Clipboard of Fun - The Disney Christmas Wonderland Edition - Page 2 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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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?
Yup, through the DCL wesite. When you log on at your appointed time you will see buttons on your reservations page, one for palo, one for excursions, one for childcare. My recommendation is that if you are booking multiple things that you save/confirm them as you go.
Wow, PSha, you're soooo lucky! For my 7-night cruise there was ZERO availablility for PALO brunch/tea the entire week! I did snag a dinner on my last night, which was fine because it was another Parrot Cay night on my rotation and all of my tablemates would be at breakfast the next morning to say goodbye. Parasailing looks like so much fun...in theory. I could never do it thanks to my fear of heights/unenclosed spaces but still, if I could I think it would be awesome. If you are talking about those big wheels-tricycle things, they're very stable and hard to tip over, plus there's not much in terms of waves on CC to tip you.
Oh my goodness, I can't believe you slept through the alarm! Congrats on still scoring Palo brunch and dinner! Good luck combining the ressies! I bet it will work out. I'm definitely trying the parasailing at CC on my cruise in 2012, so I can't wait to hear about your experience.
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Yup, through the DCL wesite. When you log on at your appointed time you will see buttons on your reservations page, one for palo, one for excursions, one for childcare. My recommendation is that if you are booking multiple things that you save/confirm them as you go.
Thank you. I am such-a newbie at all of this cruisin' stuff!
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Saturday, October 9, 2014 - Kaitlyn and I before the Happy Haunted 5K at ESPN Wide World of Sports
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?
It also depends on how full your cruise is. I'm pretty sure my cruise is at less than capacity (or at least it was when I booked Palo). Naturally, the more people on the cruise, the harder it'll be to score those ressies. I'll send you some pixies!
And unewillow answered your question perfectly. The only thing I would add is that you should try logging in now to make sure your browser and plug-ins and all that is up to date. You don't want to log in trying to make ressies and then get an error message (and I hear people often get error messages)! If there's a problem, at least you can figure it out now. Right now there won't be an option to book anything, but you can check your reservation to make sure all is well otherwise.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cajunlace
I hope everything works out with Palo. CMs usually have that magical "make everything work out" touch.
I hope so. In fact, I wouldn't even mind if they sat us at 2 tables for 2 that were next to each other.
Quote:
Originally Posted by unewillow
Yup, through the DCL wesite. When you log on at your appointed time you will see buttons on your reservations page, one for palo, one for excursions, one for childcare. My recommendation is that if you are booking multiple things that you save/confirm them as you go.
Wow, PSha, you're soooo lucky! For my 7-night cruise there was ZERO availablility for PALO brunch/tea the entire week! I did snag a dinner on my last night, which was fine because it was another Parrot Cay night on my rotation and all of my tablemates would be at breakfast the next morning to say goodbye. Parasailing looks like so much fun...in theory. I could never do it thanks to my fear of heights/unenclosed spaces but still, if I could I think it would be awesome. If you are talking about those big wheels-tricycle things, they're very stable and hard to tip over, plus there's not much in terms of waves on CC to tip you.
And I figured it'd be easier to get Palo on the 7-night cruise since there are more nights to try for it! I'm a little sad that I'll miss dinner in Parrot Cay (probably), but I'll have breakfast there one morning, so I'll get to experience it for a different meal.
I'm glad to hear that about those tricycle things. I'll probably end up doing it, then.
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Once the dust had settled, I had 9 days to fill with holiday fun. I made a huge list of everything I wanted to do both on the cruise and at WDW. Then I decided I’d spend most of my WDW time doing the Christmas stuff, since I’d be alone and nobody else would complain about it. I wrote down every single holiday-related activity at the World, and even a few outside the Disney bubble and then I started work on the BAS.
December 4 – The pre-cruise night would be non-solo. I know my parents love the Candlelight Processional, and they also love Epcot, so I thought that would be a good night to do it. I booked the package for us with dinner at Biergarten. Of course after our trip in October, my parents decided that they’d like to just relax at the resort that night, and maybe go to the park, but they don’t want to be obligated to do so. So I figured I’d go alone, which is fine. I’d just make friends with my table mates!
Then I discovered that my friend Cindy (iloverags2) was going to be in Epcot that same day with her DH. And they were also doing the CPDP, going to the latest showing just like I’d planned. The only difference was they were dining at Garden Grill. I PM’d Cindy and asked her if she wouldn’t mind if I tried to get us a reservation together at Garden Grill and she informed me that she’d already made one for other friends who’d changed their plans, so all she had to do was change it from a party of 4 to a party of 3.
December 5-8 – Then the next part I looked at was the actual cruise. I knew I wanted to see all the shows, and I wanted to try all the restaurants, so I blocked out our meals and restaurants based on what PPer predicts our dining rotation will be. There’s also a meet with the folks from the DIS boards on our first day. And I’m definitely planning on attending the Sail Away party.
I can’t really fill in the clipboard of fun for the cruise portion until I see each day’s navigator, but I’ll have my trusty highlighter ready to peruse the navigator each night (thanks to PPer for the highlighter tip). I’m crossing my fingers that Tangled will be playing on the ship because I want to see it.
I’m not sure what I’ll want to do while I’m on the ship, but I know I want to catch the tree-lighting ceremony one night. I doubt I’ll play bingo or anything, but I’ll probably visit the entertainment area at least one night. I am dressing up for Pirate night. I didn’t buy anything special, I just happen to have a white top that is sort of piratey (I’m wearing it in Jillybean’s sig pic) and I’ll wear a long black skirt and some boots. And a pirate bandana, of course. DF is thinking about dressing up also!
I’ll also make time for character meets throughout the cruise and I’ll try not to miss the farewell party (I forget the name of it right now, something like Until We Meet Again).
December 9 – The day we disembark, I’ll pick up the rental car and drive my parents to the airport. Then I’m planning to head to the Gaylord Palms to check out ICE for the first time. I need to buy tickets in advance, but I’ve been waiting to hear whether Snow is any good (it’s the first year for that) to decide to buy just ICE or the combo ICE/Snow ticket.
After that, I’ll head over to Fort Wilderness and check into my cabin. My hope is that it’ll be ready and I can unpack and decorate a little. Then I’ll head over to DHS to check out the Osborne Lights. I decided I wanted to see the OL on Thursday rather than doing MVMCP that night as I’d originally planned because I’ve heard the weekend crowds at OL can be horrendous. After that, I’m going to Downtown Disney for a little retail therapy.
December 10 – This day will start at DHS and then I’ll do a little resort hopping. While visiting the monorail resorts, I’m hoping to catch the gingerbread house decorating demonstration at the GF and the DVC Merry Member Mixer at the Contemporary. I didn’t know how I’d fit a meal in and I didn’t want to schedule myself and then have to cut my touring short to eat, so I figured I’d grab counter service. I’m going to get the fried chicken to go from Trail’s End takeout for lunch!
I’ll end the evening in the MK at Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. I hope to be able to ride the mountains and my favorites, but I’m really concentrating on the party specific stuff. The parade is a must do, of course, and the fireworks are on the list. I want to do both the castle show and the show in Tomorrowland. Besides that, I want to get in some character meets, and eat cookies and drink hot chocolate.
December 11 – Saturday will be spent at AK (following breakfast at Boma ). I plan to stay in that park long enough to catch the Jingle Jungle parade, and then head over to Epcot to catch a few more storytellers and have dinner at Via Napoli, which I’m quite excited to try. After dinner, I’ll return to Fort Wilderness and spend the evening checking out the decorated campsites (I’ll have seen Illuminations already as part of the CPDP). I am planning to rent a golf cart for that.
December 12 – Then my final day, Sunday, will start with breakfast at Trail’s End. The bulk of the day will be spent at Epcot, seeing as many of the storytellers as I can. Voices of Liberty is also on the clipboard for this day. I’ll also pop over and tour the Epcot resorts to see the decorations there (including the Swolphin). I think that covers just about every single special holiday occurrence! And if there’s time and I feel like it, I might even visit the moderate and value resorts to see their decorations.
Of course, the clipboard of fun is much more detailed, but it’s not very interesting to read, so I summarized for the PTR. I am fairly certain I’ve scheduled every holiday activity. I would’ve done the Yuletide Fantasy tour, but I took it already! I thought about the Holiday D-Lights tour, but it’s not convenient and there doesn’t seem to be anything special about it. One thing I discovered was that planning this would’ve been a lot easier if PassPorter had a Christmas season e-book – I checked, and only saw one with general holidays with only a page or two on Christmas stuff. I could probably write it myself after all my research, but I’m pretty lazy!
And of course, between all of that Christmas stuff, I expect to do some of my favorite rides. At the top of the list is Toy Story Mania. You probably thought I was going to say Tower of Terror, right? Well, TOT is #2 on the list. I didn’t get to ride TSM on my October trip, and only once (in 10 days) in August/September, so TSM is a priority!
The cherry on top of this awesome vacation sundae is something I only discovered a week or so ago on the Disney Parks Blog. Gowalla. This is a fun way to check in while out and about using a smart phone. I happen to have a quite stupid phone, but I do have an iPod touch and a 5-spot (using Verizon’s mifi/3G), so it’s almost the same thing!
The thing is, I happen to be one of those people with the collecting gene. Take any item, no matter what it is. I may or may not be interested in it. But add pieces, parts or anything else that you can say “collect them all!” and my interest in said product goes up exponentially. And Gowalla is both travel related and Disney related, two of my favorite things. Add to that that it’s free, and well, I’d be crazy not to do it.
I signed up and have been testing it out around town to get used to it. Sadly, I only have one friend right now. BUT!! My one friend is Walt Disney World! I’m hoping to be able to check in throughout the whole trip and complete some all of the WDW trips. I even may be able to check in during the cruise using my Verizon 5-spot, since it’s enabled for international use. We’ll see how that goes. But if anyone reading wants to be my friend and follow me on Gowalla, PM me!
So now I’m doing the single digit dance! I got my haircut, so I no longer look like Cousin Itt. Tomorrow I’ll get out the suitcase and start packing. Most of the stuff I’m taking is all together so I’ll just have to move it into the suitcase. I’ll also get the holiday decorations out and see what I can bring with me. DM wants to buy a new dress for Palo, so we’re probably going shopping for that on Saturday.
I got about half of the crafts I’m working on done. I need to hit A.C. Moore to pick up a few more items and I can finish everything up in the next few days. I am within the window for online check-in for our stay at CBR, so I’ll have to take care of that. That’s pretty much it for the trip related stuff.
Up Next: Final pre-trip preparations
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
Your plans really do sound FUN! I am so jealous of all the holiday things you're going to get to do. (I would especially enjoy seeing the WS Players "Christmas Carol" again. It is such a hoot!) I would *love* to follow you on Gowalla...alas, I have no smartphone. (although DS15 frequently badgers me to get one.) I do hope you'll do some live updating here, though!
I hope you have a great trip. I'm so excited for you!
It's been 10 years already since we've been on the Disney Magic. I'm so itching to get on another cruise.... this report will definitely push this along.....
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Tanya
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Oh Sharon - I just found this TR!! I can not wait to read about your adventures on the Wonder and your holiday merry making. Chris and I will be down at WDW the weekend after you - dadgumit - we will miss you again (we SO need to fix that!).
One thing to remember on the cruise - your character breakfast w/Mickey and the gang!!
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I am such-a newbie at all of this cruisin' stuff!
I wrote down every single holiday-related activity at the World, and even a few outside the Disney bubble and then I started work on the BAS. 
I didn’t buy anything special, I just happen to have a white top that is sort of piratey (I’m wearing it in Jillybean’s sig pic) and I’ll wear a long black skirt and some boots. And a pirate bandana, of course. DF is thinking about dressing up also! 
After dinner, I’ll return to Fort Wilderness and spend the evening checking out the decorated campsites (I’ll have seen Illuminations already as part of the CPDP). I am planning to rent a golf cart for that.
I am fairly certain I’ve scheduled every holiday activity. I would’ve done the Yuletide Fantasy tour, but I took it already! I thought about the Holiday D-Lights tour, but it’s not convenient and there doesn’t seem to be anything special about it. One thing I discovered was that planning this would’ve been a lot easier if PassPorter had a Christmas season e-book – I checked, and only saw one with general holidays with only a page or two on Christmas stuff. I could probably write it myself after all my research, but I’m pretty lazy! 
I expect to do some of my favorite rides. At the top of the list is Toy Story Mania. You probably thought I was going to say Tower of Terror, right? 
BUT!! My one friend is Walt Disney World! 
I’m hoping to be able to check in throughout the whole trip and complete some all of the WDW trips. I even may be able to check in during the cruise using my Verizon 5-spot, since it’s enabled for international use. We’ll see how that goes. But if anyone reading wants to be my friend and follow me on Gowalla, PM me! 
I got my haircut, so I no longer look like Cousin Itt. 
(although DS15 frequently badgers me to get one.) I do hope you'll do some live updating here, though! 
Susan
I'm checking in on this one too, just so I don't miss anything about your Clipboard of Fun adventures.
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