Disney Wonder Jan 23, 2011

[jkrislc]

hey guys
thanks for the info I will e mail her now and ask ...also do you know if she has an age limit ? I have friends who would ride but the kids are only going to be a year and a half and almost three ..... ALSO where is the zipline excursion what city ?

I'd suggest Puerto Vallarta as you'll get a canopy tour through the trees. It won't be nearly as scenic in the other two ports.

 

[Kidlette]

Alec turns 11 in April after the cruise. Yes, he is joining us horseback riding. He is the only reason Jeff is going. I have sent an e-mail to Randi and have not heard back. I mentioned that I knew of others on our cruise that were going & we wanted to be a part of that group but I asked if it was possible. So I may have to write again to make sure she knows who is in the group.
If I may add my 2 cents about DVC. We have one of our DVC contracts at the villas @ the Grand CA and if you plan on trying to stay there, it is better to own there. We have already booked our stay for next Summer! It takes a little pre-planning but getting a studio there is worth it. Especially since it takes more points to stay at either of the other 2 hotels there. Not many people say it is worth using your points for cruises but that is probably the only way we would be going, if we can use points. Sometimes (around annual dues time) I regret buying but most of the time. I consider it a way to guarantee we have some time to take vacation.
OK, off to watch TV with Jeff. Talk to all of you later!
Sue

Sue:, that's great! I'm glad to hear all 3 of you are going! No need to email her again, I already did that yesterday. She will probably know exactly who you are and exactly who you are with. She emailed me when Kris confirmed just to tell me that he did. She will most likely do the same when she confirms you! Also as a side note, I told her that Ryan has never ridden before and, not that he's scared, but he's leery because he doesn't like animals. She said that's good to know so she can pass it onto the person who pairs the animals which each person, that way Ryan will get one of the calmer horses. I don't know if it matters for you guys - since Alec is a child he will probably be paired up like that anyway, but if you are worried about whether or not he'll be OK you might want to mention it to her.

I'm SO excited you guys are going!!

Cari:I'm SO happy to hear that you will be joining us also!! How many in your party will be horseback riding?!?! If you didn't email her already, let her know when you email that you're part of our group!! You should be able to mention my name or Kris' name and she'll know who we all are!

I'm getting excited again about the trip!

 

[ryanmcin]

Jessica/Ryan, thanks for the info. I wouldn't plan on exchanging often, but like that it's an option. My biggest hold up right now is that CA makes sense for us, but the minimal number of units means reservations have to be made well in advance. And while they don't charge a fee to use points at the hotels, the points they charge are high given the quality of the rooms in comparison. I also hadn't considered selling in 10 or 15 years, so that gives me something else to consider.

I came across the actual number of DVC units at the Grand Californian (below) which is actually a little worse than I though it was. I knew that there were only 48 units, but I assumed that all the rooms (except Grand Villas) were 2 bedrooms lockoffs. I didn't realize that half of the rooms are dedicated 2 bedrooms.

VGC - 0 Dedicated Studios - 0 Dedicated 1BR villas - 23 Dedicated 2BR villas - 23 Lockoffs - 2 Grand Villas = 48 Units / 71 Max. Available Rooms

The Disneyland Resort hotels are currently a small to moderate savings on points vs out of pocket, but it is hard to say how that will trend moving forward and if they decide to tack the $95 booking fee on at some point in the future it would likely flip the savings into a loss. If you plan on holding the points for 10-15 years and then selling the actual cost per point is probably around $7-7.50 per point (assuming the points were not financed). I checked a few dates and it looks like if you book a Disneyland Hotel or Paradise Pier room you are getting around $11.40 in value per point. That is based on their standard rates so discounts and promotions could take a big chunk out of that value.

 

[jkrislc]

Just curious how many of us are on the 1/21 and 1/23 sailings together. I'm doing both and noticed two others are from their signatures; anyone else?

Kris

 

[jkrislc]

I came across the actual number of DVC units at the Grand Californian (below) which is actually a little worse than I though it was. I knew that there were only 48 units, but I assumed that all the rooms (except Grand Villas) were 2 bedrooms lockoffs. I didn't realize that half of the rooms are dedicated 2 bedrooms.

VGC - 0 Dedicated Studios - 0 Dedicated 1BR villas - 23 Dedicated 2BR villas - 23 Lockoffs - 2 Grand Villas = 48 Units / 71 Max. Available Rooms

The Disneyland Resort hotels are currently a small to moderate savings on points vs out of pocket, but it is hard to say how that will trend moving forward and if they decide to tack the $95 booking fee on at some point in the future it would likely flip the savings into a loss. If you plan on holding the points for 10-15 years and then selling the actual cost per point is probably around $7-7.50 per point (assuming the points were not financed). I checked a few dates and it looks like if you book a Disneyland Hotel or Paradise Pier room you are getting around $11.40 in value per point. That is based on their standard rates so discounts and promotions could take a big chunk out of that value.

Are you sure there are no dedicated studios? I'm sure when I toured the models a little over a year ago they had some. When looking at the DVC board, it seems that the studios are always the first to go at all of the resorts I'm sure because of the lower point cost. It does seem that the 2BR units aren't that hard to get if I ever needed one.

I've been doing the math. And for the dates we want to go, we would save $75 per night using points rather than paying cash at the DL Hotel in October. That's after factoring in all fees (point costs and maintenance fees). We're also planning a WDW trip for 7 next summer, and with them offering matching points for this year and a February use year, that would make for a very nice trip for next summer and a nice birthday getaway at DL this October for me.

Thanks for the info,

Kris

 

[Tigger1313]

Cathy,

This sounds like a great idea!! It will be my DH(Mark), my Brother-in-law(Clint), my Dad(Drew) and his girlfriend (Bev), you and Dave, that makes 6!! We have little girls celebrating birthdays on this cruise so my sister and I are going shopping with them instead .

Frank's prices are hard to beat, I looked up shore excursions the other cruise lines offer and the cheapest fishing trip we could find was $100 pp and we both know that DCL will charge more than that, LOL.

Looking forward to hearing from you so we can work out the details and hope you have a wonderful weekend.

--Emily

Emily
Have you talked to Frank about fishing yet? I sent him a email a few weeks ago but I have not sent him any money yet. If you want I can go ahead and book the fishing trip now and put down the deposit. We can work out the details later. Let me know

 

[disneydad123]

Cathy,

That would be great!! Go ahead an book it!! I have 3 in my party that want to go fishing. Mark, Clint, and my nephew Tanner (15 yr old) everyone else changed their minds so there will be room for one more or we can just split it 5 ways. Will Frank pick you all up at the pier or will we have to get everyone to him? I can't wait until Disney posts the shore excursions so we can see what else may be going on.

Thanks again,
Emily

 

[ryanmcin]

Are you sure there are no dedicated studios? I'm sure when I toured the models a little over a year ago they had some. When looking at the DVC board, it seems that the studios are always the first to go at all of the resorts I'm sure because of the lower point cost. It does seem that the 2BR units aren't that hard to get if I ever needed one.

I've been doing the math. And for the dates we want to go, we would save $75 per night using points rather than paying cash at the DL Hotel in October. That's after factoring in all fees (point costs and maintenance fees). We're also planning a WDW trip for 7 next summer, and with them offering matching points for this year and a February use year, that would make for a very nice trip for next summer and a nice birthday getaway at DL this October for me.

Thanks for the info,

Kris

I am pretty sure that there are no dedicated studios at VGC. I have seen the "official" floor plan that is part of the time share offering documents for the project and every studio is located directly adjacent to a one bedroom unit which would seem to indicate that they are all lockoffs which is in-line with I have seen reported elsewhere.

From what I have seen there is a very limited number of dedicated studios in the entire DVC system with many of the resorts having no studios at all. It looks like the early resorts (Old Key West, Hilton Head, Vero Beach) had no dedicated studio or 1 bedroom villas (Vero has "Inn Rooms" though). The mid generation of Resorts (Boardwalk, Beach Club, Wilderness Lodge) have a mix of dedicated and lockoffs. The recent resorts (Animal Kingdom-Kidani, Bay Lake Towers, Saratoga Springs, Grand Californian) are back to no dedicated studios or 1 bedroom villas. Animal Kingdom Jambo is off in its own little world since the rooms are conversions of existing rooms and consists of some strange mixtures.

All told there are (reportedly) just 199 dedicated studios (plus 112 "inn rooms") out of 4600+ possible villas.

The studios definitely fill up fast, we have tried to book on short notice a few times and we can usually find some one bedroom availability, but the studios are very hard to get on short notice. I can't say that I know much about the 2 bedroom availability since I have never needed one so I have never asked. I would imagine that the since there are so many 2 bedroom villas in the system they should be easy to get, but again there are so many of them so someone must be booking them. I can't imagine that DVC would be building so many dedicated 2 bedroom villas if they couldn't fill them.

 

[jkrislc]

Ryan, from a points standpoint, it makes sense that they wouldn't offer many studios, although it's a shame for people lie us who don't need the extra space.

I was looking at the availability thread, and I agree with you regarding the bigger units; they don't seem nearly as hard to get as the studios and one bedrooms.

Thanks again for the info.

Kris

 

[Kidlette]

Thank goodness and FINALLY! We have some good news!

I FINALLY GOT A JOB!

Monday is not only the first day of my new job, but the first day of school (EEKK)! A full time job and 5 classes, what was I thinking?!?! Hopefully my professors have a little love for me

Anyway, since my life is going to be so hectic and Ryan and I probably won't be able to do anything together on the weekends for the next five months (except, of course, for the scavenger hunt with Yanira and Sergio ), since my weekends will be jam-packed with nothing but homework and studying we've decided to get a hotel and go to Disneyland this weekend! I suppose it's a combination "I'm going to miss you over the next five months" and "congratulations on the job" trip Ryan is going to take a partial day of work today, we'll go to Disney for a while this afternoon and then leave for a celebratory dinner at Roys. Then, back to Disney for some night-time fun followed by a hotel stay in Costa Mesa/Irvine (stupid us, we added that location on priceline because our initial bid didn't go through - but, we've been to that hotel before so it won't be horrible) - then a full day of Disney fun tomorrow!!

If anyone will be at the parks and want to say "hi", give me a jingle!

 

[SueTGGR]

Yippee for a job & a stay @ Disneyland! Yum, Roy's...one of my favorites! Their staff is so great and their food even better.
Enjoy!
We will be down there for the Trick or Treat Party, Oct 15th. I don't know what is more frustrating, waiting for excursions or waiting to find out the Halloween details and schedules.
Later,
Sue

 

[airtime247]

Congratulations Jessica!!!!!!

Enjoy your time together at DL. Best of luck getting through this semester. Just think how much you will appreciate being able to relax on the cruise!

I hope all of our other cruisemates are doing well too.

-steve

 

[Kidlette]

Just think how much you will appreciate being able to relax on the cruise!

Sue & Steve: Thanks!

Steve: LOL, if only! The cruise starts the first week of school in January - I'm actually going to be doing homework on the ship and BEGGING my professors not to drop me for missing the first class! EEEKK!

Everyone: Disneyland was HORRIBLE, we didn't even stay! The number of people there were OUTRAGEOUS. It turned into a huge waste of $$ on a hotel we didn't need! To give you an idea of the number of people, even Alice in Wonderland's line went through their queue, down the side and to/past the Alice in Wonderland bathrooms! INSANE! We rode pirates and the train last night, then left. This morning we rode the monorail into the park, did Tiki room and left. Now I remember why we don't going during the summer!

Sue: I hear you about the Halloween party! Since I have a job, we are probably going to go. Unfortunately we're not going your weekend. IF we go it will be the weekend of/after the 26th (our anniversary).

 

[SueTGGR]

Sorry about the wasted trip Jessica. We almost drove down on a whim last weekend but we decided not to, thankfully. We do the same with Yosemite, NEVER go in the Summer! Sorry, but your news makes me feel even better that we didn't go. Ur trip in June was enough. Hopefully you got to see a few of the Halloween decorations. Last I heard the major ones are being prepped and readied to install. I didn't hear the Alice was open again. That makes us happy. Alec really likes that one.
So the Disney web site is down. Could that mean that they are loading it up with new and exciting information??

 

[Kidlette]

Sorry about the wasted trip Jessica. We almost drove down on a whim last weekend but we decided not to, thankfully. We do the same with Yosemite, NEVER go in the Summer! Sorry, but your news makes me feel even better that we didn't go. Ur trip in June was enough. Hopefully you got to see a few of the Halloween decorations. Last I heard the major ones are being prepped and readied to install. I didn't hear the Alice was open again. That makes us happy. Alec really likes that one.
So the Disney web site is down. Could that mean that they are loading it up with new and exciting information??

Alice only opened, FINALLY, yesterday. It was still closed as of Friday evening, but when we went yesterday it was open! Too bad we didn't actually get to ride it. (Alice is probably my favorite ride!)

It's OK about the trip. It's not like we don't go 30 - 40 times a year already - it just sucked to was the money on hotel. It retrospect, we should have known better!

If you ever do come down on a whim, give me a call! We're only 50mins - 1hr away from Disney (without traffic) - so we could always come and visit with you if you come down!

 

[SueTGGR]

The excursions look to be up everybody!

 

[Tigger1313]

The excursions look to be up everybody!

What a day!!! I got our plane tickets this morning and now the excursions are up

 

[SueTGGR]

So, it looks like they have Randi's horseback riding trip listed as an excursion. Do we go through DCL, now or do we continue to go through Randi? We have only done one DCL cruise and we did all their excursions. I never went and did anything on our own.
Back to the web site!

 

[Kidlette]

So, it looks like they have Randi's horseback riding trip listed as an excursion. Do we go through DCL, now or do we continue to go through Randi? We have only done one DCL cruise and we did all their excursions. I never went and did anything on our own.
Back to the web site!

Sue, do you remember how much she costs if we do it through Disney? I would say that which-ever is cheaper is the way we should go. Ryan has been trying to go onto Disney Cruise Line's website but it says that the site is down for scheduled maintenance. I guess we won't get to see it until tomorrow.

Thanks for letting us know!! You're the best!

 

[airtime247]

Thanks for posting this. I searched around a little and am getting the maintenance message too. I'll have to give it a try in the next couple of days.

-steve