Clipboard of Fun - The Disney Christmas Wonderland Edition About This Page:

[PrincessSharon]

Clipboard of Fun – The Disney Christmas Wonderland Edition
December 4 - 12, 2010

For some reason, I had some trouble coming up with a clever title for my TR this time. You might say it’s because this is the 8th TR I’m writing this year. Oh, shut up! I thought about it for a while. I wanted something Christmasy, and I wanted something with “Wonder” in the title, since I’ll be sailing on the Disney Wonder. I didn’t want to go with the obvious Wonderful Christmastime (even though that’s one of my favorite Christmas tunes ). I figured I’d stew on it.

Then one day, when I was working on my BAS (that’s big a** spreadsheet for the uninitiated), I realized that I’d planned a lot. More than ever. I mean, I had stuff planned to 15-minute increments. It made me think of that episode of Full House when Danny goes crazy with planning their Hawaiian vacation down to the minute.



Of course, I’m not that bad. I don’t actually have it on a clipboard, fun or otherwise. But I figured that would make a great TR title, so problem solved. And before you ask, I will not be carrying around a clipboard. Just a few printed pages. Color coded. And maybe laminated. What?

So why am I making such detailed plans this time? Well, I’m planning some things that I’ve never done before! And I’m a planner. OK, maybe even an über planner. That’s why I’m here. The PassPorter should actually be titled “PassPorter Guide to WDW for Über Planners.”

I am taking my very first cruise! This is exciting news, but it also makes me a little nervous, too. I mean, doing the research is fun, but what if I get sick? I’ve heard wonderful things about cruising, but I tend to be a “type A,” commando-style tourist. Will I find enough to do on a cruise? Everyone assured me there’s plenty to do and that I’d love it, particularly my parents, veteran cruisers themselves.

So I decided that it was finally time for me to take my first cruise. Of course it was going to be a Disney cruise! And the best thing about Disney cruises is that there are shorter cruises offered. I felt it was best for me to get my feet wet on a shorter cruise, in case I actually hated cruising or spent the entire time in my cabin trying not to throw up. I’ve heard lots of people say that the 3-night cruise is too short to really get a feel for cruising, so then the 4-night cruise was for me. I decided the December 5, 2010 sailing would be a great time to cruise because hurricane season is over and things are really quiet at work. And because I wanted to make myself as comfortable as possible (while fighting imagined nausea ), I booked a category 6 stateroom with a veranda. Since it’ll just be me in the cabin, I expect to be comfortable in my imagined misery. I booked the late dining because I knew that early dining was popular with families. It’s not that I’d mind being seated with a family, but since I didn’t care either way and I knew the early seating filled up first, I went with late dining.

I also knew that I’d want a few days at WDW after my trip. I needed someplace to stay, and for the first time in a long time, there was only one place I considered. It’s my goal to stay at every Disney resort at least once. This includes Fort Wilderness campground. All along, my plan had been to stay at Fort Wilderness during the Christmas season, because I’d heard such wonderful things about the place at that time of year. I do enjoy being outside, but once it gets dark, I prefer sleeping inside on a comfy bed, rather than on the hard ground in the cold with the possibility of a snake crawling in your sleeping bag. Call me picky. So a cabin it was! Well, another cabin, I guess.

Some time went by. Okay, maybe it was like 14 months or something. As an über planner, I need time to make sure things are properly planned. Anyway, my parents kept hinting that they hadn’t done a cruise in a few years and were itching to go on another one. While they’d never invite themselves on a trip with me, they hint like crazy until I invite them! On the other hand, when they plan a trip without me, … wait, they don’t plan trips without me. They invite me along right off the bat so I’ll plan it for them!

What I’m trying to say, if you’ll stop interrupting, is that after subtle hints like DM playing the theme to the Love Boat whenever we rode in her car and DF wearing tuxedos to dinner, I figured I’d invite them along. They are DVC members, and since they didn’t plan to use a lot of their points at WDW, I figured this would be a great use for their points (since I haven’t inherited their talent for subtle hinting and thus have not been able to get them to just give the extra points to me ).

I called and booked it for them, also late dining, with our reservations linked so we’d be at the same table. They had enough points to get a category 6 as well. This will be the first time they’ve ever cruised with a veranda. Out of all their cruises, more than a dozen, they’ve only cruised once with an outside view – a porthole. Normally, they cruise in the Jules Verne cabin. You know, 20,000 leagues under the sea.

So with our cabins booked and my post-stay decided, it was time to start research. This is one thing I love to do. Researching is my favorite part of trip planning. Guidebooks are like crack to me. I even have guidebook apps on my iPod touch! I happened to win a copy of the DCL Passporter in May 2009. What? I told you I like a lot of time to plan. Anyway, even though it could potentially be out-of-date by the time of my trip, I figured there wasn’t much that would change on the 4-night itinerary.

I read every page and took lots of notes. I also did a lot of reading on the boards. I also lurked on the Cruise Critic boards and on the DIS boards. I even bought the official DCL guide, even though the reviews were pretty poor (crack, I tell you). It’s nowhere near as comprehensive as the Passporter, but it does have lots of pretty pictures. Then when the 2010 DCL PassPorter came out, I bought that and read that whole thing too. It was really helpful for me in deciding what excursions I wanted and also gave me a great idea of what to expect including what kind of activities are offered.

I also needed to do some research on Fort Wilderness and the cabins, because it’s a somewhat different experience from a regular WDW resort. My regular PPer came in handy, and I discovered there’s a whole message board devoted to the campgrounds over on the DIS boards, so I did some reading over there as well. There are internal buses, park buses, yellow loops, orange loops, green loops, fruit loops. Maybe not. I sort of tuned out at that part.

All my research allowed me to make plans with confidence that I haven’t forgotten anything and won’t miss out on anything. For example, it was recommended a lot that you should fly down the day before the cruise in case of flight delays. I thought that was a great idea, especially in December when the weather can play a factor. I was going to do it anyway, but now I didn’t have to come up with an excuse.

It was also suggested that a rental car would be quite handy when staying in a Fort Wilderness cabin because the cabins can be far from the bus stops, and the bus system is scary! A car would also allow me freedom to visit any and all resorts that I wanted to.

Another fine piece of advice I learned was that if you wanted to make Palo reservations, and I learned that you do want to make Palo reservations, you need to be online at midnight at exactly 75 days out. And the reservations go fast! It was a good piece of advice, but that was one thing that didn’t work out exactly as I’d planned. But more on that later.

When I had my firm dates, it was time to book my airfare. I was able to book the first day Southwest opened up the flights (see, planning ahead is smart ), and I got pretty good rates - $95 going down, and $79 for the return. I also booked the Early Bird Check-In, since that works well for me.

My parents were going to be going home right after the cruise (), so I booked their flights (same flight as me to Orlando, and then an early afternoon flight on the 9th) at the same fares. They don’t usually use EBCI, but I decided to book it for them on their return, because I didn’t want to have to try to check them in for their flights while we were at sea.

So now that the major stuff was settled, it was time to get to the good stuff. The little details. It was time to start filling up the clipboard of fun! Where would I stay for my pre-stay? Should we take a shuttle, towncar or rental car to the port? What excursions did I want to do? Did I want to do Palo for brunch or dinner? How will I ever choose? Let me check my guidebooks!

Up Next: Decisions, decisions

[PrincessSharon]

This TR will cover both land portions and sea portions, so some of this will be posted here and some on the other board as appropriate. For now, what I’ve posted here and there is exactly the same, so you don’t need to go over there and read it again. You won’t miss anything by reading only the one you’re reading now. When I start posting stuff exclusively in one or the other, I’ll post a link so you won’t miss it!

[Kamy38]

Great start, can't wait to hear all about it!

[MickeyMAC]

Great start, looking forward to reading a Princess Sharon report.

[pamcarey]

Yippee!! I'm so excited!! I love your TRs and I'm totally in cruise mode since we took our first DCL cruise in August and have another booked for April 2012 on the Fantasy! Can't wait to hear about your first cruise!

[unewillow]

Woo, you know I love a PSha PTR/TR and having just finsihed my first ever cruise I am excited to hear someone elses thought on everything!

[WHMom]

I'm so glad you're writing this TR! I have enjoyed WDW vicariously through you many times and now I'll get to learn more about DCL, and the "first-time" experience from you, too! My first cruise is in June, so your timing is perfect!

Looking forward to your next update!

[hoosiermomma2]

Looking forward to reading more!!!

[unewillow]

Also, I wanted to add that I too was very afraid of being seasick, mainly because I have had puking situations on other boats. I considered the scop patch, but then I took some meclazine for a whale watch and I was the only one who felt fine. So, I ended up getting a prescription from my doc, and I took 1 pill (25mg) about an hour before getting on the ship, and then another pill that night. I ended up taking a pill in the am and one in the evening for the length of the cruise just so it wouldn't wear off and leave me in a tight spot. But to be honest, I probably would have been able to stop taking it after that first morning.

[chezp]

Wonderful start Sharon - and what an amazing trip of firsts you're going to have!

[Huntermom]

I always look forward to your trip reports and having your parents on board will make things even more interesting.

[NanaTink]

yay! Another P-sha TR! We dock in from our cruise the day before you leave on yours! I know you will have a wonderful time!

[PrincessSharon]

Originally Posted by unewillow

Also, I wanted to add that I too was very afraid of being seasick, mainly because I have had puking situations on other boats. I considered the scop patch, but then I took some meclazine for a whale watch and I was the only one who felt fine. So, I ended up getting a prescription from my doc, and I took 1 pill (25mg) about an hour before getting on the ship, and then another pill that night. I ended up taking a pill in the am and one in the evening for the length of the cruise just so it wouldn't wear off and leave me in a tight spot. But to be honest, I probably would have been able to stop taking it after that first morning.

I don't usually suffer from motion sickness, so I'm hoping I'll be ok with natural remedies. My DM gets sick on anything that moves very fast or is bumpy (except a car except Test Track ) and she doesn't get seasick, so I'm hoping I won't either.

Originally Posted by NanaTink

yay! Another P-sha TR! We dock in from our cruise the day before you leave on yours! I know you will have a wonderful time!

I guess I'll just miss you, then! Have a wonderful cruise!

[PrincessSharon]

Decisions, decisions

With all the big plans made, it was time to start fleshing things out. Let’s see, what was that list of questions I posed at the end of my last post? Hmm… Where would I stay for my pre-stay? Should we take a shuttle, towncar or rental car to the port? What excursions did I want to do? Did I want to do Palo for brunch or dinner?

So, where would I stay for my pre-stay? Unlike the post-stay, I had no idea where I wanted to stay. I considered my favorites (AKL, Poly, BC), but I had plans to stay at all of them in either July or August/September, so I wanted something different. I really had no idea. Then one day, it came to me. I would stay at BLT. In a MK view room! Brilliant! I knew my parents would enjoy that, so I figured we’d stay together. I didn’t want to use too many points on one night, so I figured a studio would be fine, and I could survive one night of my DF’s snoring.

However, by this time, it was like 5 months out, and I had no hope of scoring anything. I called MS anyway. The CM was kind enough not to laugh when I made my request. Of course it was as I’d suspected – no availability at BLT for December 4th. In fact, there was no availability in a studio at any DVC resort on property for that date! Well, there goes that idea!

So, back to square one. Since we wouldn’t be staying at BLT, I figured we’d get two rooms. I thought, and thought, and thought. It was a long time before I made up my mind. Then one day, an epiphany! A pirate themed room! Brilliant! And more importantly, available! I’d heard that the beds in the pirate themed rooms are fairly small, so I decided to book my parents in a regular room. But the regular rooms at CBR are Nemo themed, which also works well with a cruise. Huzzah!

Okay, so next question: Should we take the Disney shuttle, a towncar service or a rental car to the port? This question caused a lot of deliberation and maybe even a little hand wringing. For most people this is an easy decision. Since there were three of us, the cost would be about the same with either option. My inclination was to use the Disney shuttle, since that would be the easiest (and most magical). With the shuttle, Disney would handle our bags, and we’d get the pre-trip excitement of the bus and I’d get to see the Cruise Line video. Of course we’d also be arriving with like 400 other guests arriving from Disney resorts, so we should expect it to be fairly busy at the port when we arrived. And another con was that Disney picks you up later than I wanted.

Then there was the rental car option. I could rent a car at MCO, drive us to the port and return the rental car (I didn’t think it would be cost-effective to keep it while we were on the ship). We could control what time we got to the port, but it would also involve us splitting up when we arrived (I’d have to return the car), and it would mean allowing for extra time for car rental stuff.

The final option was for the towncar, and that’s what I ended up choosing. We could plan when we wanted to arrive at the port (early ), and we didn’t need to make other stops or wait for other guests or anything. We wouldn’t have Disney magic on the way, but it would be a little blip of an hour or so outside the Disney bubble. So we will get a 10:00 pickup from Happy Limo. I’d have asked for an earlier pickup, but my parents already think I’m a little crazy for wanting to get to the port so early! If all goes well, we should arrive at the port about an hour before boarding even begins!

As for the return, that was a little trickier, since we weren’t all going to the same place. Or were we? If I went to the airport with them, I had the option of taking DME to FW or even renting a car at MCO. I wanted to have a rental car at FW. So I priced rental cars from Port Canaveral with a return to MCO and compared that with rates from MCO round trip. The cost was a bit cheaper round trip from MCO, but considering I’d have to pay for transportation from the port to MCO, I decided to go with the rental from Port Canaveral.

I considered booking the transfers for my parents since Disney would handle their luggage, but I figured it would just be an extra unnecessary expense for them and I could drop them off on my way. And this way, we wouldn’t need to rush off the ship so they could make the bus that Disney assigned for them. So our transportation options were decided.

Now, what excursions did I want to do? I checked the DCL PPer for my options. I’ve never been to the Caribbean before, so it was all new to me. I’d heard wonderful things about the Atlantis resort, but I figured for my first trip to the Bahamas, I’d like to actually see the island, so I decided on the island tour in Nassau, which had good reviews in the PassPorter. My parents have been to Nassau before and weren’t really interested in the excursions, so they’ll just play it by ear. DM wants to spend some time sitting in front of a slot machine.

I’ve heard tons of glowing reviews of Castaway Cay, so I thought about not booking any excursion and just enjoying the island. But one of the excursions offered really tempted me. I’ve always wanted to try parasailing, and it was something that wouldn’t take up much time (and bonus, would offer great views of the island), so that’s what I chose. DM and DF have no interest in parasailing at all, and in fact they’re happy to just sit on a beach, so no excursions for them at all.

Finally, did I want to do Palo for brunch or dinner? I’ve heard great things about Palo. It’s a must do, or so I hear. The question was, did I want brunch or dinner? I’ve heard that brunch is the meal to have if you can only get one, so I figured I’d try to book for brunch first, and then for dinner, and if we were able to get both, so much the better.

Brunch is only offered on the at-sea day on the 4-night itinerary, but which night would be good for dinner? Well, I didn’t want it on our first night. We would be too busy settling in. And I didn’t want it on Pirate night. And I didn’t want it on our first night at Animator’s Palate whenever that might be, so I figured that left our final night, our at sea night, as my only option (and the PPer predicts for a party of all adults that we will be in Parrot Cay that evening). That would give us two Palo meals in the same day (if we got them both), but we could deal with that.

I’d heard over and over that in order to get what you want at Palo, you need to be online at midnight at 75 days out to make your Palo reservations. Some people might think that’s inconvenient, but I found it to be rather exciting. Yeah, I’m a nerd! On the big day, I worried about falling asleep before midnight, so I decided to go to bed, but I set my alarm for a few minutes before midnight. Then I’d wake up and have a few minutes to get onto the website and be ready in case they opened the bookings a few minutes early.

Great plan, right? Only one little problem: I slept right through the alarm!!! I’m not sure how I managed that, because the only other time I’ve slept through the alarm is when I was sick. Luckily, I woke up at 2:30 a.m. I got online and was sure there wouldn’t be any availability at all. I got in and could see that there were still Palo reservations left. The only problem is that I was only able to book for a party of 2. I wanted to book for a party of 3 so my parents could come with me. I knew I had to take it or leave it, so I decided to take it and figured I’d flip a coin if it was necessary. I booked brunch at 11:30. Because I’m eating late, I plan to order a light snack from room service early that morning.

Then I tried for dinner. There were a number of openings available, all for a party of 2. Well at least I could take one parent to brunch and the other to dinner. I figured 6:30 would be a good time, so I was able to book that. I was really happy with this, because it was so late. Well, kinda late.

After that, I decided to log in for my parents and see if I could book them something. I was able to get them a reservation for 2 for brunch at 11:30 and dinner at 6:30 just like me. I thought this was supposed to be tough! Even though we couldn’t get a table for 3 (actually a 4-top), I figured with us having reservations at the exact same time, they’d most likely be able to seat us together, or at least at tables next to one another. When we get on the ship, the first thing I’m going to do is go and see if I can get our reservations combined. And I’ll tell my parents to get room service for a light pre-brunch snack as well.

I then logged back into my cruise and booked my excursions without a problem. The Nassau Forts tour ends around 1 or 1:30 with time in the straw market after that. I’ll probably head to the ship after a bit of shopping. I got parasailing for 10:00 on CC. That’ll give me an overview of the island, and then I’ll spend the rest of the day there hanging out on the beach. I’m thinking of renting one of those tricycle boats or whatever they’re called, since they look so cool. I’m just worried they’d be hard to control and I’d end up dumping myself out of it! Has anyone tried them? Are they easy to operate? Anyway, I figure if I want to try that, I should be able to rent it that day without a problem.

I considered a spa reservation for myself, but honestly, I’m not a spa kind of person. I guess that seems odd, but there you go. I told myself to ask my parents if they wanted a spa reservation and I realize I never did. So I’ll have to ask them now and hope something’s available if they want.

As far as the to do list goes, I started a pile of stuff for the suitcase last night, and I’ll probably get my suitcase out and start packing over the long weekend, possibly Wednesday night or Friday morning. I’ve got an appointment for a haircut tomorrow. It’s not going to be a drastic change, just a trim. My bangs are really long now (in my eyes). I’ve still got some craft projects to finish, but I’ll have the long weekend to take care of that as well. And Christmas decorations. And some shopping. It’s going to be a busy weekend for me!

Up Next: The clipboard of fun, revealed!

[ilovedisney0_0]

Your Palo dilemma is the same exact one I am facing! Those are the nights I don't want, either, but since we are on a 7-day, I am hoping there is a LITTLE bit more availability. So, what you do is go online to reserve your Palo and excursions and such, through the Disney website?