Disney Magic Canada October 2, 2016

[VowRenewal13]

We are flying in on 9/30. Booked a hotel from Priceline (3-1/2 ***) for less than current hotel rooms in the Times Square area. We are going to see a show on the 1st and will take a taxi to the pier from our hotel.

 

[chrismass]

I'm going with my husband, both of us first time DCL cruisers. Very excited!

 

[Sir William]

I'm going with my husband, both of us first time DCL cruisers. Very excited!

Welcome!

Are you new to cruising or just to DCL?

 

[happycruiserGOLD]

We are flying in on 9/30. Booked a hotel from Priceline (3-1/2 ***) for less than current hotel rooms in the Times Square area. We are going to see a show on the 1st and will take a taxi to the pier from our hotel.

That will be fun what show?

 

[happycruiserGOLD]

I'm going with my husband, both of us first time DCL cruisers. Very excited!

You are going to love it!

 

[happycruiserGOLD]

Hey Sir William.. did you recently cruise How was it??

 

[Sir William]

Hey Sir William.. did you recently cruise How was it??

I was on the Wonder in the Southern Caribbean in January. Roundtrip out of San Juan. Visited Grenada, Barbados, Antigua, St Kitts, and Martinique. Had a great time, as expected. We liked the Wonder, which reminded us of the Magic, but the Magic is still our favorite, even after the "improvements."

For those of you on the east coast, we were "stuck" in San Juan for 4 days after the cruise due to the blizzard that closed all the DC metro airports. We figured that if you have to be stuck somewhere, San Juan is a good place to be.

 

[happycruiserGOLD]

At least you were warm

 

[Sir William]

At least you were warm

As I said, if you have to be stuck somewhere, San Juan is a good place to be. DW loved it, as we mostly sat by the pool during our enforced stay. She wanted to be on the beach but the winds and waves were pretty strong.

Still had to deal with the snow when I got home though (and getting home was an adventure in itself).

 

[happycruiserGOLD]

200 days!!!

 

[Sir William]

200 days!!!

Hooray!!!

I just wish DCL would post the excursions so we can begin planning even if we can't reserve anything yet. I've an idea what I'd like to do, but I'd still like to see what is being offered.

 

[Sir William]

I was on the Wonder in the Southern Caribbean in January. Roundtrip out of San Juan. Visited Grenada, Barbados, Antigua, St Kitts, and Martinique. Had a great time, as expected. We liked the Wonder, which reminded us of the Magic, but the Magic is still our favorite, even after the "improvements."

For those of you on the east coast, we were "stuck" in San Juan for 4 days after the cruise due to the blizzard that closed all the DC metro airports. We figured that if you have to be stuck somewhere, San Juan is a good place to be.

Update: We had trip insurance and it covered most of our unexpected stay in San Juan. We stayed at two resorts (two nights in each as the first one was fully booked our last two nights) which pretty much ate up our "delayed trip" reimbursement, but if we'd stayed at a cheaper hotel we'd have probably broke even after meals. On a previous cruise DW injured her foot and our travel insurance also covered that. For those who have not made a travel insurance claim, you submit your receipts for hotels, meals, and transportation when you get home and the insurance company reimburses you up to the specified amount. If your flight is cancelled you'll also need to submit proof from the airline that they cancelled your flight (we used the email we received). The process isn't hard but be sure you keep all your receipts if you're ever stranded or delayed in your travels.

 

[Sir William]

Booked our next cruise this morning. DW has a conference in Orlando 4-7 March 2017 so we booked the Fantasy 25 Feb - 4 March. The cruise dates were the primary factor in our decision, otherwise we might have taken the Magic or Wonder which depart about the same day but are shorter cruises. I'll visit WDW while she attends her conference as she has no desire to visit since she was just there 5 years ago.

 

[happycruiserGOLD]

Thanks for the info about trip insurance and receipts. Sounds like a pretty pain less process. What insurance did you use? we usually use insure my trip.com

 

[Sir William]

Thanks for the info about trip insurance and receipts. Sounds like a pretty pain less process. What insurance did you use? we usually use insure my trip.com

I use Travel Guard. I'm in the travel industry and I've used them for years, both for me and for clients. Allianz is good as well.

I will admit that their time to respond to my claim took longer than usual because they had a huge backlog of claims as a result of the blizzard that shut down the east coast in January. I talked to one of the adjustors and he said they were dealing with over 20,000 claims so it was taking longer than usual to respond to them.

We've been fortunate that we've only had to put in two claims over the years, but I've know people who have dealt with TG after being stranded in Europe due to weather, or in one instance being an auto accident.

 

[bakerworld]

We are from Pa. also and not sure how to get to Port...thought about train but seems a bother to take all the luggage on a train..and didn't know where train would leave you off..
Have you checked out any lino services yet?

We checked 3 limo services: Tropiano $249 and Priority Shuttle $265 inclusive tolls & Tax; third one was a verbal quote from a service work uses and I can't remember the name - it was about the same. We think its worth the cost. The port parking is $35/day plus taxes.

 

[Sir William]

We looked into possibly using a limo but I think we'll be driving. It's a 4 hour drive but we plan to spend the night in NJ with DW's BIL before driving on to NYC the next morning. A town car is more than twice what we'd pay for parking and gas doing it ourselves. But I'll be a gentleman and let DW do the driving as I hate driving in cities of any kind.

 

[Sir William]

I noticed today that DCL has finally posted the excursions for Halifax. Nothing for St Johns yet.

 

[Sir William]

We looked into possibly using a limo but I think we'll be driving. It's a 4 hour drive but we plan to spend the night in NJ with DW's BIL before driving on to NYC the next morning. A town car is more than twice what we'd pay for parking and gas doing it ourselves. But I'll be a gentleman and let DW do the driving as I hate driving in cities of any kind.

DW informed me yesterday that she doesn't want to drive and wants to take the train from DC. The cost of the train, taxis, etc is just about the same as driving with gas, tolls, and parking, so I've no problem. Travel time is almost the same as well, once I include getting to & from the train stations, both in DC and in NYC.

We are now discussing whether we go up the day before and perhaps see a play, or take an early morning train that will get us into Penn about noon.

 

[ejw]

Hi Everyone,

just booked this cruise over the weekend. Ellen and Kenny from Rockaway, Queens, NY.
I put a request in to join the "other" group site. Looking forward to this cruise and catching up on the discussions.

Ellen