August 22nd 2009 Western Carribbean Anyone?

[trimix]

I am a little confused about the date that I can make my reservations (as a CC member). Does internet booking open at 12:01am on Sunday May 24th (i.e. I should stay up late on Saturday night)? or am I one day too early?
Thanks,
Jennifer

I believe it opens for you at 12:00 AM, Eastern time. On Friday the 8th at 9 PM Pacific I logged in to the Disney site and was able to make my reservations.

It looks like Brampton is well inside the Eastern time zone, so you'll be staying up late Saturday night to make your reservations.

If you get this message with enough time before reservations open, scroll to the top of any page at the DIS Boards. Near the top of the page, well above the messages, you will find a red bar and a light blue bar of links. Click on Staterooms in the blue bar, then click on the link for Personal Navigators. The 11/1/08 navigators are the most recent for the Western Caribbean itinerary. You can review those navigators for an idea of what activity is when, then you can try to plan reservations around those activities.

I had planned to book reservations for brunch Monday morning at 10, but when I looked at the navigator I saw an Art of Entertaining event scheduled at 10 so I booked our reservation at 11 because I know my wife will want to attend the entire Art of Entertaining series!

We are now officially less than three months away from our cruise! This will probably be the slowest three months of my life!

 

[Maza]

hi all..
its stupid o'clock and i got up an hour ago to make my palo reservations aaahhhh. i have Tea on MOnday...for me and mum....brunch on thursday at 11 ...and dinner on the sunday night for dh and me
having a little bit of a mare trying to book activities...mostly because , for reasons best known to DCL' only my booking window appears to have opened! so i am ok..but the rest of the family are not...ho hum. have emailed to sort out ...but i guess its also stupid o'clock in FL eh!

btw.... welcome to new bodies who have joined us in the last few weeks...nice to see some more Brits

and well done Donald on graduation

so...we are 2 months...and a couple of weeks...and days out....brilliant!
I still have sooooooooooo much to do...i cant beleive despite having 20 months to get organised i am running round at the last minute ( well almost!) so not like me! Apparntly my FE is on its way from the US...thank heavens...and i am off home this week to help my mum sort out her FE gifting stuff. I had hoped to take her FE with me...but we have had it now. Its a Bank holiday here on monday...so no post...but never mind! I suppose I could fit it into one of my suitcases
I have been scouring the shops here looking for a new 'formal' wear dress...all good fun...have kind of narrowed it down ( unlike myself unfortunatly)..but i live in hope all the walking i am doing will alllow me to buy a smaller size by the time i need to pack!
I finish my old job in 2 weeks....and hopefully start my new one soon after ( got a little stir crazy so i resigned a little prematurly)...so prep fot that has taken up a lot of my time lately...seemed like a good idea at the time...

I have added to the FE list as asked. Anyone else interested. Conservativly we have about 16 families...and approx 26 kids in there....
DISMeet wise...there are over 100 of us ...so...when its my round it will be 4 drinks of the day and lots of straws!! well I am a scot!

think i might go back to bed for an hour......although i had better get used to getting up at 5 am...as i will have to soon to commute...like i said...seemed like a good idea at the time.....

 

[TheFatMansWife]

Fatman dh was up at the crack of dawn this morning for the second week to make our reservations for palos
we have brunch at 11 on the monday, and 8pm dinner on tuesday.

we to have tried to plan everything around old navigators from previous cruises with the same iternary. we don't want to miss anything.


we will have fun with the FE, it is better when their is quite a few,DD & I enjoy strolling around the ship dropping off the gifts and seeing how everyone decorates their doors.

 

[Aurora's Mommy]

Good day to all. Day

90

and counting!

TA offered to make the Palo reservations, and although I'm a bit of a control freak, I let her. She got us 11 o'clock brunch on Monday, and 6 PM dinner on Wednesday. I know it is Pirate Night, but that is all we could get last trip, and it really worked out for us. The kids liked all the activities in the club that night (if I can figure out how to do it, I'll try to post a picture of them that night with their faces painted from the club), and we still had plenty of time to pick them up and take them to the Pirate Party on deck. Plus, since we missed the pirate night dinner last time, we don't know what we are missing!

It was a good thing I had her do it, as I had a sick kid on my hands last night. I could just imagine at midnight telling him "Mommy has to go make reservations" while he had his head hovering over the toilet.

 

[trimix]

Maria, Bev, and Denise, it's good to hear you all got the reservations you wanted.

Before DCL extended kids sail free for castaway club members, there was a lot of availability in almost all categories. Now everything but cat 4 is sold out because of so many CC members taking advantage of the offer.
So, for the first-timers here who aren't in a suite and didn't book the REAS package, let me suggest you try to get to the port early so you can try to book the reservations you want after boarding.

Let's all hope the next 12 weeks pass quickly!

 

[JoiseyMom]

Well I have been putting it off, and haven't actually "offically" cancelled it yet.. but we will not be going. We just can't justify the cost right now for the cruise. We booked 2 cabins, and when I tried to get us into one, I was told no go. So...I hope you all enjoy it!!

 

[trimix]

I'm sorry you won't be able to make it, but I'm sure you will be able to find something else fun to do.

If I really wanted to do the financially responsible thing, I would cancel as well. But I've never been on a Disney cruise, or any other cruise, and I am tired of waiting to realize a few of my dreams.

 

[Maza]

...right...so far I have
Fluffy Bunny,Ski and Sea,wayneg,sandyh67,bellebud,jhryb,Mackie Mouse, theFatmanswife,stsomewhere,shelleyr25,julielouhoo,ragtopday,kylelover1, my mystery party (of 8!!!) and my mum and brother!

Have I missed anyone? let me know!

plus families ofcourse...

 

[Aurora's Mommy]

Well I have been putting it off, and haven't actually "offically" cancelled it yet.. but we will not be going. We just can't justify the cost right now for the cruise. We booked 2 cabins, and when I tried to get us into one, I was told no go. So...I hope you all enjoy it!!

I'm so sorry, JoiseyMom. You must be so sad, and I am sad for you .

If you have already cancelled, you might want to check back after all the final payments are due (6/8). Who knows what deals may be had.

We justified the cost by figuring it would only be more expensive next year. Of course, that meant putting off other discretionary spending, so everytime I direct someone to our old, yucky (but clean ) powder room, or sit on my ratty old family room sofa, I remind myself, we are cruising in August!

 

[Mackie Mouse]

Sorry to hear you won't be joining us, JoiseyMom

In other, more cheerful news....our wedding invitations are in the mail! Whee!!

 

[JoiseyMom]

I'm so sorry, JoiseyMom. You must be so sad, and I am sad for you .

If you have already cancelled, you might want to check back after all the final payments are due (6/8). Who knows what deals may be had.

We justified the cost by figuring it would only be more expensive next year. Of course, that meant putting off other discretionary spending, so everytime I direct someone to our old, yucky (but clean ) powder room, or sit on my ratty old family room sofa, I remind myself, we are cruising in August!

Well they have had specials..kids sale free..but I wasn't one of the lucky ones!! If I had I would have probably kept the vacation! It is a hard decision.

Next year we aren't even thinking of DCL since the ship will be in Europe. Those cruises are way to expensive!!

I just keep thinking about last years cruise (that we should have cancelled but didn't)!

The ship is getting full since I can't get all four of us in any cabin other then a Cat 4!!

 

[gonzalj1]

Hey everybody. Sorry I haven't been so active here. Things have been really busy.

Just paid off the cruise and I'm getting more and more excited. How will I ever get through the next 3 months before we sail?

 

[trimix]

Well they have had specials..kids sale free..but I wasn't one of the lucky ones!! If I had I would have probably kept the vacation! It is a hard decision.

Next year we aren't even thinking of DCL since the ship will be in Europe. Those cruises are way to expensive!!

I just keep thinking about last years cruise (that we should have cancelled but didn't)!

The ship is getting full since I can't get all four of us in any cabin other then a Cat 4!!

Why couldn't you get the kids sail free? As a castaway club member, I thought all you would have to do was call and ask for the ressies to be changed...

I certainly agree the cruises next summer are way too expensive - I'll be curious to see what promotions Disney needs to offer to fill the boats.

Hopefully you'll be able to take another cruise in 2011. I am sure hoping I can book a nice stateroom for the PC repo in 2011.

 

[stsomewhere]

Why couldn't you get the kids sail free? As a castaway club member, I thought all you would have to do was call and ask for the ressies to be changed...

I certainly agree the cruises next summer are way too expensive - I'll be curious to see what promotions Disney needs to offer to fill the boats.

Hopefully you'll be able to take another cruise in 2011. I am sure hoping I can book a nice stateroom for the PC repo in 2011.

I was unable to get the kids sail free deal, too. I called my TA. You could only use the kids free if you received a pin code. I did not. But, we are going anyways. We are paid in full.

We were able to book Palo on Tues at 8pm, and we were able to book the Tulum ruins tour in Cozemel.

 

[Aurora's Mommy]

Golly, we've been a quiet bunch this week. I guess I'll jump on just to note there are only

85

days left until boarding.

I should have our ground transportation worked out by the end of today, so all of the important stuff is done (still waiting for a room assignment and to hear about our request to move to main dining).

The kids are out of school in less than three weeks! I can't figure out where time is going, I just hope it slows down a bit for our week on the boat.

 

[ragtopday]

Hi -
I've been looking over the Grand Cayman excursions offered through DCL and am not sure any of them are worth it. Have any of you done this itinerary before who could make a recommendation? Is there something we can do on our own that might be less expensive and/or better!

We are a large party - 10 of us, including 3 active adults, 3 teenagers and 4 younger children ages 8, 8, 6 and 5.

TIA!

 

[julielouhoo]

Hi -
I've been looking over the Grand Cayman excursions offered through DCL and am not sure any of them are worth it. Have any of you done this itinerary before who could make a recommendation? Is there something we can do on our own that might be less expensive and/or better!

We are a large party - 10 of us, including 3 active adults, 3 teenagers and 4 younger children ages 8, 8, 6 and 5.

TIA!

We were in Grand Cayman in November and did the Boatswain Beach Adventure/Turtle Farm, on our own. It was really fun. My kids were 14 and 10 at the time. We had such a great time, we are going back again this trip. If you google them, you can see the website and the facility. The turtle farm is up front and has everything from baby turtles to really large sea turtles. You can pick up plenty of turtles, which my kids really loved. Then there is a really beautiful area in the back that has a place for swimming which has an underwater glass partition that looks into the shark tank. There's an aviary section too. They have a restaurant or two there. You can buy tickets on line at a discount.

We took the bus (which is really a passenger van). It was very inexpensive and the bus stop (for getting back) is right outside the entrance. We asked about taxis and everyone looked at us like we were crazy. We may think about hiring a car as I read on one of the boards that there will be 10,000+ cruise ship passengers in port that day (is that possible).

Hope that helps!
Terri

 

[stsomewhere]

That is a lot of people in Grand cayman.
We do not have any plans. We thought maybe hop a cab to the beach or just walk around town. We may have to look into an excursion or something.


My kids last day of school is the 5th. We have been very busy with end of the year activities.

I will be glad when it is over.

 

[TheFatMansWife]

will there be a final list for those taking part in Fish extenders.
also will there be a final date for taking part, so we can get organised with the number of gifts we need to get and who they are for.
need to make sure I have room in my cases for the gifts and once I put my shoes in the case we could have problems !!!!!!!!!!

 

[Maza]

there will be a final FE list...which i will pm the last week in July if that is ok with everyone. we are away at scout camp from the 29th to the 6th august...so i will do it before we go. doesnt look like anyone else will be joining us...