>> April 1, 2012 - Disney Dream Spring Break Frenzy! <<

[RemoCat]

Thanks, guys! That's how I was feeling, so glad to know I'm not crazy...or if I am, we are all.

 

[guarn3md]

OMG - activity on this thread!! YAY!! Good to hear from everyone again...
We are leaving for Disney in 8 days...I can barely concentrate at work right now. I'm so glad to have this cruise the beginning of April - it will help with my Disney Depression on 11/25 (when I am leaving)!
My son has a passport but we go to Canada a lot. He likes having a passport and whenever we go through the Canadian border he always asks them to stamp it!

Deb T - how goes the job situation?? Things getting any better?

Debbie

 

[WhoDat]

Okay, we just got back from our trip to D.C. so now I can start doing the heavy duty planning without guilt. Thank you to everyone who provided helpful hints. D.C. was wonderful and even more exhausting than a week at WDW. Sure, I was younger the last time we went to WDW, but this was extreme exhaustion!

Mouseman - thanks for the heads up on the passports. I was pretty sure ours were still good but checked just in case (they were good). Never hurts to check. I'm with you on the passport issue. DH, DS and I have them because you never know when you're going to truly need them (hopefully never in a serious circumstance). Besides, now I can live with the illusion that I can just run off to the airport and wing my way to Paris any old time I feel like it.

 

[ccbride412]

Deb T. - I had to renew my passport this past March and they sent my old one back to me!
The biggest problem with renewing mine then was that I'd be changing my name in April but that's just over 1 year from getting the new passport (it's free to change the name if it's within one year) and I'd have to pay in full again just to get my name changed! (I think it's over 1 year by about 15 days! grr) So I'm sticking with my maiden name until we move back to the states just so I don't feel cheated out of 100 bucks!

VA_mouseman- I'm really glad you brought this up. Some of my guests have passports and some don't so I was wondering if birth certs were still acceptable. All the stuff my wedding coordinator sends me says "appropriate documents" and I had double and triple checked with the cruise line on this issue and they had said birth certs were ok. I have one little one getting the passport card.

Under 5 months!

 

[SSinWYO]

So glad there's been activity again!

I agree, always good to have passports for little ones, my DD who is 11 has one that actually expires next August so will be renewing after we return from our long-awaited Dream cruise!

Hope everyone is doing well, time to start cranking up the plans on my side. (Had to put it on the back burner for a bit, was becoming quite Disney-crazed!)

Happy early Thanksgiving to all of you out there! Can't wait for a few days off of work~

 

[RemoCat]

Oh my goodness, we just received our fish extender and custom pillowcases for autographs today!! I'm getting soooooo excited!!! I HIGHLY recommend gradysmommy on ebay if you need this stuff. I told her I was in no hurry, so she took her time, but I got an extra gift because of that (a Captain Mickey luggage tag!).

We also have an appt. at our city hall for the kids passport applications this week. It's all coming together! Hope everyone has a fantastic Thanksgiving week. I know we have SO MUCH to be thankful for!

Erin

 

[RemoCat]

Speaking of fish extenders...does anyone know when our fish extender group will be finalized? I'm just wondering what our final tally will be so I can plan our gifts according to our budget and the size of the group. If anyone knows how that's normally done, I'd appreciate the info. What number are we up to now?

 

[ccbride412]

I wanted to do the fish extender but with all the wedding stuff going on, DF told me it's probably best not to worry about it this trip. Plus, I'm still in the process of finishing our handmade wedding favors! I'm so excited I can hardly wait!

Only 1 more visit from DF until we get married! (he lives overseas) I kind of hope the holidays go by fast so April can get here!

 

[guarn3md]

Hey All
Just checking in on the boards from Disney World. We are here for the Thanksgiving hokiday. Weather is beautiful and we are having a great time.
Fish Extender - probably will close the group the end of February, about a month before we sail. Right now we don't have too many families participating. I will update the list when I get back from vacation, but I think we are less than 10 staterooms participating.
Everyone have a great Thanksgiving.

oh - free wifi at The Polynesian now...so I can use my laptop late at night when DS is sleeping!

Debbie

 

[VA_mouseman]

oh - free wifi at The Polynesian now...so I can use my laptop late at night when DS is sleeping!

How is the free wifi at the Poly? I ask because I'll be at Bay Lake Tower in a few weeks, and one nice perk is that it will now have free wifi. However, I'm concerned about how slow it may be, if hundreds of others are using it at the same time.

I'm tempted to bring along my Airport Express, to create my own wifi hotspot, as a backup.

 

[guarn3md]

How is the free wifi at the Poly? I ask because I'll be at Bay Lake Tower in a few weeks, and one nice perk is that it will now have free wifi. However, I'm concerned about how slow it may be, if hundreds of others are using it at the same time.

I'm tempted to bring along my Airport Express, to create my own wifi hotspot, as a backup.

The free wifi is great and it seems pretty fast. I haven't had any problems using the interent and the pages load fairly quickly. My DS brought his mini laptop and it works fine with the free wifi. I'll let you know if it seems to slow down as the week progresses through Thanksgiving.

Debbie

 

[loschavez2k]

We just got back from the Nov. 12th 7 day Western Car. cruise on the Magic. We got the my parents-in-law so excited they have talked us into going on a cruise with them on April 1st on the Dream! So we are the Chavez family. I don't know what your abbreviations are and we've never done fishhooks or meets but we want to this time. It's me (age 47), husband (41), son (10 by then) and daughter (8 by then). Also MIL and FIL. Hello everyone. Tell us what we need to know to join in on this thread, get excited, and maybe do fishhooks. Thanks! It's our third Disney cruise.

 

[VA_mouseman]

Welcome aboard Chavez family! All you need to do at this point is what you've done ... chime in here.

We're an informal bunch, but I suspect that we'll have increased talk here in the months, weeks and days before the cruise. There's been discussion of a FE exchange, but I'm not sure of what's involved there.

 

[mshoo1]

I paid our remaining balance over the weekend and was happy to learn that Disney was able to switch us from the second seating to the main seating. We had been on the wait list since booking our cruise back in April. Thank goodness. Our daughter is normally asleep by 8:15.

 

[ccbride412]

All paid up here too! Can't wait to start checking in!!!

 

[RemoCat]

I'm getting gift cards and paying it off in the next few days. We have fuel perks at a local grocer, and we get 20 cents off of a gallon of gas for every $50 in gift cards. They sell Disney gift cards, which our travel agent assured us can be used to pay off the balance. Do the math...that's $10 off a gallon! They let it roll over, so thats basically like getting $3.33 off (a free tank around here) 3 times, and you can fill gas cans and get up to 30 gallons each time. That will be roughly $300 in free gas!! Woohoo!!!

I've been waiting until Dec. 1 to make the purchase, then will get the gift card info to our travel agent. Won't have to buy gas for a long time - perfect timing for the holidays.

The next 2 weekends are going to be crazy around here. My DD (9) is starring in a local production of Annie as one of the main orphans, and dress rehearsal is tomorrow night, followed by 6 shows over the next two weekends. A few days after it's over, I get to go to Disney World with my parents to cheer on my little brother while his school choir sings at Disney. Will definitely be a nice break!..

 

[Deb T.]

I'm getting gift cards and paying it off in the next few days. We have fuel perks at a local grocer, and we get 20 cents off of a gallon of gas for every $50 in gift cards. They sell Disney gift cards, which our travel agent assured us can be used to pay off the balance. Do the math...that's $10 off a gallon! They let it roll over, so thats basically like getting $3.33 off (a free tank around here) 3 times, and you can fill gas cans and get up to 30 gallons each time. That will be roughly $300 in free gas!! Woohoo!!!

I've been waiting until Dec. 1 to make the purchase, then will get the gift card info to our travel agent. Won't have to buy gas for a long time - perfect timing for the holidays.

The next 2 weekends are going to be crazy around here. My DD (9) is starring in a local production of Annie as one of the main orphans, and dress rehearsal is tomorrow night, followed by 6 shows over the next two weekends. A few days after it's over, I get to go to Disney World with my parents to cheer on my little brother while his school choir sings at Disney. Will definitely be a nice break!..

Just quickly popping in here to offer some important info about using GCs to pay off your cruise... I've read that if DCL issues any kind of refund (ie. reduced fuel charges, etc.) they put the credit back on the tender that was used to pay for the cruise - which in your case would be one of the Disney Gift Cards. So, hang on to those cards until well after your cruise in case you end up with a nice little credit on one of them.


I'm way behind on reading this thread, partly since we weren't sure if we'd be able to keep this reservation or if we would be moving it to another (less expensive) itinerary due to my job situation (or continued lack of it). Now that final payment is imminent, I think we're going to keep this reservation after all. I'll start posting more in a couple of weeks, after I've had time to catch up with everything. guarn3md might remember that I had lots of fun things to post that helped everyone get really excited about our cruise last spring break! Good times, good times!

 

[guarn3md]

Just quickly popping in here to offer some important info about using GCs to pay off your cruise... I've read that if DCL issues any kind of refund (ie. reduced fuel charges, etc.) they put the credit back on the tender that was used to pay for the cruise - which in your case would be one of the Disney Gift Cards. So, hang on to those cards until well after your cruise in case you end up with a nice little credit on one of them.


I'm way behind on reading this thread, partly since we weren't sure if we'd be able to keep this reservation or if we would be moving it to another (less expensive) itinerary due to my job situation (or continued lack of it). Now that final payment is imminent, I think we're going to keep this reservation after all. I'll start posting more in a couple of weeks, after I've had time to catch up with everything. guarn3md might remember that I had lots of fun things to post that helped everyone get really excited about our cruise last spring break! Good times, good times!

Deb that is wonderful news! Looking forward to seeing you again in April. Getting ready for bed will post more tomorrow.

Debbie

 

[VA_mouseman]

That's a great use of gift cards to pay for the cruise *and* get a break on fuel. That's a nice setup there!

For us, we use the Disney Visa a lot, but we pay it in full every month and incur no interest fees. Also, it has no annual fee. The result? Over the years we've accumulated thousands of literally free Disney dollars that we spend at the parks and on the cruise. We'll have a decent amount in reserve for our onboard expenses.

Oh, and I'll be heading to the World in 8 days! The wife and I are going down for a quick kid-free weekend.

 

[ccbride412]

That's awesome about the giftcards/gas thing! Wish that would happen here. I do get a discount on the Disney gift cards at work, but I haven't worked out how much of a savings I get if we pay for the cruise with them... time to break out the calculator!