09/13/09 SSMC09 S.S. Member Cruise 2009

[Time4disneynow]

Hi

The bus charter sounds like a great idea.
DH and I will be at the Boardwalk Villas the day before we leave for the port and after the cruise we will be going back to the Boardwalk Villas for 2 more days.
This will be an exciting Members Cruise!!!!!

Take care.....Monika

 

[Time4disneynow]

Ok How many threads do you think will be closed because of all the posts?

I say we will have 10.

I will keep tack if any one wants to guess and who ever wins will get a little prize at the DIS meet.

I think that would be fun. What do you all think?

flo

Hi Flo
We say 3

 

[wltdsnyfan]

Ok How many threads do you think will be closed because of all the posts?

I say we will have 10.

I will keep tack if any one wants to guess and who ever wins will get a little prize at the DIS meet.

I think that would be fun. What do you all think?

flo

Don't worry. We could have more then one person with the same number. I think it would be kind of impossible if we did not.

take care
flo

 

[BoosGram]

Currently I plan to be at AKV on the night before and a couple of days after the trip. So if you end up chartering a bus, please count me in. It will save me a rental car.

Hi Everyone,

We booked this am after 1 1/2 hours on the phone (and I had connected at 9:00 am on the button), and we're also staying at AKV the night before and a couple of days after.

Thanks to the wonderful folks who have done the website and so much planning already! This is our first member cruise; we just joined DVC last October.

 

[tikimimi]

Turns out, they interpret a disconnect as "Please call me!!"

Pickings (room options) were slim (no surprise there, expected in this "strategy"), but at least we are in. Deck 1. Oh, well.

Changing my strategy next year back to dialing at first opportunity!

We were on deck 2 on this past MC. One very good advantage is not having to wait for the elevators - I mean not at all! It was amazing.

Congrats to everyone on booking! Now I hope you will all stay and participate in the thread. This is a great place to get questions answered if you are new to the Member Cruises or just to get to know your fellow cruisers whether this is your first cruise or your 20th.

I can tell you that through these cruise meet threads I've met some wonderful people who I know will be life long friends.

Not going, but I can certainly verify this - stay active here and get to know everyone. This (Mary's and Mark's baby) helped make our cruise extra special because we got to know all these fabulous people. We had a meet at BCV the day before the cruise, and just from the things done on this board, I could walk in and pick out people and call them by name. We had an instant group of friends with whom to make special memories!

. I think we will drive in the day before and even if we fly I am going to make reservations at the port. If we drive we could leave are car there and then take the shuttle. I was looking at the rates and they are not bad. If I am correct when I checked the web site before it was 139.00 for the room and parking at the radisson.

How is everyone else coming in? I know it is still early but I am so excited.
It is going to be a long 10 months plus but we have each other to get through it.


flo

We've stayed at the Days Inn and are staying at the Radisson in Oct. Our cruise group is getting a special rate with aprking/shuttle included. It can be done. However, I would encourage you to stay close to if not on Disney property since there will most likely be a meet and dinner you may miss otherwise.

We are planning coming in a day or two early and staying near the port. Not sure what to do about transportation from airport to port and then port back to airport. Any ideas?

Renting a car is the way to go. We reserved ours ahead of time - way ahead of time - and got a great rate through Avis - cheaper than Disney transportation even keeping the car over night and upgrading to a convertible. Because of the close proximity, we didn't even have to pay to put more gas in. It was nice having a car too. Avis did a great job getting us to port and picking us up again when we returned.

I think Karen is right that is sold out about 2pm on the first day one year. Last year it didn't sell out for a few weeks.

Definitely get on the wait list if anyone is reading this and hasn't booked yet. It has been successful in the past as peoples plans change.

Congrats to all those who did make it in.

We were on this year's cruise but did not get our room till January of this year. We were not waitlisted - there was simply still room. We got a card letting us know, decided to go, and called.

Thanks for all those to responded to my transportation question. I'm thinking the cheapest way is going to be renting a car at the airport and then taking shuttle.

Definitely!

You all are on one of the best boards and a great thread! Have a wonderful year getting to know one another!!! Mary and Mark - I know you're heading up another fabulous group and cruise time together!

 

[dizneyfan23]

We are booked, congrats to everyone that was able to get through.

 

[rbcheek]

does anyone know the cost of DCL shuttle from resort to Port one-way?

 

[dvc4life]

Hi Everyone. Just stopping to say hi and say that we are booked on the member cruise. After an hour and a half calling and on hold for another hour, we got booked. We are in a category 8. Room 5010. We are so excited. In fact, we just got home yesterday afternoon after spending a week on the Magic! Will be fun visiting with everyone before the cruise.

Take Care!

 

[ohiominnie]

hmmmm - I've been on some pretty chatty threads. Put me down for 4. Of course if we only have 3 and we get close to cruise time I just might close it and start another. KIDDING!

She has the ultimate power. (insert evil laugh here!)

Actually, she wouldn't abuse her power like that. She's pretty ethical when it comes to those sorts of things.

But I wouldn't put it past her to post 200 times in order to get the number required for thread closing.

 

[ohiominnie]

Here's an interesting tip when it comes to renting cars.

Lately, here is the strategy we've found works WONDERS.....

So far we've used it twice with Alamo....

Book with Alamo using the best coupon code possible. We've found the prepay option is about the best way to go.

A day or two before you plan to travel, go back to the Alamo site and they have deals for "last minute travel plans." Book a car that way. Then cancel your first ressie.

Now, usually there is a fee for canceling a prepay. It's something cheap, like $5 if more than 48 hours out, and $10 if less than 48 hours out. Plus you actually have to CALL and cancel, you can't cancel online.

Here's an example of how it worked for us when we flew to Ohio for a wedding in October.

We booked the smallest car possible b/c it was going to be us 4 with very little luggage. We did prepay and it was $130.

Then we found out we'd be responsible for shuttling my BIL around from hotel to rehearsal to wedding to reception. Not a big deal, but it was going to be pretty tight in the car with 3 adults and 2 kids.

So 36 hours before we were due to fly to Ohio, I went to the last minute travel deals on Alamo's site and was able to get a "premium" car and prepay and the total was only $95. I did lose $10 by canceling my first prepay, but that still is a savings of $25 AND I got a much bigger car!

Now, if anyone has any hints on getting a one way rental from Cleveland to Dayton for CHEAP, let me know. Apparently, unless you're a big booming metropolis and tourist area, they don't like those one way rentals.

 

[BCVOwner2002]

Ok How many threads do you think will be closed because of all the posts?

I say we will have 10.

I will keep tack if any one wants to guess and who ever wins will get a little prize at the DIS meet.

I think that would be fun. What do you all think?

flo

How many pages before it is closed?


As far as people staying at a Disney Resort before and/or after . . . I'll start keeping track and if there are enough people, I'll get pricing for transportation. I can tell you when we did this before we only paid around $25 for R/T travel to/from Disney/Port. Parking at the port, renting a car, etc. cost a lot more than that!

 

[ohiominnie]

Question if you do the bus.....
We live 5 minutes from the Magic Kingdom. I'm assuming everyone who took the bus flew into MCO and therefore didn't have a car? Let's say we wanted to pick up the bus. Any ideas where we could leave the car? Would Disney allow us to leave it parked at a resort for that length of time?

 

[ohiominnie]

Oh, and another question for the bus. What time does it pull into the port? I'm kinda fanatical about getting there early. That's why I couldn't stand the DCL bus because it took too long to board, too long to pull out of MCO, too long to drive to the port.

Seriously, I'm not really a control freak.

 

[WDWLVR]

How many pages before it is closed?

Threads get closed at 250 pages/3750 posts (or there abouts).

Question if you do the bus.....
We live 5 minutes from the Magic Kingdom. I'm assuming everyone who took the bus flew into MCO and therefore didn't have a car? Let's say we wanted to pick up the bus. Any ideas where we could leave the car? Would Disney allow us to leave it parked at a resort for that length of time?

Ok purely hypothetical. Maybe you know someone who has driven down. Maybe they are staying at Beach Club or Boardwalk. Maybe you could drive over and meet them then you and your daughter could stay with the wife and all the luggage. You DH could then drive back home with your son while your son's smoothie Dad follows in his car. Smoothie Dad could then drive Smoothie Son and Smoothie Son's real Dad back to the Beach Club to meet the women folk. Everyone takes the bus and has a good time. Upon return the reverse happens. Just saying.....

Oh, and another question for the bus. What time does it pull into the port? I'm kinda fanatical about getting there early. That's why I couldn't stand the DCL bus because it took too long to board, too long to pull out of MCO, too long to drive to the port.

Seriously, I'm not really a control freak.

The whole reason the party bus started was because people wanted to get an early start. I think pick-up was 9 and we got to the port a little after 10 (it took some time to load etc.).

 

[np4gp]

Can I still linger and lurk on this board if I am waitlisted?? We put ourselves on the waitlist for any category from 7-12...lol. Hoping something comes through, although I don't hope for anyone to need to cancel for any reason other than they changed their minds...Anyway, believe it or not, I actually FORGOT to call this morning. My mind was all over dialing last night as I drifted off to sleep and this morning all I was thinking about was laundry and my day off from DS2 and DH for a little R&R and shopping. Long about 1:00 or so I remembered and started dialing, waited for about 90 min total on 3 calls and had to give up for a little while. 4:13 and I get right through - sold out for a half hour already. Amazing. Oh well, here's hoping. But YAY to all of you who made it through and booked!!

 

[Donald is #1]

1) You can go to the DCL website and see what your dinner seating assignment is.

I went to the DCL website and it says that I have the "Main Dinner Seating". Does that mean that I have the later seating?

 

[cquick]

CHUCK RANG ON 2 LINES FOR HOURS AND HOURS AND HOURS. THEN HE WAS ON HOLD FOR 2 HOURS. GOOD THING HE'S PATIENT! HE GOT US ON DECK 7 USING POINTS! HURRAY!!!!

 

[cquick]

I went to the DCL website and it says that I have the "Main Dinner Seating". Does that mean that I have the later seating?

MAIN DINING ON DISNEY IS EARLY

 

[cquick]

It is $70 per person -

!

One way trasfer is $35 per person. round trip is $69.

 

[Donald is #1]

MAIN DINING ON DISNEY IS EARLY

Cool, thanks! Actually either one would work but the control freak in me needs to know which on it is.