1/21/12 Western Caribbean Cruise

[exnihilio13]

Count us in! We just booked this as our first disney cruise and are so excited! We (me, husband and 4 children ages 7,5,4,2) will be cruising after a week at Disney. We will be in rooms 2638 and 2640, and are interested in an FE exchange if one is being organized. Anyone have any advice or tips as this is our first cruise? Thanks Come on January!

Welcomem welcome! Nice to see another couple kids in our range (4 & 2). A week at Disney AND a cruise back to back. Those are some lucky kids (and parents for that matter)
I've been gathering *tons* of info off these boards. Check in a few times a week and typically alot of subjects get recycled. However mention any stuff particularly nagging at your brain and I'm happy to share what I've found or post on the main board but this board is BY FAR the best resource.

ex

btw...cross your fingers for that "Kids Sail Free" promo for this cruise for you in particular (Jan & Feb for Caribbean were KSF for 2011). Would probably save ya near several thousand bucks at least!

 

[Keri88]

I'll totally help you out! I participated last cruise but I've never organized one. Can't be rocket science though right? I haven't posted a whole lot on this board but I'm sure we can figure it out.

Last time someone created a sticky I think and everyone signed up if they wanted to participate. Once we get closer to the cruise date and everyone has their cabin #s then everyone who's participating will note the cabin numbers. When you're on the cruise you leave a little trinket/gift in each Fish Extender at some point during the cruise. It's SO fun to come back to your cabin or wake up to little surprises!

People either make their own fish extenders or buy them on Etsy and Ebay. I bought mine on Ebay almost 4 years ago now but need to fix it a little as my puppy chewed the stick! oops!

Hi all! Just checking in only 224 days until we sail! I am so excited!!! I have never heard of this FE thing but it sounds fun! I am in - assuming I can understand the whole thing! LOL

HeyShanny, where are you adopting from? Our DS and DD are adopted from Russia about a year apart. They will be 6 and 7 on the cruise. Adopting is so fun and hard at the same time. I wish you tons of luck!! Hopefully your new family member will make their debut on a Disney Cruise! Sending some magic your way!

Keri

 

[Keri88]

I'm willing to help out with the FE as well. Some of my friends have been on several Disney cruises and told me of the name tags they used when meeting up with DISers on their cruise. They picked up the Disney paint samples (shaped like Mickey) from a home improvement store and turned them into name tags.

Anyone coming in the night before the cruise leaves?

Hi Suzy! We will be coming in the afternoon of the 20th. The hotel we are staying at is not far from the port I think. Cannot remember the name now. Are you coming in on 20th also? Do you have kids coming?

Keri

 

[Keri88]

Unless airfare is WAY too much, we will be flying in. January, we flew into Orlando, rented a car & stayed at The Country Inn & Suites in Cape Canaveral then took their shuttle to the port. I have nothing bad to say about that hotel. We ended up spending the extra & took Disney transportation back to the airport. Nothing bad to say about that either other than the cost & having to wait all day at the airport for our flight. Still might do it again (but not the long wait in the airport).

I just checked and that is the hotel we are staying at on the Friday. Getting rental car from Orlando, returning car by Saturday and catching ride to port. Back to Orlando has not been decided yet. I just purchased tickets from NJ to Orlando for a little less than $1000 for four of us.

Who else is staying over Friday at the Country Inn and Suites? We have to start the party right away!!

 

[Loriekins]

Count us in! We just booked this as our first disney cruise and are so excited! We (me, husband and 4 children ages 7,5,4,2) will be cruising after a week at Disney. We will be in rooms 2638 and 2640, and are interested in an FE exchange if one is being organized. Anyone have any advice or tips as this is our first cruise? Thanks Come on January!

Welcome!

Any questions just ask, I will try my best to help! I've learned a ton on the dis boards!

 

[Loriekins]

I just checked and that is the hotel we are staying at on the Friday. Getting rental car from Orlando, returning car by Saturday and catching ride to port. Back to Orlando has not been decided yet. I just purchased tickets from NJ to Orlando for a little less than $1000 for four of us.

Who else is staying over Friday at the Country Inn and Suites? We have to start the party right away!!

We haven't decided what we are doing yet. The air lines we used last time isn't showing January dates yet & the others are about $150 more than last time. Hotel rooms seem higher too. Last January cruise we didn't book until beginning of October so we didn't start planning the other parts until end of October & beginning of November. I think I will wait a while to see what's out there.

 

[hoosiercruiser]

Hi everyone. We haven't set our plans either; I'll also be waiting for better prices. Last time we flew on southwest and also stayed at CI&S. It worked out great. We got one of the rooms that had the kid's bunk beds and separate TV. It was really cute and my DD loved it. To this day she still talks about it. This time we'll just have to see what we can find.

 

[Cheerio]

Has anyone stayed at Ron Jon's it looks pretty neat.

Welcome to all the new cruisers, we have 4 kiddos and will be cruising with MIL as well.

I started a cruise list, if you want to PM me your email addresses I will add you to the google document (it's not public for privacy reasons)

 

[Loriekins]

Has anyone stayed at Ron Jon's it looks pretty neat.

Welcome to all the new cruisers, we have 4 kiddos and will be cruising with MIL as well.

I started a cruise list, if you want to PM me your email addresses I will add you to the google document (it's not public for privacy reasons)

Thanks Cheerio! I PM with my email address.

Lorie

 

[Keri88]

Has anyone stayed at Ron Jon's it looks pretty neat.

Welcome to all the new cruisers, we have 4 kiddos and will be cruising with MIL as well.

I started a cruise list, if you want to PM me your email addresses I will add you to the google document (it's not public for privacy reasons)

I cannot PM because I don't have 10 posts......so I will try to get 10 and PM you!

Got my 10! Woohoo. I PM'd you. Let me know if I messed up and you did not get!

 

[SuzyL]

Hi Suzy! We will be coming in the afternoon of the 20th. The hotel we are staying at is not far from the port I think. Cannot remember the name now. Are you coming in on 20th also? Do you have kids coming?

Keri

I'm not sure what hotel we will stay at, my husband has some points built up from work travels. We do have two children, my daughter will be 10 at the time of the cruise and my son is getting ready to turn 6. Do you have kids coming?

 

[SuzyL]

SuzyL- contact me after Christmas and maybe they can at least write once or twice.

I will def. contact you! We have had a couple close calls with my daughter while discussing the cruise. Keeping this a secret is much harder then I thought it would be.

 

[SuzyL]

btw...cross your fingers for that "Kids Sail Free" promo for this cruise for you in particular (Jan & Feb for Caribbean were KSF for 2011). Would probably save ya near several thousand bucks at least!

[/QUOTE]

Do you know when they announced the KSF for the Jan & Feb Caribbean cruise?

 

[SuzyL]

I started a cruise list, if you want to PM me your email addresses I will add you to the google document (it's not public for privacy reasons)

Hi Cheerio! I need one or two more posts so I can PM you.

 

[SuzyL]

Ok, random question so I can have my 10th post and finally PM people! Have any of the past cruisers used the laundry on the ships?

 

[Cheerio]

Check your email Suzy! So far we have 34 total listed, 15 adults and 19 children!!

 

[exnihilio13]

Do you know when they announced the KSF for the Jan & Feb Caribbean cruise?[/QUOTE]

I believe it was around October last year when they announced KSF for January-February Caribbean cruises. So still a bit of a wait...

 

[Loriekins]

Do you know when they announced the KSF for the Jan & Feb Caribbean cruise?

I believe it was around October last year when they announced KSF for January-February Caribbean cruises. So still a bit of a wait...[/QUOTE]


Select January through March Caribbean cruises did have KSF which ran late September - early October. There was also 25% off for Canadian cruises. Couldn't use both, of course.

The KSF sold out really quick. I talked to my TA about the KSF promotion. She said the KSF will only be for new reservations. So you would have to cancel your reservation & rebook. Sometimes you are able to get the same stateroom you had reserved but not always. If your booking was on board (like ours) you will loose your 10% off & OBC!

 

[exnihilio13]

I believe it was around October last year when they announced KSF for January-February Caribbean cruises. So still a bit of a wait...

Select January through March Caribbean cruises did have KSF which ran late September - early October. There was also 25% off for Canadian cruises. Couldn't use both, of course.

The KSF sold out really quick. I talked to my TA about the KSF promotion. She said the KSF will only be for new reservations. So you would have to cancel your reservation & rebook. Sometimes you are able to get the same stateroom you had reserved but not always. If your booking was on board (like ours) you will loose your 10% off & OBC! [/QUOTE]

Hmmm..you sure about that one? Saw several people in the Mexican Riviera thread that said the promo applied to their existing booking. Also during my booking worth my TA I asked whether any Disney promos would apply and he said they would. Pretty sure any promo Disney comes out with applies to existing bookings.
Ex Though mine also was not onboatd so maybe that makes a difference...

 

[Loriekins]

Select January through March Caribbean cruises did have KSF which ran late September - early October. There was also 25% off for Canadian cruises. Couldn't use both, of course.

The KSF sold out really quick. I talked to my TA about the KSF promotion. She said the KSF will only be for new reservations. So you would have to cancel your reservation & rebook. Sometimes you are able to get the same stateroom you had reserved but not always. If your booking was on board (like ours) you will loose your 10% off & OBC!

Hmmm..you sure about that one? Saw several people in the Mexican Riviera thread that said the promo applied to their existing booking. Also during my booking worth my TA I asked whether any Disney promos would apply and he said they would. Pretty sure any promo Disney comes out with applies to existing bookings.
Ex Though mine also was not onboatd so maybe that makes a difference...[/QUOTE]

That is what our TA was saying about the past KSF for caribbean we went on. She said that for the MR since it wasn't selling at all they could keep the OBC but not the 10%. Also the price has already gone up on our cruise since we booked. She said that the KSF might not be a good deal for us. She said the KSF would help people that were already looking at the verandah room & didn't book on line.