Danube River Cruise Meets Thread

[Woodview]

Please give your feedback when you return from the Danube River cruise as we are planning to go in July 2017. Still waiting for the dates to be released. We have never done ABD before but have done DCL. Our son will be 7 next year for the ABD river cruise... Do you think that is too young? Also deciding whether to take the in-laws who will be 70... They probably wouldn't be able to tour the castles and do the active tours but still feel like they would enjoy the ship/views and shopping and eating in the towns close to the ship. Opinions on that? Also east cruise vs west... Anything I should take into consideration? And room categories... I was just going to go for the cheapest unless you guys know of reasons I should upgrade? I am new to disboards and this is my first post and I just LOVE being able to read the opinions of experienced ABD travelers so any info you can give us newbies to plan and prepare us for next year would be greatly appreciated!!!

Bring them along 70 is still young .

We ( over 70's ) might not hike as fast as you BUT we can still enjoy the walks & views from land and river.

Nothing is better than seeing others enjoying themselves . whilst taking it easy. & watching the world go by.

 

[sayhello]

We are PIF!!! For once we decided not to get our usual 5 miles per dollar paying for this trip and we opted to see how much money we could save on it instead. We learned about the Raise/Target/Disney gift card hack on the Budget Board and put it to work. We saved about $1500, and paid it all using the Disney Vacation Savings account which will get us another $200 in Disney gift cards. Which of course will just go right back into the vacation fund

How many gift cards did it take you to pay for the cruise?

Sayhello

 

[calypso726]

How many gift cards did it take you to pay for the cruise?

Sayhello

I didn't count but I did separate them into stacks of $1000. So just over 12 stacks of $50 and $100 gift cards. Each stack containing between 10 - 20 cards. A lot of cards and my reading glasses were put to good use ;-)

 

[Raya]

We are PIF!!! We learned about the Raise/Target/Disney gift card hack on the Budget Board and put it to work. We saved about $1500

What's the hack? Could you explain or post a link?

 

[sayhello]

I didn't count but I did separate them into stacks of $1000. So just over 12 stacks of $50 and $100 gift cards. Each stack containing between 10 - 20 cards. A lot of cards and my reading glasses were put to good use ;-)

So that's 120 to 240 gift cards! Whoa! Make sure you keep all of them, because if you need to get a refund, they will only put the payment back on the individual gift cards!

Sayhello

 

[sayhello]

What's the hack? Could you explain or post a link?

Basically, you buy Target gift cards through the www.Raise.com site at a discount, then you use those Target gift cards to buy Disney gift cards, getting a discount if you have a Target Red Card. Kind of double-dipping on the discounts. The issue is, the gift cards don't come in very large denominations, so you need to buy a LOT of them, plus some places are starting to set limits on how many gift cards you can purchase this way.

Here's an explanation I found:

you can get 12% off...7% off through raise buying target gift card..then use those target gift cards online...and if you have the target red card an extra 5% off..even though you are paying with gift cards.

Step 1:
so it was pretty easy..signed up for Raise:
https://www.raise.com/raise-rewards/NDoyMCAtMMzc5Nzgy

Sign up...then find the denomination gift card you want. i bought $980 to buy my for dues..i paid $911.40 through raise. within 10 minutes i had email confirmation and gift card.

Step 2
Go to target.com. put up to 8x at a time in your cart of Disney $50 gift cards. proceed to check out. YOu should have your target red card as a option to pay. Make sure that is checked and go to final check out screen.

Step 3
Before you finalize and pay..there is a link on lower right under the price to pay using target gift cards. at this point your total for $400 cards is $380 with the red card discount. But put in the gift card and say apply..then proceed to check out
The next screen gives you the final verifcation and it will say paying with gift card for $380. and click submit and you are done.

Repeat until you have exhausted your red card. I bought $1050 worth of gift cards for $911.40 that i paid on raise..then paid $17.50 difference on target.com on final purchase.

so i got $1050 for $938.90....not to bad! saved $112 the $17.50 was full price which distorts the percentage.....but it still is savings.

Here's a whole thread discussing this:

http://www.disboards.com/threads/disney-gift-card-deals.2941964/page-582#post-55336513

Sayhello

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

Basically, you buy Target gift cards through the www.Raise.com site at a discount, then you use those Target gift cards to buy Disney gift cards, getting a discount if you have a Target Red Card. Kind of double-dipping on the discounts. The issue is, the gift cards don't come in very large denominations, so you need to buy a LOT of them, plus some places are starting to set limits on how many gift cards you can purchase this way.

Here's an explanation I found:

Here's a whole thread discussing this:

http://www.disboards.com/threads/disney-gift-card-deals.2941964/page-582#post-55336513

Sayhello

Also if you join ebates you get an extra 2% back on Target purchases (you have to add an item -- read the exemptions -- and you get credit in your ebates account). So the discount works out (most times) to around 12%, more if you factor in miles from the credit card you use to purchase the gift cards.

I use disney gift card dot com to combine the gift cards into denominations of $1,000.00, then add them to the DVA. For our upcoming China trip I will have saved over $1,500.00.

On the budget board a lot of the regulars cycle the cards through e-bay to save additional money (i.e. purchase e-bay gift cards through Target at 5% off, then buy Target gift cards on e-bay during high ebucks offers -- usually 5x ebucks, then cycle back to e-bay and Target, thereby saving 17% or higher). I have never gone this route as I am happy with the 12%.

HTH. It is so worthwhile....at least for us. We use the money to put towards our next trip. I will be sad when we move away from ABD next year as this discount route won't be available to us (

 

[calypso726]

So that's 120 to 240 gift cards! Whoa! Make sure you keep all of them, because if you need to get a refund, they will only put the payment back on the individual gift cards!
Sayhello

Oh we do! I think next time we will do what WDWGroupie does and add then all to make one $1000 gift card. That is definitely more manageable than stacks of gift cards!

Also if you join ebates you get an extra 2% back on Target purchases (you have to add an item -- read the exemptions -- and you get credit in your ebates account). So the discount works out (most times) to around 12%, more if you factor in miles from the credit card you use to purchase the gift cards.

I use disney gift card dot com to combine the gift cards into denominations of $1,000.00, then add them to the DVA. For our upcoming China trip I will have saved over $1,500.00.

On the budget board a lot of the regulars cycle the cards through e-bay to save additional money (i.e. purchase e-bay gift cards through Target at 5% off, then buy Target gift cards on e-bay during high ebucks offers -- usually 5x ebucks, then cycle back to e-bay and Target, thereby saving 17% or higher). I have never gone this route as I am happy with the 12%.

HTH. It is so worthwhile....at least for us. We use the money to put towards our next trip. I will be sad when we move away from ABD next year as this discount route won't be available to us (

I haven't done the cycle through Ebates or Ebay route. I was quite happy with 12%. That said, we are switching back to getting 5 miles per dollar using our Chase Ink card to buy Disney gift cards at office supply stores. Although I'm going to see if buying Target gift cards for 5 miles on the dollar at Staples online will work and then use those to purchase my Disney gift cards through Target to get 5% off. That would be the best of both worlds for us.

 

[Woodview]

Reverting back to the thread Danube River Cruise Thread.

Have a look at www.travelfox.ie & go to Cruises box.

 

[calypso726]

Reverting back to the thread Danube River Cruise Thread.

Have a look at www.travelfox.ie & go to Cruises box.

Great video on the Danube! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Woodview]

It was the price I was thinking about ...... Ok. it is from Ireland but easy to into from USA

 

[sayhello]

It was the price I was thinking about ...... Ok. it is from Ireland but easy to into from USA

Lots of times, we in the US cannot book things like cruises from other countries' websites. And if you can, the price is frequently higher.

Sayhello

 

[sayhello]

I think it's interesting that, as the paid in full dates for these river cruises nears, there's more and more availability on the ABD website. All the cruises except for the Holiday cruises were pretty much sold out months ago, and now they're all showing plenty of availability, especially in the more expensive categories. I wonder how many DCL folks were shocked to find they lost their deposits when they decided they really didn't want that river cruise they snatched up?

Sayhello

 

[carpenta]

I think the cancellations are a reflection the unease of the terror situation and of our economy in general. IMO I think our economy here is being propped up by smoke and mirrors. We have opted to travel to the southeast U.S. coastal cities on our own rather than a professional company. It entails a lot of driving on our own but we save thousands of dollars. Having just returned from WDW and seeing the bill our house may be hitting the "tipping point".

 

[sayhello]

I think the cancellations are a reflection the unease of the terror situation and of our economy in general. IMO I think our economy here is being propped up by smoke and mirrors. We have opted to travel to the southeast U.S. coastal cities on our own rather than a professional company. It entails a lot of driving on our own but we save thousands of dollars. Having just returned from WDW and seeing the bill our house may be hitting the "tipping point".

That makes a lot of sense!

Sayhello

 

[calypso726]

It was the price I was thinking about ...... Ok. it is from Ireland but easy to into from USA

Oh I see. Well it is a different river cruise line. Maybe Avalon is like Carnival for river cruises.

 

[Woodview]

It is the same Cruise Line Co. that ABD use...... & same cruise ships.

 

[calypso726]

It is the same Cruise Line Co. that ABD use...... & same cruise ships.

ABD is using Ama Waterways. Avalon Waterways and Ama Waterways appear to be two different cruise lines to me. They have different web sites, different fleets, their contact information pages display different addresses. AmaWaterways' mailing address is out of California and Avalon Waterways' is out of Colorado. When searching for a comparison of cruise lines they are both listed as different companies. The ABD rive cruise is on the AmaViola which is listed on AmaWaterways fleet, the name does not exist on the listing of Avalon's fleet. So I'm not sure how they are the same cruise line or ships.

 

[sayhello]

ABD is using Ama Waterways. Avalon Waterways and Ama Waterways appear to be two different cruise lines to me. They have different web sites, different fleets, their contact information pages display different addresses. AmaWaterways' mailing address is out of California and Avalon Waterways' is out of Colorado. When searching for a comparison of cruise lines they are both listed as different companies. The ABD rive cruise is on the AmaViola which is listed on AmaWaterways fleet, the name does not exist on the listing of Avalon's fleet. So I'm not sure how they are the same cruise line or ships.

calypso726 is correct. They are 2 different companies. ABD is definitely sailing with AmaWaterways, not Avalon Waterways.

Sayhello

 

[carpenta]

As Archie Bunker said...."Fletcher,Felcher.....WHATEVER?".......LOL on the similar river cruise lines' names.