December 15, 2012 A Yo-HO-HO-HO Holiday Fantasy!

[WahineMinnie]

Yes. CC cabanas can be booked when you can check-in/book excursions. That depends on your Castaway Club level.

Thanks, Amanda. I will check that out on 10/1. Because this is our 1st Disney cruise, I don't think we have a Castaway Club level. Oh well!!

 

[trish.]

Thanks, Amanda. I will check that out on 10/1. Because this is our 1st Disney cruise, I don't think we have a Castaway Club level. Oh well!!

I just wish I could AFFORD the cabana! Haha!

 

[davidls]

Hey I am innocent, I swear...........just like David, right David?????

Kevin

I have to say here that Kevin, the President of the Worlwide Man Club, is a fine up standing individual with excellent manners and penmenship. He is as innocent as I am and he does not tell a lie!!! His nose hasn't grown an inch in..................I don't know how long now. You can trust him to do the right thing..............most of the time. I count him as my good friend and trust him to have my back when dealing with the ladies of this group. He hasn't taken of running from them once................yet. (How was that Mr Prez!!!)

 

[davidls]

Ok, so I will add the name David to the list of troublemaker names (Kevin, Wesley, David...)

I made the list!!!!!

 

[davidls]

By the way - does anyone know where the dancing banana went? He was my favorite...

You mean banana man!!! He's here. You just have to click on the (more) down on the bottom of all of the smiles guys. A little box will open. There are two sides of this little box - right and left. He is on the right side - you have to scroll down some to find him.

 

[NWDAD]

I have to say here that Kevin, the President of the Worlwide Man Club, is a fine up standing individual with excellent manners and penmenship. He is as innocent as I am and he does not tell a lie!!! His nose hasn't grown an inch in..................I don't know how long now. You can trust him to do the right thing..............most of the time. I count him as my good friend and trust him to have my back when dealing with the ladies of this group. He hasn't taken of running from them once................yet. (How was that Mr Prez!!!)

That was perfect David,

Off to packing and moving and moving and packing.

 

[NWmom]

I have to say here that Kevin, the President of the Worlwide Man Club, is a fine up standing individual with excellent manners and penmenship. He is as innocent as I am and he does not tell a lie!!! His nose hasn't grown an inch in..................I don't know how long now. You can trust him to do the right thing..............most of the time. I count him as my good friend and trust him to have my back when dealing with the ladies of this group. He hasn't taken of running from them once................yet. (How was that Mr Prez!!!)

I agree with almost everything here. Except the penmanship. I've too many of his college papers to agree with that one.

My dad on the other hand had excellent penmenship. When he passed he still had his Penmanship Awards from elementary school in his memorabilia along with photos of his kids. I've never known anyone with as nice handwriting as my dad.

PS. I have a medical reason for my penmanship being bad. I also can not do handstands, front walkovers, or right handed cartwheels because of it. Of course I don't think I can do them left handed any more either without creaking or breaking something. LOL

 

[trish.]

Whew! Mystery solved.

 

[AmandaRG]

Thanks, Amanda. I will check that out on 10/1. Because this is our 1st Disney cruise, I don't think we have a Castaway Club level. Oh well!!

But you will after you sail!!! This is our last sailing as silver members. Looks like our first gold sailing won't be until 2014!

 

[WahineMinnie]

But you will after you sail!!! This is our last sailing as silver members. Looks like our first gold sailing won't be until 2014!

Thanks for that great news about us being Castaway Club level after sailing. I don't know how you guys have swung the cost of these cruises... For giggles, I looked on the DCL for the cash price of our cabin we have with our DVC points......Almost $8K so glad we are DVC members

 

[AmandaRG]

Thanks for that great news about us being Castaway Club level after sailing. I don't know how you guys have swung the cost of these cruises... For giggles, I looked on the DCL for the cash price of our cabin we have with our DVC points......Almost $8K so glad we are DVC members

I have learned how to do it the cheapest way possible!! LOL! We keep dummy bookings with a 10% discount and onboard credits, and we book our cruises pretty much opening day as they go up the more the ship fills. Your cabin wasn't likely that much when we booked in March of 2011.

If you want to sail again, book onboard and you get the discount and onboard credit. You only pay half the deposit, too!

 

[davidls]

This is our last sailing as silver members. Looks like our first gold sailing won't be until 2014!

Hey Amanda, this too is our last sailing as silver members. We will be gold after this one. We have a cruise scheduled for December of next year, but this is a dummy date and we plan on moving it when the 2014 dates are announced. So it looks like maybe sometime in 2014 for us as well. We are going to book another dummy date while on board this cruise. Got to take advantage of the 10% discount and lower deposits!!!

 

[davidls]

That was perfect David,

Off to packing and moving and moving and packing.

Hope your move in is a nice and smooth one for you guys. Be sure to take plenty of breaks and drink plenty of water. Our last move, 16years ago, I didn't do either one of those. I kept pushing myself, just wanted to get moved in. I paid for it later. (Should have listened to Donna, but I thought I knew better.)

 

[WahineMinnie]

I have learned how to do it the cheapest way possible!! LOL! We keep dummy bookings with a 10% discount and onboard credits, and we book our cruises pretty much opening day as they go up the more the ship fills. Your cabin wasn't likely that much when we booked in March of 2011.

If you want to sail again, book onboard and you get the discount and onboard credit. You only pay half the deposit, too!

Amanda, thanks for the insider track info. I will check this out more when we are onboard and see how it may apply to us as DVC members, since we are 'paying' with our vacation club points and not cash.

 

[AmandaRG]

Amanda, thanks for the insider track info. I will check this out more when we are onboard and see how it may apply to us as DVC members, since we are 'paying' with our vacation club points and not cash.

It doesn't change things for this sailing, but would apply to future sailing on cash, if you choose to. We are DVC members as well, but have found that the we can get such a better deal on cash this way than we feel we get with points.

 

[NWDAD]

Amanda, thanks for the insider track info. I will check this out more when we are onboard and see how it may apply to us as DVC members, since we are 'paying' with our vacation club points and not cash.

We have booked ours with points also. What we did was Book on board to hold a place withthe Lower deposit. Then we later swithched that to the cruse we wanted . If you use points you do get a discount on points but you do not get the OBC. It might be a 10% as well, I am not sure. My DW NWMom will know.

Kevin

 

[WahineMinnie]

We have booked ours with points also. What we did was Book on board to hold a place withthe Lower deposit. Then we later swithched that to the cruse we wanted . If you use points you do get a discount on points but you do not get the OBC. It might be a 10% as well, I am not sure. My DW NWMom will know.

Kevin

It doesn't change things for this sailing, but would apply to future sailing on cash, if you choose to. We are DVC members as well, but have found that the we can get such a better deal on cash this way than we feel we get with points.

Thanks, both to Kevin & Amanda, for helping me figure this stuff out. I will wait to hear from Kevin's DW (NWMom) to get more details too.

 

[NWmom]

If you book onboard with cash you get the 10% reduced fare and only have to make a 10% deposit, plus you get OBC.

If you use points you do that, but also have 3 days to call DVC to convert it to points to get a reduced point amount. I think it is 10%. Any fees/fares have to be paid on that date.

We did not know which cruise we wanted to do so waited on our dummy date. When we did decide (from May to Sept) we got reduced points but not the full 10% off. We used points for the adults and paid cash for dd.

How it works-They refunded the original deposit and charged the new fee for dd.

What they say-
The advice given is usually-- it is a better value to use the points for hotel rooms. If you do use points- pay cash for the 3rd passenger on. So know when you might want to go and the points involved before rebooking.

However, you can not make any changes when using points without paying the fee so make sure you know which kind of room you want. Also you can not change the points/cash situation- points are in two different categories. They switch from DVC points to reservation points and can't go back. So you have to be sure you won't want to change plans.

The value scale tips with the food and entertainment included on board when you only have 3 traveling. Hotel Room points are cheaper for a larger family.

For us- we realized that the magic of the ship still holds a lot of awe for our dd10 who will turn 11 on the cruise. It will be her last chance at the younger clubs.

At 10 she is also now a full price ticket in the parks, but does not yet like the E ticket rides. The rides will still be there in a year or two.

We ended up with about 3 years points to spend now because of weddings and graduations in the works with extended family will prevent our using any next year for our usual family trip. Cost of airfare prevents us doing multiple trips.

So we stretched our points out by choosing the cheaper point cruise, (Yes, some dates are less points than others),the smaller studio hotel rooms before and after for a few days knowing we will be at the parks so we really do not want to cook that much this time.

If I were to do it again- I would book the vacation in the parks precruise. Then the cruise and definitely not over the holidays for the return flight.
It's a learning curve.

 

[AmandaRG]

The discounted points are only for the first and second person in the cabin. Other passengers are at the regular point rate.

At this point we can drive to FL in about 15 hours. Who knows where we will end up, but I was watching Live! with Kelly today and they were at Aulani...amazing!!!

 

[WahineMinnie]

If you book onboard with cash you get the 10% reduced fare and only have to make a 10% deposit, plus you get OBC.

If you use points you do that, but also have 3 days to call DVC to convert it to points to get a reduced point amount. I think it is 10%. Any fees/fares have to be paid on that date.

We did not know which cruise we wanted to do so waited on our dummy date. When we did decide (from May to Sept) we got reduced points but not the full 10% off. We used points for the adults and paid cash for dd.

How it works-They refunded the original deposit and charged the new fee for dd.

What they say-
The advice given is usually-- it is a better value to use the points for hotel rooms. If you do use points- pay cash for the 3rd passenger on. So know when you might want to go and the points involved before rebooking.

However, you can not make any changes when using points without paying the fee so make sure you know which kind of room you want. Also you can not change the points/cash situation- points are in two different categories. They switch from DVC points to reservation points and can't go back. So you have to be sure you won't want to change plans.

The value scale tips with the food and entertainment included on board when you only have 3 traveling. Hotel Room points are cheaper for a larger family.

For us- we realized that the magic of the ship still holds a lot of awe for our dd10 who will turn 11 on the cruise. It will be her last chance at the younger clubs.

At 10 she is also now a full price ticket in the parks, but does not yet like the E ticket rides. The rides will still be there in a year or two.

We ended up with about 3 years points to spend now because of weddings and graduations in the works with extended family will prevent our using any next year for our usual family trip. Cost of airfare prevents us doing multiple trips.

So we stretched our points out by choosing the cheaper point cruise, (Yes, some dates are less points than others),the smaller studio hotel rooms before and after for a few days knowing we will be at the parks so we really do not want to cook that much this time.

If I were to do it again- I would book the vacation in the parks precruise. Then the cruise and definitely not over the holidays for the return flight.
It's a learning curve.

Wow - this is great information - I reallllyyyyy appreciate the time I'm sure it took to type this all out.