pinkibekki
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2006
Several months back DCL had a sweepstakes for 4 different cruises introducing the new ports they were sailing from. (Maybe some of you remember this.) Well I won the final round cruise prize! 
The prize was a 5-night Western Caribbean Cruise from Miami on the Wonder.
Now when I played the game for the sweepstakes, I didn't play the first round (Mexican Riviera from LA) at all. During the second round (cruise from NYC ), I only played a handful of times. I actually kept forgetting to play. On the third round (cruise from Galveston), I had played several times by the time Eyor44 wrote her Pre-trip report about winning the Bahamian Cruise on the Magic from NYC. http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2921528
That got me very excited following it everyday, and I made sure that I would play as much as I could after that. I continued playing into the fourth round only missing a few days and playing on both the computer and on my phone. My son kept saying to me whenever I would play, Are you still playing that stupid game?! You know you're never going to win! Joke was on him
About 2 weeks before the game ended, people were posting on the DCL facebook page about how many entries they had. Some of them were saying that they had anywhere between 135-145 entries, while I only had 122 at that point. I figured that I had no chance at winning but that I might as well finish the contest anyway since I played so much already.
One thing that I always do when I enter a sweepstakes is to read the Official Rules mainly to see what the actual prize is (if there are any restrictions on dates or hidden catches). So because I had done that, I knew that on or around October 5th the winner would be contacted. In Eyor44's thread, she had said that she was contacted by email (which made sense since you had to use that to register for the game), so I did assume that they would contact everyone that way.
I actually forgot that it was to be drawn on October 5th until I saw the email in my inbox. I was on my way home from work and stopped to pick up my kids (DS15 & DD13) from their dad's house. So while I was waiting for them, I decided to check my emails. And there it was Disney Magical Cruise Promotion Notification from PrizeLogic, which is the clearing house for the sweepstakes (listed in the Official Rules and in Eyor44's thread). I got a little shaky from my nerves and pure disbelief. I kept saying to myself as I'm reading it, No way, no way, no way... I yelled to my kids, Hurry up! We just won a Disney Cruise! I then texted my fiance (Psboynh), I just won a Disney Cruise! He texted back, yeah right. I texted, we really did! He immediately called me. He thought that it had to be a hoax email, but I told him about what it says in the Official Rules (which they also attached again with the email). And about Eyor44's thread, and how it was the same email that she received from the same clearing house.
I won't go into all the details of the process in redeeming the prize since it was similar to Eyor44's thread. But I will tell you what we actually won because it was a little different.
The Grand Prize was a 5-night Western Caribbean Cruise from Miami for 4 people with airfare and transportation to and from the port. We were given the choice of four different dates. Two were for the Cozumel/Castaway Cay itinerary and two were for the Grand Cayman/Cozumel itinerary. We chose the GC/Cozumel one. I had taken a 3-night DCL cruise 12 years ago on the Wonder to Nassau and CC. Their island was nice, but my kids aren't beach/water kids and I thought it would be neat to visit new countries. I asked my kids which itinerary they preferred and they agreed that they would like GC/Cozumel better. They also booked us into a Deluxe Oceanview Stateroom with Verandah (cat 5c).
I got a call one day at work from DCL (it was a 407 area code so I knew who it was right away). It was the airfare arrangement department for DCL, and they were having issues scheduling our flights. They booked us out of MHT to MIA with a connecting flight in the AM going down but coming back we had a choice of either a 4hr layover in ATL or they could transport us to FLL but the flight didn't leave until 5pm and after a connection it wouldn't arrive until almost midnight back in MHT. I explained to her that BOS is only a little farther away for us but they sometimes have better flight schedules. (I am actually a frustrated travel agent at heart and researched flight schedules as soon as I chose the dates for the trip, so I knew there would be better/direct flights from BOS.) She said that she would look into it and call me back. The next day I got another call from her with the new flights from BOS. It was a direct flight going down and still a connection on the return, but at much better times. About a week later, she called me again and said that they found a direct flight for us on the return also, and she just needed my ok to change it. We thought this was awesome that they were actually trying to give us the best arrangements possible. I'm not sure if this is the norm when you book airfare through DCL or if it was just because we won.
Also included in the upgrade prizes were port adventures for 4 at both GC and Cozumel. We had a choice at Cozumel of Tulum Ruins or Dolphin Discovery Cozumel, and Island Tour or Nautilus Submarine in Grand Cayman. We decided to do the Island Tour and the Tulum Ruins.
The other upgrades I won were:
Fire & Ice Manicure and Pedicure
Pro-Collagen Facial
Ladies Up-do
Men's Wash, Cut & Style
Couple's Absolute Spa Ritual
Palo Dinner for 2
Palo Brunch for 2
(the above prizes were all scheduled for us prior to receiving our reservation #)
This is what we also received once we were on the ship:
Tropical Rainforest daily passes for 2
Character Meet & Greet
Classic Wine Package for 7 nights
Bon Voyage Package
Arcade Onboard Credit of $50
Onboard Credit of $250
Onboard Credit of $20 (to replace Coasters we were supposed to receive from the game)
Not So Hidden Mickey Floral Arrangement
Entertainment Bundle
Let's Cruise Package
$200 Onboard Credit for photos
Family Fun Pack
Bon Voyage Stateroom Celebration
They also prepaid our standard gratuities, and I also received the Castaway Club backpack since this was my 2nd Disney Cruise.
(Unfortunately we didn't get the $200 in Gift Cards prior to the trip like Eyor44 did
)
The prize was a 5-night Western Caribbean Cruise from Miami on the Wonder.Now when I played the game for the sweepstakes, I didn't play the first round (Mexican Riviera from LA) at all. During the second round (cruise from NYC ), I only played a handful of times. I actually kept forgetting to play. On the third round (cruise from Galveston), I had played several times by the time Eyor44 wrote her Pre-trip report about winning the Bahamian Cruise on the Magic from NYC. http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2921528
That got me very excited following it everyday, and I made sure that I would play as much as I could after that. I continued playing into the fourth round only missing a few days and playing on both the computer and on my phone. My son kept saying to me whenever I would play, Are you still playing that stupid game?! You know you're never going to win! Joke was on him
About 2 weeks before the game ended, people were posting on the DCL facebook page about how many entries they had. Some of them were saying that they had anywhere between 135-145 entries, while I only had 122 at that point. I figured that I had no chance at winning but that I might as well finish the contest anyway since I played so much already.
One thing that I always do when I enter a sweepstakes is to read the Official Rules mainly to see what the actual prize is (if there are any restrictions on dates or hidden catches). So because I had done that, I knew that on or around October 5th the winner would be contacted. In Eyor44's thread, she had said that she was contacted by email (which made sense since you had to use that to register for the game), so I did assume that they would contact everyone that way.
I actually forgot that it was to be drawn on October 5th until I saw the email in my inbox. I was on my way home from work and stopped to pick up my kids (DS15 & DD13) from their dad's house. So while I was waiting for them, I decided to check my emails. And there it was Disney Magical Cruise Promotion Notification from PrizeLogic, which is the clearing house for the sweepstakes (listed in the Official Rules and in Eyor44's thread). I got a little shaky from my nerves and pure disbelief. I kept saying to myself as I'm reading it, No way, no way, no way... I yelled to my kids, Hurry up! We just won a Disney Cruise! I then texted my fiance (Psboynh), I just won a Disney Cruise! He texted back, yeah right. I texted, we really did! He immediately called me. He thought that it had to be a hoax email, but I told him about what it says in the Official Rules (which they also attached again with the email). And about Eyor44's thread, and how it was the same email that she received from the same clearing house.
I won't go into all the details of the process in redeeming the prize since it was similar to Eyor44's thread. But I will tell you what we actually won because it was a little different.
The Grand Prize was a 5-night Western Caribbean Cruise from Miami for 4 people with airfare and transportation to and from the port. We were given the choice of four different dates. Two were for the Cozumel/Castaway Cay itinerary and two were for the Grand Cayman/Cozumel itinerary. We chose the GC/Cozumel one. I had taken a 3-night DCL cruise 12 years ago on the Wonder to Nassau and CC. Their island was nice, but my kids aren't beach/water kids and I thought it would be neat to visit new countries. I asked my kids which itinerary they preferred and they agreed that they would like GC/Cozumel better. They also booked us into a Deluxe Oceanview Stateroom with Verandah (cat 5c).
I got a call one day at work from DCL (it was a 407 area code so I knew who it was right away). It was the airfare arrangement department for DCL, and they were having issues scheduling our flights. They booked us out of MHT to MIA with a connecting flight in the AM going down but coming back we had a choice of either a 4hr layover in ATL or they could transport us to FLL but the flight didn't leave until 5pm and after a connection it wouldn't arrive until almost midnight back in MHT. I explained to her that BOS is only a little farther away for us but they sometimes have better flight schedules. (I am actually a frustrated travel agent at heart and researched flight schedules as soon as I chose the dates for the trip, so I knew there would be better/direct flights from BOS.) She said that she would look into it and call me back. The next day I got another call from her with the new flights from BOS. It was a direct flight going down and still a connection on the return, but at much better times. About a week later, she called me again and said that they found a direct flight for us on the return also, and she just needed my ok to change it. We thought this was awesome that they were actually trying to give us the best arrangements possible. I'm not sure if this is the norm when you book airfare through DCL or if it was just because we won.
Also included in the upgrade prizes were port adventures for 4 at both GC and Cozumel. We had a choice at Cozumel of Tulum Ruins or Dolphin Discovery Cozumel, and Island Tour or Nautilus Submarine in Grand Cayman. We decided to do the Island Tour and the Tulum Ruins.
The other upgrades I won were:
Fire & Ice Manicure and Pedicure
Pro-Collagen Facial
Ladies Up-do
Men's Wash, Cut & Style
Couple's Absolute Spa Ritual
Palo Dinner for 2
Palo Brunch for 2
(the above prizes were all scheduled for us prior to receiving our reservation #)
This is what we also received once we were on the ship:
Tropical Rainforest daily passes for 2
Character Meet & Greet
Classic Wine Package for 7 nights
Bon Voyage Package
Arcade Onboard Credit of $50
Onboard Credit of $250
Onboard Credit of $20 (to replace Coasters we were supposed to receive from the game)
Not So Hidden Mickey Floral Arrangement
Entertainment Bundle
Let's Cruise Package
$200 Onboard Credit for photos
Family Fun Pack
Bon Voyage Stateroom Celebration
They also prepaid our standard gratuities, and I also received the Castaway Club backpack since this was my 2nd Disney Cruise.
(Unfortunately we didn't get the $200 in Gift Cards prior to the trip like Eyor44 did
)
I would have been shaking too if I had received that email. I can't believe how much additional stuff they gave away besides the cruise and airfare! Disney just always knows how to do things right! Congratulations!
Heading out into the hall again, we met our stateroom host, Gede (pronounced G'day) from Indonesia. He was very soft spoken and he did a wonderful job for us that week. 
). When I had cruised 12yrs ago, it was very different everyone had to wear their lifejackets and I remember being crammed into a small lounge 
. We were done in about half an hour, and went back to the room to check if our last bag had arrived yet. It was finally there! I quickly changed into shorts and we all headed up to the Sail Away Party. My DD and I had fun dancing crazy since we'll never see these people again.
