August 28, 2004 "LOST AT SEA" Cruise

[Mjasp]

Too early for me to get airfare yet. Is Southeast a new airline and which NY airport do they fly out of?

What happened to you last week?

 

[SeaSpray]

Originally posted by Mary Anne
A balmy 9º here! Brr

I've started checking airfare this week. I'm kinda on the fence with this. I want to come down the week before and stay Sun to
Thurs at OKW, but I have to borrow points to do that. Don't want to borrow the points till I have my air booked as I need to know the exact nights I need.

JetBlue's prices are too high for me right now.
Spirt has great prices but I won't fly into LAG plus the times are the pits
I'm holding out now for SouthEast that owes me vouchers for last weeks disaster in the Orlando airport that they left us sitting there for over 10 hours. I'm hoping for decent vouchers and then I'll plan accordingly.

Does anyone else have their air yet?

Don't laugh but I bought our airfare a couple of months ago I do keep checking the rates though because if the price goes down, they'll give us vouchers for the difference.

I have us booked on Song because it's the ONLY airline that flies NON-STOP from Boston to Orlando, and it had great times. Also the rates were decent, so I grabbed them. Another thing is that we're flying back on Labor Day weekend so I wanted to get certain seats and I didn't want to wait too long for the "holiday" rates to hit. It's nice to have the airfare already paid for too. In fact, just today I made another payment towards the cruise. I've never been so happy to see money leaving checking account before, as I am each month when I make that cruise payment.

 

[Mary Anne]

Southeast is a charter airline that flyies out of Allentown, Pa into Sanford, Orlando. We joined their club last year and could fly as many times as we wanted to Orlando for $59 each way, including holiday times. For us it worked out great and well worth small fee we paid to join the club. My in-laws live near Allentown and it worked out very good for us to drive up; leave out car there; a family member drive us to the airport and then drive us back to get our car.

Anyway they now have black out periods for next year so I doubt we'll join the club again but if the fares are low enough we will use them if it works out.

Getting back to our disaster last week. We went to Disney, leaving late on December 25th; staying at the AKL for a $109 rate and got an upgrade to a savanna view. It was beautiful. I would stay here again if I got a good rate even without the upgrade.

Coming home we had a 10:45 am flight back to Allentown; we got the the airport way before the 2 hours before; gave up the car (which we could have kept till 9 pm that night at no extra charge I might add) and checked in. At that time they just said the flight was delayed; no mention of a problem. We're now checked in and getting into the boarding area and my cell phone goes off; It's the airline telling me, they flight is going to be delayed. I tell them I'm already checked in, so that tell me to check at the desk and they'll tell me what the story is. The deck has no information, so we wait, and wait, and wait, now it's after Noon and they tell us the plane is still in Allentown and it needs a new window; it'll be about 3 pm. What they didn't tell us was that at 3pm the flight would just be leaving ALLENTOWN to pick us up; getting in about 6 or so About 1 o'clock they did hand out food vouchers. It was when we turned in the food vouchers we discovered from the people behind the counter that they were told to expect the vouchers at 7 AM in the morning. They knew even before we checked in, we weren't going to be leaving on time and it would be till this evening till we could get out. Needless to say those of us stuck in the airport were livid.

Had they called earlier, I could have easily spent the day at Disney, we have annual passes that are still good.

When I spoke to the airline on Monday morning, they assured me we'd be getting vouchers for another flight. If so, I'll use them for August.

I know what you mean about the Labor Day week-end. We go every year at that time but generally fly back the Tues/Wed after Labor day so we avert flying that week-end. I really need to come home directly from the cruise though as I'm taking the week before the cruise off too.

Hey on the bright side the temps up here for 2º this morning to 14º now.

 

[sandygirl]

I've had our flights for some time now. Tried to wait for Southwest to announce flights from Philadelphia but booked Spirit out of Atlantic City when they had good times and fare. I guess I'm just too much of a "bird in the hand" kind of person. I feel better knowing that our flight is scheduled and paid for. We will fly in Fri night and fly home on Monday.

Usually the time we spend in the airport before boarding for home after the cruise is one of my favorite times! My sons live in the area and have always come and spent that time with us at the airport. But my son has gotten orders taking him from GA to NC, so that won't be possible in Aug. I'm so disappointed. I'll just want to get on the plane home as quick as possible. No delays, please! Hope you get your vouchers soon, Mary Anne.

 

[Mjasp]

Just realized that we are in the 220's days. In a month we will be in the 100 something days.

Getting desperate here for warm weather.

To think DH wanted to go to FL. for MLK weekend and I said no, because last year for that weekend we had to wear coats in FL.

Didn't realize we would be in single digits.

 

[SeaSpray]

Originally posted by Mjasp
Just realized that we are in the 220's days. In a month we will be in the 100 something days.

Getting desperate here for warm weather.

To think DH wanted to go to FL. for MLK weekend and I said no, because last year for that weekend we had to wear coats in FL.

Didn't realize we would be in single digits.

Oh my gosh you're right!! Woo hoo...that'll be cool to see the countdown with 100-something days! We started in the 300's!

Stay warm, everyone!!!

 

[winnyis]

Joanna - i agree with your DH.. I convinced mine to go to florida for MLK weekend.. I cant stand all this cold weather so we are going down to Sarasota from Thurs PM- Monday. Temps are supposed to be in the low 70's which while not beach weather sure beat the hell out of the cold up here.


If only UPS would transfer my DH....I would move to Florida in a heartbeat.

Gi

 

[turtlekrawl]

SeaSpray,
I just booked our flights on Song.... I'm not sure what you paid but we got $175 / person. We're flying out on the 27th and staying at the Hyatt MCO.

We were going to give JetBlue a try, but there prices were much higher, plus Song allows us to check our bags at the port.




Jim

 

[Mary Anne]

I checked DeltaSong out of JFK and it's $250 per person for the times I want; far too rich for my blood at this time.

 

[SeaSpray]

Originally posted by turtlekrawl
SeaSpray,
I just booked our flights on Song.... I'm not sure what you paid but we got $175 / person. We're flying out on the 27th and staying at the Hyatt MCO.

We were going to give JetBlue a try, but there prices were much higher, plus Song allows us to check our bags at the port.

Jim

Thanks for the tip, Jim. I've been keeping my eye on the prices of airfare, and for the times and days that I've already booked, the fare has actually gone UP 20 cents. lol I paid $215.00 for our tickets and now the same exact flights are listed as $215.20.

We're flying in on the 27th, also, on Song's 11:25am flight, then flying home on Sunday, Sept. 5th (Can't get DH to stay till Monday) on their 4:25pm flight. I do see that if we took their earlier flight on Aug. 27th, at 8:45am, then it brings the price down by $20. but we don't want to have to rush on Friday morning, since we're only going to the Radisson once we get to Florida anyway. They also have other lower fares, but those flights are not non-stop. And to me, it's worth the extra money for a non-stop.

What are your flight times? What day are you flying back?? I've been trying to talk DH into staying one more night at the Polynesian (we're going to stay there on Saturday night, after the cruise), because with the price decrease we wouldn't have to pay more to change our tickets.

 

[turtlekrawl]

SeaSpray,

We're on the 8:45 flight on the 27th.....then we were lucky enough to get two rooms at the Hyatt for ~ $25 per room , thanks to Hotwire and the person who was kind enough to post the rate.....

We're taking the 4:25 flight back to Boston on the day the cruise arrives back in Port Canaveral. We'll try to book the day rate at the Hyatt so we have some place to regroup....

My oldest son, Jimmy, wants to book Happy Limo's stretch Hummer from the airport to the port, but I think it's a little too much......


Jim

 

[turtlekrawl]

SeaSpray,

We're on the 8:45 flight on the 27th.....then we were lucky enough to get two rooms at the Hyatt for ~ $25 per room , thanks to Hotwire and the person who was kind enough to post the rate.....

We're taking the 4:25 flight back to Boston on the day the cruise arrives back in Port Canaveral. We'll try to book the day rate at the Hyatt so we have some place to regroup....

My oldest son, Jimmy, wants to book Happy Limo's stretch Hummer from the airport to the port, but I think it's a little too much......


Jim

 

[SeaSpray]

Jim: Too bad we won't be on the same flights!



Hi everyone! I've been wondering which dining room seatings you all have?? I wonder if any of us will end up on the same rotations. We're a party of 6 (including SIL and BIL); 4 adults and DS16 and DS13. We have the late dinner seating, and I'd like to have the APL rotation, although I'm sure any of them will be fine.

What seating times do you all have??

 

[ThreeCircles]

Just a heads-up for anyone who doesn't know about the Disney Magic August 28th Cruise List.

<a href="http://www.threecircles.net">ThreeCircles.net</a>

You can send in all of your cruise info, including dining seating time, and it will be posted on the site.

Is the time going by fast or what?!

 

[sandygirl]

We are booked for early seating. We ate late on our other cruises, so this is our first time eating early. I'm hoping that it works out ok. It will be different seeing the shows after dinner rather than before. But I'm hoping my DD will stay awake through dinner this year!

 

[Mary Anne]

We are doing early seating. We are early eaters at home (4:30 when I'm not working) and we enjoy it. I too have requested APL, with a table for 4. I don't mind eating with others at breakfast and lunch but we like to enjoy dinner as a family.

 

[winnyis]

We are also on early seating. we will be a party of 8. We tried late seating our first DCL cruise and my kids who were 3 and 6 at the time fell asleep at dinner almost every night.



Ginny

 

[SeaSpray]

Originally posted by Mary Anne
We are doing early seating. We are early eaters at home (4:30 when I'm not working) and we enjoy it. I too have requested APL, with a table for 4. I don't mind eating with others at breakfast and lunch but we like to enjoy dinner as a family.

When we cruised on Royal Caribbean this past summer, we were in a party of 6; DH and myself, DBrother Mike and DSIL, and DBrother Bob and DSIL, and I would've been very happy at a table for 6. But we were at a table for 10 and while our dining companions were very, very nice, some nights I found that I really wasn't interested in conversation with them and would've better enjoyed just chatting with my own family, so I definitely understand how you feel, Mary Anne.

On our Disney cruise this summer, we are again a party of 6; DH, DS16, DS13, myself, DSIL, and DBIL. I hope we're at a table for 6 this time. I'm going to see if we can request this.

The only exception to this would be if we were at a table with another family/couple that we knew, such as DISers that we got to know beforehand. Afterall, I'm not *entirely* anti-social

 

[Mjasp]

Early seating here. Hoping for a table 0f 14 again. Last time it wasn't a problem, hopefully it won't be this time either.

 

[xABearx]

We're late seating as we have been for the last 4 cruises, will be dining with a family we met 2 yrs ago and saw them last year and will be cruising with us again this year......Andy