8/15/09-Eastern-Tortola Treasure Seekers #4

[andeeNjoel]

Looks like everyone else is improving bar London with rain at the weekend, well at least it will be cool for the London Marathon.

Hope all are having a good week so far!

In the 70s (20s?) here and sunny the past few days. Supposed to be in the upper 80s by the weekend! Fred and George are already picking and eating tiny peaches off our trees and are very curious about the roses! We will be planting our garden this weekend- hope we can keep them out of it! I love spring!

Looking forward to our 2009 Passporter to arrive any day now I hope! I think it is interesting how their ratings are so different from other guidebooks.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Hope all are having a good week so far!

In the 70s (20s?) here and sunny the past few days. Supposed to be in the upper 80s by the weekend! Fred and George are already picking and eating tiny peaches off our trees and are very curious about the roses! We will be planting our garden this weekend- hope we can keep them out of it! I love spring!

Looking forward to our 2009 Passporter to arrive any day now I hope! I think it is interesting how their ratings are so different from other guidebooks.

Passporter is generally good, I do buy it, as its one of the better books, but they do seem to be out of touch a bit, say on future cruise plans, in past years they have said a few things and they didnt occur.

Interesting to see what they have to say in the 2009 edition for the WOnder 2011 cruises in LA.

 

[andeeNjoel]

Thanks to everyone for the well wishes about the job. Knowing it was going to be a tough one and that the economy is so bad, I have been tutoring 5 days a week this year. I never have done it in the past but it is good money and will allow us to afford this trip. I am already scheduled for a crazy summer of different jobs to keep working and earning money. The scary part will come in September if I have not been hired back.

I am thinking positive though and will work hard to find a new teaching position!

I hope that you are able to line up a new teaching position soon! My father has been teaching for nearly 40 years now, my sister has been looking for a teaching position for several months, many of my co-workers are former teachers, and I spend much of my summer traveling to work with teachers. Teachers are so extremely important and seemly undervalued here. I greatly appreciate all that you, and other teachers, do!

 

[allardk46]

What’s New on the Website...

Seems that Laura and I have been thinking about the HOT TOPIC and are talking about what we should keep in mind when we pack.

Since many of us are going to WDW first, I have added a link on that page to a WDW Information page! I hope to post more things on the page soon but for now, there are some photos and a bit of music.

Andrew DEREK UK is planning his excursions! I listed his choices that he will be trying to book on the Tortola and Castaway Cay excursion pages. Can't wait to hear about what the rest of you all are planning.

That is about all that is new on the web site. I haven't been on a bunch these past couple of days...it was a very sad and difficult couple of days since I was "released" from my teaching contract due to budget cuts and district restructuring. I knew it was coming but I did not know that it would be so hard on me. Our district normally is able to quickly hire back teachers but this year it is different and I was not even given "bidding rights". That would have allowed me to put in for open positions before the school year was out. Now, I have to sit and wait to see if they come up with more jobs and that does not look good with $5 million being cut in my school district. I spent the weekend feeling pretty bad and questioning our vacation choices. Instead of continuing like this, I have decided I am going to get going on being active - contacting every principal I can think of and letting everyone know how much I love teaching. Hopefully I will find a new job before we leave in August.

Later!
Jen

Jen - I am sorry to hear that you have lost your job that you loved. This economy really sucks for all. I hope you find something prior to the cruise.

 

[allardk46]

hey there everyone!!! how is everyone doing??? sry i haven't been on in a while. i've been sooo busy with the last marking quarter of high school. even though the college i applied to doesn't really reject people from coming to their school, my community college(Nassau Community College), i got accepted into the major i have always wanted. im an Art Major in Commercial and Digital Technology, a.k.a. Graphic Design!!!! but i will still be dancing in college cause i can never give that up lol. Hope everyone is having a good day. Jen im sry to hear about your job. im sure you will find another one

It is great that you got into the degree program you want. Congratulations.

 

[gfolchick]

I ordered the passporter tonight-free shipping and 30% off thanks to a coupon code on the regular cruise thread. I wanted to have it "just in case" I have to do any last minute port planning. Hopefully that won't come into play for our week and the cruise gods will bless us with smooth sailing and blue skies.

Jen, sending pixie dust your way that something will open up for you. As Randy Pauch says, "brick walls are not there to keep us out, they are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something."

My parents are at "the world" this week and I have them on a shopping mission to find us new pirate tee's instead of packing the full costumes this time around.

I've given my TA strict orders to pay our cruise off by the 15th so I can make our Palo ressies when available. Just 3 weeks away...

Looking forward to this weekend and some sunshine again...rain, rain go away!

 

[uncw89]

I got my passporter yesterday! Only 3 more weeks til I can book my excursions! Time is going by fast now.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Hello eveyone hope everything is ok.

 

[disneycrazzzy]

If you haven't been keeping track of the AAA rates that have been being offered lately....you might want to take a look.

I was able to switch our two category 6 cabins to GTY verandah cabins and save $1760 per cabin. We are a party of 3 (1A2C) and 3 (1A2C). I assume this means we could get assigned anything from a category 7 to a 4. For that money we don't care.

All I did was call a AAA agent (we are NOT members) and ask them to call Disney and ask for the AMO promotion. There is a possibility we will be getting a $150 OBC too. Once my AAA reservations were confirmed and showed "booked" on the DCL website, I cancelled my previous reservations.

On Tuesday I was able to upgrade our category 6 cabin and category 11 cabins on the 8/8 cruise (we are doing back-to-back) to adjacent category 4 cabins and save $2010. This was before AAA/DCL realized that their promotion wasn't working the way they thought it was going to. Now you can only get a GTY and you can't pick from any available category 4-7 cabin which we did on Tuesday. Craziness.

Hope this helps somebody save some $$.

 

[uncw89]

I've seen the thread, but I haven't seen anyone on our cruise say it will work for us. I am curious though.

 

[caitlinsdad]

I've seen the thread, but I haven't seen anyone on our cruise say it will work for us. I am curious though.

d

All I know I have saved more than $1600 than the current price of my cabin, by booking when these rates first came out, and that doesn't even factor in my obc I am getting from DCL and my TA. , so I know I wont be switch to AAA

 

[uncw89]

I booked mine through AAA (hope I don't get censored! ), in Feb 08 amd got an OBC as well. My price was about $2,000 less than it is now on the DCL site. I don't think it would be cheaper now even with the discounts they are offering. When I paid mine off and my agent called it in, she asked if the rates had gone down and of course they hadn't. This was several weeks ago before thes specials. I don't think they would apply to our cruise though because it seems to be so popular!

 

[disneycrazzzy]

I've seen the thread, but I haven't seen anyone on our cruise say it will work for us. I am curious though.

I am on your cruise and I was able to save $1720 by booking with AAA and am also getting a $150 OBC. I tried about a hundred times to book our cruise using the AAA website over the last couple days and there was never any cabins available. Today I called AAA and told them to call Disney (the AAA agent thought I was "nuts") with the AMO promotion code and see what price I could get on a verandah cabin for the 8/15 Tortola cruise. I was shocked the price they quoted was $3968 or $1760 less than my current reservation. Since I booked my reservation in January for a category 6 cabin for 1A2C for $5688, my price was possibly higher than most of you paid since you booked earlier and so maybe the discount doesn't seem as big as mine. This promotion only allows booking of a guaranteed verandah...so you aren't even guaranteed what category of verandah so since we are 3 people, we could get anything from a 7 to a 4. We have two cabins on this cruise and we saved $3440. We are also getting $150 OBC for each cabin. That's a lot of Shirley Temples for the kids!

I've said this on several other threads, but we are doing the 8/8 and the 8/15 cruises back to back. Before AAA/DCL caught wind of how the AAA promotion was being handled on the AAA website, Disney actually saved us another $2010 to upgrade our category 6 and 11 cabins to two adjacent category 4 cabins and we also got a $150 OBC for each cabin.

So between the two cruises, it saved us $5450 plus $600 in OBC between the two cabins on two cruises.

I posted on this thread in hopes that others who are still looking for a deal could get one. It is possible that we were able to get this deal today because we are a party of 3....I don't know.

 

[uncw89]

We too are a party of 3. I will call my agent and see what she says!

 

[caitlinsdad]

16 weeks until the August 15 th, 2009 Tortola Treasure Seekers Cruise



Let the Party Begin


Welcome to the Weekend

 

[MICKEY'S DREAMERS]

Good week end to YOU too !!!!!!!!!!!

GLAD for those who could ( or will ) save $$ on the cruise !!!!!!!!!!!

We are still having RAIN and during the weekend it will get worse and worse !!!!!!!

BUT I'm planning to go shopping for FORMAL DRESSES with a friend of mine !!

EVERYONE : rest, relax and dream of Tortola !!!!!!!!!!

laura

 

[caitlinsdad]

Have fun shopping

 

[jbm02]

I booked mine through AAA (hope I don't get censored! ), in Feb 08 amd got an OBC as well. My price was about $2,000 less than it is now on the DCL site. I don't think it would be cheaper now even with the discounts they are offering. When I paid mine off and my agent called it in, she asked if the rates had gone down and of course they hadn't. This was several weeks ago before thes specials. I don't think they would apply to our cruise though because it seems to be so popular!

I just tried to check to see the price of a cat 6 right now - and there are none available! Only cat 4, 8 and 9 show up on the DCL site...

I've been lurking for the last few weeks. Busy with home, work, school and getting the kids to all their activities. DH had rotator cuff surgery just before Easter and he's just starting to feel more like himself - he wanted to make sure it was close to being healed by the time of the cruise!! But my "break" has been reading through the cruise meet thread - thanks!! I really needed all of this to look forward to...
Have a great weekend everyone!!

 

[uncw89]

Hi,
I just looked on the DCL site and Cat. 6 showed up, but it didn't show any cabin numbers to choose from. I guess they would be GTY rooms? I didn't call and check out the rates cause I like the room(location) I have.

 

[TonytheWop]

Hi all,
We just moved from the August 29 Eastern to the August 15 !!!
We are myself DH, my wife and 3 boys 15 , 6 , 6 ( that's right TWINS )
Boy..you guys have an active group...I can never read all the posts.
Hope you can bring us up to speed.
How do we get access to your website ?
We would be interested in 5 lanyards.
Not sure yet about the FE..never done that before ..actually this is our first Disney Cruise.

CIAO to everyone and especially all my Italian paesan's !!

Now..how do I change that @#$@#$%countdown and how do I get your Tortola logo ?