December 11, 2010. 7 Night Western - Magic

[arje]

I've been loitering for a month or so hoping someone else had started this, and then thought hang it, I'll start one myself.

A little about us. We have paid a deposit on the 7 night western cruise on the Disney Magic leaving December 11th 2010. There are 4 of us, myself and my wife and my 2 daughters who will be 17 and 14 at the time. The cruise will be in the middle of approximately 5 or 6 weeks in Florida, so it's a big occasion for us. Whilst we would have celebrated our anniversary in August of that year, this is our 20th Wedding Anniversary present to ourselves.

We come from a small rural village just outside of Sydney in Australia. While we've been to the West Coast and Disneyland a few times, we've never been east to WDW. In addition this is our first ever cruise as well, and we wanted our first to be a DCL cruise (and we just couldn't wait until the Alaskan cruise come to fruition).

These boards seem a good way to at least get to know of some other people who will be on the same cruise prior to sailing, which for us is a good thing. We're not really a very outgoing family so having contact before will be helpful. It's always nice to have someone to say g'day to as you pass them and have a quick chat about what they've seen or done that day.

So that's it. G'day to all the 12/11/10 cruisers, we're looking forwarding to chatting with you over the next 20 months or so and to meet you come the day. If you're a regular DISer or cruiser, I'm sure we'll be able to utilise your experience as well.

 

[HallsofVA]

Thanks for starting a site! I've been waiting for someone to do it!!

We rebooked onto this cruise on our Eastern last December. We last did a Western in Dec 2005 that ended up with a modified schedule due to a hurricane wiping out Cozumel the month before we went.

There will be me, DH, DS (who'll be 6/almost 7) and DD (who'll just turned 4). Two of our friends are also booked on this cruise as well with their DD who'll be 10.

Looking forward to meeting everyone over the next 2 years!!

 

[arje]

G'day HallsofVa and thanks for replying. It's going to be handy having someone around who is experienced to pick up the odd tip or 2. Although we do like to just wing it and experience things as they happen, it's also beneficial to be able to understand the finer things like formal dining etc before we get on board.

And thank you for putting the link into the list as well. I've never struck a minimal post condition before, but I suppose that'll come and go quickly. Look forward to "chatting" with you and others who pop by over the next 20 months or so.

 

[HallsofVA]

Now I know there are other people booked on this cruise. Several from last December's cruise said they rebooked. So where are you???????? Or are you holding out posting until after the release plans for the new ships to decide whether to cruise in 2010 or 2011??

Hope all are well.

 

[arje]

Definitely quiet this far out. Given the flurry of activity on the other dates I thought there'd be more here. Maybe we'll have the ship to ourselves

 

[HallsofVA]

I know there were several others from the cruise this past December who also rebooked for this one, but several of them said they're waiting for the 2011 dates to be released to consider moving the cruise out a year, especially if either of the new ships they started building today will be ready by then.

That's okay, we can still have a good time!

My DH and I have been reliving the cruise experience recently - I ordered some of the shampoos, conditioner and body wash we had on our December cruise from the company who makes them for DCL. So now I imagine being back on board everytime one of us showers with the stuff!

 

[arje]

I know what you mean by reliving trips past. Only having been to DL in Anaheim so far, we often listen to the music or do something that puts our mind back there. I'm at work now listening to park music as I type this!

Even things like having a coffee will put us back there and we start talking about it. I'm hoping, and expecting that our cruise experience will do the same. But I'm also scared that it will be as addictive, not all that cheap to do these trips from Australia at the moment.

 

[newrygirl]

Hi everyone, we just booked today for this cruise, we went on the 3 day wonder in December past and just rebooked this one, I kno w we should have done it onboard.
It will be my family of 4 and my mom and sister.
arje, you are bringing your 2 daughters 14 and 17, I am bringing 2 boys, 14 and 17, what are the chances of that. the time will fly as we all plan together, maybe we should do fe exchange, I didn't on my last cruise but people sure seem to have fun with it.

 

[arje]

G'day newrygirl, glad you can join us here. Having a family of similar ages to us will be handy for sure. And with more cruise "veterans" to call upon as time progresses will also be very useful. Looking forward to chatting over the next year and half and meeting up on board.

 

[HallsofVA]

Welcome newrygirl! Can't wait to get to know you better as we countdown to this cruise! Alas my kids are on the younger side of you two, but I'm sure there'll be others! You guys should start some penpal correspondence or something!

So did you feel the 3 day just wasn't long enough? Our first cruise was a 7 day Western, and we were worried it was too long, and ended up hating having to get off, so I don't know if we'll be doing anything shorter anytime soon!

 

[newrygirl]

Hi HallsofVA,
The 3 day was our first cruise ever and yes it was way way too short, I feel like i hardly saw anything, we also have done 10 days at Disneyworl before the cruise so by the time we boarded the ship we were all pretty tired. I can see why people say that once you go on a Disney cruise you are hooked, I can't wait to go on the 7 day one, I just wish I had booked onboard for the discount and onboard credit, although I did use DU and got their onboard credit. I see for one of your cruises you upgraded to the Roy Disney suite, I bet that was awesome. I can't wait, hopefully time flies but then again why wish for life to fly by. We are going on a vacation to Ireland for 2 weeks in July so that is something to look forward to. i am so happy to meet you all, thanks for welcoming me.

 

[krisngreg]

My family will be going on this cruise in December. It is a big year for all of us so we just wanted to do something nice for everyone. My oldest daughter will be 15 and our youngest daughter will be turning 13 on the vacation. My husband and I will be celebrating 16 yrs of marriage. We live in Missouri and have been on one Disney cruise back in 2003. We have been wanting to come back sooner but we could just not make it happen. We look forward to getting to know everyone through this board and if anyone has any girls close to my daughters ages maybe they can chat.

Kristin

 

[arje]

G'day krisngreg. We'll have 2 girls, and our youngest will be 14 on the cruise (15 the following March), so I'm sure that perhaps they'd be glad to start chatting. newrygirl will have a boy the same age as well, so some of the kids might be able to get to know each other. Look forward to chatting and meeting up!

 

[HallsofVA]

Posting to bump us back up to the 1st page. Where is everyone??

We need to get some of the super profilic posters that I've had on my last 2 cruises to get our page going and keep it active. Anyway, I hope everyone is having a good year!

 

[arje]

I have to admit to not being a prolific poster early on. But that will change. I suppose being still 597 days until we sail ...

Which does raise one discussion point. We've all been hit hard with the crunch, and one of the other issues we face on the under side of the world is the exchange rate. I made a decision to pay the balance at a certain rate, to maximise my cost, but we are at that rate now, which presents me a dilemma. Is it too early to pay the balance this far out. Has anyone paid in full so early, and if so is there any benefits or pitfalls with doing so?

And now that this is my 10th post, I am now allowed to send PM and insert links - woohoo.

 

[newrygirl]

Hey All,
just dropped in to say hi to everyone, hope everyone is doing great. The cruise seems so far away but I guess it gives us more time to get to know each other before we all meet, we are planning on doing a meet right?

 

[HallsofVA]

Which does raise one discussion point. We've all been hit hard with the crunch, and one of the other issues we face on the under side of the world is the exchange rate. I made a decision to pay the balance at a certain rate, to maximise my cost, but we are at that rate now, which presents me a dilemma. Is it too early to pay the balance this far out. Has anyone paid in full so early, and if so is there any benefits or pitfalls with doing so?

And now that this is my 10th post, I am now allowed to send PM and insert links - woohoo.

You may want to post your question in the main forum so others can chime in, as I've never paid that early before. Certainly Disney has guidelines on your money being fully refundable until 90 or 105 days out, and those are standard. Some of the reasons I've heard for waiting until closer in include:
a) hanging on to more of your money for longer rather than giving it to Disney interest free, since you could invest it and earn some additional interest rather than giving it to them all in advance. [This is the obvious reason, but sounds like it may not work for you with the exchange rate issue.]
b) if you have any plans to move your reservation to a travel agent (from DCL) to gain additional on board credits and perks, you can't move it once you are paid in full. [If this is a possibility for you, then I'd suggest you perhaps pay *most* of the cruise leaving a small amount unpaid to keep you from being PIF until closer to the date, leaving only a small amount at risk of exchange rate losses.
c) having greater flexibility to move your dates around since you don't have as much money tied up in one cruise that you then have to get back to move it to a new cruise if you change your mind. and
d) Not having the money saved up yet, so paying early isn't an option.

But like I said, I've never been PIF that early so I can't offer you direct advice.

Congrats on reaching the minimum number of posts!

 

[newrygirl]

Hey everyone,
just wanted to say Hi to everyone and say that our party of 4 has now jumped to a party of 8, my Mom decided to come along and then my sister decided to join her in her room to save her the single supplement(my sister has never cruised) and then my in-laws who have never cruised either have now decided to come along, we got 3 cat 6 rooms all in a row, my kids are so excited that all their grandparents are coming and their crazy fun Auntie. Looking forward to getting to know everyone, are we planning on doing a fe and a meet, on my first cruise i didn't do that but while on board the people who did it seemed to have so much fun.

 

[arje]

Thats some good points HallsofVa, definitely food for thought. I've been focussing mainly on exchange rate and haven't considered it from another point of view. I'll give it some more thought and head on over to the main board if I need more help.

Wow newrygirl, that is going to be one party for you on board. The kids do like having extended family around for sure. We did a trip to DL in 2003 and took my parents, and then unexpectedly, my wife's brother took his family over so they had grandparents, uncle/aunty and cousins. Made a great trip.

I think a meet for sure. Have no idea how or where, but I'm sure that will be sorted out closer to time by those of you in the know. FE are still a mystery for us and I'm not so sure about them, but then there is plenty of time to be convinced. I've read plenty of threads on what they are and looked at some examples, but understanding how and what to do would be the biggest challenge.

 

[arje]

When you all go on this cruise is this the only thing that you'll be doing while in Florida?

We're making a big trip for this. We are making the most of our 19 or so hours of flying each way, so we'll be in Florida for about 5 weeks taking in WDW for 3 weeks as well as Universal and Sea World and other things (as well as a stop over in Anaheim at Disneyland on the way home).

So what is everyone else doing? Cruise only or staying a little while as well?