Check in for the Wonder 11/11/2007 - 11/15/2007

[jayally]

updated- this is the annual pin trading cruise- Pirates of Castaway Cay. Should hopefully be a nice addition to our already booked cruise.

I did not see any threads started for the Disney wonder leaving on a 4 day 11/11/2007 thru 11/15/2007. I just upgraded to a cat 6, secret veranda room 6634 with a 3 night stay at the poly as part of the land/sea package. It will be me, Michelle, 39 (oh my! I just realized I will be turning 39 a couple days before the cruise! ) a divorced mother of a soon to be 14 year old Son and 10 year old daughter. We would love to make some new friends on our trip!

Come join the fun as we countdown to November 2007!

 

[whnim64]

I did not see any threads started for the Disney wonder leaving on a 4 day 11/11/2007 thru 11/15/2007. I just upgraded to a cat 6, secret veranda room 6634 with a 3 night stay at the poly as part of the land/sea package. It will be me, Michelle, 39 (oh my! I just realized I will be turning 39 a couple days before the cruise! ) a divorced mother of a soon to be 14 year old Son and 10 year old daughter. We would love to make some new friends on our trip!

Come join the fun as we countdown to November 2007!

Hi, Michelle. I started a Nov. 11, 2007 thread several months ago, but never got any replies. It will be an 'all girls' cruise for me, 2 DD's will be 27 and 30, DD friend, 30, and my best friend. We have SPH rooms reserved. I'll be leaving my DH and DS (then 13!) at home. It will be my first time on the Wonder and the first time ever on a cruise for the others. I've been on the Magic twice. Glad to see that we won't be alone on the ship . I know that 4 days will be WAY to short for me, but it's better than nothing.

 

[jayally]

Welcome! I guess there are not many people who plan so far in advance. I read through all the pages but did not see any post for Nov 11th 2007. I think I am going to get disney burnout if I read these boards everyday for the next 13 months! but I do learn so much more and it keeps me saving my pennies! What are SPH rooms? I snagged a secret verandah room for a category 7 price so I am happy plus we went from the CBR to the Poly. A nice trade up for $422 more. Last year we did the 3 day cruise/4 day land and liked it so we are trying the 4 day cruise with the 3 dayland and adding on 4 more days after the cruise to take advantage of the 7 day park hoppers . My daughter wants to cruise and my son wants WDW so I am hoping we will all be happy.

 

[whnim64]

Welcome! I guess there are not many people who plan so far in advance. I read through all the pages but did not see any post for Nov 11th 2007. I think I am going to get disney burnout if I read these boards everyday for the next 13 months! but I do learn so much more and it keeps me saving my pennies! What are SPH rooms? I snagged a secret verandah room for a category 7 price so I am happy plus we went from the CBR to the Poly. A nice trade up for $422 more. Last year we did the 3 day cruise/4 day land and liked it so we are trying the 4 day cruise with the 3 dayland and adding on 4 more days after the cruise to take advantage of the 7 day park hoppers . My daughter wants to cruise and my son wants WDW so I am hoping we will all be happy.

I'm sorry to say that I'm addicted to these boards. SPH are the secret porthole rooms. We'll get a partial view with a cat. 10 pricetag. We've been in a cat. 11 and a cat. 7 navigator's verandah, so this will be something different for me.

 

[gracia98]

Hi!

I'm Stefanie and we'll be on the 11/11 Wonder trip, too. I will be going with DH and our 2 kids, currently 3 and 5, so they'll be 4 and 6 when the time comes. This is will be our second Wonder Cruise. Went for the first time in October 2005. I think we have a Cat. 6 Outside Verandah. Don't remember for sure. The kids are already excited! We live about an hour from Disney World and go there often during the cooler months. But the loved the cruise too so we are doing it again!

Stefanie

 

[jayally]

Welcome Stephanie! It's going to be hard to keep excited for the next 13 months so I hope this board will keep reminding why I am trying save money for our trip.

 

[whnim64]

Hi Sefanie. This will be my first time on the Wonder, and I can't believe I have to wait so long! I'll try to help keep this thread on the first page so others may see and join in.

Hi!

I'm Stefanie and we'll be on the 11/11 Wonder trip, too. I will be going with DH and our 2 kids, currently 3 and 5, so they'll be 4 and 6 when the time comes. This is will be our second Wonder Cruise. Went for the first time in October 2005. I think we have a Cat. 6 Outside Verandah. Don't remember for sure. The kids are already excited! We live about an hour from Disney World and go there often during the cooler months. But the loved the cruise too so we are doing it again!

Stefanie

 

[jayally]

sorry for misspelling your name stefanie Hoppefully as Nov 2006 rolls around more people will be joining us early birds. I am worried I will not have enough saved for us to have a really nice trip, 2006 has already gone by so fast and I know next year will fly by!

 

[whnim64]

sorry for misspelling your name stefanie Hoppefully as Nov 2006 rolls around more people will be joining us early birds. I am worried I will not have enough saved for us to have a really nice trip, 2006 has already gone by so fast and I know next year will fly by!

I know what you mean. I was just calculating how much I need to put down every month for the next 10 months to pay off the cruise, let alone for gas, hotel, shipboard account, tips, etc. I keep thinking that I'll just save a couple of paychecks, but we're going to Chicago in a couple of weeks to see the King Tut exhibit and staying overnight. I'm too chicken to drive in Chicago, so we're taking Amtrak up and back, so that will be taxi fares, too, unless we're brave enough to try public transportation . It will be the first time in years that DH and I have gotten a weekend away together. DS will be staying with one of our fellow cruisers for the weekend.

 

[gracia98]

Wow, was looking at your tickers and it is 402 days away!!! That's a long time!! We really thought about going this November, but since we just cruised on the Wonder last year we thought 2007 would be a time to go, plus they say the earlier you book the cheaper, right!? I did find out that they are doing FL resident discounts for this November, but I never looked into it since I just booked for Nov 2007.

Did you all book through Disney or other TA? We booked through AAA.

Stefanie

 

[whnim64]

Wow, was looking at your tickers and it is 402 days away!!! That's a long time!! We really thought about going this November, but since we just cruised on the Wonder last year we thought 2007 would be a time to go, plus they say the earlier you book the cheaper, right!? I did find out that they are doing FL resident discounts for this November, but I never looked into it since I just booked for Nov 2007.

Did you all book through Disney or other TA? We booked through AAA.

Stefanie

I booked through DCL because I had sent a request to inventory control for the secret porthole rooms, then I transferred my ressie to DU. We went through them before and were happy with their service. With winter coming, I wish I was a FL resident! We're firm believers in booking early. We booked our 5/06 cruise on 9/30/04! The price went up $$$$ from the time we booked and when we sailed.

 

[jayally]

I booked through DCl and then read about the secret verandah and porthole rooms so I ended up changing my deck 2, cat 9 room for the obstructed verandah room in cat 7 (actually a cat 6) room on deck 6. I also was then able to upgrade our land portion from the CBR to the Poly- the upgrade price was a total of $422 for 3 of us. The price did increase a bit from when I first booked in JULY! I am sure it has gone up quite a bit already. The earlier you book the better. I am transferring my reservation to Du for a $100 shipboard credit. I liked have the flexibility booking with Disney but now I am settled with what I want I will let a TA take over. Best to book with disney as you can always transfer your reservation to a TA but it is not as easy to do it the other way around.

I need to save $400 a month to pay for everything- $200 to the cruise and $200 for spending money, airfare, rental car, emergency money etc. Some months are going to be hard so I will pay extra when I can. I have not paid anything yet this month as it is a tough one.

I have tried to find lot's of ways to save.

I have bank of america and signed up for their "keep the change" program. I have about $40-$50 per month goes into my savings- any change left over from a dollar when I use my ATM. I purposely use it often and pump gas to $40.01 etc.

I also have a empty bottled water bottle I bought at walmart for $6. I put our names all over it along with disney stickers and "vacation fund". I cut a slot in the top and taped it in place so it will be hard to remove. I put all my change in it and roll bills and paperclip them together. Some rolls have $20's, $10's, $5's or just dollars. I am looking forward to unrolling them and be surprised how much I have saved. I know one roll has about $75 from something I sold on craigslist. I told my kids who ever guess the closest to the total amount will get a bonus in their spending money. I am aiming to save about $300. I have placed our jug in a location everyone can see and posted "donations appreciated" in hopes family and friends might drop off their change! It also makes it easy for me to add my change as I walk by it.

 

[whnim64]

Wow, Michelle. I wish I had family and friends to hit up. We have neither around us. All it would take from me is a couple of my paychecks, but they always seem to go to something else. This month it's our weekend in Chicago. I think that will be under $500; not too bad for a weekend in the big city. I'm also looking to add to my Marriott rewards points in hopes of getting a 'free' room the night before our cruise. I'll have quite a bit on my Disney Rewards card for our shipboard account, too.

 

[jayally]

How can whnim64 and I have exactly the same countdown time to the second?

I unfortunately have not had anyone donate to my fund and they probably won't, but it doesn't hurt to ask . My family does not understand why we are going on the exact same trip we did in March 2005- of course we will have better rooms and a better time this round. Our last trip we had a Category 11 for 4 of us. I thought we would not spend any time in the room but my EX ruined our trip by being moody and not leaving the room often and I spent the cruise waiting for him to make up his mind on what he wanted to do. He also quit his job, moved 2 hours away for a new job and got a GF when we got home. Needless to say he is no longer my husband and I need another cruise and WDW trip to erase our last one. You'd think with a tear-jerker story like that my family would be happy to help out! Thank goodness he pays monthly support but I am still doing this on a single parent budget.

I have been doing some calculating in my head how much I have in my jug right now and I may have already surpassed my goal of $300, I think I am going to up it to $1000 since I have a year to go and throw in some $100 and $50 bills for fun. It doesn't hurt so much when I take bills or change left over at the end of the day and put it in the bottle- I would just spend it some other way anyway. The hard part is convincing myself to not take any money out of it- which is why I taped the top shut! I worry my kids may try to dump out some of it when they need money. It is very tempting. I remind them about the need to save for our trip all the time and I constantly worry how will I pay for everything.

 

[gracia98]

My husband has decided to take my parents and his parents along on the trip! Will call the TA ASAP since prices have already gone up since we booked just a few weeks ago. For us, family of 4, the price jumped up by over $400! Too bad we didn't book for the grandparents then, but since it is only 2 of them in each cabin, it will be less than ours by over $600.

We are going to give it to them as a Christmas surprise, but I had to tell my Mom since her job gives her a hard time for time during certain times of the year, which seems to be like 11 out of 12 months! She said she is telling her boss we already booked it as a surprise and she is going. She will be missing one important hearing (she's a property appraiser and they have petition hearings for like 6 months). But someone else could cover that for her, just that one time.

Anyway, I am excited to take the family along, but on the other hand it will be more difficult since my MIL drives us ALL crazy.

Just had to share.

Stefanie

 

[whnim64]

...Anyway, I am excited to take the family along, but on the other hand it will be more difficult since my MIL drives us ALL crazy.

Yes, but it's a big ship with plenty of hiding places. I've never been in the spa rainforest, but am going to find time for it on this cruise...

 

[jayally]

The more the merrier! It is crazy how the prices can flucutate so much. I had wanted to go in March 2007 but the prices had already gotten out of my budget by June 2006. I am glad I booked when I did although it will be hard to anticipate our trip for so long and then have it over so fast. I wil have to book again for 2009 to I can spend another 2 years planning.

I would love to book a massage this time, I have never given myself that indulgence.

 

[whnim64]

The more the merrier! It is crazy how the prices can flucutate so much. I had wanted to go in March 2007 but the prices had already gotten out of my budget by June 2006. I am glad I booked when I did although it will be hard to anticipate our trip for so long and then have it over so fast. I wil have to book again for 2009 to I can spend another 2 years planning.

I would love to book a massage this time, I have never given myself that indulgence.

DH and I did the REAS package on our first cruise. It was also a first massage for both of us and we loved it. We were supposed to have a cabana massage last cruise, but I was on 48 hr. cabin restriction for our last day at Castaway Cay, and we had to miss it. I'm going to save up and indulge myself on this trip, though.

 

[whnim64]

I keep checking DCL's website hoping that they will relax the passport requirements to match the government's updates. One DD and I have our passports, but the other DD and friends still have to get new/renewed ones. The $95 fee is a killer for one friend who is struggling finacially.

 

[whnim64]

Well, as I was saying in my last post, DCL has revised their passport regulations for now. That is good news for a couple of travelers in our party! I'm trying to convince younger DD to go ahead and get her passport renewed. Her old passport is over 25 years old. She was just 2 months old in her passport picture, then!