not get it. There are lots of good sights, but www.kennyproducts.com is one we have had very good results with. The fellow DISser who told us about them said he tried otehr sights first and this was the first one whos lanyards and plastic holders tended to last for a full cruise (for the same price). More later. . .

[carmie3377]

Originally Posted by ajstaud

I am from Colorado, where we are currently getting light snow!

Wow!!! We've been having highs in the 90s with heat indexes 100+ this last week! Today is supposed to be cool - a high of only 80 Oh, but just looked and it's already 83 with heat index of 89. We have some storms coming in soon and hopefully that will cool things off. It's been so muggy this last week too.

We visited Colorado this summer and feel in love with it. We'll have the opportunity to relocate in 2012 and DH really hopes Colorado will work out for us.

[amyngary]

Sorry Hadley - I did get your PM. I just didn't realize I had a new PM (did I mention that I'm a newbie ).

I will watch the site and PM you with questions. Thanks!

[rowst3]

My DD is 6 years old and was wondering if anyone's kids participated in the different activities they have in the Oceaneer Club. Our last cruise was 2 years ago when she was 4 and pretty much all she did was run around in there. I found Personal Navigators that someone scanned in from this cruise in February and was hoping she would do some of the stuff like Flubber, etc. Any suggestions?

Thanks! Rosemary

[rowst3]

Its been two years since our last cruise and was wondering if anyone new of any changes made to the Magic. All I've heard was new tvs and some cosmetic changes. I was hoping they would have updated the shows or added the Toy Story one. Our first cruise was in November 2004 and I think the shows were the same then too.

[rowst3]

I read somewhere that Disney changed the way they do photos and started using the PhotoPass they have in the parks. Does anyone know if do any special printing, such as Christmas cards? I can't remember ever seeing it in the past. I'm hoping to kill two birds with one stone this year. We are hoping to use a picture from Formal night as our Christmas card. Sending them from Castaway Cay would be an added bonus, and probably expensive too :-(

[hurley03]

Hi everyone,
I hope you all are doing well. it is supposed to snow this weekend here in Wisconsin! crazy!

I would like to chip in for the lanyards also. I just need to know approximately how much?

I have never seen the beach that crowded, but we go down a bit from the family beach.

we are also excited to see the ship all Christmassy and it will be fun to
do the Secret Mickey thing (FE). these gifts are just little things, right?

We are looking forward to meeting in Preludes at 3pm as well.
So are you all wearing jammies to breakfast? that's funny.

Have a good day everyone!

[carmie3377]

Originally Posted by rowst3

I read somewhere that Disney changed the way they do photos and started using the PhotoPass they have in the parks. Does anyone know if do any special printing, such as Christmas cards? I can't remember ever seeing it in the past. I'm hoping to kill two birds with one stone this year. We are hoping to use a picture from Formal night as our Christmas card. Sending them from Castaway Cay would be an added bonus, and probably expensive too :-(

It is similar to photopass, but I think it's a different company. HEre is a link to thread discussing the CD on the cruises http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2215827. As you will soon see, it is quite a bit more expensive than the CD in the parks.

Also, they do Christmas cards too. You don't have to purchase the CD to order the cards but you will have to order at least one print of the photo you want on your cards. Here is a link to a thread about the cards http://disboards.com/showthread.php?...hristmas+cards

I considered mailing them from Castaway Cay too but I've read that it can take weeks to receive things mailed from there. If we do the cards from Shutters, I will just mail them from Port Canaveral. We may just just use a print that we take and have the cards processed at Walgreens or CVS as soon as we return.

[mommyof3princesses]

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[rowst3]

Has anyone else received a letter from DCL regarding the port change? I only found out earlier this week when I logged into the Web site to complete the online check-in. We booked through DVC and according to them we were going to St. Croix. I find it odd that we haven't received any formal notification since according to the DCL person I spoke with, the changed was made about a month ago.

Thanks! Rosemary

[carmie3377]

Originally Posted by rowst3

Has anyone else received a letter from DCL regarding the port change? I only found out earlier this week when I logged into the Web site to complete the online check-in. We booked through DVC and according to them we were going to St. Croix. I find it odd that we haven't received any formal notification since according to the DCL person I spoke with, the changed was made about a month ago.

Thanks! Rosemary

I know some people have received notification but we haven't and we also booked through DVC. Another person on this cruise that booked through DVC hasn't received notification either. Must be a DVC thing.

[NHdisneylover]

Originally Posted by Paul6725

Oh, and I know The Princess and the Frog is premiering while we are on board. Has anyone been cruising when another film has premiered? Apart from seeing it I was hoping for an exclusive pin or something

Not much of a to-do for the 3rd Pirates or Beverly Hills Chihuahua (both premeared when we were sailing) other than a lot of talk. If they gave out pins I never saw them--but we actually did not attend either movie(but our friends who did attend did not have pins either). They make big deal about showing it at midnight ship's time, which is an hour earlier than the east coast so you are getting to see it before everyone else.

Originally Posted by rowst3

Has anyone every participated in this activity on the boat? It looks interesting but I'm curious what others think.

Thanks! Rosemary

Originally Posted by Tower

I was curious just exactly where Castaway Cay was wrt the other Bahama Islands so I did a Wikipedia search.

I saw the picture below.

Is the beach really that busy when we're there?????

As others have said--busier times of year are more crowded. Also, as reported earlier, the part of the beach near the floats/ship/BBQ can get very crowded. We have been on a full sailing when the close in part of the beach looked like that and walked out to the far end of the family beach (near the lookout bar) and found several empty hammocks, tons of empty chairs and an almost desserted strech of beach. Peopl at dinner that night were complaining about not being able to get a hammock and would not believe us that there were many empty ALL DAY (we are always some of hte first off adn the last on the ship at CC) down at the end of the beach. It pays to walk down

Originally Posted by amyngary

Sorry Hadley - I did get your PM. I just didn't realize I had a new PM (did I mention that I'm a newbie ).

I will watch the site and PM you with questions. Thanks!

Glad you got itThanks again.

Originally Posted by rowst3

I read somewhere that Disney changed the way they do photos and started using the PhotoPass they have in the parks. Does anyone know if do any special printing, such as Christmas cards? I can't remember ever seeing it in the past. I'm hoping to kill two birds with one stone this year. We are hoping to use a picture from Formal night as our Christmas card. Sending them from Castaway Cay would be an added bonus, and probably expensive too :-(

I have not sailed with the new photo system so I cannot comment on that. We have bougth our Christmas cards on board twice in the past and loved using them. As someone else said be wary of mailing from castaway. WE have had thigns arrive anywhere from 3 weeks to 4 MONTHS later Nieces have gotten one of their cards in 6 weeks and the other 4 months gooing to the same address even--and never once have they arrived closer together than 2 weeks.

Originally Posted by rowst3

Has anyone else received a letter from DCL regarding the port change? I only found out earlier this week when I logged into the Web site to complete the online check-in. We booked through DVC and according to them we were going to St. Croix. I find it odd that we haven't received any formal notification since according to the DCL person I spoke with, the changed was made about a month ago.

Thanks! Rosemary

My TA says DCL has STILL not informed her It is so very odd for DCL to have totally dropped the ball on this. Anyway, my TA is grateful to the DIS for getting the info out so that she knows

[CaptainJack]

We were on the Disney Magic on the September 12-19, 2009 Cruise.

Here are some of the changes I noticed since we sailed in September of 2008.

Check-In

Your number for boarding the ship is not given to you when you enter the terminal. It is given to you when you get your photo taken. (See below).

You do not need to complete the customs form on check-in as you have had to do in the past.

After you check-in, your photo is taken and stored in the ship's computer. When you come back on the ship at port, they compare the photo on your picture ID with the one in the stored in the computer.

Castaway Club--In the past, you were given not only lanyards but a couple of pins per lanyard to trade. This time we received only lanyards.

Ship

All rooms have flat screen televisions.

There are 2 sets of movie channels on the televisions in the rooms.

When photos are taken, the photographers ask to scan you Key To the World Card. You can then view your photos at a kiosk near the staircase by the Promenade Lounge.

You no longer have to clear customs before anyone can get off at St. Thomas. As anyone who did the Eastern before remembers, if you went to St. Maarteen prior to going to St. Thomas, everyone on the ship had to clear customs at St. Thomas (which meant the entire ship had to arise at about 6:30 a.m.). That has stopped.

Bingo

The ship now has electronic Bingo cards in addition to paper ones.


The Stack

The age range has changed. Previously, a child 13 and older could go to The Stack, and you could continue to go there through age 18. Now, the kids have to be 14 to go The Stack and the upper age is 17. A number of the activities that the kids in The Stack are now done by the 11-13 year olds

Shows

So far as I know they have added any new shows, but have updated the current shows a bit by adding or changing some of the songs: however, Disney Dreams, so far as I remember, has not changed at all.

I believe those are all of the changes.

[CaptainJack]

Btw, anyone here have kids who will be going to The Stack and have been on a previous cruise? My daughters (Raquel and Rebekah--twins) are trying to find out whether anyone will be on this cruise who have been on a previous cruise with them at The Stack.

[Tower]

Originally Posted by CaptainJack

Here are some of the changes I noticed since we sailed in September of 2008.

You no longer have to clear customs before anyone can get off at St. Thomas. As anyone who did the Eastern before remembers, if you went to St. Maarteen prior to going to St. Thomas, everyone on the ship had to clear customs at St. Thomas (which meant the entire ship had to arise at about 6:30 a.m.). That has stopped.

Thanks for all that information CaptainJack! It's nice background info for us newbies!