August 20, 2005 - L.A. to Port Canaveral - Eastbound Repo Cruise - The SHIP OF FOOLS Part 2

[Bmwdsny]

Good morning everyone...

Got my first allergies for the season!! but i will survive!!! Looks like Fall is kicking in here...Cooler weather coming..

anyway take a look at this: Castaway Club gifts Our good friend Andy post a picture of the blanket from one his special cruise...
Looks like MAYBE we will get one for the Panama Cruise????? I hope so!!! It would be sooo nice to have!

Estelle,
Got word whether your grandson be able to go with you to WDW????

For people who are staying at the HI night before the cruise, are you guys planning on anything to have a head start to meet one another before the cruise?? I am staying at another hotel but would love to stop by and start to meet some of you...

 

[ehtpnt]

Melinda, Our grandson has decided he wants to wait and go next year. So maybe we will take him to see the Christmas decorations in 2005.
We of course will still be there in 2004. Only about 60 days until we leave. Getting the excitement jitters.
Still discussing how long to be down there. There's a chance we might leave Friday and go to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, N.C. The Christmas decorations there are supposed to be truly beautiful.
Really need to get the act together and decide.

The weather is beautiful, cool and sunny. And the temp is supposed to drop. Maybe Melinda and I will get lucky and there will be an early hard frost. Then the outdoor allergies will be gone. Right...and it will snow next August.

Estelle

 

[ivanova]

Originally posted by Bmwdsny
For people who are staying at the HI night before the cruise, are you guys planning on anything to have a head start to meet one another before the cruise?? I am staying at another hotel but would love to stop by and start to meet some of you...

I don't think we've set up anything concrete yet - but there a LOT of pages on this thread I haven't read (and will never read ).

My guess is we'll plan to overrun the swimming pool area and/or restaurant at a predesignated time.

 

[Denine]

to all of you that have already made reservations of one kind or another. I have none, execpet for the cruise, of course.

I can't seem to find time to sit down with DH to look at stuff. There is always something going on around here or he is working. I hope we don't miss out.

We are still deciding where to stay for our drive down NEXT week.

 

[Grumbo]

Wow Denine you're driving to L.A. next week!!!!
Now that is one whole heckuvalot of time to kill until next August!!!!
Can you keep me a spot at the front of the line to board the ship please?

Cheers,
Grumbo

 

[paulcrsb]

Mt. St. Helens has decided to let off some more steam this morning. As usual the news department is all over it. We've had our satelite truck parked up at the mountain since Friday. Hopefully by the end of the week everyone will be bored with this and everything will get back to normal.

Paul

 

[Grumbo]

Yeah Paul I keep peeking at the live cam URL http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/ on the net. Guess when it shows just static I'll know it was bigger than they had anticipated

Cheers,
Grumbo

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

PENPALS

On the subject of penpals my DD has been in contact with a few kids in USA, and my two will be DD 9 DS 6 on the cruise (DS 7 on last day).

If any Children would like to write to a Penpal in LONDON England, please PM me.

ANDREW

 

[Whiskers]

Hi Grumbo
Sorry - I have managed to confuse myself again! Your freee shuttle with Budget to the port - does it take you to the cruise ship terminal or to a hotel? I phoned Budget's main reservation line and got price info, that receptionist told me they do free shuttle within 5 miles. So I got a phone number for a Long Beach location and they told me free shuttle only within 1 mile and only to the pier not any hotels. Now I am wondering if she gave me the wrong phone number and not the Ocean Blvd one?

 

[Grumbo]

No this is from the Budget on Ocean Blvd to the pier for the ship. We are picking it up at LAX and dropping off at the Ocean Blvd location. Not to the hotels.
For us we prefer to be able to go to the port when we want to. I'm renting out a portion of the roof rack to JGE customers as a freebie. Passengers or baggage will be dropped at the port.

Cheers,
Grumbo

 

[Whiskers]

OK - now I understand abit better!
I wanted to rent the car at John Wayne airport wednesday and then drop off at San Pedro friday to spend the night at a hotel there . I phoned Enterprise - they will transfer to a hotel, but they won't do one way car rental from John Wayne (only from LAX). Hertz won't transfer to hotel either. I guess we'll just go by taxi to the hotel

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Question

Since booking the cruise has anyone asked and obtained an upgrade and if so, did they charge, a large amount, IE to current prices, or a reasonable price.

Do you keep the early booking discount or they rework the lot?

Cruise is full so this would be waitlisted anyway.

 

[NYGiantsRule!]

We currently have two rooms reserved at the Holiday Inn that we are going to let go also. When we originally made the reservation we were going to fly in on Friday and stay just the one night. We are now coming in late Wednesday and staying near Disneyland.

 

[Bmwdsny]

Originally posted by Andrew DEREK UK
Question

Since booking the cruise has anyone asked and obtained an upgrade and if so, did they charge, a large amount, IE to current prices, or a reasonable price.

Do you keep the early booking discount or they rework the lot?

Cruise is full so this would be waitlisted anyway.

Funny that you ask this today...We just called the DCL tonight and my parents are in Cat 11 for this cruise and would like to upgrade to higher cat...Can't do it...According to them, ship is fillled and you CAN get on wait list to upgrade but you will pay at the higher rate, not at the early booking rate that we called the day it realeased the fares. . In fact i am in Cat 6 and i paid cheaper for cat 6 then for a family to booked at cat 10 room if you were to book a Panama cruise today!!!! Because this is such a high demand cruise that no one can even add on or change the reservation or even transfer reservation to another person name or you will pay the higher fare!!!!.... SO WE ARE STAYING PUT!!!!!!

 

[maryisme]

Andrew,

We were waitlisted for a category 8 or 9. I have been waitlisted since sometime in May. I originally booked my inside (category 11) cabin the first day the rates were released ($4,508.56).

I received a phone call from DCL about two weeks (possibly 3) ago informing me of availability in categories 8 and 9. Category 8 was about $1500 more and category 9 was $900 for the four of us in one cabin. We needed two connecting 9s and we did get them.

I asked about pricing and she said that we were booking at the current rate. When they upgraded their website she said they changed their policy pricing.

Hope that helps!!

Mary

 

[DonnaDavid]

Hi, Mary,

Were you given cabin numbers? I booked 2 Cat. 9 cabins and requested connecting when they started accepting reservations. I haven't heard anything regarding cabin numbers or whether I'm even getting connecting cabins. I guess I need to start calling them too.

Donna

 

[maryisme]

Donna,

Yes, we did receive cabin numbers. I'm sorry I can't recall what they are right now and paper work is at home.

I would definitely get on the phone with them. When we booked our August 04 cruise we requested connecting cabins. We were on a gty status until about 60 days prior to sailing. We ended up on opposite ends of the ship. We weren't to thrilled but there was really nothing we could do about it since the ship was full.

One of the major reasons I accepted the upgrade to cat 9 was because they were connecting staterooms.

Good luck!!

Mary

 

[kpgclark]

Regarding the upgrade- is the price you paid the difference in the _current_ pricing for those two categories or the difference between what you paid originally and the current price?

 

[maryisme]

Kpg,

Not exactly sure how the difference was calculated. She did say that she could not give me the figure for the pricing tier I originally booked in. She mentioned the policy change and said any changes or additions would be at the current rate.

Hope that helps.

Mary

 

[EileenAmI]

Yay!!!! We are now fools! DCL called and left a message yesterday letting us know that there was a cat 11 available and we were next on the list! So, after about 0.00000001 seconds of deliberation, we called and put down the deposit. Yahoooooo!!!

And, to top it all off, I got my Aladdin special edition stuff in the mail yesterday (DVD, lithos, pin & stuffed Iago & Abu)! Can you say best Disney day ever!

I can't wait to meet some, or all, of the people from these boards on this cruise. Hope everyone looks good in lime green!