Calling All 8/19/06 Special Western Cruisers! AKA "The Cruisin' Castaways" Part 2

[Ct_TiggerFan]

We havent figured out what to do this summer yet
2008 is shapping up nicely
I figure early March I will work on this year

A few days at wdw before Aug 5th is possible as my annual pass expires then

 

[SeaSpray]

Hi everyone

We're supposed to "have it all" this week! Snow, ice, sleet, rain, etc, all within 24 hours. Like Andy said, snow is our friend, ice is our enemy!

I hope everyone keeps warm, and THINK WARM THOUGHTS!

Still not sure on all of our summer plans yet; we'll probably go to Disney World in the spring (Ed, our annual passes expire in mid-May. lol), we'll definitely spend time at the Jersey Shore this summer, and we're going on that 9-night Royal Caribbean cruise in the fall. At this point, I'm just really happy that it's no longer getting dark at 4pm anymore!!

 

[allshookup]

This April we are driving to HHI resort for 5 nts & in August we are spending 2 weeks at BWV following a family reunion on RCCL Sovereign of the Seas. I think that will be it until summer/08.

As Terry said, they are predicting our first real snow fall this winter starting tomorrow night. My kids are sooooo hoping they can go sledding on Wednesday, if it doesn't turn to rain/sleet. I was kind of hoping this would be the year without snow. I would be on

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

I know, at this point I'd rather have all sn*w, did I really say that?

:

I knew I'd get you to come over to the dark side.

 

[Verandah Man]

I knew I'd get you to come over to the dark side.

 

[DMMarla07860]

I just wanted to share some video's I made on the cruise with my camra that doesn't have sound, so yesterday I was watching pub night and I just go a new camra that has sound, so I made a video of some good parts of the video from the cruise while it was on the tv, feel free to check some of them out it you wish.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aOzjPM46kg
^from pub night
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euz5cDKrl5s
^from pub night
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtOSEcbzgRk
^beer song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUPdCGtBM-g
^parade at dinner on last night
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1xHrXW0LV4
^sea day at the goofy pool
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTuHq5DHn6k
^jeremy dance on sea day
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ryqh9uR0o98
^pirate night

 

[Lainie1222]

Good Morning All,
Winter has hit, HARD! We woke up to about 18 inches in the driveway and about 4 feet at the end of the driveway thanks to the snow plow guy. I stayed home today, took a vacation day, so the dog and I will be out taking care of the driveway all day. We are supposed to get aobut 2-3 feet when all is over, but nothing like the north country last week.

 

[Ct_TiggerFan]

We only had about 2 inches, but most of that was sleet and ice and then snow covered

city plowed street and I had about a foot deep at end of my driveway
rock solid slush that froze

Spring cant get here soon enough

 

[Mjasp]

Hi Everyone,
Well...We didn't make it, Our flight was cancelled and they couldn't get us on a flight out of NY from any airport until Monday. Needless to say it was very disappointing BUT my kids are very sad about missing Disney cruise.

Now my next problem is with American Airlines, they won't (and I went to the higher up NASTY NASTY people) give us a letter stating that the flight was cancelled, so I don't know if I'll get my money back or lose it. Access America only wants a letter and AA doesn't give letters.
My other choice is to reschedule the cruise with Disney BUT I will have to pay an $85 penalty per person. I don't know whether to take our chances about getting our money back OR pay the fee of $340 (which I really don't want to do)

This is making me very unhappy, yes we had a very stressful day today. Maybe tomorrow I'll feel different, but I told my husband that we should just send it to the insurance and if they don't pay we lose the money, just suck it up and never use American airlines again. He doesn't want to take a chance to lose the money. So we'll see how it goes.
There were no flights to go anywhere warm, even the 6 night NCL cruise out of NY was sold out.

I'll stop in again this week, Have a great week
Joanna

 

[O'BWV]

Hi Everyone,
Well...We didn't make it, Our flight was cancelled and they couldn't get us on a flight out of NY from any airport until Monday. Needless to say it was very disappointing BUT my kids are very sad about missing Disney cruise.

Now my next problem is with American Airlines, they won't (and I went to the higher up NASTY NASTY people) give us a letter stating that the flight was cancelled, so I don't know if I'll get my money back or lose it. Access America only wants a letter and AA doesn't give letters.
My other choice is to reschedule the cruise with Disney BUT I will have to pay an $85 penalty per person. I don't know whether to take our chances about getting our money back OR pay the fee of $340 (which I really don't want to do)

This is making me very unhappy, yes we had a very stressful day today. Maybe tomorrow I'll feel different, but I told my husband that we should just send it to the insurance and if they don't pay we lose the money, just suck it up and never use American airlines again. He doesn't want to take a chance to lose the money. So we'll see how it goes.
There were no flights to go anywhere warm, even the 6 night NCL cruise out of NY was sold out.

I'll stop in again this week, Have a great week
Joanna

Oh Joanna how Totally Disappointing for you and your family!! I'm so sorry you missed your trip. I am sure the insurance thing will work out. It has to that what insurance is for!!! Good luck with the details and I hope you get to go on another trip really soon.

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

Joanna......how horrible for you. Ugh. I didn't realize you were crusing this week. And of course, its President's Day weekend so flights are full.

Don't give up on getting a letter from AA. I'm sure they are going crazy trying to reschedule everything. I'd keep calling. They must deal with travel insurance questions all the time.

Still....I am so sorry for you and your family. That really stinks.

Well.....this storm was a big bust for us. We got about 3-4 inches of sleet. Enough to close school yesterday and a 2 hour delayed opening this morning. About an hour west of here they got over a foot.

My kids had fun sledding on the ice in the yard.

Speaking of snow & President's Day we're off for a weekend of skiing and the resort said they picked up 18 inches of new snow.

DH gave me a Disney Valentine's card yesterday. Too funny.

 

[Mjasp]

Hi Mary Rose and Ski & Sea

UPDATE:!!!

After a VERY stressful day yesterday, and understanding the kids disappointment and talking to them about not having control over every situation in life. We are doing just fine today.

We rebooked our cruise and paid the $340 penalty and will try to collect the penalty fees from the insurance company.

We are all going into NYC tomorrow for dinner and a Broadway show.
We are going to Mystic CT. to the aquarium and Foxwoods (for us) Hard Rock Cafe for DD's. Not my idea of a vacation but we aren't working and that is enough to make me happy.

Although it won't be warm, we will have fun and make the most of a situation which was out of our control.

Thanks for all your kind words.
Joanna

 

[O'BWV]

Hi Mary Rose and Ski & Sea

UPDATE:!!!

After a VERY stressful day yesterday, and understanding the kids disappointment and talking to them about not having control over every situation in life. We are doing just fine today.

We rebooked our cruise and paid the $340 penalty and will try to collect the penalty fees from the insurance company.

We are all going into NYC tomorrow for dinner and a Broadway show.
We are going to Mystic CT. to the aquarium and Foxwoods (for us) Hard Rock Cafe for DD's. Not my idea of a vacation but we aren't working and that is enough to make me happy.

Although it won't be warm, we will have fun and make the most of a situation which was out of our control.

Thanks for all your kind words.
Joanna

Have a great time Joanna!!!! Now that's making lemonade out of lemons! Good for us on rebooking too! I'm sure the insurance will settle the matter! Enjoy the vacation!

 

[Mjasp]

Have a great time Joanna!!!! Now that's making lemonade out of lemons! Good for us on rebooking too! I'm sure the insurance will settle the matter! Enjoy the vacation!

YEP, That is exactly what I did, I made lemonade and with plenty of sugar. and I am so relaxed.

I booked our timeshare that we banked this year, Vistana resort for April 2008 along with the 3 night Wonder. I Bought 6 day hopper tickets with no expiration dates and I am all set for next April's vacation. The only thing I have to purchase is the airfare. DONE, now that is what I mean I made the lemonade with plenty of sugar.

All I can say is it is FREEZING here. My MIL called and said it was in the 40's this morning in Orlando, so although not nearly as cold as here, it is not pool weather.

Have a great weekend!
Joanna

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

Hey, you guys beat me with the turn lemons into lemonaid.....

Joanna.....that is great news. I would have done the same thing - rebook the cruise and claim the fee with the travel insurance company. I'm so glad for you.

Hope you had a good time this past weekend. If it makes you feel better, maybe it was just as well you didn't try to get to the airport last week as the newspapers said there were 1,000 accidents on roads on Wednesday in NJ.

And it sounded like it was pretty cold on DCL this past weekend.

And how about those reports of motorists stranded on the highways in PA during the snowstorm. We were driving to a hotel in Scranton on Friday night and Route 80 was still closed!!!!! Unbelievable.

We had an amazing time skiing this weekend. But we way overdid it and by Monday morning I couldn't move. Went to the chiropractor this morning.

On a separate topic.....I was looking through The Walt Disney Corp's annual report and reading the section on DCL. The double dip Costa Maya cruises in 2006 were specifically mentioned as well as the Med cruises for 2007. I thought that was quite an honor for us to get mentioned.

 

[SeaSpray]

Joanna: I'm so sorry you didn't get to go on your cruise but it certainly sounds as if you turned an unhappy situation into a happy one. Good job, Mom We hate to disappoint our kids, don't we. I know you'll have a great time on your next cruise!!

Almost all of the ice here is finally melted. Just in time for some flurries tomorrow though. lol

I just booked a spring trip to WDW. We'll be going on May 1st and staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We stayed there last May and I really loved the resort, and I like going in May because of the low crowds and great weather. This'll be our third time going at that time of year.

I hope all of my Cruising Castaway buddies are doing well!!

 

[AuctionDazeUSA]

Allright! Disney just announced that they are going to have 2 new ships, the new ships are going to be ready by 2011 & 2012. The new ships are going to be built in Germany, no decision was announced as to where the ships will be based. Any suggestions for names? 2011??? Should we start a countdown now?

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

This is exactly what the CMs told us when we were on the Magic in August.....two ships that would be two decks taller than the Magic/Wonder. I did hear they would be able to fit through the Panama Canal.

It really is fantastic that DCL FINALLY pulled the trigger.

I wonder if this means that the Magic won't do any more summer Carribean cruises until 2011. I hope not.

Can you imagine all the trip reports once there are four ships!!!! There will have to be separate sections for each ship.

 

[AuctionDazeUSA]

I wonder what names Disney will use on the new ships, Disney Dream?, Disney Enchantment? Maybe they'll have a contest to name them. Anyone ever been on a Maiden voyage?

 

[Ct_TiggerFan]

My Guess one will have a home port on the West Coast,
The other will do longer cruises, and special cruises too