April 13, 2013 - Western Caribbean Fantasy Cruise

[Minnie-Mickey]

Thanks for the tip. I am trying various airports and all combos right now thanks to you. We can only leave thur or fri as DS starts high school next year. I am not sure attendance policy. I figure one day ok more than that might be a problem. Ps all my relatives are "maine-e-acks"

 

[Minnie-Mickey]

I found and booked flights with AA today. Best ones and within $50 of what I could afford. We fly in friday afternoon. So we need a hotel for the night. We fly out sun very early am, as we cant be late or miss another day of school. Any ideas?

 

[mdurette]

Ugh! Airfare! The recent bain of my existence! I don't have much advice except noticing that Southwest dropped their fares for this month and the next to 83 base one way out of Hartford on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

If I got that for next April, it would be almost be doable for us to fly rather than drive.

Disney's airfare is usually very high with inconvenient connections. At least that's what I've heard. I've always booked my own. The only advantage I can think of is that they will hold the ship for you if you're flight is delayed. Good luck for August!

We got Thank You card from both WDW and DCL for this past trip. That's a first for us and a nice touch! They are on my fridge and make me smile in the morning when I see them.

For those of us who booked through Dreamsunlimited, are you gonna check out the new Welcome Center before the cruise? Say the day before or morning of? I would like to meet up with anyone planning to do that. It seems awkward to just show up and kinda go ta-da! I'm here! Hi! But I still plan on making time to stop in.

Ok, back to laundry and dishes. I've promised myself a walk on the beach if I get my list done!

Hey Pershing.....what a great weather weekend we are having! I am booked through DU (this is my 3rd with them) but have never heard of the welcome center. Can you give more info?

 

[mdurette]

We were on the Dream in August with 5 families totaling 19. They gave us two tables next to each other, a table of 12 and one of 8. All 11 kids sat at the big table and we added another chair to our 8 for the 9 adults. Just make sure to link your dining reservations together (done by travel agent). That's if you WANT to sit together.

Thanks for the info on dining arrangements. I supose dinner all together isn't so bad. BUT....I can be sure we don't have ajoining cabins! That would take the togetherness just a bit too far for me!!

 

[mdurette]

I'm going to hold out for a good Southwest fare, which I assume I'll see in the winter--maybe after Christmas. We're coming all the way from CA. I was able to get a last minute fare to MCO on Southwest for about $550 RT for my cruise next month. I hope to be able to do better than that for the April cruise with more time to plan.

I will also be flying Southwest. I have been racking up the points and have a companion pass to defray the cost. Coming from CA you may be able to get better airfare than us in New England.....since we are all on school vacation this week. Good Luck! We already know we will leave on Friday the 12th. (I get too worried about missing the boat for airport issues - so we will arrive the a day early.) As far as coming home - I'll take whatever is cheaper in points - Saturday or Sunday.

 

[Minnie-Mickey]

I tried to use my companion ticket for Delta but it would not let me saying expires March 31. We also looked for the cheapest way home which was sun am versus anytime sat and sun pm. Now that the tickets are all set DD is getting excited DS not so much yet but he has never been.
We leave sun am so we have sat from the time we get off the boat til sun am any ideas for what to do. Thinking a one day pass at WDW maybe too much $. Any hotel worth just hanging around the pool. We are WL fans but we are going this aug. We only take one trip a year and it just so happens disney is back to back. We looked into the grand cypress as we saw it on travel channel but site says under construction. Plus with the cost of cab fare maybe too much $. Thinking beach club as I would have free transportation there and back and then adding on the cruise bus to our trip. Any ideas? Favorite hotels where you can just hang out with stuff for 2 teens. Does anyone remember or know if our flight leaves at 730 am what time the bus leaves for the airport? We usually leave at night both ways. Sorry for the ramble

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Coming from CA you may be able to get better airfare than us in New England.....since we are all on school vacation this week. Good Luck! We already know we will leave on Friday the 12th.

I hope we find a good fair. It's actually our Spring Break. We're fortunate this year that it's so far away from Easter--not often that we can travel for Spring Break at "cheap" fares. I'd heard about NE break, very nice timing for vacays. We have ski week in February and a whole week at Thanksgiving, which is really nice for travel, too. I think we'll try to take red-eye Thursday night to have a whole day to play with--I'm paranoid, too.

Favorite hotels where you can just hang out with stuff for 2 teens.

I'd love to know this, too. I was thinking of trying to hit Harry Potter for the day, since we never seem to make it to US on our trips to DW, but given the red-eye flight that may be too ambitious. Our other thought was just hanging out by Port Canaveral, so if anyone has any hotels in that area, I'd love to hear it.

 

[Pluto6]

I tried to use my companion ticket for Delta but it would not let me saying expires March 31. We also looked for the cheapest way home which was sun am versus anytime sat and sun pm. Now that the tickets are all set DD is getting excited DS not so much yet but he has never been.
We leave sun am so we have sat from the time we get off the boat til sun am any ideas for what to do. Thinking a one day pass at WDW maybe too much $. Any hotel worth just hanging around the pool. We are WL fans but we are going this aug. We only take one trip a year and it just so happens disney is back to back. We looked into the grand cypress as we saw it on travel channel but site says under construction. Plus with the cost of cab fare maybe too much $. Thinking beach club as I would have free transportation there and back and then adding on the cruise bus to our trip. Any ideas? Favorite hotels where you can just hang out with stuff for 2 teens. Does anyone remember or know if our flight leaves at 730 am what time the bus leaves for the airport? We usually leave at night both ways. Sorry for the ramble

We stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter last month and was very pleased with all there was to do without going to a park. Although we did a park one day using our Disney Dollars accumulated on our Disney Visa. POFQ is right next door to PORS and you can walk between the resorts. They also have the boat to Downtown Disney which would be something besides the parks to do. This last time we took the bus to Hollywood Studios and caught the boat to the Boardwalk one evening, definately worth a trip to see all the performers in the evening and not as crowded as DD. Our kids are 11 and 10 and both had a lot of fun doing this.

 

[mdurette]

I tried to use my companion ticket for Delta but it would not let me saying expires March 31. We also looked for the cheapest way home which was sun am versus anytime sat and sun pm. Now that the tickets are all set DD is getting excited DS not so much yet but he has never been.
We leave sun am so we have sat from the time we get off the boat til sun am any ideas for what to do. Thinking a one day pass at WDW maybe too much $. Any hotel worth just hanging around the pool. We are WL fans but we are going this aug. We only take one trip a year and it just so happens disney is back to back. We looked into the grand cypress as we saw it on travel channel but site says under construction. Plus with the cost of cab fare maybe too much $. Thinking beach club as I would have free transportation there and back and then adding on the cruise bus to our trip. Any ideas? Favorite hotels where you can just hang out with stuff for 2 teens. Does anyone remember or know if our flight leaves at 730 am what time the bus leaves for the airport? We usually leave at night both ways. Sorry for the ramble

Last year we stayed one night on property and signed up Disney transport to the ship. Then....found out the bus wasn't going to pick us up until 3pm. Then an hour to the ship. It was only a 3 day cruise and we wanted to make the most of it. So, we blew off the bus and ended up last minute calling a limo service. This time it might not be so bad not to get on right away since it is a 7 day and there will be plenty of time to do whatver.

Also if you think you may go to Harry Potter/Universal. Then without a doubt I would stay on universal property. I believe you get passes for the rides if you stay on property. (like Disney Fast Pass). Check into it- would be worth it if your kids want to do rides.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Also if you think you may go to Harry Potter/Universal. Then without a doubt I would stay on universal property. I believe you get passes for the rides if you stay on property. (like Disney Fast Pass). Check into it- would be worth it if your kids want to do rides.

Thanks for the tip! I had no clue. The last time I went to Universal was 20 years ago (yikes!).

 

[Minnie-Mickey]

One day park tickets are crazy prices going by this years prices so looking for a hotel with stuff to do. I agree with the disney bus to cruise as we stopped at just about every resort for pick ups. It bothered me last time as it was 4 day cruise. This time being 7 I was hoping to enjoy the resort as much as possible. mco hyatt has cheap rates but not much to do I think with two teens that might not be so cheap for my sanity.

 

[heidibilotti]

Does anyone know what time the bus leaves from AKL. We will be staying at Residence in the night before but our friends will be staying in the parks. We wondered what time we would meet up. Thanks

 

[pershing]

Does anyone know what time the bus leaves from AKL. We will be staying at Residence in the night before but our friends will be staying in the parks. We wondered what time we would meet up. Thanks

I've never taken DCL transfers but from posts I've seen I gather the buses run anywhere from 10 to 3. In other words, not early enough for people who want to sit and have a leisurely lunch while their kids go on the almost empty Aqua Duck 7 times in a row. (That was our 3 day Dream cruise last April.)

My kids are bugging me already NOT to drive! And they want to fly JetBlue instead of Southwest! They are saying that we can cut back on stuff now. (Yeah, that was my plan to pay off the cruise. )

JetBlue's schedule will most likely open up in July for April '13! We'd have to give up eating in general to be ready for that.

I think I've done too good a job in being able to pull off these vacations. My DS's have no idea about the planing involved..... (cue the violins for my whine and song-I deleted my rant. It just babbled on and on and on, tirelessly.)

I mean, I was hoping to scrap some excursion money together for Grand Cayman. Last time we were there in 2005, we couldn't dock 'cause it was too rough! (January..ugh!) I was gonna ask those of us who've done Western Itinerary excursions, which were good enough that you would do again? I'm probably only gonna do one.

 

[pershing]

Hey Pershing.....what a great weather weekend we are having! I am booked through DU (this is my 3rd with them) but have never heard of the welcome center. Can you give more info?

I'm not sure if the Welcome Center is set up for diser's or dreamsunlimited people as they are both owned by the same people, but on the podcast they said it was open. It's in Port Canaveral. Facebook page opened up a little while ago. https://www.facebook.com/DISWelcomeCenter

Actually, it says the "DIS" so that's for all of us I guess. It's some place you can stop in to meet the people behind the DIS, ask dreamsunlimited questions. I suppose you can use it for an early meet and greet for cruise. It's next to the Perfect Gift.

I'm sure it's purpose will be flushed out as time goes on. I think they are recording the podcast there now, but I'm not sure.

They said on the podcast to stop in and say hello-so I was gonna built that into the itinerary. I'm curious though I have met Pete Werner, Kevin, Cory, Walter, Julie etc on the first podcast cruise. Very nice people!

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

I have met Pete Werner,

I'd love to meet him sometime! Is he as funny in person as he is on blogs? I read his Alaska cruise TR and was dying laughing. Wish he'd do more of those!

 

[pershing]

I'd love to meet him sometime! Is he as funny in person as he is on blogs? I read his Alaska cruise TR and was dying laughing. Wish he'd do more of those!

If you've ever heard the podcast the whole podcast crew can be funny. I play it at work and my two co-workers love it! One co-worker has a fear of crowds and the other can't stand hot weather, so it's not like they'd be headed for WDW anytime soon, but they love the sound of Pete's deep voice. I agree with them that when he's travelling and not on the podcast, it seems a little empty-like.

He's the same in person as he is on the podcast. Funny, opinionated, blunt, and generous. He expects Disney to maintain high standards. That's for sure!

I didn't read his Alaska Cruise Trip Report. As a family, we haven't strayed from the Caribbean yet. My kids barely leave the ship as it is-even on CC!

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

I didn't read his Alaska Cruise Trip Report. As a family, we haven't strayed from the Caribbean yet. My kids barely leave the ship as it is-even on CC!

It's hilarious. We're going in August, and I can't wait. I'll have to check out the podcasts, I've never listened to those.

 

[brich]

We leave sun am so we have sat from the time we get off the boat til sun am any ideas for what to do...

On our cruise in April, we spent Saturday after the Cruise, Sunday and Monday morning at the Poly. With a 5, 10 and a 13 year old, i was worried if we didn't go to the parks but the kids really enjoyed kicking around the resort and having lots of pool time. We did go to Downtown for a bit but it was nice just enjoying that Poly pool without the bustle of doing the parks. Although we were very disappointed with our accommodations, the pool was great. This Cruise, I think we're leaning toward doing the same but staying at the Beach Club. We will do the parks this next time but still saving down time at the Beach Club pool!!

 

[Minnie-Mickey]

Birch: I wish we could stay as long as you. DS being in high school I can only miss one day so we chose the day before the cruise to ensure we would not miss the boat. I did book the BC and did not tell the kids. I am sure they may already know as they are so more tech savy than I . For xmas we gave them the trip to disney in aug and they knew within hours but never said anything til recently. Looking forward to the pool. It is too bad that our stay pre and post is so short.
So you are also from Mass. Interesting. I looks like a lot of people are from mass

 

[mdurette]

I've never taken DCL transfers but from posts I've seen I gather the buses run anywhere from 10 to 3. In other words, not early enough for people who want to sit and have a leisurely lunch while their kids go on the almost empty Aqua Duck 7 times in a row. (That was our 3 day Dream cruise last April.)

My kids are bugging me already NOT to drive! And they want to fly JetBlue instead of Southwest! They are saying that we can cut back on stuff now. (Yeah, that was my plan to pay off the cruise. )

JetBlue's schedule will most likely open up in July for April '13! We'd have to give up eating in general to be ready for that.

I think I've done too good a job in being able to pull off these vacations. My DS's have no idea about the planing involved..... (cue the violins for my whine and song-I deleted my rant. It just babbled on and on and on, tirelessly.)

I mean, I was hoping to scrap some excursion money together for Grand Cayman. Last time we were there in 2005, we couldn't dock 'cause it was too rough! (January..ugh!) I was gonna ask those of us who've done Western Itinerary excursions, which were good enough that you would do again? I'm probably only gonna do one.

I got an idea Pershing.....if your kids are anything like mine, they won't give up an old toy even if it is broke! Tell them they can fly, but as a family you need to earn the money. Have a yard sale, sell on ebay.....clean your house out of all the things they are holding onto but don't really need!!!!!