Disney Wonder Jan 23, 2011

[so_oregon]

HOLA!!!
(practicing).

been lurking.......

I think it is 17....you have me down for 6 and it is only 5 cabins. I am in 8000 (at least for right now)...and Jay's group is in 8092. Rumor has it, that they are not coming, which would bring down to 16.

 

[ryanmcin]

I think someone was looking for the logos. If you want them here is link to the post with the info:

http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=38012693&postcount=618

 

[ryanmcin]

Only 6 more days until the Platinum Castaway Club members can start booking shore excursions and make reservations on board? It's getting close (finally), do we have any platinum people in our group?

On a completely unrelated topic I have had some time to kill today so I have been watching some great videos. I came across a series of videos on The Land pavilion at Epcot and I watched a few others today (Horizons, Original Imagination Pavilion, World of Motion). Up until a few years ago I had only been to WDW once before (either 1989 or 1990) so all of those long attractions are just foggy memories now, but the videos are great. There is a lot of background information and facts and so forth and then a ridethrough. The guy who puts them together does a great job although they tend to run a little longer than necessary. If you are interested you can see a list of the videos here: http://vimeo.com/martinsvids

 

[Scooby3x1y]

Only 6 more days until the Platinum Castaway Club members can start booking shore excursions and make reservations on board? It's getting close (finally), do we have any platinum people in our group?

On a completely unrelated topic I have had some time to kill today so I have been watching some great videos. I came across a series of videos on The Land pavilion at Epcot and I watched a few others today (Horizons, Original Imagination Pavilion, World of Motion). Up until a few years ago I had only been to WDW once before (either 1989 or 1990) so all of those long attractions are just foggy memories now, but the videos are great. There is a lot of background information and facts and so forth and then a ridethrough. The guy who puts them together does a great job although they tend to run a little longer than necessary. If you are interested you can see a list of the videos here: http://vimeo.com/martinsvids

Ryan,

Remind me.....(if you know off the top of your head) Silver CCM are 1-4? Gold are 5+ ? Is that right? What are the number of days out that each can book? Thanks! I can look it up, but if you know easy, I won't bother...

 

[googles111]

I vote to keep it as one group too. We typically just do one gift bag per cabin no matter how many people are in it. They are usually gender and age neutral although we will try to throw in a little something extra for each child.

We are still deciding but there is a good chance we will be flying to LA instead of driving. This is another reason for us to keep our FE gift size smaller and light. I've got a couple of ideas but we really need to start brainstorming!

-steve

I think you can ship your items out too. Has anybody done that? I know when we cruised out of Fl. a lot of people shipped FE gifts and other things to the ship. Can we do that on this cruise too? I know if it's different because it's in Ca.
Tonya

 

[SueTGGR]

As we are only Silver (after 1st cruise), I wanted to see when we can book, we are set to book on Oct 25th. If there are Gold (after your 5th cruise) they get 105 days out & Platinum (after your 10th cruise) are 120 days out. My goal is to be a platinum but isn't that all of us???
Sorry Ryan didn't mean to intrude.
Lori, I hope that my comments didn't lead you to believe you were pushy. All of us seem to have a online friendship going & we all work together. Especially before we had port info from DCL. We were all going Crazy! Waiting and hoping for a few good choices. I think we made a good choice with Randy's Happy Horses in Mazatlan, if you want to join us for a ride, I think she said she could add a few more. We have done this on our own with rave reviews from the DIS boards and others here. Let us know & that goes for anyone else, too.
Jessica, I can so see you on those zip lines! After our Space Mountain ride it is a piece of cake.
Steve, I wasn't implying you weren't a hugger, I was trying to give Jessica a hard time. I think we all need to have a hugger in our lives. At least one or two!
So has anyone done any magnets? I need a little more $$ and I can start producing. I have a ton of ideas but nothing special. Anyone else?
Here comes Monday!
Later,
Sue

 

[Scooby3x1y]

I think you can ship your items out too. Has anybody done that? I know when we cruised out of Fl. a lot of people shipped FE gifts and other things to the ship. Can we do that on this cruise too? I know if it's different because it's in Ca.
Tonya

We've shipped our to the hotel before. We just called the manager, did it in c/o him. Then checked back often after it was shipped, he got it and it was stored appropriately. He knew exactly when we were coming, and had the package in his office and cross referenced to our reservation.

 

[Scooby3x1y]

Lori, I hope that my comments didn't lead you to believe you were pushy. All of us seem to have a online friendship going & we all work together.
Sue

Sue! Not at all! I just reread my post and thought....Sheesh! That may not have come off so well. You know how it is, what you think doesn't always portray well on a post. And, the newbie coming in giving opinions.... Thanks for the info too!

Opinions , ask my dh, I'm full of them.

Anyway, I'm a former CM, anyone else?

Are they doing resident rates for CA residents?

 

[Pammy1]

Hi All,

We still want to participate in the FE exchange. One group sounds good to me. Never done this before but it sounds fun.

We (okay I) have been looking at things to do at the ports. We did this itinerary 4 years ago on Carnival with our then 13 year old daughter. We can recommend Randi's Happy Horses. She had a good time riding horses and we had a good time sitting on the beach!

I am thinking that my DD (12) and I will be staying on the ship at the ports. What kind of things are there to do on the ship while in port?

I hope to participate more now that the kids are back in school!

Pam

 

[Lizzy'sMom]

Hi everyone!

Sorry i havent posted in a while - have been super busy getting ready for the Member cruise - we are back from that - it was so fun!

Now i am ready to focus on this one weeeeee!

Can anyone tell me how they are getting from LAX to the port? do we know if Disney will have transpo like they do for MCO?
we are thinking we can fly in that morning and get right on the ship - about the same as driving down the night before and parking the car for the week - the only issue is how to get from LAX to the port, and the pricing on that.

This cruise will be so fabulous! On the member cruise about half the crew we spoke with were going to be going to Mexico with us, Lizzy is so thrileld because her favorite kids club friends (thats what she calls teh counselors) will be there - its just thrilling!

cant wait to see you all there!

Andrea in vegas

 

[Scooby3x1y]

Hi everyone!


Can anyone tell me how they are getting from LAX to the port? do we know if Disney will have transpo like they do for MCO?
we are thinking we can fly in that morning and get right on the ship - about the same as driving down the night before and parking the car for the week - the only issue is how to get from LAX to the port, and the pricing on that.

Andrea in vegas

I just called DCL, they will have transfers from the airport to the port. The cost is $30 one way. The CM said that it would be the same price from DL resort too. A taxi for two probably would be about the same price, however, there is always the LA traffic to worry about.

We haven't decided if we will drive from UT, spend the night and leave our car at the hotel, or fly as you are in the morning and go straight to the port. It's nice being close, we have options. Flying to Orlando, you have to go in the day before from the west.

 

[Scooby3x1y]

Hi All,

We still want to participate in the FE exchange. One group sounds good to me. Never done this before but it sounds fun.

We (okay I) have been looking at things to do at the ports. We did this itinerary 4 years ago on Carnival with our then 13 year old daughter. We can recommend Randi's Happy Horses. She had a good time riding horses and we had a good time sitting on the beach!

I am thinking that my DD (12) and I will be staying on the ship at the ports. What kind of things are there to do on the ship while in port?

I hope to participate more now that the kids are back in school!

Pam

Pam,

I've got to find something to do that we can't do at home. DH says, I'm not going to pay to ride ATV's when we have them at home. I'm not going to pay to horse back ride, we've had our fill of horses. (We used to have 4, and we did rodeo) Any advice on fishing, massage, etc?

 

[Lizzy'sMom]

I just called DCL, they will have transfers from the airport to the port. The cost is $30 one way. The CM said that it would be the same price from DL resort too. A taxi for two probably would be about the same price, however, there is always the LA traffic to worry about.

thanks so much for checking - i wondered what it would cost..

We haven't decided if we will drive from UT, spend the night and leave our car at the hotel, or fly as you are in the morning and go straight to the port. It's nice being close, we have options. Flying to Orlando, you have to go in the day before from the west.

if you drive down have you found a hotel that will have free parking while you are gone? or what do you think they will charge?
we checked and parking at port of LA world cruise center is $12/day, so $84 for a 7-night cruise

Andrea in Vegas

 

[airtime247]

Andrea - check out http://longbeach.parksleepfly.com/ We used this site for booking a hotel in San Jose and had a great experience. We got to leave our car for free for the 10 days of our trip and they had a free shuttle to the airport leaving every 30 minutes. The hotel stay alone was cheaper than the parking at the airport would have been. Hopefully a hotel near the terminal offers something similar. It looks like the Holiday Inn offers something like this.

We finally booked our airfare for the cruise this weekend. This now means we will need to rent a car for the two days prior to the cruise and will have the shuttle dilemma except that we will need to worry about either trying to arrange for a cab to pick us up from the rental car place or take the free shuttle back to the airport to catch another shuttle to the cruise terminal which seems like a real pain.

Then there is the dilemma of carting all that luggage back and forth. I'm thinking about having Amy drop Emma and me off at the cruise terminal with all the luggage and then going to return the rental car and get the shuttle back. At least that way we would only have to pay for a shuttle for one person.

Does anyone know if this terminal has the curbside check-in for luggage like airports do? I can deal with a hyper four year-old but not her and umpteen suitcases!

-steve

 

[Scooby3x1y]

if you drive down have you found a hotel that will have free parking while you are gone? or what do you think they will charge?
we checked and parking at port of LA world cruise center is $12/day, so $84 for a 7-night cruise

Andrea in Vegas

Andrea,

It is a tough decision. I called about 5 hotels, just to get a sampling. It ranges from hotels that have a free shuttle to the airport and cruise port for two, charging $10 for each additional passenger for $109.99, car stays free. The variations on that is some charge for car per day ($10), some only go to the airport free, some are more expensive per night.

So we are weighing the cost of gas, vs. airfare, hotel, parking the car, etc.

We could stay in state line, for $25 a night, $200 in gas, $84 in parking we might be ahead to drive. Versus flying, even at a good deal, $200 per person to fly, $109 per night hotel, plus tips. About $500 vs. $300. From Vegas, you could leave early that morning, park at the port, and be ahead even more. That's only a tank of gas each way. We may have a couple come with us making way cheaper to drive. If they don't, we may pay the extra just for time sake. 10 hours for us vs. 4 for you. BTW...if you consider flying, Jet Blue and SWA are usually the cheapest into Long Beach. It is the closest to the port. It may be a little cheaper from LAX, but the distance is a lot greater.

 

[Scooby3x1y]

Andrea - check out http://longbeach.parksleepfly.com/ We used this site for booking a hotel in San Jose and had a great experience. We got to leave our car for free for the 10 days of our trip and they had a free shuttle to the airport leaving every 30 minutes. The hotel stay alone was cheaper than the parking at the airport would have been. Hopefully a hotel near the terminal offers something similar. It looks like the Holiday Inn offers something like this.

We finally booked our airfare for the cruise this weekend. This now means we will need to rent a car for the two days prior to the cruise and will have the shuttle dilemma except that we will need to worry about either trying to arrange for a cab to pick us up from the rental car place or take the free shuttle back to the airport to catch another shuttle to the cruise terminal which seems like a real pain.

Then there is the dilemma of carting all that luggage back and forth. I'm thinking about having Amy drop Emma and me off at the cruise terminal with all the luggage and then going to return the rental car and get the shuttle back. At least that way we would only have to pay for a shuttle for one person.

Does anyone know if this terminal has the curbside check-in for luggage like airports do? I can deal with a hyper four year-old but not her and umpteen suitcases!

-steve

Steve,

I'm willing to bet they will. Two reasons, they have it at Canaveral, and in the Med. I don't know why they wouldn't here. Also, this a busy cruise terminal for lots of different cruise lines. I'm sure they have it down pat.

 

[SueTGGR]

I found this website for the port of Los Angeles. http://www.portoflosangeles.org/recreation/cruises.asp
I hope it helps

 

[denversees4me]

weare back we had fun at the faire in Ojai ...
As for splitting or combining groups I dont know if I will be able to do a gift every day for all cabins if we go that way and I dont know if Amber and Rick will be able to afford that either but we go with the majority on it .... It just means smaller things which to me is not as fun but ... thats ok I will give it a go for this trip
maybe we could re vote and see where everyone is at ? I thought we were going to split and those who wanted to could buy for ALL .... confused thats all
Again we are game just may not be able to go all out

 

[ryanmcin]

Ryan,

Remind me.....(if you know off the top of your head) Silver CCM are 1-4? Gold are 5+ ? Is that right? What are the number of days out that each can book? Thanks! I can look it up, but if you know easy, I won't bother...

Silver 1-4, 90 days in advance
Gold 5-9, 105 days in advance
Platinum 10+, 120 days in advance

 

[denversees4me]

Hi again

Just got off the phone with Amber - We have both decided that if the groups go combined we are both going to opt out - - We are both on limited incomes and although Im not trying to make this about us ... I just thought that it was going to be smaller groups and that was already decided by vote -
If you all decide on a large group and there are those who still want to do a smaller group please PM me and we can make a smaller group if you would like ---- I hate to be the party pooper but we just cant afford it and we dont want to cut corners and only do it a few times the entire cruise and then others are buying for us every day - Its just not that fun that way and with Amber having toddlers its too many cabins to go to each day and I think it might take a lot of time .....
sorry guys again not trying to be difficult just thought we voted and we decided already :-(
Let me know what you all decide