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

[mickeyfan1]

OMG, I am not laughing out loud as DH is watching some movie and can't be disturbed, but that is beyaond a doubt one of the best pictures on this thread!

If we all don't get put off the ship for home at the first port, it'll be a miracle.

 

[mark & sandra]

Andy great shot. Can you tell me how to create those kind of shots? With my warped sense of humor and further warped sense of reason, I could definately abuse that knowledge.

Andy we all need to print out a copy and e-mail and/or snail mail copies to Grumbo's home. His wife will either wonder why he's receiving this mail or be tickled pink that she can finally spend a day shopping at Costco while hubby is drinking some Zinfandel on a hammock in the Bahama's...Mark

 

[mark & sandra]

Hey Grumbo, It seems you favorite store might be just the place to pick up some exra Zinfandel after all.

And in volume at wholesale prices!!!

 

[Verandah Man]

Originally posted by mark & sandra
Andy great shot. Can you tell me how to create those kind of shots? With my warped sense of humor and further warped sense of reason, I could definately abuse that knowledge.

Andy we all need to print out a copy and e-mail and/or snail mail copies to Grumbo's home. His wife will either wonder why he's receiving this mail or be tickled pink that she can finally spend a day shopping at Costco while hubby is drinking some Zinfandel on a hammock in the Bahama's...Mark

Grumbo is the one who e-mailed the photo to me, he put the photo together and just asked me to post it for him.

 

[global-mouse]

G'Day from Australia!

I have been lurking here for weeks now. I have been on 2 three day and 1 four day cruises, but that was back when I lived in the US. Living in Australia, adds quite a lot to a trip in terms of both airfare and exchange rate! Heard about the West Coast cruises and thus the repositioning cruises after they had went on sale so was not able to partake in the early fares that many of you are enjoying. Not that I am bitter, just angry at myself for not knowing earlier.

I had a reservation for a cat 11 a couple weeks ago, but didn't have the money to put down on it right away. Ready now but it is now sold out! Waiting on cabins coming available and will snatch one up as soon as I can. One way or another I WILL be joining you on this great cruise. Until then I will keep up with this thread, as many have noted, missing even a couple of days will put you hours behind on reading. LOL

 

[stingfancb]

Hello everyone -
I haven't posted in ages, been more of a lurker lately. Had to admit what a bad parent I will be. As far as children missing school - our son will go for a week (junior year of high school) and then miss the next 2 for the cruise. Yes, we start school very early. This coming year will begin on August 11. For some reason, DS is not one bit sad about this situation!

 

[global-mouse]

tigger2on -
was distressed to hear about your situation. Add our cabin (whatever one we get) to the "tub list." Would love to do anything to help make Reyleigh's trip more enjoyable. For that matter, count us in for $20 towards Ryleigh's trip fund, whether we can get a cabin or not.

outahere -
Great idea to have a raffle for a bottle of zinfandel, all proceeds going to the "Ryleigh trip fund" I am sure we could set up a amazon donation account or even a paypal account to make this happen. I will add a great bottle of Australian Shiraz (hopefully personally delivered) to the booty.

 

[mark & sandra]

global-mouse welcome aboard. Did you check with travel agents for rooms. Just because Disney says it's sold out doesn't mean that TA's don't have some rooms available. My TA AllSeasons was able to switch me from a Cat 7 to a Cat 6 last week. They have a site for you to check prices and an 800 # for you to call. Their site is www.allseatravel.com

 

[Grumbo]

My TA AllSeasons was able to switch me from a Cat 7 to a Cat 6 last week.

That only happened Mark because I bribed Chuck with Canadian Maple Syrup to get him to move you away from our cabin. Couldn't stand the thought of the clinking empties if the seas get rough.

Cheers,
Grumbo

 

[global-mouse]

Just wanted to add my thoughts to the “cost of the repo cruises” debate.

You have to look at it this way, supply and demand. I don't think it is Disney's responsibility to make everything they do accessible to every child in the world. That is a much to simplistic view of the world. I think they do an extremely good job of making the Disney experience available to as many people as possible while not loosing the quality to a great extent. (think Value, Moderate and Deluxe Resorts) If they wanted they could have gone totally upscale (think Silverseas Cruises) but they went mass market (although the high end of mass market)

With the repositioning cruises, it is purely supply and demand. Prices went up as they saw the demand was there. If the demand was not there, the prices would fall, or they would be sailing an empty ship. Because Disney has an unprecedented repeat business, especially considering they are limited to 2 ships and basically 3 itineraries (the 3 and 4 night are basically the same) means something different would be snatched up quickly, especially by Castaway Club members looking for something new. The fact that people on the DIS boards are making up almost 1/3 of the ship is not surprising. I am sure that at least 60% of this cruise will be return DCL cruisers.

I might be in the minority, but I find DCL not to be all that expensive, comparing “like for like.” Had a category 6 on DCL and it was just like a “mini-suite” I had on NCL. And the DCL stateroom had more character.

Just thought I would add my opinion. But then again, I am a sucker for anything Disney!

 

[global-mouse]

Originally posted by mark & sandra
global-mouse welcome aboard. Did you check with travel agents for rooms. Just because Disney says it's sold out doesn't mean that TA's don't have some rooms available.

Just got an email from DU that ALL catagories are "sold out." Still waiting on a responce from allseastravel.com, but they have said that since buisiness is so brisk, they might not get back to emails and that I should call. From Australia??? I understand doing that as a business practice, but you would think they would make exceptions for people on the other side of the world. Anyway, I will see what they come up with.

Either way, I am sure in the next 18 months, some people will drop out for various reasons.

Does anyone know if Disney has a waiting list?

 

[Luv2Dream]

Scott (global-mouse), So nice to have you join us. My daughter will be thrilled to meet you as her first grade teacher this year was Australian. We even had Australia Day, made veggie-mite sandwiches, swagman hats and sang Waltzing Matilda. She was a great first grade teacher. Hope you get a room soon. Good luck.

 

[Bmwdsny]

Hey, looking for me???? Ok, i am have been working on trying to upload the picture of my new pin for the first time for the last hour and the DIs photo gallery is giving me a hard time!! Can't even find the stupid upload button. I am really mad!! My Dh can't figure it out either!!! Andy, can you help me?? Tech support is a joke!! Please PM me...

Anyway, i got the personalize pin from Dishop, then click on "Stuff for Disers" and click "Personalize buttons". You can put anything you want...within reason, of course. and that how i got my pin!!

Do it this month since shipping is free.

Sorry for my rant!!! I just get very frustrated when i can't get to where i want to do!!!!

 

[Maleficent59]

Hey Grumbo,

Here are a few potential vacation "busters" to avoid during the first part of your trip:

Las Vegas
222 S. Martin Luther King Boulevard
Las Vegas, Nevada

Henderson
791 Marks Street
Henderson, Nevada

Summerlin
801 S. Pavillion Center Drive
Las Vegas, Nevada

Prescott
3911 Highway 69
Prescott, Arizona

Victorville
14601 Valley Center Drive
Victorville, California

San Bernardino
1099 East Hospitality Lane
San Bernardino, California

Moreno Valley
12700 Day Street
Moreno Valley, California

Corona
480 McKinley Street
Corona, California

Yorba Linda
22633 Savi Ranch Parkway
Yorba Linda, California

Tustin
2655 El Camino Real
Tustin, California

Fountain Valley
17900 Newhope Street
Fountain Valley, California

Garden Grove
11000 Garden Grove Boulevard
Garden Grove, California

Fullerton
900 South Harbor Boulevard
Fullerton, California

Signal Hill
2200 East Willow Street
Signal Hill, California

Torrance
2751 Skypark Drive
Torrance, California

Norwalk
12324 Hoxie Avenue
Norwalk, California

Hawthorne
14501 Hindry Avenue
Hawthorne, California

Inglewood
3560 West Century Blvd
Inglewood, California

Culver City
13463 Washington Boulevard
Marina del Rey, California

Los Feliz Blvd
2901 Los Feliz Boulevard
Los Angeles, California

Burbank
1051 Burbank Blvd.
Burbank, California

Simi Valley
2660 Park Center Drive
Simi Valley, California

Santa Clarita
18649 Via Princessa
Santa Clarita, California

Northridge
8810 North Tampa Avenue
Northridge, California

Send me an email or give us a call when you're here and we'll meet you at Costco!

 

[Maleficent59]

Hi global-mouse,

If you need some help contacting Allseas, send me an email. We use them for our travel agent and I would be happy to give them a call for you. I'm sure a few cabins will be available between now and next August.

Best,
Sarah

 

[Grumbo]

Hmmmm those addresses Sarah?
Olive Gardens are they?

We're at Disneyland on the 24th. Going to be a one day shot at DL only. Don't have enough time for anymore.

Cheers,
Grumbo

 

[mark & sandra]

Hey Grumbo- I'm gonna have to tell your new *neighbors* in staterooms 6136 and 6132 that you and your lovely bride are newlyweds from Canada, and as an expression of good luck they should always "clink" a couple of bottles or glasses together whenever they see you on the verandah. We'll call it the "Grumbo Salute"! Here's to you Grumbo- *CLINK CLINK...CLINK CLINK*. Lets see if we can get a few hundred or so Disers to salute you at dinner...Mark

 

[mark & sandra]

Grumbo- This is all it took to get Chuck to move me??

I thought it would take a lot more. It's O.K., I 'll bother Jazzman now, he's only a couple of staterooms down from me now...Mark

 

[Maleficent59]

Yeah sure, Grumbo. I'll make sure to map those addresses for your DW!! My favorite one is in San Francisco - it has nifty stuff they don't sell down here!

I'll PM you my cell phone #. I have early flights to and from San Francisco and am back in the late afternoon that day. It will be great to see you at the park!

 

[dletz]

Hi all,

I've been looking at this thread on and off, and finally decided I'd read through it (I've still got almost 75 pages left to read) and start posting to it.

My name is Donna and I've lived in Anaheim almost all my life, and have had an AP to Disneyland for the past 17 years. I work for a company that makes directory assitance. I work on the system that allows the 411 operators to look up the numbers, movie times, sports scores, etc. Howard works at the World of Disney store at Disneyland. 90% of the time he's in the collectables room, which is great, because it's easy to find him when we go visit.

We have a 5 year old daughter (who will be 6 by the time we cruise) named Lindsay who has been to Disneyland too many times to count. After telling everyone there was no way she would go to DL before turning 3 months old, we almost made it 2 months before her first trip. (Lindsay said I had to include the Mickey eared girl right here mommy). After being on bedrest for 6 months and not having been to Disneyland in close to 9 months I just couldn't handle it anymore, and we finally went. Lindsay loves to go visit daddy at work, and Mickey, and Minnie, and any other character she runs into. She tells them all the they are her favorite and loves to hug them (some a little too tightly at times I think, she scared Minnie to death a couple weeks ago) even if I don't have a camera or Autograph book with me.

I just got my cell bill from calling to book this cruise. I called the first day at 5 minutes before they started taking reservations and the phone call lasted 24 minutes. At the time it felt like I was on hold forever.

This will be our 2nd Disney cruise first one was a 4 day in 2002 after 9 days in WDW, with another 4 in WDW after our cruise. We had the whole trip planned when Howard lost his job, and decided since he wanted to work nights to stay home with Lindsay that he'd try for a job at Disneyland. So as soon as he was hired, I canceled the whole trip and rebooked since we would no longer need passes to the parks.

I've spent the past almost 2 months trying to find as much info for this trip as I possible could.

We're in cabin 7622 with early seating.

Boom, Boom, Boom, it's 9:25pm. I love hearing the Disneyland Fireworks, you always know when it's 9:30.