P I N S
Well, reading all these posts makes my heart sink and has me almost in tears. You see, we have done 4
DCL cruises and all have been Pin Event cruises. We were
SO looking forwarding to a relaxing cruise finally without the crazy rat race onboard to get the pins. No lines, no havoc, no stress, no missing the beginning of dinner when the shops open, no having to choose between an excursion & a pin release, no turning in your pin forms, no returning to find out results of pin forms, no going to get pins awarded from pin forms, etc., etc., etc. We missed half of each cruise (all 3 & 4 night cruises) chasing down the darn pins!!!
I see that this has turned into yet another Pin Cruise! It makes me very sad, yes, but I will still cruise and you will see me standing in line for the pins. I can't traverse the Western Hemisphere and not come back with the darn pins.
I do see pros and cons in all of this. In yet another cathartic post, I will outline my thoughts.
- Lines. Nuff said. But at least they are doing the distribution at someplace other than Mickeys Mates. Seeing 500 people lined up down the hall toward the WD Theater would not have been a pretty site. Beat Street is definitely an improvement.
- Port Day distribution times are too close to main dinner seating. 5:30pm? You've got to be kidding! Am I supposed to stand there decked out in my formal gown waiting for pins? I should be in the Atrium with my extended family getting that longed for family portrait taken! Let's hope the formal nights are on sea days.
- Can one person get vouchers for the whole cabin/family or do each of us need to be there? Assuming they will have a names checklist to verify eligibility, this would prevent my 2 year old from having to stand in the darn voucher line.
- What does this mean: "return to Up Beat before closing that same day of release to purchase the pin"? Closing as in the one hour window of release time or closing as in 2:00am when the night club closes? If the latter that would be great, but if the former I see chaos.
- 2005 Panama Canal Crossing Logo - Super Jumbo Pin Edition Size: 1000 - I hope DCL is smart enough to release 500 of these on the May cruise and the other 500 on the August cruise.
- The port pins for the map will be different for our cruise than the May cruise so we will have our own 500 of those to scramble for.
- Forget eBaying the Jumbo pin after our cruise. The May cruisers will have had 3 months to sell their extras, hence flooding the market before we even get on the ship.
- 2005 Panama Canal Crossing Logo Pin Edition Size: 1000 - Our cruise will have it's own logo pin with LE1000. This higher edition size will give more families a chance at a commemorative pin.
- I feel sorry for the practice cruisers in regard to this pin situation, but thank God we are on the Aug. cruise so DCL has a chance to tweak the pin distribution for our cruise. Maybe they will change/lengthen/revise the distribution time frames/system for ours.
Pin Event cruises are handled differently in that only Event attendees (maybe 400-500) who signed up prior to the cruise & paid a fee (usually $35) can try for the pins. You fill out RSP forms (Random Selection Process) and the computer randomly decides who gets which pins. Some RSPs are run before the cruise and then some are done during the cruise on each day. I haven't given any thought yet about using the RSP system for the repo cruises. I am too emotionally drained from reading this new pin news.
