2010 news from the Magic

[CarrianneB]

Exactly! And if you ask your travel agent to book it for you (I wouldn't) - don't grouse if you didn't get first-tier pricing!

Do you suggest booking by phone on day 1 or online?

 

[NancyIL]

Do you suggest booking by phone on day 1 or online?

I would do it online.

 

[kaseyC]

I would do it online.

But have a phone nearby incase the website crashes.

 

[Anal Annie]

The Transatlantic cruises didn't sell well but it also had to do with timing as May most children are still in school and a lot of schools start up again in mid August in a lot of places. Maybe they will do the Transatlantic earlier in August to avoid what happened in 2007?

Agreed - that has the problem for us so far on all of their repos and TA's. We don't get out of school until mid-June and we go back the last week of August. A repo cruise will always be out of the question for us, regardless of the price if they stick with these dates. I would be more interested in a TA than northern Europe.

Regarding these anticipated itineraries. I'm just not feelin' it. We like WARMTH. Beaches. Tropical drinks. Sunbathing. Would love to zip line or stuff like that. Not so much on the sightseeing thing right now. DS11 would be bored. He would be OK with 1 or 2 days of it...but not for 12 days. I am sure there are some very nice things to see and learn, but it's just not the kind of vacation we wait all year for! DH has been to Copenhagen and says it beautiful...but the one thing about it is that it will make my wait for the 2011 / 2012 itineraries on the new ships easier to wait for if I'm not dying inside over not being on the ship in 2010!! The problem THEN will be if the Wonder moves to the Med...THAT I would love to be able to do one day...then I will have to choose between the new ships or the itinerary of my dreams!

 

[taysmom]

Great work Steph! Oslo will be the port after Copenhagen.

I can't wait to see what itineraries they will offer!

We just got back from a Med cruise on Independence of the Seas. Southampton is a great port to sail out of, as far as the facilities go. Although it's an hour or so from LHR.

Still keeping our fingers crossed for anything over this side of the pond but will wait until they are announced although a few hints were made during the W/b. Just wonder if Hamburg could be a stop as new ships are being built at a German shipyard? or perhaps this is a decoy to just keep is all guessing more.

I see some of my med cruisers on here?? Right.Hi Brenda! How was the PC in august?
JSmom2 weren't you on the med also? June 16? I can't remember names too well.

How do we find out when the Magic will be in Southampton? Where's Steph when we need her???

I'm back but nothing listed for southhampton! Andrew will take of that for us!

I don't know if I can take my oldest out of school in May....

If I do the repo lisa, I'll leave tay here with her dad.

I think the Webmasters here might make an announcement here just before that.

But yes a month left to go.

It gets earlier each year.

Lets not bother with a 2011 thread, its Alaska!!

I will have cruises planned with disney for 4 years with this..repo in 2010, pc in 2011, alaska in 2012 and mexico in 2013..my dd will be 15, do you think she'll become bored with disney?

Rather than 'shorter' I think changes to make it better, Maybe Bermuda added in that would make it special, or Madeira, Gibraltar Tenerife, again,

Oh yes. I would rather the long cruise. After our PC one anything else is short!!!

I fully agree!

I would do it online.

I tried online for my last cruise and got nothing! The computer wouldn't finish the transaction. I just hope disney upgrades their servers to be able to handle the traffic that happens on the first day of booking. They would resolve this if they just announced where they were going way before instead of making it so secretive.

Back from the seafood festival....did I mention I don't really care for seafood! It was fun and you all talked up the thread. I'm still very curious about a start date. Going backward from estimates, I figured w/o anything but a transatlantic 1st they'd leave harwich on the 9th/10th of june, so a 14 repo before that would put them leaving around memorial day here..or may 27/28. That would be much later but would get some more families as alot of schools and colleges start getting out around the end of may beginning of june. I like the special cruises because there's less kids. Less trouble! I haven't been on a disney cruise yet with more than 500 kids on the ship. Alot of people tell me I've been very lucky.

 

[misseulalie]

I'm curious - did you book that when the cruise was first announced, or later when they were having issues filling the ship?

We booked the TA in Feb.2007 (sailed in May) Our original price was around
$3500, and it kept going down, down, down....
Our Med cruise was booked the first day and it didn't go up in price at all(maybe $200 total...)If I remember correctly

 

[orlandothebeagle]

WE will be on the magic when they open up, is the future cruise desk open evry day on the ship?

 

[debg]

We booked the TA in Feb.2007 (sailed in May) Our original price was around
$3500, and it kept going down, down, down....
Our Med cruise was booked the first day and it didn't go up in price at all(maybe $200 total...)If I remember correctly

Can you please tell me what category you had for the May TA cruise?

And can anyone remember if the TA's in May were less, more, or about the same cost as the TA's in August?

Thanks,
debg

 

[NancyIL]

WE will be on the magic when they open up, is the future cruise desk open evry day on the ship?

The desk was open every day on my Wonder cruise in January - but with limited hours.

 

[tinkerbell_29]

We almost missed being able to go on a Med cruise becasue I was not paying any attention to booking dates. I've already told my boss that i may need to take a day or two off to by able to book this because i'm not going through that stress again.

Lissa

 

[misseulalie]

Can you please tell me what category you had for the May TA cruise?

And can anyone remember if the TA's in May were less, more, or about the same cost as the TA's in August?

Thanks,
debg

We had a cat. 12 and was upgraded to a 9. Almost everyone on the DISboards who booked a 12 went to a 9 or 10.

The August cruises were more epensive. They were still pretty cheap, but not as cheap as the May sailing.

 

[LynnTarrant]

I really hope you are right Andrew and that there are further itineries after the 21st July otherwise that puts us UK teachers and parents right out of the picture with the UK Holidays

That would be so cool -count us in

No flights although it would be a long drive we'd probably put a couple of nights before and after to break up the journey - any idea Andrew whats halfway??

Helen my house is 35mins away if you'd like a bed for the night!

 

[NancyIL]

I really hope you are right Andrew and that there are further itineries after the 21st July otherwise that puts us UK teachers and parents right out of the picture with the UK Holidays


Helen my house is 35mins away if you'd like a bed for the night!

Kids in the UK go to school into July? Poor kids!

 

[debg]

We had a cat. 12 and was upgraded to a 9. Almost everyone on the DISboards who booked a 12 went to a 9 or 10.

The August cruises were more epensive. They were still pretty cheap, but not as cheap as the May sailing.

Thanks! I'm really torn... we'd highly prefer the May sailing but have heard some horror stories about the weather during the crossing. We love sea days - way more than the ports - but we don't love cold sea days. We did the WB PC repo this year and the last couple days it was too cold for me. I'm thinking the May TA would be even colder. Any opinions, anyone?

debg

 

[misseulalie]

Thanks! I'm really torn... we'd highly prefer the May sailing but have heard some horror stories about the weather during the crossing. We love sea days - way more than the ports - but we don't love cold sea days. We did the WB PC repo this year and the last couple days it was too cold for me. I'm thinking the May TA would be even colder. Any opinions, anyone?

debg

During the day, the weather was beautiful. At night, it was pretty cold and windy. We were all walking around in the blue DCL sweatshirts they were selling onboard. They had to cancel some of the night time activities on deck 9. If I remember correctly, they even had to postpone Pirate night because of the wind. The waves a few days were pretty rough-20 foot swells, but overall, it was great and an experience I will never forget. I loved the crossing so much, I want to do it again very soon, even if not on DCL. I loved the 6 sea days. So relaxing. I was never bored. I only hope they figure out the wireless connection by this next sailing, getting online was an awful epxereince!

 

[debg]

During the day, the weather was beautiful. At night, it was pretty cold and windy. We were all walking around in the blue DCL sweatshirts they were selling onboard. They had to cancel some of the night time activities on deck 9. If I remember correctly, they even had to postpone Pirate night because of the wind. The waves a few days were pretty rough-20 foot swells, but overall, it was great and an experience I will never forget. I loved the crossing so much, I want to do it again very soon, even if not on DCL. I loved the 6 sea days. So relaxing. I was never bored. I only hope they figure out the wireless connection by this next sailing, getting online was an awful epxereince!

Thank you *so* much for this info! Sounds perfectly fine to me - I'm an early-to-bed girl (well, right after late dining) so the night cold/wind wouldn't bother me in the least. And, those days sound beautiful! You have made my decision easier!

If you can think of any other 'selling' points, please feel free to let me know! This just sounds wonderful!

debg

 

[gydell]

On both transatlantics they had problems filling the ships up and there was a lot of discounting including 3rd /4th person in a cabin basically nearly FREE.

This is why I think there will be changes this time,

The actual MED cruises sold quickly and very well compared to normal Caribbean sailings but not s fast as West Coast and Repos through Panama.

The EB also got tips free!

Andrew how did you go on with getting one way flights? I was looking a while ago for next year, and the cost for 1 way was more than the return fare.

Book the rt and don't use the return. It's usually cheaper.

Can you please tell me what category you had for the May TA cruise?

And can anyone remember if the TA's in May were less, more, or about the same cost as the TA's in August?

Thanks,
debg

We booked a cat 9 and downgraded to a cat 12 when the 12 was discounted and ended up with a special porthole room!

 

[misseulalie]

Thank you *so* much for this info! Sounds perfectly fine to me - I'm an early-to-bed girl (well, right after late dining) so the night cold/wind wouldn't bother me in the least. And, those days sound beautiful! You have made my decision easier!

If you can think of any other 'selling' points, please feel free to let me know! This just sounds wonderful!

debg

Well, the ship was about half full. (Somebody correct me if I'm wrong). There were just over 300 kids on board. (1,000 is capacity I think)
There were somedays when my girls were the only kids in the club for hours at a time. They got one-on one attention from the counselors and they never wanted to leave the club. There were special menus, special events such as a Princess tea party for all the little girls. I always had the deck 4 lounge chairs by myself. We think one day we hit a whale. (that's the running theory), we were spied on by a military jet (again, theory is it was an Algerian military plane)
what else....The Rainforest sauna was DH's private sanctuary, cool deck parties, and incredible DCL"surprises".

Just to name a few of the great things we got to do!

 

[lbgraves]

We had a cat. 12 and was upgraded to a 9. Almost everyone on the DISboards who booked a 12 went to a 9 or 10.

The August cruises were more epensive. They were still pretty cheap, but not as cheap as the May sailing.

On our 12/9/06 cruise they had good incentives for booking the TA repos to try and fill the ship. It included the 10% off, $250 [maybe more] OBC and prepaid tips. If only we could have found a good deal for the airfare we would have booked it.

 

[kaseyC]

During the day, the weather was beautiful. At night, it was pretty cold and windy. We were all walking around in the blue DCL sweatshirts they were selling onboard. They had to cancel some of the night time activities on deck 9. If I remember correctly, they even had to postpone Pirate night because of the wind. The waves a few days were pretty rough-20 foot swells, but overall, it was great and an experience I will never forget. I loved the crossing so much, I want to do it again very soon, even if not on DCL. I loved the 6 sea days. So relaxing. I was never bored. I only hope they figure out the wireless connection by this next sailing, getting online was an awful epxereince!

We were on the Aug. Repo and we had gorgeous weather. Like you I absolutely loved the sea days. I read all six books I had brought with me and ended up having to buy something in the airport to read on the flight home.