Halloween on the Magic 2013

[Love2Plan4Disney]

In my typical last minute fashion, we just booked our October 27th cruise on the Magic today. On the bright side of being last minute, I only have 41 days that I will be going crazy, consumed with the details of our trip, where as many of you have been planning for over a year. I would go insane! I am SO last minute! : )

My two young daughters and I took our first cruise EVER on the Dream 6 months ago. Obviously we had a blast, and we are SO excited about this cruise! Our last cruise was a 3 night, so we are thrilled to be going on a 5 night just 6 months later!!

This thread was the first spot I landed once I booked the cruise today. I will be searching for other boards in connection with this cruise, here and on Facebook. Is there a Facebook page for this specific cruise?

What about last minute FE groups? Our last cruise I booked 3 weeks prior to sailing and was lucky to find a group of 6 or 7 families that participated last minute. It was AWESOME and I'm hoping to find a last minute FE group. If anyone has any suggestions on that, I'd appreciate it! I'm super excited I already have a bunch of magnets and my FE already made, it looked great last time. I reallllly want to be a part of a FE group and finding one is my first priority.

I really just wanted to introduce myself, and share my excitement with all of you! I have been craving the mahi mahi from Castaway Cay for 6 months...lol

I am a single mom to two girls and really enjoyed the family time we experienced together on such a magical cruise. It's absolutely amazing and the memories will last forever! 41 days!!!

Kristi
Indiana

I just found the Facebook page too, but there are only 22 members, is there another Facebook page I should know about?

 

[starlightprincess]

Orphanage? May I ask what this is about, I haven't read anything yet about orphanages, or mission work. Is there an opportunity to serve while we are there?!?
Thanks for any info!

Hey we are going to visit A children's home on Cozumel while we are there and planning on visiting and bringing some donations. The website is here if you any to check it out http://ciudaddeangeles.org/ if you would like to come with us or have any questions just let me know and I'll send an email to add you xx

 

[Delrea]

I just found the Facebook page too, but there are only 22 members, is there another Facebook page I should know about?

Hi there! Our facebook page is very small for some reason but it's the only one for this cruise. Glad you joined and welcome!!

 

[shanie17]

Hi there! Our facebook page is very small for some reason but it's the only one for this cruise. Glad you joined and welcome!!

Hi Everyone!!!

If any newcomers come here and also want to join the facebook page, please send me a message here on the DIS too. I have been getting a ton of requests from people that are not on our cruise to join our page. They are wanting to post ads etc... So Im trying to keep it just us magic peeps! Thanks friends!
Shannon

 

[shanie17]

Anyone else starting to stalk Facebook/this board to try and put faces with names with DISnames?! Am I the only crazy that loves feeling like I'm bumping into familiar faces?

I love that too Leah!!!!

 

[elle1024]

Hi All! We just booked this cruise as a completely last minute trip. I'll be traveling with my husband and our 2 year old son Luke. I've had a lot of people (family) discourage me from taking Luke on a cruise so young, but he truly loves everything Mickey and I think he will enjoy it! What are your experiences while cruising with toddlers? Any tips/suggestions? Also, anyone else cruising with children around the same age, I would love to connect!!

Hey Cjl, we will be traveling with our one year old. He will be just shy of 14 months. Haven't seen a lot of smaller kids, would love to connect as well. Will be seeing eachother in the splash zone.

 

[starlightprincess]

Hi Everyone!!!

If any newcomers come here and also want to join the facebook page, please send me a message here on the DIS too. I have been getting a ton of requests from people that are not on our cruise to join our page. They are wanting to post ads etc... So Im trying to keep it just us magic peeps! Thanks friends!
Shannon

Just added myself, I swear that page took me forever to find LOL Every time I searched for it it was like no there are no results x

 

[Love2Plan4Disney]

Hey we are going to visit A children's home on Cozumel while we are there and planning on visiting and bringing some donations. The website is here if you any to check it out http://ciudaddeangeles.org/ if you would like to come with us or have any questions just let me know and I'll send an email to add you xx

Thank you SO much! I contacted them and we will be visiting also! Thanks again for the info!

 

[hamm1207]

The cut off for the FE list will be Sept 27th. Any family wishing to join after that may do so with the knowledge that gifts were purchased/made base on closing date numbers. At this time I not planning on splitting the list, but please keep in mind that you do not have to give gifts to everyone individually. You may gifts to one, some, or all--it is entirely up to you!! This will be my 10th and my husband's 11th cruises and we have had 30+ staterooms on all of our cruises. If you wish to only give gifts to 10 families then that is up to you--who you give gifts to is entirely up to you--I just want everyone to enjoy the experience!!

 

[tropictammy]

We just booked!! I joined the FE last, but is there a secret mickey gift exchange?? We did one our last cruise, and it was so much fun!!

 

[mmouse37]

I would imagine with all of the new features coming to the magic, it is seeing a renewed interest.

That said I assumed that gty rooms were only sold at the beginning. But not having any experience with the I could be wrong.

Hello all....I just booked this last week and can't wait to get on the Magic again. Most recent time I was onboard her was last September out of NYC on the 5 night Canada cruise. This will be our 30th DCL cruise but the Magic holds a special place in my heart as we were on her Maiden Voyage back on July 30, 1998. Can't wait to see all the new changes (but will certainly miss the old). We have cruised all 4 ships and many of the itineraries. Definitely DCL addicted!! This cruise will be just hubby and I celebrating our 34th anniversary.

While reading the thread I saw mention of GTY's and when they are offered. Hope I can shine some light on it. A GTY is offered when DCL sells a certain percentage of cabins in a particular category....no one know what the percentage is but think of it like an airline overselling a seat on a flight but unlike an airline you are guaranteed a cabin. You are guaranteed a cabin in at least the category you booked but could be upgraded to a higher cabin (never a lower cabin). DCL knows a certain amount of people will cancel before the cruise so they keep selling the category as GTY but will not assign cabin numbers until about 60 or so days out (sometimes 30-40 days out). A GTY booking can happen at any time based on when that category has reached the magical percentage sold number. For example, say you want to book a 9D but it is offered as a 9D GTY...that means you can't pick your cabin number at time of booking but will be assigned one later on. You may get a 9D or higher (it does happen sometimes where you book an oceanview and get upgraded to a verandah but don't count on it.).

A different type of booking is an *GT rates which can be an IGT (inside guarantee), OGT (oceanview guarantee) and VGT (verandah guarantee). These are completely different than a regular GTY booking. These *GT rates are discounted and are used by DCL to sell a slower booking cruise to help fill the ship (last minute discounts). They are usually offered 30-60 days or so before a cruise date and come with many restrictions like having to pay in full at time of booking, no refunds, no name changes, date changes, etc. You can book in any of the 3 categories (IGT, OGT, VGT if they are offered) and can get a cabin in any of the sub groups within that category..meaning if you book IGT you can be assigned any cabin within the range of inside cabins (from an 11B to a 10A). Same with oceanview and verandah categories. These *GT rate cabins are not assigned until about 10-15 days before sailing and could be assigned as late as day of arrival. The trade off for all the restrictions are the great rates.

I had been watching this cruise for months and booked when I saw they were offering *GT rates last week. they are still offering them as of today for new bookings only (you can't make an *GT booking from a regular booking). If you wanted to book one of these *GT rates and you already have a booking you have to cancel your regular booking and incur the penalty and then rebook the *GT rate (some do this as the savings could be worth it....even taking into account the penalty amount). You have to run the numbers to see if it would be worth it. Obviously the closer to the cruise date the more the penalty for cancelling the regular booking would be.

Anyway...just wanted to shed some light on the differences between GTY booking and *GT bookings...they are very different animals and many get confused over them or use them interchangeably which could cause more confusion!

We will be spending a few nights at WDW before the cruise and then driving down to Miami with a rental the morning of the cruise. Still don't know what we want to do in Cozumel. We have never done the ruins so that is a possibility!!

Happy planning everyone!!!

Have you all been keeping up with the pics of drydock? Some cool pics can be found here:

http://disneycruiselineblog.com/2013/09/disney-magic-dry-dock-update-the-transformation-begins/

This may have been posted on the Facebook group but I don't do facebook so wanted to post here as well.

MJ

 

[hamm1207]

mmouse37-- welcome to the cruise!! I think we've cruised with you before.

Thanks for the pictures link! I can't wait to see the "new" magic.

 

[mmouse37]

mmouse37-- welcome to the cruise!! I think we've cruised with you before.

Thanks for the pictures link! I can't wait to see the "new" magic.

Yep....the MV of the Dream!!! I wound up booking the cruise right after that as well because I wanted time to explore that beautiful ship!!

MJ

 

[hamm1207]

Doing the cruise docs dance!! We were happy to receive Mickey Mail today!!

 

[mmouse37]

Me too....but what was funny is that we received two full complete sets of cruise docs. At first I thought that they sent me cruise docs and hubby cruise docs but no, they are two full complete sets with both our names in each set...strange!! We now have 8 luggage tags for 2 pieces of luggage!!

MJ

 

[js1102ss]

Hi Everyone!!! If any newcomers come here and also want to join the facebook page, please send me a message here on the DIS too. I have been getting a ton of requests from people that are not on our cruise to join our page. They are wanting to post ads etc... So Im trying to keep it just us magic peeps! Thanks friends! Shannon

I would like to be part of FB group please. I don't have 10 or more post to send private message it said??

 

[Love2Plan4Disney]

I would like to be part of FB group please. I don't have 10 or more post to send private message it said??

This is the link... click "join group" and someone will accept your request. : )

https://www.facebook.com/groups/169106573269861/

 

[DisneyMouseHouse]

Several of us are having a discussion over on the FB group about how large the FE list has gotten. We were wondering if whoever is in charge of the group would consider splitting the group.....the reasons for this are:

1) Concern about luggage space (both bringing and taking home FE gifts)

2) Concern about cost for so many cabins

3) Concern about time that it takes for delivery since this is a shorter cruise....

28 cabins is a LOT to deliver in the short time available and could make participation in this FE cost prohibitive for some...............

 

[Gnfoster]

Several of us are having a discussion over on the FB group about how large the FE list has gotten. We were wondering if whoever is in charge of the group would consider splitting the group.....the reasons for this are: 1) Concern about luggage space (both bringing and taking home FE gifts) 2) Concern about cost for so many cabins 3) Concern about time that it takes for delivery since this is a shorter cruise.... 28 cabins is a LOT to deliver in the short time available and could make participation in this FE cost prohibitive for some...............

I agree and would love to split our group.

 

[DisneyMouseHouse]

I agree and would love to split our group.

Maybe we should post a poll?