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

[RobinMarie]

Can someone please tell me how I will be able to book ressies for the various shore excursions. Will someone be contacting me when they begin to list offerings, and do I need to pay the trip in full before I am able to book?
Thanks,
Carla

Carla,

You might to keep tuned to this thread or contact your agent at the 90 day mark. (provided you are paid in full) If you are going to book a shore excursion through the Disney Cruise Line you need to be paid in full.

Someone please feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

 

[Bmwdsny]

Yeah Jazz!!!!
Thats Bob, Mark and my hobby. Then again as a founding member of J.G.E. I guess you can join in
Not that it is too difficult. Melinda's Bob emailed me last week about crashing on our balcony for a few nights during the cruise just to get a little bit of peace and quiet. Poor guy is whipped already and the ship hasn't even set sail yet!!!!

Cheers,
Grumbo

By all means, you can have him!! There is nothing better than to have my own stateroom for while!! Oh what heavenly!!

 

[Bmwdsny]

Carla,

You might to keep tuned to this thread or contact your agent at the 90 day mark. (provided you are paid in full) If you are going to book a shore excursion through the Disney Cruise Line you need to be paid in full.

Someone please feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

yeah, i think we have a choice to pay either 90 or 60 days in full. Right?? We are grandfathered when we booked this cruise before the policy have changed. I am looking at my ressie forms and it said, to pay in full at June 21st.... now, of course, the danger of paying at 90 days before in full, is that the penalty phase for cancellations kicks in at that time... pay ahead at 90 days and get excursions at first glance or wait til 60 days and take a chance, but at least it is an extra 30 days to cancel w/o penalty. So , what to do, what to do??

 

[Scratch42]

I Guess it depends on how badly you want it!

If space is limited on an excursion than go ahead and pay! But if not, why not keep the money just a little bit longer!

Scratch

 

[gassmandy]

Melinda--sign me up for course #10. My husband can never remember where he puts anything. It is really aggravating...........to say the least. As a Dir. of Operations he frequently has to do conference calls where his managers dial a certain phone number and then punch in a designated code to be part of the conference call. As the host --Shawn has his own host passcode (totally different from the others). Four weeks (COUNT 'EM---1,2,3,4!!!!!!) in a row he was running around at the last second looking for his passcode. Each time----I was the one who found it. He never put it in the same place and it was always in some random spot. So I took it upon myself to take a sheet of printer paper and with a sharpie--write the conf. call phone number and passcode and TAPED IT TO HIS DESK!!!!!!!!!
How can you help a restaurant increase it's sales by double digit percents 4 years in a row, run multi-units-------------yet misplace the same thing 4 weeks in a row?????????
I love him anyway

 

[Bmwdsny]

Got it Amanda!! Guess your poor mother went thru the same thing with your father!! Amazing how this cycle continues with each generation!! Hey don't hesitate to use your father's stateroom as an example!!

 

[DisneyElf]

If you have paid your cruise in full - can you book your shore excursions directly with DCL ?

Second - I don't think by paying off our cruise earlier than the 60 day mark will change the cancellation policy (we should still be grandfathered into them).

I prob. won't make the chat tomorrow nite -- have to work

 

[YrMajesty3]

Thanks for all of your responses.I booked my trip through DU. The gal in charge of my travel plans has been unavailable for questions lately(not her fault....she is still recovering from hurricane damage).

I must say that I am VERY uncomfortable handling all this kind of business via email. I prefer a phone call but apparently that 's not how it's done with DU. I just don't want to miss anything.


They've not even been able to tell me what airlines we'll be booked with yet (better not be USAir or I'll freak.....lost the luggage everytime!!).

We are not flying in early for a few days like many of you ....I'd love to know in advance if we'll be stuck on a really early redeye and about what time.
They just don't have these answers yet (could that really be?). Oh well!

Is there anyone else out there flying from Philadelphia to LA on AUG. 20th?
Love to hear from you.

 

[kpgclark]

We're flying out of Philly but on the 18th. You might want to look into airfare on your own. We only paid a little over $100 for each one way ticket to California and then just a little over $100 each for the return from Florida. I think it is probably less than what Disney will charge but the best part is that you get to choose your own flight. No red eyes for us.

 

[Grumbo]

The gal in charge of my travel plans has been unavailable for questions lately(not her fault....she is still recovering from hurricane damage).

I must say that I am VERY uncomfortable handling all this kind of business via email. I prefer a phone call but apparently that 's not how it's done with DU. I just don't want to miss anything.


They've not even been able to tell me what airlines we'll be booked with yet (better not be USAir or I'll freak.....lost the luggage everytime!!).

I think DU does a good job, but I cannot stand relying on emails only. Thats why I use AllSeasons. They have a 1-800 that you can call and speak to them directly if you need information. If it is very important you can speak to other agents other than your own.
Also at this time to use the hurricanes of last August, as a reason not to be able to get back to you in January is lame imho. If the agent is having problems I sympathize but they have a big business. Pass it over to another agent that CAN do it for you.
As for the airlines and your ticket. You won't know that til probably a month or so before the cruise from everything I've read. DCL DON'T give you that info plain and simple. Its one of those things that you'll be going the day of, they'll figure it out and thats it.
Don't know if you can cancel that portion now or not but you are way better to book separately imho. You have control over your flights and you'll save alot of money. If you're going to be able to come in the day before especially see if you can just do your own flight.

Cheers,
Grumbo

 

[mickeyfan1]

Thanks for all of your responses.I booked my trip through DU. The gal in charge of my travel plans has been unavailable for questions lately(not her fault....she is still recovering from hurricane damage).

I must say that I am VERY uncomfortable handling all this kind of business via email. I prefer a phone call but apparently that 's not how it's done with DU. I just don't want to miss anything.


They've not even been able to tell me what airlines we'll be booked with yet (better not be USAir or I'll freak.....lost the luggage everytime!!).

We are not flying in early for a few days like many of you ....I'd love to know in advance if we'll be stuck on a really early redeye and about what time.
They just don't have these answers yet (could that really be?). Oh well!

Is there anyone else out there flying from Philadelphia to LA on AUG. 20th?
Love to hear from you.

I also am booked through DU. I don't have any problem doing business only through email, but that's just me. As far as your flight, if you booked air with your cruise, you won't know anything untill DCL releases the documents. And it could be as close as 10 days before you travel. You may easily get a red eye, or a before the sun rises flight. You could have 3 stops, you could have 2 connections. When you use the cruise line for air, you generally pay a lot mopre and often get some bad flights. But the benefit of using the cruise line air is that they will get you to the ship, no matter what. If you leave home and for what ever reason your flight is cancelled or delayed, the cruise line will get you to the ship, either holding at the home port for your arrival (yes, they do that) or getting you to the first port of call at sea. When you travel on sailing day, this can be a big bonus. As far as which carrier, you probably will be on US Air. They are the dominant carrier in Phiily and will negotiate the best deals with the cruise lines. But you won't know untill you get those documents.

I have cruised 12 times so far. I have done air with the cruise line and with out. Both ways have their advantages. For this one, I made my own arrangements, going in the day before. As Grumbo said, if you can cancel that part of the itinerary with out a penalty and save a ton of money, and can get your own flight arrangements made that you are happy with, then do it. Honestly, at that time of year the weather should be ok, save for the odd thunderstorm, but I would still go in the day before, just to be sure you make the ship.

 

[izzinmac]

Hey Melinda,
Hopefully I didn't overstep my authority, but I got so excited about the prospect of teaching one of your classes, I decided to contact DCL to set it up. I was worried you were too busy now that you have a part time job, plus all the posting you need to do, so I did it myself. Anyway, I called Debbie, the person helping you with the dining effort. She only handles dining, but connected me with the person in charge of "Special Events". Her name is Juanita Gomez-Esperanza, but she likes to be called JayGee. Anyway, I explained what you were trying to do, and she was very helpful. I was going to just set up my course, but she said since we wanted one a day, we ought to put in our request now so she can deconflict it with other scheduled events. So I gave her your entire class schedule and requirements. She reviewed it all and said she can make it happen. The only hurdle will be coordinating it with the agency that has exclusive rights to sponsorship of all Special Events. According to the contract, we have to guarantee a minimum of 10 participants per course. I didn't think that would be a problem. Also, there is a $50 per person charge for each event, and they have to count each day as an event. In order to hold the slots, she will have to charge the 10 times 50 times 14, or $7000 now. She has your charge card info from your cruise payments and said she will charge that amount unless she hears from you by tomorrow. She says the charge will not show up as Disney, but go to the special events contractor. You will see the charge under JGE. If you need her direct line, drop me a PM. Glad I could help out on this one!

 

[Bmwdsny]

First of all Bob, you did overstep my authority!! Shame on you!! Only sisters are allowed to overstep my authority!! I think this juanita person is putting you on...i got my own ways in dealing with these courses and DCL is not charging me a dime. Who to say that this Juanita, is not a sister??? WINK!!

 

[mickeyfan1]

Bob, you are too funny! Thanks for the early morning giggles.

 

[Bmwdsny]

Bob, look for my PM....
Yeah , that is right, Bob, you....not Jazz, not Grumbo, not even Mark, YOU IZZIBOB!!!!

You are in trouble with me buster!!

 

[mickeyfan1]

Will the Sister who is in charge of the PAlo Tea reservations please re ID herself? Can you post of list of those interested? How dressed up are we going to be? Gloves and hats? Tiaras?

 

[Grumbo]

Will the Sister who is in charge of the PAlo Tea reservations please re ID herself? Can you post of list of those interested? How dressed up are we going to be? Gloves and hats? Tiaras?

OK Guys I have an "in" in Palo and can get us a group of 20 for a Palo tea. Now we can also request beer and wings to go with the finger sandwiches and for those with a more delicate palate there is beef on weck.
No gloves, tiaras or thongs allowed. We have to show some semblance of cordiality so golf shirts, or tshirts with no foul language on them, and no speedos. Other than that you're good to go!!!! Let me know as this should be a great afternoon!!!

Cheers,
Grumbo

 

[Grumbo]

First of all Bob, you did overstep my authority!! Shame on you!! Only sisters are allowed to overstep my authority!! I think this juanita person is putting you on...i got my own ways in dealing with these courses and DCL is not charging me a dime. Who to say that this Juanita, is not a sister??? WINK!!

Melinda read Bob's very informative post before replying. Sheesh.
DCL is NOT charging you a dime. The billing will be way of J.G.E., the "Official sub contractor" of the Mouse.
Mighty decent of you Melinda to do this for the group though. Actually I guess I should thank Bob as he'll have to work more overtime now to pay for your magnanimous gesture.

Cheers,
Grumbo

 

[WebmasterJohn]

Hi Folks

If you are having toruble contacting anyone at DU about your reservation please feel free to conact me directly - john@dreamsunlimitedtravel.com

Thanks
John

 

[izzinmac]

OK Guys I have an "in" in Palo and can get us a group of 20 for a Palo tea. Now we can also request beer and wings to go with the finger sandwiches and for those with a more delicate palate there is beef on weck.
No gloves, tiaras or thongs allowed. We have to show some semblance of cordiality so golf shirts, or tshirts with no foul language on them, and no speedos. Other than that you're good to go!!!! Let me know as this should be a great afternoon!!!

Cheers,
Grumbo

Count me in. I can take off my speedo for this event! Wings will be great, as long as they still give us the fingers!