!!!! Early Roll Call for January 21 2006 Eastern Magic Cruise !!!!

[JLDSMD]

Craig,

Which days are you flying? Friday to Saturday or because the flight is at night are you going down on Thursday?

Also, weren't your fares $175? Just wondering why the extra $10 per ticket.

Jeff

 

[gydell]

I am just glad that I have my tickets. It takes a lot of the pressure off, now how many more days?

 

[the4nitz's]

We are flying out Friday morning at 7:30 with a lay over in Atlanta, getting to Orlando around 1:30. We have a non-stop flight home on Saturday leaving Orlando at 3:15. There is an extra charge for connecting flights.

 

[soccrmom65]

Leaving BWI with a connection in Atlanta....could have gone nonstop but using up some vouchers and needed a specific class of service...so connection on Saturday it is for me.

 

[plenam]

We're leaving on Fri. at 3:15PM out of Mke, getting into MCO at 6:50PM. Still don't know if we're going to stay in Orlando or Port Canaveral the night before. Going home we have a 11:45AM flight, hopefully that gets us in our backdoor at 4:00PM Sat afternoon.

Brett

 

[JLDSMD]

We did not book on Air Tran. DW wants to go Midwest. We will be using one if not two free tickets. By doing so, we will have to fly out of Tampa because we want to come back on Sunday morning. We could do either flight out of Orlando on Saturday, but we want to go to WDW after the cruise. So we will be going out on Thursday at 3:15, getting into Orlando at 6:50 p.m. We'll be spending two nights in WDW before heading over to the port on Saturday morning.

The two free tickets are on hold until next Wednesday, and I will look to extend them another week if possible if they don't run a sale for the purchased ticket by then.

I checked Air Trans web site this morning and the fares went back up to $255. I checked again just now and noticed that the Non-Stop going down is no longer listed on their website. Not sure if they took it away, but it isn't listed at all the week before the cruise or the week back. Furthermore, I see they changed the return flight already from 3:4? to 4:15. It is still a non-stop, so that is a good thing. So, it maybe a good thing I didn't book them. We would be forced to connect now on the way down (if they indeed removed the non-stop).

Jeff

 

[unixadm]

We are going on the 01/21/06....this is our first cruise...we can't wait!

We are driving down on Friday, and staying at the Radisson Hotel. We can leave our truck there for the trip....it is included in the price of the hotel room.

I just got the cruise kit in the mail today. An interesting thing is it says that as of Nov 7th, I can start booking shore excursions, spa and Palo reservations. I didn't realize we could book Palo ahead of time. I was under the impression that I had to wait until I got on board and pay a $10 reservation fee. Anyone want to confirm that we can book this

 

[gydell]

Welcome! Where in Ga are you from? We are from the Atlanta area. How old are your kids? This is our 1st Disney cruise and have found this website very helpful

 

[JLDSMD]

unixadm,
Welcome to our DIS Meets thread. You are going to love the Disney Cruise. I noticed in the pictures in your signature there are two boys. Are they joining you? We have a list of DISer children going. If you'd like, please let me know the ages and I'll add them to the list.

As for your question regarding Palo, yes, you will be able to book at 75 days out. This is new since about the beginning of summer. The people who have cruised before, also known as Castaway Club members, can book at 90 days. The people sailing in Category 1-3 rooms and on the REAS package can book at either 105 or 120 days. I can't remember which one. The $10 per person will be billed to your room account after you go to Palo.

Also at the 75 day mark, you will be able to book your shore excursions and register the kids for the clubs.

Any other questions, just post them here. Everyone here if friendly and can answer your questions.

Jeff

 

[JLDSMD]

One thing I forgot to add, you do have to be paid in full before they let you book Palo, shore excursions or kids club registration.

Jeff

 

[JLDSMD]

Air Tran update.

I see the non-stop from MKE to MCO is now back on their website. However, it is now at 8:15 a.m. That would have totally screwed us up. That is about a 10 hour change. We would have pulled DS out of school the whole day and DW would have had to take the whole day off. Her boss would have been really upset with her.

Craig, any chance you guys can switch to the non-stop now that they put it to the morning? I see they still have the 7:05 out getting in at 1:39, but if they keep the non-stop at this time, you'd get in at 11:55 a.m. However, I wouldn't be surprised if they switch the schedules again.

Jeff

 

[the4nitz's]

It's only been about 24 hrs since we made our reservation with Airtran and they have made changes to both our flights. Our 7:25am departure is now 7:05am and our return went from 3:15pm to 4:15pm. They have a big sale and then make changes to all their flights out of Milwaukee. It's not a big time change, but when you have a 2hr drive to the airport, it's a pain. I guess for the price we paid, I can't complain too much. I wonder what time our flights we be by the time Jan 20 arrives????????

Jeff

I might give them a call to see if we can make the change to the non-stop in the AM for the flight down. I imagine they will gladly do it for the 50.00 fee per ticket. Then who knows what time the non-stop will be come january. I see Midwest went up another 10.00 per ticket. What's up with them? I guess they don't want a full plane!!

 

[JLDSMD]

Craig,

I feel bad about the changes. I'd like to see AT hold their times for once. I can't believe they changed them so much one day after their sale ended. But like you said, you can't beat the price. The only other non-stop besides AT and MW is NWA and they didn't have the dates around our cruise on sale this time (at least the Sat and Sun for the return flight).

If you are going to make a change, you might want to wait until it is a little closer to January. With our October flights on AT, it has been changed about 5 times. Not too much variation after the first change, but the non-stop has changed drastically. I can say that if they do move your flights drastically, they will let you change the flight times without any charge. We were able to move ours with no fees.

I'm just glad, in hindsight, that we didn't book the non-stop. I was very close to booking last night and felt sick to myself this morning when they went back up to $255 and MW went up another $10 ($305 to Orlando - can you believe it? They have over 125 empty seats.). The change in time would have not worked for us. However, it would help you now. Too bad it wasn't at that time when you originally booked. You may want to use that angle with AT to get on the flight at no charge. Tell them that if it was at 8:15 when you booked, you would have taken that flight.

As for MW, I can't figure them out. The only thing I can figure, and told DW this morning, is they think why match the price now. They probably figured they can't fly that cheap, so why slit their throats. Come in a week or so from now and run a sale, not as good as the last three days, but people will still buy. I'm still concerned on how the fuel costs are going to affect them.

DW and I are getting to the point where we may just use all her miles and take two free flights. I honestly don't know how they can survive in the current market. Not sure how much longer we'll have to use the miles. I would feel more comfortable booking with Air Tran than MW. The niche airlines will survive. As stated the other week, however, this is only speculation.

Jeff

 

[PiperG]

We bought our NWA tickets a couple of months back, and shortly thereafter were notified that our outbound @ 3:16 (direct) had been canceled. They had re-booked us on a connecter through Detroit.

DH called right away! NWA said they tried to re-book us on a flight that left about the same time, and a connection was the only thing available. He had them switch us to a 1:00 direct departure. That was earlier than we wanted to leave (didn't want to take DS8 out of school any more than we had to). However, we didn't want to change planes on the outbound b/c the weather can be so bad in MN.

This is not the first time the airlines have changed/cancelled flights. This has happned to us on American as well. It must be standard practice, but it still drives us OC planners nuts.

On the up side. . . . in 20 weeks we will be the ones at the port waiting to board the Magic. Sounds pretty good, huh?

 

[plenam]

On the up side. . . . in 20 weeks we will be the ones at the port waiting to board the Magic. Sounds pretty good, huh?

Hey PiperG,
Sound like a plan to me!!

Brett

 

[soccrmom65]

It makes it seem closer then how many days..haha. I am just excited to be going on a cruise.....I am also excited because I am going to a special sailing of the new NCL Jewel for a 2 nighter out of NYC in two weeks which kinda gets me in the cruizing mood...I just hope I can hold out until January....Mickey here I come!!! I think I am more excited then my neice is....and this trip was really for her. Or so I thought..haha.

 

[plenam]

If my calculations are correct, we have 50 days to go till repeat cruisers can start making their ressies......

 

[unixadm]

unixadm,
Welcome to our DIS Meets thread. You are going to love the Disney Cruise. I noticed in the pictures in your signature there are two boys. Are they joining you? We have a list of DISer children going. If you'd like, please let me know the ages and I'll add them to the list.

As for your question regarding Palo, yes, you will be able to book at 75 days out. This is new since about the beginning of summer. The people who have cruised before, also known as Castaway Club members, can book at 90 days. The people sailing in Category 1-3 rooms and on the REAS package can book at either 105 or 120 days. I can't remember which one. The $10 per person will be billed to your room account after you go to Palo.

Also at the 75 day mark, you will be able to book your shore excursions and register the kids for the clubs.

Any other questions, just post them here. Everyone here if friendly and can answer your questions.

Jeff

Yes....our boys are going with us.....They will be 5 and 3 when we go. Yes, you can add them to the list. If you need info, drop me a PM.

We are using DVC points, so I assume that means we are paid in full, so we should be able to book at the 75 days out. That is great to hear about Palo. My wife and I want to have a dinner to ourselves for 1 night, so I will be on the phone on Nov 7th!

We have a Disney World trip in less than 2 weeks and then it will be getting all psyched up for the Cruise. We definitely want to meet up with some of the DISers.

 

[Robotyx]

You have her on the list...I am the other half of Soccrmom

 

[Robotyx]

??? Does DCL have special events that we need to plan for such as 70's night, country night, or other theme nights like some of the other cruise lines...just wondering if we need to pack anything for a specific theme.