EARLY CHECK IN: December 15th, 2007 - Seven night Western - 12/15/07

[cristit14]

Sharon, I'm by no means an expert, but the reason I believe alot of us are booking on Tuesday is that the first 3 nights (Saturday, Sunday, Monday) we go through our regular dining rotation. Since we don't know what our rotation will be (either APLAPLA, PLAPLAP, or LAPLAPL....I think that's right) we're playing it safe so we can experience all the restaurants. I know one major factor for me was that I don't want to miss the show in Animator's Palate. It's only shown on our first round through the restaurant (so, it's only shown on the first 3 days). Pirate Night is on Wednesday, so we don't want to miss that either. After that, it was just trying to figure out what menu we would miss the least. For us, it was the Master Chef's Menu on Tuesday.

So...since you're looking at Monday and Tuesday, I would vote for Tuesday if you can get a seating. If not, still book when you can and you can always try to change it when you get on board the ship.

For the experienced cruisers....does this sound correct?

Pretty close to the same reason for us. I wanted to go to each of the rotation menus, then Pirate night on Wed and capt's gala on Thurs. That left Tues or Friday for us. I thought Friday night might be too rushed with having to pack and everything ( and I have to go see the pub night show again. It was hilarious!!!)

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

Cristi--We didn't go to any of the adult entertainment, what is Pub night? Is it something that we shouldn't miss? I had reserved Flounder's for a little bit each night in case Andy didn't make it through dinner, but I can rearrange if there is some do not miss stuff for us old folks. The other two will be in the clubs anyway.

 

[feinfam]

Pretty close to the same reason for us. I wanted to go to each of the rotation menus, then Pirate night on Wed and capt's gala on Thurs. That left Tues or Friday for us. I thought Friday night might be too rushed with having to pack and everything ( and I have to go see the pub night show again. It was hilarious!!!)

Same reasoning for us, plus I looked at the Navigators that some DISer posted from their Sept. 2007 Magic Cruise (they were fascinating), and the Navigator from Tuesday said it was the master chef menu at dinner that night. I was intrigued, and searched for "master chef" on the DIS boards - turns out that for many cruisers, that's their least favorite night in the restaurants. Being a newbie, I'm happy to take the sage advice of others . Plus I wanted the last night of the cruise to be family time - my DD11 loves fancy food and this way I can indulge her and not have to cook it.

Does anyone know how likely it is to get the dining rotation you request? I heard it was really fun to be in Parrot Cay for Pirate's Night. Just love the boards!

Kathryn

 

[dutch_girl_scout]

Both times we've been we've had the PLA rotation. We requested it again this time even though that means we'll be in Luminere's for Pirate night. There is such a party atmoshphere that I'm not too concerned about it. It is based alot on the kids' ages. In the passporter (and somewhere on the boards) it says parties with all adults=LAP, young kids=APL, and older kids=PLA. Don't know if that is the only determination for rotation or not. If you don't get the rotation you want you can request to change your dining rotation once onboard at Rockin' Bar D from 12-3pm.

 

[poohkinandpiglet]

Thanks everyone! It makes since to book Palo for Tuesday after we experience all three rotations. I'll be glad when I finish making all the hard decisions and just get to plan the fun stuff!

Sharon

 

[cristit14]

Cristi--We didn't go to any of the adult entertainment, what is Pub night? Is it something that we shouldn't miss? I had reserved Flounder's for a little bit each night in case Andy didn't make it through dinner, but I can rearrange if there is some do not miss stuff for us old folks. The other two will be in the clubs anyway.

It is on the last night of the cruise in Diversions. Some of the entertainment crew put on this skit, "If I were not upon the sea, this is what I would be" (or something like that. I found it really funny. I want Brad to see it this time. Last time he said he was too tired to go. It can be a little off color, but funny.

 

[cristit14]

Well, booked our airline tixs today. I decided to try Southwest. We have never flown with them. I hope it is okay. They were over $400 cheaper.

Now, I need to decide where we are staying and how to get to port. I am thinking we will go on to the port area to stay since we are arriving at 2pm, maybe the Radisson. It looks like it has a nice pool area. I can't decide if we should rent a car or do a town car over there.

 

[poohkinandpiglet]

Well, booked our airline tixs today. I decided to try Southwest. We have never flown with them. I hope it is okay. They were over $400 cheaper.

Now, I need to decide where we are staying and how to get to port. I am thinking we will go on to the port area to stay since we are arriving at 2pm, maybe the Radisson. It looks like it has a nice pool area. I can't decide if we should rent a car or do a town car over there.

We fly Southwest all the time and have never had a problem. Their prices can't be beat! They don't assign seats so you need to print your boarding passes 24 hours in advance. That way, you'll be in one of the first boarding groups and get a better choice of seats.

We decided to rent a car from Budget at MCO. It's only $45 for a full-size and cheaper than a transfer service. We'll return it to the Budget location in Port on Saturday morning before we head over to check-in. We went with Budget because, from what I can tell, it's closest to Port. I think Budget is within walking distance of the Radisson.

If you check on www.mousesavers.com you can find car rental discount codes for Budget. I used one and got a reduce rate.

Sharon

 

[Kadorto]

This may not be a good idea...but would anyone be interested in renting a van for the trip back to the airport and carpooling?

 

[Kadorto]

Looks like someone else already had the idea....the 3 rental companies that I checked show that the vans have already been booked for that day

On another note, we moved our Palo ressies to Tuesday night at 7. After checking the menu this looked liked the best night for us to go..plus getting to see the lights of Grand Cayman as we pull out of port will be a nice bonus

 

[poohkinandpiglet]

This may not be a good idea...but would anyone be interested in renting a van for the trip back to the airport and carpooling?

Our group looked into renting a van. We have seven people total (2 families) and we found it to be much cheaper for each family to rent their own car in Port and drive it back to MCO. It's around $50 for a full-size.

It'll take a little longer after we disembark since we'll have to take the shuttle to the rental car place but we wanted to have the ability to take our time getting back to MCO instead of sitting in the airport waiting for our flight. I think we're going to stop off at Downtown Disney and do a little more shopping.

 

[feinfam]

We LOVE Southwest Airlines; the fares are fantastic. You have to provide your own food if you want a meal, but the fares are so great it's easy enough to overlook that detail. If you can get past not having assigned seating, they're great. We have a Southwest Visa - and every time we use it, we get points toward free miles. Since it's our primary card and we live in a predominately cashless town, we haven't paid for a flight in years - and I fly free whenever I fly with my husband (wish we could put the mortgage on it, too...). Makes the cruise cost a little less painful, since flights from CA to MCO are pretty expensive, particularly around the holidays.

Sharon is right - checking in on-line 24 hours in advance is key. SWA is changing their policy again for boarding, effective this November - see http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcon...thwest_20bus.ART0.State.Edition1.35ba283.html. You not only get assigned in the "A," "B" or "C" boarding group, they'll also start to assign you a number within your group so you can board in order of check-in.

That said, we have only a 25-minute layover on the way home after the cruise , so I'm going to take an extra chill pill that morning in case we wind up missing our connecting flight...customer service assured me that it would be fine.

 

[feinfam]

I wonder if there will be anyone in Palo Tuesday night who isn't part of the meet?

 

[feinfam]

As for renting a car - like Sharon, we used www.mousesavers.com for a trip to WDW during Spring Break 2005 and saved 75% over the regular rate for car rental with National. I had never used National before, but now I'm a loyal customer. Costco has great rates on rental cars, too. I'm surprising my family with a towncar as part of their Christmas present .

It looks like most of the hotels in Cape Canaveral have shuttles over to the port, so you don't need to deal with a car the next day. Hooray.

 

[cristit14]

DS was doing homework tonight and I looked at his spelling list. One of his spelling words is CRUISE

 

[poohkinandpiglet]

I asked this question on the other forum but never got an answer- so, I'll ask you.

On the 75 day mark, how early can I log on and make my ressies?

Sharon

 

[disneycruise05]

I asked this question on the other forum but never got an answer- so, I'll ask you.

On the 75 day mark, how early can I log on and make my ressies?

Sharon

You can log in and start booking excursions and Palo at midnight Eastern time, as long as you have paid for your cruise in full. So, I would start getting on the website around 11:55 PM EST on Sept. 30th (I think that's right) toget ready. If at midnight you log on and it gives you an error, simply log back out and then log back in. You might have to do this a couple of times. I had to do it about 5 times after getting errors that I hadn't paid in full or hadn't provided the birthdays of everyone in my party. Around 12:05, I was able to log in and start booking.

 

[cristit14]

You can log in and start booking excursions and Palo at midnight Eastern time, as long as you have paid for your cruise in full. So, I would start getting on the website around 11:55 PM EST on Sept. 30th (I think that's right) toget ready. If at midnight you log on and it gives you an error, simply log back out and then log back in. You might have to do this a couple of times. I had to do it about 5 times after getting errors that I hadn't paid in full or hadn't provided the birthdays of everyone in my party. Around 12:05, I was able to log in and start booking.

I had the same problem. I think that the website doesn't like Firefox either, so the second time I went in, I made sure I was in IE.

 

[poohkinandpiglet]

You can log in and start booking excursions and Palo at midnight Eastern time, as long as you have paid for your cruise in full. So, I would start getting on the website around 11:55 PM EST on Sept. 30th (I think that's right) toget ready. If at midnight you log on and it gives you an error, simply log back out and then log back in. You might have to do this a couple of times. I had to do it about 5 times after getting errors that I hadn't paid in full or hadn't provided the birthdays of everyone in my party. Around 12:05, I was able to log in and start booking.

UUGH!! It sounds painful-- like trying to book Cinderella's Royal Table!

 

[feinfam]

UUGH!! It sounds painful-- like trying to book Cinderella's Royal Table!

Exactly!

BTW, today Southwest just sent an e-mail explaining their new boarding procedures. Sounds fairly civilized (and no more camping at the gate):

http://www.southwest.com/help/boardingschool/

I'm looking forward to hearing new songs sung by the flight attendants about the new policy...