From Reality to Fantasy - May 26, 2012

[verygfy]

Hey neighbor!! Did you realize that we are across the hall from each other

554 points doesn't sound unreasonable!! Amazing how the prices have jumped since we booked.

[Dawncala]

Originally Posted by verygfy

Hey neighbor!! Did you realize that we are across the hall from each other

554 points doesn't sound unreasonable!! Amazing how the prices have jumped since we booked.

We are! How cool! Looking forward to meeting you neighbor!

[Dawncala]

The Mickey Mouse Fan Club at Sea

After booking, the next order of business was joining a DIS Cruise Meet group. We are officially known as Mickey’s Memorial Day Fantasy and have around 60 members. It’s been fun getting to know people who will be on the cruise with us, exchanging tips and tricks and dreaming together about our upcoming adventure. My daughter has also become friends with another 13 year old girl on our cruise. They text each other often to discuss “stuff” and are Facebook friends. It will be nice that she already has a friend on board so she will feel comfortable in the club from day 1. It took her a while to warm up to the club on our Alaska cruise, but once she had some friends she had a blast.

So far our group has planned a 1st day meet, Fish Extender exchange, Postcard Recipe exchange and we’ll have our own custom lanyards. (Thanks to all the awesome ladies who volunteered to coordinate those.) We are also hoping to take a group photo in the atrium. Plus one very talented member even created us our own special logo.



If you are planning a Disney cruise and you have not joined a DIS meet group I highly suggest it. It is great fun to share the experience with others and meet new people from all over the world. If you’re worried about not having time for Fish Extenders or on-board meets…don’t. You can participate as much or as little as you like.

[Dawncala]

There and Back on $364.25
We live near Seattle so getting a family of four to a cruise that departs from Port Canaveral is no small feat. Airfare is anything but cheap so this is where we could end up doubling the cost of the trip without some careful research and planning. Thankfully we were able to use frequent flyer miles and American Express points converted to air miles for our flights. Total cost = $100 in various fees.

We also need a hotel Friday night in Port Canaveral. It would require a non-stop flight and more luck and pixie dust than I have on hand to fly out on cruise day and make the 3:30 last call boarding time. Travel to Florida pretty much takes all day in each direction. (10 hours average) And we lose 3 hours by default just by traveling east. We could book a red-eye, but who wants to begin their cruise bleary eyed. So… we are staying at the Four Points Sheraton near the port Friday night. This hotel was specifically selected because it is a Starwood property and my husband had some points stocked up. Our 1 night stay will be free.

Next we needed transportation. We used Disney’s Magical Express for our Bahamas cruise in 2010 (one way from WDW to PC) and while it is a wonderful way to travel to the port, the cost was a shocker. $35 per person, one way, and no discount for children. (Family of 4 = $140 one way or $280 round trip) I knew I could cut that price in half at least so for this trip I have rented 2 one-way Avis rental cars. We used Avis before and it was really easy. They have a shuttle that stops right in front of the cruise terminal. The price when I first started researching was averaging $67 each way. Still a huge savings over Magical Express. Then when I was ready to officially book it the price had dropped to an average of $43 each way. (Ka-ching!)

The last thing I’d need to book is airport parking in Seattle. We live about 45 minutes from the airport, and we park the car in an off-site lot and take a shuttle. By my calculations, since our flight leaves at 6:30 AM, we’d have to get up by 3:00 AM to get there with the kind of time buffer I like. My family is notoriously difficult to get out the door at normal hours, let alone 3:00 AM, so after much debate I decided to book an airport hotel for Thursday night. Unfortunately there wasn’t another Starwood property nearby, but I did find a hotel which would let us park our car for the entire nine nights AND shuttle us to the airport. Total cost $178 & change. Normally the parking would have cost around $120, so for $58 more I get to sleep in a little and the car is already parked. (Worth it!)

[Sereina]

Joining in! How exciting to be going on the Fantasy! She looks like a beautiful ship. Oh, and I'm from the Seattle area as well.

[jedijill]

Great use of your points! Airfare is so expensive...I cashed in my Frontier points for a free ticket for October. Good plan on the hotels too.

Jill in CO

[WAHkoMom]

We sail two months after you, and my kids are about the same ages as yours (DD14 and DS12), so I'm looking forward to following along with your plans and your TR!

[goofymama]

Also subscribing since I'll be on the same cruise and the same Cozumel excursion

39 days and counting!

[Dawncala]

Originally Posted by Sereina

Joining in! How exciting to be going on the Fantasy! She looks like a beautiful ship. Oh, and I'm from the Seattle area as well.

Hello Northwest neighbor! Our gang is definitely excited. 39 days and counting.

[Dawncala]

Originally Posted by jedijill

Great use of your points! Airfare is so expensive...I cashed in my Frontier points for a free ticket for October. Good plan on the hotels too.

Jill in CO

To me the airfare is the worst part. The cruise is expensive for sure, but at least I feel like I'm getting something for my money. Air travel is just an ever increasing pain. You pay an arm and a leg, plus extra for baggage, to be treated poorly going through security, only to be mashed into those increasingly smaller and smaller seats. Then they try to make it up to you with a bag of pretzels and a soda.

Sometimes we get lucky and the frequent flyer miles all add up. Doesn't allow me forgive the prezels and soda, but it helps.

Sorry for my rant.

[Dawncala]

Originally Posted by WAHkoMom

We sail two months after you, and my kids are about the same ages as yours (DD14 and DS12), so I'm looking forward to following along with your plans and your TR!

Hi WAHkoMom. I hope your wait flys by speedy quick.

If you have anything you specifically want to know, about the kid clubs or whatever, let me know and I'll try to pay attention and put it in my TR.

[Dawncala]

Originally Posted by goofymama

Also subscribing since I'll be on the same cruise and the same Cozumel excursion

39 days and counting!

Goofymama! We can compare notes while we're working on our tans.

[Dawncala]

YEA!!! Luggage tags & travel booklet arrived today!

[Dawncala]

T-Minus 90 Days (& 3 hours): Reservation Time!
The first big milestone date is the day we can make reservations. We are silver Castaway members so we are able to make our specialty reservations at the 90 day mark. (February 26, 2012) Since we’re on the west coast, when it is midnight, and officially 90 days on the east coast, I was able to go online at 9:00 PM PST to book our reservations. Sometimes the 3 hour time difference actually works to my advantage.

We booked a dinner in Remy, a high tea in Palo, one spa treatment each for me and DH and a shore excursion in Cozumel. Not bad. I was quite pleased to get nearly everything we wanted. We were going to book brunch in Palo, but it was sold out. I am glad we booked the tea though. We have not done that before and rumor has it that high tea will be canceled on the ships starting this summer so they can extend the more popular brunch hours.

[jedijill]

when you get on board, go try to make a Palo brunch reservation. They hold back about 50% of the reservations to book on board.

HTH

Jill in CO