"Double Dip Delight" 09/27/08 - Take 2 with Link to Original Thread!

[anc22]

So guess what I purchased for us?
www.coffeeforless.com
Description
Tortuga Rum Cake Pineapple 16oz: $15.50
Tortuga Rum Cake Original 16oz: $15.50
Shipping: $5.95 (shipping is free for orders of $50 or more)
Coupon Code: SUMMERTEA (-$3.10) (this 10% off coupon code is good until 6.30.08)
Sales Tax: $0.00
Total: $33.85

OH! When I was searching for a source for the rum cakes, I ran across this Tortuga YouTube video. It made me think of our little DIS family here.

Kimberly that video was really funny I love the idea of buying some Rum Cakes BEFORE the cruise. Got to build up a tolerance right?

Hi Everyone
Today is the first day of summer for the kids and I, I hope they dont drive me too crazy Its supposed to rain today maybe a trip to the library is in order.

I know, my daughter has been out of school for 2 weeks now and I was just thinking today, it is going to be a looooooong summer

I checked the web site it still shows Costa Maya and there are now Cat 11, 10, 9, 6, 5. and 4 available. I am thinking that there were a few folks that have backed out due to the port change and a number who transfered due to the upcoming payment deadline. Lois

Maybe there will be some upgrades available after all

Kids got off to camp beautifully - I wish I could go to camp. It's so beautiful there. My house is SOOOOOOOO quiet.

Oh no, I know that Madison has been meaning to email Morgan before she left for camp........i'll have to tell her it is too late

I thought I would share a picture with you all.. DS graduated on Saturday from High School.. Dad was so proud.. DS wore his Ears..

Congrats to you and your son!

I did accomplish something this weekend aside from staying cool in our heat LOL. Booked our post cruise hotel.. at the POP which also crosses off tranportaion to the parks and back to the airport. Also Tonya and I are gong to share a limo from port to hotel so that is a surprize to the boys. Think im going to surprize E to. I told him about the idea of a limo, but think Ill make it seem like no were renting a car instead. So he gets 2surprizes out of this vacation, a massage on castaway cay and the limo.. what do i get .. hm I think an extra rum cake for my efforts and a bottle of rum (yo ho ho LOL)

So if anyone can recamend a limo service Im all ears!

Booking our post cruise hotel is the last "big" thing that I need to do, but we don't get to go to the World, so we are just staying at the airport

I am using FL Tours for our limo to pick us up from the airport and take us to our pre-cruise hotel in CC. I can't really recommend them because I haven't used them before, but I did get their name from Dis.

 

[zweihund]

In case you get the itch to re-book?

Check the mailing label... Did it come from your travel agent or from Disney? I've gotten the wrong mailing from a travel agent before. The funny part is that my correct reservation information was on the form letter that came with the packet, but the person putting together the packet had just grabbed the wrong information booklet to send out to me. No biggie!

I got mine (Planning kit) the other day for the 10/4/08 cruise but still have not seen the 9/27/08 one. Who knows what goes on with the number of those they need to send out each week. I figure with 3 sailing each week it is about 3,000 a week. It is easy to see how a mistake could be made.

I checked the web site it still shows Costa Maya and there are now Cat 11, 10, 9, 6, 5. and 4 available. I am thinking that there were a few folks that have backed out due to the port change and a number who transfered due to the upcoming payment deadline. Lois

After reading both of your comments, I got very excited. I was like, "hey, someone booked another cruise for us anonymously!"

(yes, I have an active imagination. all writers do)

So I actually DUG MY ENVELOPE OUT OF THE TRASH. Luskily it wasn't down very far, since it only came yesterday and we had pizza for dinner. And I realized it was for the same cruise. Apparently, because we added the REAS at the last minute, they sent us ANOTHER welcome package with the new booking date. That was a week ago. And sent us the wrong booklet.



Ah well. That excitement didn't last very long! The dog was looking at me like, "why are you digging in the trash, mom?"

I thought I would share a picture with you all.. DS graduated on Saturday from High School.. Dad was so proud.. DS wore his Ears..

Awesome! I LOVE the ears! Congrats Stacy!

Oh Denise, Im stressen about packing too. 4 of us and only 4 bags... not gonna work E will pack 2 just for HIM. THis is the man that is only allowed to take 2 bags to Iraq and finds a way to take 4. And he only has like 4 different things he can wear... camis, , pt gear (gym clothes), and civi clothes incase he has to fly home (like he did when his dad died) so Im going to be paying for extra luggage im sure with this man LOL

We were trying to deceice on the TUX issue too. I think we are gonna pass.. it would have been nice to have all my mens in them and me in my gown but then thats a whole nother bag let alone to have to buy the tux. I still may if i find a deal on his off ebay and surprize him. Maybe one that kind of looks like a suit. All he has now is a grey pin strip suit and its nice but also good to have a black one. Desisions Desisions!

We are just going to get Lionel one more suit before the trip, I think. We have a nice black one with very light pinstripes that we got at Burlington for only $170 or something ridiculous like that. We'll definitely be going back for the "more casual" suit. Also, we managed to fit quite a lot into our garment bag - I got one with hard sides, and last year we fit his suit, three shirts, and three dressed PLUS all of our dressy shoes. We still had room for more. I don't know if that helps any. I guess I'm lucky that Lionel thinks one outfit for each day is overpacking

 

[rkandmjsmommy]

I thought I would share a picture with you all.. DS graduated on Saturday from High School.. Dad was so proud.. DS wore his Ears..

So Handsome, love the Ears!

 

[CrazyZeus1]

Pfishgirl--congrats & LOVE the ears!!!

 

[Grandma4ever]

Following you will find my communication with DCL concerning the fact that the Web site still list Costa Maya as a port of call. You will note that the answer has nothing to do with my concern. Another interesting fact is I recieved two Identical answers from two different CM. (Both with the Same error in the last sentence.) I had suspected that they did a cut and paste but this just proves it. I have lost respect for the company. I think it is a shame that they cannot trust the employees to answer simple question in their own words. The fact that weeks after a change in port the Web site still is booking families to go to Costa Maya also seems much less than I would have expected from a company I had grown to love. I guess I can't even trust the Mouse to do what is right!! Lois

6/24/08

Dear Ms. Sergent:

Thank you for your recent email.

We welcome your observations and suggestions on ways in which we can improve our guest experience. Please know that feedback such as yours is very important to us, as we are committed to offering the most up-to-date information in a timely manner and apologize for the delay in the information being updated on our website.

We had tried to contact all of the guests and travel partners on your sailing prior to the shore excursion booking window opening, so that guests could book the excursions that most suited their need in Grand Cayman. Guests on future voyages previously scheduled to stop in Costa Maya will be receiving letters explaining the itinerary change.

As you may be aware Hurricane Dean passed directly over the Yucatan Peninsula and Costa Maya last year. In an effort to provide comfortable shore excursion experiences for you and your family the itinerary has been modified to include Grand Cayman.

We believe this itinerary change is necessary to continue to provide the first-class experience guests have come to know and expect.

Again, thank you for your email and comments. We look for to sailing with you later this year.

Sincerely,

Wilma Reservations Department (the other answer was from Joel)
Disney Cruise Vacations

*If applicable, please include your full name, reservation number, and phone number on all correspondence.

Original Message Follows:
------------------------

I am booked on the 9/27 Double Dip and have been informed we are no longer visiting Costa Maya. However, when I visit the Web site it is still listed as a port and there is no indication that it has been changed. I believe this is a disservice to those who may still be looking to book this cruise and is much less then the service I have been known to have from Disney. The only reason I can see for not changing it is that there is still a chance that the later cruises will still visit. Would it not make sense to place a pop up note much like you do to give notice of changes caused by storms to alert us to the changes and reason for the change to this cruise. Not having the information direct from the source is unfair and dishearting to say the least. Thank you, Lois Sergent

Lois Sergent

 

[rkandmjsmommy]

Oh Denise, Im stressen about packing too. 4 of us and only 4 bags... not gonna work E will pack 2 just for HIM. THis is the man that is only allowed to take 2 bags to Iraq and finds a way to take 4. And he only has like 4 different things he can wear... camis, , pt gear (gym clothes), and civi clothes incase he has to fly home (like he did when his dad died) so Im going to be paying for extra luggage im sure with this man LOL

We were trying to deceice on the TUX issue too. I think we are gonna pass.. it would have been nice to have all my mens in them and me in my gown but then thats a whole nother bag let alone to have to buy the tux. I still may if i find a deal on his off ebay and surprize him. Maybe one that kind of looks like a suit. All he has now is a grey pin strip suit and its nice but also good to have a black one. Desisions Desisions!

I did accomplish something this weekend aside from staying cool in our heat LOL. Booked our post cruise hotel.. at the POP which also crosses off tranportaion to the parks and back to the airport. Also Tonya and I are gong to share a limo from port to hotel so that is a surprize to the boys. Think im going to surprize E to. I told him about the idea of a limo, but think Ill make it seem like no were renting a car instead. So he gets 2surprizes out of this vacation, a massage on castaway cay and the limo.. what do i get .. hm I think an extra rum cake for my efforts and a bottle of rum (yo ho ho LOL)

So if anyone can recamend a limo service Im all ears!

lets try this again...coputer shut down after a huge post I wrote

We are also staying at pop post cruise, Sat we plan to do Epcot, food and wine festival , then Sunday MNSSHP, maybe we will see you at one or both

Love the surprises, I love giving them but HATE receiving them.
Dh is not too keen on the tux idea today... that could chage
Thanks again for the email about packing, you are too sweet

 

[Fizzgig]

Lois, I think you're overreacting. The website people have no connection to the people working on the boat. There is all of ONE IT guy on the Magic, that's how little connection there is between the two groups. The Disney website is maintained by IBM Global Services here in Boulder, Colorado. Yes, I used to work there, and the team that does that support was right around the corner. VERY nice people, EXTREMELY overworked.

As for people responding to your emailed questions, they -have- to follow the script when replying IN WRITING to someone, so please understand their point of view, too. You would be better served picking up the phone and calling DCL to let them know... but understand the website changes take a very long time to get through the testing process. Yes, they probably already know the content is wrong, and have decided that once somone books, they will see in their reservation how the itinerary states Grand Cayman, not Costa Maya. In addition, most people call DCL at some point, versus booking completely online. At that point, the script probably states how no ports are guaranteed, but the stated itinerary has currently changed due to Hurricane Dean damaging Costa Maya.

In short, don't reflect the website on the servers in Palo. They have nothing to do with each other.

ETA: Lois, I would yank your email address from your post, too. Spiders crawl publicly accessible pages looking for that kind of information.

 

[zweihund]

Lois, I know our little company has no ability to do anything with our website (which is really crappy) unless we go though about ten people first, but at the same time I am surprised that two weeks have gone by and the DCL site has not been changed. At least an addendum like "due to damages to the port in Costa Maya, the following itenerary changes have been made to the following sailings...." would have been nice.

It does surprise me.

All the same, when I worked in customer service I know we used to get "scripts" to say to the customers about things that were going on. Like, when a construction worker at Sea World DIED after falling into an empty Shamu pool (30 feet, landing on his head), the stadium closed and there were no shows for the rest of the day. We all had to tell the guests a rehearsed line like "unforseen circumstances have caused the pools to be closed" or something stupid like that when they asked about showtimes. So, that may be why the response was so canned. And cut and pasted. WITH A TYPO! That kills me.

Ah, well. Hopefully it won't upset anyone who books now thinking they are still going to CM in September.

 

[cyndifan]

Kids got off to camp beautifully -

I am going to try to read back and see what I've missed - are we still Cayman or are we Costa Maya or, perhaps, Disney's decided to just wing it and send us all to Belize or something!

Glad to hear camp drop-off went well. I know they will enjoy it. Yet another thing we have to look forward to in the next year or so......once DD gets old enough.

oooo........Belize sounds like fun.

 

[Magic3forme]

Pfishgirl: Awesome pic and congrats!

 

[cyndifan]

I thought I would share a picture with you all.. DS graduated on Saturday from High School.. Dad was so proud.. DS wore his Ears..

Congrats to all of you!!! I know it feels great to have accomplished that milestone!!! That's a great pic of them both.

We were trying to deceice on the TUX issue too. I think we are gonna pass.. it would have been nice to have all my mens in them and me in my gown but then thats a whole nother bag let alone to have to buy the tux. I still may if i find a deal on his off ebay and surprize him. Maybe one that kind of looks like a suit. All he has now is a grey pin strip suit and its nice but also good to have a black one. Desisions Desisions!
So if anyone can recamend a limo service Im all ears!

You know there's an option of renting a tux, right? Its through cruiselineformal.com.
I'm fairly sure DH will just be wearing his black suit he has rather than renting or buying a tux. Its done well for weddings & funerals thus far, should be fine for formal night. I'm planning on wearing the bridesmaid dress from my DSis wedding last year. DD will be wearing her flowergirl dress (as long as it still fits - it should as it was pretty long). DSis did a really great thing for her bridesmaids - she let us pick out the individual style dresses we wanted, just had to stick w/the color & a certain manufacturer. End result = a dress I'd actually wear again for something formal.

For limo recommendations from Port, perhaps Shirley Brown can help. She has an info page set up.....not sure if there's anything on limos listed there. If you post a question to her, she can make recommendations. Here's the link: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1520273

 

[cyndifan]

Ditto to what Fizzgig & Erica have said regarding the difficulty of getting things updated for a corporate public website. Working for a big pharma, I've seen what kinds of hoops you have to go through to get something updated on our INTERNAL (employees only) website. The level of difficulty is multiplied when you add in anything that's not a static webpage. I'm guessing Disney's web folks are like ours as well - seriously under-resourced & over burdened. It still stinks that there's inaccurate info showing on the public side though.

Not surprised at the scripted responses either. We use those as well. When calling directly to DCL, the reservations folks seem to be a bit more relaxed, but there's still a bit of scripted material - especially in relation to the change from CM to GC & the reasons why.

 

[pfishgirl]

Thank You ALL so much for the Kind words about DS & DH
I knew you would all appreciate the Ears

So who else realizes the in 5 days we can Book ressies!!!!! Although it would help alot if we knew what Island we are going to

I do have to contact DCL and explain we have 2 less adults for Palo now We may even be losing our Son if his College is as strict with days off as our friend.. Her Chemistry Teacher told her, she'd lose all her credits for the semester if she takes all 5 days off.. She is so upset because she had everything planned out and ready to book her excursions and ressies for things... They were both looking forward to a Vacation..

 

[Fizzgig]

Although it would help alot if we knew what Island we are going to

You will only be able to book for Grand Cayman, Cozumel, and 2 days (with the appropriate specials) in Castaway Cay. No confusion at all when you go to book. They'll even give descriptions of the excursions when you choose from the list.

Only one excursion is booked up, as of yesterday. It was the cavern exploration excursion.

High tea for day 3 is full, but 3 pm on Day 6 is still open. Brunch has 3 time slots for Day 3, and only 10:30 am for Day 6. All of the time slots for Palo dinner are open.

Hope that helps!

 

[cyndifan]

I bet the 90-day'ers are getting really excited!! The time is almost here.

Anyone planning on doing the stingrays on CC? If so, what time(s) are you planning for? According to the ressies page, the earliest time looks like 10AM. We've booked for that window via the extreme package. I may change that though since we plan on bringing our own snorkel gear, you can bring your own floaty type thing & we may or may not get to the bikes that go 'round at CC. So looks like we'd be paying for a lot we may/may not use. The afternoon is pretty much taken up w/lunch & a couples cabana massage. So all this would pretty much need to be in the morning. Feels pretty crowded to try to get that all in.

Anyone see a reason NOT to back it down to just stingrays? I mean, we can always rent the bikes there at CC the day of if it looks like we'll get to it.

 

[videoman]

With this being my 5th Disney cruise...I have never worn nor rented a Tux
While I have seen other gentlemen wearing them...any suit will do....remember you are not there to impress anyone...just there to have a great time

charlie

 

[shoes99]

A few years ago we went on the Magic Eastern 7 night cruise as part of Deb Wills "Pink Ribbon Cruise" Breast Cancer Survivors group. There were 35 women and 3 men. DH didn't have a suit that fit him, so I rented a tux to be delivered to our stateroom. On the first formal night the women made such a fuss over him, they kept calling him "MR BOND". To this day, when we meet up with Deb & Linda from allears, they call him MR BOND.
DH tells this story all the time. You really don't need a tux, but for this occasion it worked out fine.
Aunt Michele

 

[Fizzgig]

With this being my 5th Disney cruise...I have never worn nor rented a Tux
While I have seen other gentlemen wearing them...any suit will do....remember you are not there to impress anyone...just there to have a great time

charlie

Um, DH is there to impress ME... It's our anniversary, though! He struts when he gets to wear a suit or a tux. Bear in mind, though, that he isn't in the usual penguin suit; he's bought his own attire. He has a mandarin collar tux and a zoot suit he loves.

 

[Grandma4ever]

This week end we get to book as castaway members. I am not worried as I know that they only release so many spots for any one activity to allow all cruisers to have a chance to do what they desire. I believe even though a excrusion seems to be filled now a few more opening will magically appear this weekend and then again at 75 days.

I have always gotten what I wanted to do even my very first time. I plan to try to get a Monday Brunch. Now that we are down in number to book the private room maybe we should all try to book for Monday and then we would be there at the same time. We could go in advance to Palo and request they set us all in the same area. Lois

 

[FatCat]

For all you analytical Freaks out there.

I have been analyzing insurance policies.

Found some interesting things.

IF YOU DO NOT NEED PRE-EXISTING CONDITION WAIVER

you MAY be able to book insurance for say only $100 trip coverage but get all extreme scenarios covered.

Ex. If you are not buying insurance for the cost of your cruise but just care about medical, evacuation, luggage loss, you can buy a policy for significantly less. There appears to be a fixed cost for the extreme scenarios but a a per dollar increase for coverage for the cruise fixed cost.



If you need the pre-existing condition waiver many policys MAY state that all non refundable costs must be calculated at time of purchase along with other restrictions for pre-existing coverage. I have also played with the numbers and for insurance for four people the coverage price changes at the per $1000 level for several policies. So why not insure for more.


They also said to look into details for policies covering excursions. You may need to adjust policy size. I found that interesting.

Just some things to look at....

Please do not listen to me. I am a fool. Review your policies carefully with agent.