"Suite" 16 - a birthday sail-a-bration! - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Old 01-24-2010, 09:22 PM   #1
OffKilter_Lynn
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"Suite" 16 - a birthday sail-a-bration!

When you’re a certifiable Disney-fied family, how do you celebrate the 16th birthday of your first-born child?


With a Disney cruise, of course!

How do you keep this (and much more!) a secret from the birthday girl? Well, this is where our tale begins…

Megan was born in the very cold and icy January of 1994. Those in the Northeast may remember that year was particularly bad with ice storms every other week (she was born between the 13th and 14th storms – any later and it would have been a home birth). Good timing on my part as I didn’t want to be hugely pregnant in the hot summer, bad timing for her because winter birthdays in Pennsylvania don’t leave many fun options. You can only roller skate or go bowling for so long before it gets old.

When she hit the teen years, she started whining that we don’t do anything “fun” for her birthday. We don’t go anywhere or do anything super-cool. She did have a point in that we spent 2 weeks in Disney for my 40th birthday but she overlooked the fact that my birthday is in July. She was also getting older and it was harder to justify taking her out of school when she started high school.

So what to do when her 16th (yikes!) birthday started rolling around? We looked at the calendar and saw that her birthday fell on a Wednesday. Hmmm… maybe a short trip to Disney wouldn’t be a problem. The last week in January is usually Catholic Schools Week so it’s a lighter week – maybe we could take her out of school for a couple of days? Wait a minute! Even better! Disney Cruise Line’s 3-night cruise sails Thursday to Sunday! PERFECT!

I'm a big believer of arriving the day before a cruise. There's too much that can go astray with travel that it's not worth cutting close and missing the boat. Even more so when you're traveling from the Northeast in winter, so the plan is to fly down Wednesday. That means we'll need a place to stay the night before the cruise and normally we would book a room at the Radisson at the Port. But it's her 16th birthday so that calls for something really special.

So how special? Well, the Wednesday before the cruise has become dinner at the California Grill followed by a night at the Contemporary and then breakfast at 1900 Park Fare. Not a bad surprise for a girl who never goes anywhere for her birthday, huh?!

And she still has absolutely NO CLUE!
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Old 01-24-2010, 10:56 PM   #2
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What a wonderful birthday celebration! I'm sure she will be thrilled!
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Old 01-25-2010, 01:52 AM   #3
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What a wonderful surprise!
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Old 01-25-2010, 06:50 AM   #4
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A surprise birthday Disney cruise!! What could be better???... Nuthin'!!
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Old 01-25-2010, 08:52 AM   #5
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What a great start! I'm sure she's going to be thrilled!
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Old 01-25-2010, 09:55 AM   #6
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Wow exciting! We are doing just that in a few days for my daughter's sweet 16 (we are doing the 4 night cruise). We couldn't keep it a surprise though! I guess we will be getting on the boat the day you leave. Bummer!
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Old 01-26-2010, 04:37 PM   #7
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What a wonderful idea for a sweet 16 cruise. I may borrow that idea in 7 years! Have a great trip. Also, good idea to go during Catholic Schools week. Thats a relatively light academic week here too.
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Old 01-26-2010, 08:34 PM   #8
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Wonderful birthday surprise!! Can't wait to hear more about it!
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Old 02-04-2010, 12:37 PM   #9
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Sounds great! Can't wait to hear all about it.
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Old 02-04-2010, 12:57 PM   #10
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Sounds like an awesome surprise Lynn!! I may borrow that idea in a few years when my December born daughter is celebrating her 16th!
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Old 02-10-2010, 04:16 PM   #11
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What a neat surprise! Can't wait to hear what she thought of it.
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Old 02-12-2010, 12:59 PM   #12
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A Disney cruise is the best way to celebrate a sweet 16! Can't wait to hear how it went!
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