Disneypoor's Alaskan Cruise June 7th, 2011

[disneypoor]

I looked through your signature and didn't see an Adventures by Disney trip there. We took the Wyoming trip two summers ago. LOVED it and I loved that I wasn't personally responsible for all the plans.

Might be something you'd enjoy. I know you can use your points towards an ABD trip as well.

TK

I did check in to an ABD one time when they first started offering them and we were looking to go to Hawaii. I had sticker shock and didn't do it, but then when we actually did go on our own, we ended up spending a fortune by the time we did everything we wanted to do, so it probably would have been comparable money wise to ABD anyhow. I'd LOVE to do an ABD trip! In fact, our DD has begged us to take her to Australia for years, so you never know. However, I'll have to act on the addonitis I'll probably be getting in order to have enough points to ever be able to swing that!

BTW--I just happened to notice you trip ticker, and it's almost here! Have a GREAT time!

Susan

 

[PURTYPAT1]

I did check in to an ABD one time when they first started offering them and we were looking to go to Hawaii. I had sticker shock and didn't do it, but then when we actually did go on our own, we ended up spending a fortune by the time we did everything we wanted to do, so it probably would have been comparable money wise to ABD anyhow. I'd LOVE to do an ABD trip! In fact, our DD has begged us to take her to Australia for years, so you never know. However, I'll have to act on the addonitis I'll probably be getting in order to have enough points to ever be able to swing that!

BTW--I just happened to notice you trip ticker, and it's almost here! Have a GREAT time!

Susan

Love your report

Can you please email me the limo driver (you should get a commision lol)
purtypat1@aol.com or you pm it to me.

Thank you so much

 

[tksbaskets]

I did check in to an ABD one time when they first started offering them and we were looking to go to Hawaii. I had sticker shock and didn't do it, but then when we actually did go on our own, we ended up spending a fortune by the time we did everything we wanted to do, so it probably would have been comparable money wise to ABD anyhow. I'd LOVE to do an ABD trip! In fact, our DD has begged us to take her to Australia for years, so you never know. However, I'll have to act on the addonitis I'll probably be getting in order to have enough points to ever be able to swing that!

BTW--I just happened to notice you trip ticker, and it's almost here! Have a GREAT time!

Susan

We leave for Vancouver in 5 days!! Can't wait. Of course your trip report made me even MORE excited....

 

[PURTYPAT1]

Thanks so......much Susan, I booked him July 5th for a few hours in the AM he is picking us up at the hotel with our luggage, touring, then he's dropping us off at the port.

Can hardly wait

 

[disneypoor]

Thanks so......much Susan, I booked him July 5th for a few hours in the AM he is picking us up at the hotel with our luggage, touring, then he's dropping us off at the port.

Can hardly wait

Yeah! I wonder if he's received many calls? I told him I'd be referring him on the DIS. Of course, he had no idea what that was or how powerful of a group we were! I'm guessing he had to go out and buy a planner after all of the messages I've received asking for his contact info! Glad you were able to get it all worked out. ENJOY, ENJOY, ENJOY!

Susan

 

[ariel39]

stupid question When we went on the Magic in 2007 we boarded took the elevator up the pool deck, they announced our names and then proceeded into the buffet Is it the same? We really enjoyed it when they announced our names My DH didnt go with us in 2007 and really want him to experience this Stupid I know but just wondering!

 

[disneypoor]

stupid question When we went on the Magic in 2007 we boarded took the elevator up the pool deck, they announced our names and then proceeded into the buffet Is it the same? We really enjoyed it when they announced our names My DH didnt go with us in 2007 and really want him to experience this Stupid I know but just wondering!

There are no stupid questions! In fact, sometimes I cry like a baby when they announce our names as we enter the ship, but I always try to hide it from my family cause they would think that was just weird.

Yes, they still announce your names. They do it as you enter onto the ship on deck 3. Once they announce you, they direct you to the buffet.

Hope that helped!

Susan

 

[cwdefouw]

Your trip report has been great. Congrats on joining DVC. Your family will love it and since you already plan far ahead there will be no adjustment period getting used to that . We have been members since 1999 and primarily don't use our points for WDW. Our Alaska cruise in August will be our 6th Disney Cruise and they were all booked on points. The value may not be as good as the DVC resorts but we love to cruise and we love Disney so we don't mind using the points, and we love telling our friends and relatives we are cruising for $95 out of pocket. We have been to Mackinaw Island, MI three times (No longer offered in the concierge collection), London, Disneyland Paris twice, DL, WDW many times, plus the 6 cruises. We are now working on bringing extended families to WDW and staying in Grand Villas. The one recommendation I can give you is to find a good excel sheet or some other point tracking program to keep close track of everything. It will only get more complicated when you get addonitis, we have had it three times and now with 4 contracts, I am totally reliant on my excel point tracker.

 

[chickflick]

Great trip report. I'm getting excited and nervous for ours(8/21)..this is our first cruise and your wonderfully, witty trip report was just what I needed! Thank you for the the great read
-Robyn

 

[Disneygrl36]

Really enjoyed your report.
We are cruising to Alaska next May-sadly not on Disney because we are going with my parents & my Mom needed to use points & couldn't on Disney. Your report really helped me get a feeling for what cruising to Alaska will be like. I may have to see about talking my group into the float plane as that looked AMAZING!
Oh & we are DVCer's too & only have great things to say about it!!!! It has worked so well for us!

 

[disneypoor]

Thank you all for the kind words about my TR! I enjoyed writing it and reflecting on our vacation. Alaska was probably one of the most memorable trips we've taken, and we saw things that just can't be described with words. I appreciate all of the nice comments about my writing and hope that somebody actually got something they could use out of my TR.

Susan

 

[disneypoor]

Your trip report has been great. Congrats on joining DVC. Your family will love it and since you already plan far ahead there will be no adjustment period getting used to that . We have been members since 1999 and primarily don't use our points for WDW. Our Alaska cruise in August will be our 6th Disney Cruise and they were all booked on points. The value may not be as good as the DVC resorts but we love to cruise and we love Disney so we don't mind using the points, and we love telling our friends and relatives we are cruising for $95 out of pocket. We have been to Mackinaw Island, MI three times (No longer offered in the concierge collection), London, Disneyland Paris twice, DL, WDW many times, plus the 6 cruises. We are now working on bringing extended families to WDW and staying in Grand Villas. The one recommendation I can give you is to find a good excel sheet or some other point tracking program to keep close track of everything. It will only get more complicated when you get addonitis, we have had it three times and now with 4 contracts, I am totally reliant on my excel point tracker.

Oh how I love to read replies from other DVCer's with nothing but good things to say about DVC! Like you, I also foresee us cruising with points in the future. As long as we are using our points, I'll feel like I'm getting my moneys worth from my DVC. I do have a question for you though--since you have four contracts, how does it work when you go to book a cruise? Do you have to only use points from one contract, or do you get to combine points at the 7 month mark? I'm still a bit baffled about the system, and lots of people have tried to explain it to me, and although I understand it better, there are still some "unknowns" and the whole cruising part is confusing for me. How do you do that? TIA!

Susan

 

[cwdefouw]

For cruises you can combine points from all of your contracts and book up to 24 months in advance if DCL is booking that far off. We usually try to book as soon as new booking windows open as there are a limited number of cabins available for DVC members to book with points. Also something you may not know as we didn't even find this out until recently. Because DVC members cannot take advantage of onboard booking prices and incentives. You can call DVC up to three days after you disembark from a cruise to book your next cruise with points and get a small discount on the number of points required. It is not a big discount and there is no point chart to show the discount or a nice round number of points off. When I called for information they just told me it varies 2-4% off maybe, I can't really remember for sure. I am not sure we will ever take advantage of it unless a new booking window just happens to open while we are on a cruise. Feel free to bounce any other questions off of any of us DVC members, we will be happy to share information.

 

[disneypoor]

For cruises you can combine points from all of your contracts and book up to 24 months in advance if DCL is booking that far off. We usually try to book as soon as new booking windows open as there are a limited number of cabins available for DVC members to book with points. Also something you may not know as we didn't even find this out until recently. Because DVC members cannot take advantage of onboard booking prices and incentives. You can call DVC up to three days after you disembark from a cruise to book your next cruise with points and get a small discount on the number of points required. It is not a big discount and there is no point chart to show the discount or a nice round number of points off. When I called for information they just told me it varies 2-4% off maybe, I can't really remember for sure. I am not sure we will ever take advantage of it unless a new booking window just happens to open while we are on a cruise. Feel free to bounce any other questions off of any of us DVC members, we will be happy to share information.

Thank you so much for this information! So does that mean you can borrow up to 2 years worth of points? What if you bank points? For example, I received 220 points when we bought, I'll get 220 more Dec. 1st, and I'm wondering if I'd be able to use those and then borrow from the next UY in 2013? I'm not really planning to do this, but I just wondered how it would work. Thanks again! I've found the people on the DVC part of this site to be wonderful about answering questions!

Susan

 

[Andrea_loves_Disney]

Hi Susan! Loved your report!!! We were supposed to be on your cruise... We had it booked and just before our desposit was due...the Chicago blizzard of 2011 arrived!! We had 3 snow days at school which pushed finals to June 8th for DD15.. I was DEVASTATED!!! So no cruise for us! (Don't feel too bad for us though, we just spent 8 days at WDW!! Had a blast!) Anyway your pictures and descriptions were awesome. I really wish we could have gone !! Thanks for sharing!!

 

[disneypoor]

Hi Susan! Loved your report!!! We were supposed to be on your cruise... We had it booked and just before our desposit was due...the Chicago blizzard of 2011 arrived!! We had 3 snow days at school which pushed finals to June 8th for DD15.. I was DEVASTATED!!! So no cruise for us! (Don't feel too bad for us though, we just spent 8 days at WDW!! Had a blast!) Anyway your pictures and descriptions were awesome. I really wish we could have gone !! Thanks for sharing!!

Thank you, Andrea! I'm so sorry you didn't get to do the Alaska cruise, but I'm so glad you got to spend some time at WDW! I always figure that as long as I'm doing something that involves the mouse, life is good!

Susan

 

[cwdefouw]

Thank you so much for this information! So does that mean you can borrow up to 2 years worth of points? What if you bank points? For example, I received 220 points when we bought, I'll get 220 more Dec. 1st, and I'm wondering if I'd be able to use those and then borrow from the next UY in 2013? I'm not really planning to do this, but I just wondered how it would work. Thanks again! I've found the people on the DVC part of this site to be wonderful about answering questions!

Susan

It is possible to have 3 years worth of points available at one time through banking and borrowing. I have never booked that far out, but here is a hypothetical example. Let say you want to cruise in June of 2013, and you need 500 points to do it. That is a 2012 use year trip for you since your use year starts in December. You would have to bank some or all of 2011's points to 2012, use all of 2012's points and borrow some or all of 2013's points to 2012, whatever combination you need to get to 500 points. If DCL was booking that far out, you could do that today even though you haven't actually even received the 2011 points yet. I think the way they look at it is, unless you default on the mortgage or the dues, you will 100% definitely receive the points that will be used so they allow you to bank and borrow based on the years that are before and after the use year for the trip. With this example you could book a cruise that needs up to 660 points if you banked all of 2011's points to 2012 and borrowed all of 2013's points to 2012. And don't forget you only need to use points for one person that is sailing, you can pay cash for the rest if you want. You won't get the best deal, as DVC's cash prices are set a year or two in advance and could be higher than the prevailing price DCL might offer. Hope this helps.

Chris

 

[PBader]

The cruise cash prices for DVC are cheaper for 2012 than they are on the DCL website, due to the enormous increases the ships have had. You can also just book 1 person on points and pay cash for the additional. The only drawback with that is that you can't make payments like you can directly to DCL you have to pay in full at the time of booking.

 

[disneypoor]

Thanks to everyone for the replies on DVC and cruising! I'm trying to make sense of all of this, but I think I'm finally seeing the light. Although I've read that it isn't cost effective to book the cruises with your DVC points, I figure that as long as I'm traveling on points and we're happy with our vacations, then my DVC was worth it. I really appreciate the help in understanding how DVC and cruises works though because I'm sure eventually we'll want to cruise again whether it's with points or good old cash!

Susan

 

[womanredress]

Hi Susan!

I really enjoyed reading about your Alaskan adventure and I can't wait til August when I finally get to do mine!

I have two questions for you.

First is about your hike to Nugget falls in Juneau. Did you embark on the hike from the Mendenhall Glacier Visitors Center or was it from someplace else? I was really interested in doing this hike but not everyone in my party wants to do ziplining. So we were going to do the Blue Bus up to the visitor's center and hopefully hike from there.

Also, on the Suspension Bridge part of your Railway adventure in Skagway, do you have to go across the bridge? My mom is not into heights but the rest of us thought that looked awesome!

Thanks so much!