davidmbfonz Posted March 23, 2013 #1 Share Posted March 23, 2013 :rolleyes: We booked our first cruise on the Disney Fantasy last June and I've been coming on to this forum nearly every day since, enjoying everyone's posts and just daydreaming until our trip this December in the Eastern Caribbean. There are currently five of us, including DS(7), DS(4), and DD (18 months). I booked the cruise 18 months out and got a choice cat 4A stateroom, early dining, and a great price, which would definitely count as a splurge for us in any case. Notice I said "currently". Surprise! My wife is now pregnant, with a due date of early October. One of the MANY adjustments of this life-changing news is the need to cancel/change our cruise date. Well, it's been a month of going back and forth, trying to figure out if our dream will have to be put on hold for a few years (or longer). It's not just that we can no longer sail in December 2013 (baby will be 6 weeks old), it's that with 6 of us (:eek:), we'll have to get two rooms and that makes the cost nearly prohibitive. As I mentioned, we've agonized over what to do. Ta-da! :D Check out my new signature. Yes, a 4-night Bahamanian cruise is a compromise, but we still get the Dream (-class) ship, Aquaduck, awesome shows, etc. AND (drum roll...), this was the clincher... this is the ONLY double-dip sailing on the Dream next year... Castaway Cay was the part of the Fantasy cruise I was most looking forward to. When I discovered this the other night, I was so excited! A couple other benefits of this compromise (that perhaps others can relate to): the cruise is now almost $2,000 less than our original one (but 3 nights fewer, of course), we get two cat 8B rooms of an almost 500 combined sf! These new rooms are merely oceanview (with window seats), but that put my wife's mind to ease - now no worrying about the verandah (phew). My DD will be over 3 now (instead of 2-1/2), so she can go in the kids clubs for free (and the pools). And, did I mention TWO days back-to-back at Castaway Cay? Thanks for reading - sorry if this is long. Wanted to share the ups and downs of planning our dream trip (with a now-larger family). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sippican Posted March 23, 2013 #2 Share Posted March 23, 2013 Congratulations on all of your wonderful news! You certainly were able to overcome your change of plans in a very positive way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsnyrnmom Posted March 23, 2013 #3 Share Posted March 23, 2013 Congratulations on your wonderful news!! and about the new baby!! Just kidding! as you already know with 3 children plans are ever changing and you learn to roll with it! My husband and I have 3 children also, and we have stayed in both the veranda room and a Catagory 8B giant porthole with windowseat, all of us in 1-8B room and we were a bit tight but fine, we are booked for that again next summer. Last cruise my kids were 12, 10, 8. So 2 connecting cat 8's, plenty of room! I am new to this forum, so I am not sure how to post photos, but I will post pictures of the room if I can! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Scrapnana Posted March 23, 2013 #4 Share Posted March 23, 2013 We had connecting 8C cabins and they were great - plenty of space and the kids loved the big portholes. I worried about the verandah with a 7 year old and a two year old. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robhawk Posted March 23, 2013 #5 Share Posted March 23, 2013 Congratulations! Great news! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MizDaisy Posted March 23, 2013 #6 Share Posted March 23, 2013 Congratulations!!!! The ONLY way to do a 4 Night cruise is when it's a DOUBLE DIP! (Two times at Castaway Cay). Well done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidmbfonz Posted March 23, 2013 Author #7 Share Posted March 23, 2013 Thank you everyone, for the congrats, and the pictures! This is a very welcoming community! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dinkydee718 Posted March 23, 2013 #8 Share Posted March 23, 2013 Congratulations! I have to laugh reading your post because we were talking about booking a Disney cruise when Surprise, we found out that I was pregnant with #4! Our baby would have been 5 months old but since we hadn't booked yet and had no idea how we were going to handle four, we decided to wait a year. When we did go on our first cruise we ended up leaving our then, 1 1/2 year old son with my parents but decided to book adjoining rooms anyway for the five of us. This past Feb. we did bring the youngest and everything was great, but he refused to stay in the nursery without any of his siblings! We were going to book an oceanview for the same reason your wife wants one, but the TAs at DCL told us (and it is most definitely true) that the doors to the balcony have a safety lock all the way on top that kids can't reach and it's difficult to open even if they could reach it. We have now taken two cruises with my kids and we've never had a scare with the balconies. BTW off topic, IMO going from three to four children was MUCH easier than going from two to three! Good luck and congrats again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mekamax Posted March 25, 2013 #9 Share Posted March 25, 2013 COngrats! :D Add so glad you were able to do your Dream trip too!! :) You are going to have such an awesome time!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbag124 Posted March 25, 2013 #10 Share Posted March 25, 2013 What does that mean that it douple dips at castaway cay? What is the full itin? Are you doing B2B cruises? :confused: Thanks for the info! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maryisme Posted March 25, 2013 #11 Share Posted March 25, 2013 Congratulations! Same thing happened to us many moons ago - DD is now almost 18. Time sure does fly :). This morning, I booked two 8a's on the same double dip! Love Castaway Cay! Its my fav. Mary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aimish Posted March 25, 2013 #12 Share Posted March 25, 2013 What does that mean that it douple dips at castaway cay? What is the full itin? Are you doing B2B cruises? :confused: Thanks for the info! It stops at Castaway Cay twice during the same cruise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbag124 Posted March 25, 2013 #13 Share Posted March 25, 2013 It stops at Castaway Cay twice during the same cruise. Where else does it go? how long is the cruise? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aimish Posted March 25, 2013 #14 Share Posted March 25, 2013 Where else does it go? how long is the cruise? I believe the double dip cruise is a 4 night cruise that leaves Port Canaveral, goes to Nassau and then spends two days (instead of one and a sea day) at Castaway Cay and then returns to Port Canaveral. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MizDaisy Posted March 25, 2013 #15 Share Posted March 25, 2013 A four night double dip at Castaway Cay is VERY rare. Normally you'd only find a double dip (two stops) at CC are on the 5 night cruises. And those are few and far between also. The OP got a great cruise!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbag124 Posted March 26, 2013 #16 Share Posted March 26, 2013 Why does it do this? I'm just curious. What makes the line decide no sea day and to spend 2 days at CC? I've never seen that before on other lines.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbag124 Posted March 26, 2013 #17 Share Posted March 26, 2013 Also, sorry to hijack the thread w/ my question!! :o :confused: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidmbfonz Posted March 27, 2013 Author #18 Share Posted March 27, 2013 I don't know the answer to your question, but we're super-excited. I really just stumbled on this solution... I kept saying to myself, "Why can't the ship just sail to Castaway Cay for a week!" :):rolleyes:;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dclforme Posted April 2, 2013 #19 Share Posted April 2, 2013 :rolleyes: Surprise! My wife is now pregnant, with a due date of early October. One of the MANY adjustments of this life-changing news is the need to cancel/change our cruise date. Well, it's been a month of going back and forth, trying to figure out if our dream will have to be put on hold for a few years (or longer). It's not just that we can no longer sail in December 2013 (baby will be 6 weeks old), it's that with 6 of us (:eek:), we'll have to get two rooms and that makes the cost nearly prohibitive. As I mentioned, we've agonized over what to do. We just got back from our 2nd cruise with Disney a little over a month ago and of course we booked while on the ship for next year. Then we found out just a week ago that we are expecting baby 3. Looks like disney magic might have followed us home;). We are trying to decide what we are going to do about our cruise for 2014. We don't think its a great idea to take a small baby on a cruise as most of our attention and schedule will have to be around the baby. It's such a hard decision to make Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidmbfonz Posted April 2, 2013 Author #20 Share Posted April 2, 2013 Congratulations, dclforme! I agree that it's dicey - babies can be pretty demanding schedule-wise and a big concern for us is to have enough flexibility so that all the kids (and us!) can enjoy the trip. Now that I think of it, this is a very strange/fascinating aspect of cruising! What other form of vacation involves this much family planning, in every usage of that phrase? :-) With a plane, it's actually pretty easy to take a baby on-board, and of course, even a several-thousand-mile flight is only a few hours... I can understand the special considerations for a cruise, just never thought it would factor in so heavily! I WISH Disney ships had staterooms for 6 people... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovetotraveltx Posted April 2, 2013 #21 Share Posted April 2, 2013 Congratulations! So glad you could work it out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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