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

[PiperG]

??? 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.

They sure do! You might want to go to www.dcltribute.com That site has Personal Navigators posted. You can look at the themes for each night in the dining rooms or the adult areas.

70's night is a blast! DH and I went for this first time on our most recent Eastern cruise. I could not believe how much fun we had watching other cruisers go a little crazy. . . .I don't want to spill the beans, so that I all I will say.

 

[SandieT]

We have our airline tickets. I got tired of waiting for Frontier to lower prices and with fuel prices only going up thought I had better get it done. We are going on Fly Ted arriving Thurs. Going home on Sunday. The times are actually better and so I am very excited. My family (especially DD7) is very tired of me talking about this trip. Well just wait until we can make reservations, they won't know what to do!

 

[JLDSMD]

Here is the updated listed by gender and age.

DD's
DD3 the4nitz's
DD3 SandieT
DD3 4warmwishers
DD6 the4nitz's
DD7 jollytammy (neighbors)
DD7 SandieT
DD7 leejay22
DD8 NEPatsFan
DN10 soccrmom65
DGrD10 skybuffalo
DD10 crazy4M
DN12 soccrmom65
DD13 NEPatsFan
G13 suejmj (and crew)
G14 suejmj (and crew)
G17 suejmj (and crew)

DS's
DS3 unixadm
DS3 leejay22
DS4 turnlisa
DGrS4 gydell
DGrS4 skybuffalo
B5 suejmj (and crew)
DS5 unixadm
DS5 leejay22
DS5 JLDSMD (almost 6)
DS6 NEPatsFan
DS6 4warmwishers
B8 suejmj (and crew)
DS8 PiperG (almost 9)
DS9 plenam
DS9 turnlisa
DS10 jollytammy
DS11 jollytammy (neighbors)
DS11 NEPatsFan
DS12 plenam
DS15 jollytammy
B15 suejmj (and crew)

Please let me know if anyone is missing or if any data needs to be corrected.

Jeff

 

[JLDSMD]

For those of you who want to see the list by DISer, here is the updated list:

the4nitz's: DD3 DD6
plenam: DS9 DS12
PiperG: DS8 (almost 9)
JLDSMD: DS5 (almost 6)
turnlisa: DS4 DS9
ameejason: 3, 3, 5, and 7 (not sure if DD's or DS's or a combo)
SandieT: DD3 DD7
JollyTammy: DS10 DS15
JollyTammy's neighbors: DD7 DS11
NEPatsFan: DS6 DD8 DS11 DD13
gydell: DGrS4
soccrmom65: DN10 DN12
suejmj (and crew): G13, G14, G17 B5, B8, B15
skybuffalo: DGS4, DGD10
crazy4M: DD10
unixadm: DS3, DS5
4warmwishers: DD3, DS6
leejay22: DS3, DS5, DD7

If anyone missing or incorrect, please let me know so I can correct the list.

Jeff

 

[gydell]

Great list once again! The 14 year old friend is not coming after all. Her mom decided that 6 days out of school was too much. The 4 year old boy is a dgrs. Thanks

 

[JLDSMD]

gydell,

I updated my post.

Jeff

 

[the4nitz's]

Jeff

I see AirTran has sales on fares again. From 69.00 one way depending on the day and time. Boy, Midwest just does not want to move. I really wanted to book with Midwest, but could not pass up the price I got. I'll give them a try.

 

[jollytammy]

Are any of you going to make reservations for the Lord Sheffied in St. Martin? I just sent in my request. There is a $4 per adult discount at www.saint-martin-activities.com. Wish I'd made them sooner, the price went up $10 from when I originally was looking at making reservations! It looks like a really great excursion.

What excursions are you planning for St. Thomas?

Look forward to seeing you all soon!!!!
Tammy

 

[JLDSMD]

Craig,

I have been watching all the airlines. Everyone is on sale until Sept 20th, EXCEPT Midwest. There are different tiers of pricing from $175 to $215 depending on the day we want to fly.

With AirTran, DW doesn't want to fly them. She doesn't like the way they change their flight schedules. If we would have booked them last time, we would have booked an evening flight, just to turn around the next day and have become a morning flight. I'm still open minded and would be willing to give them a chance (we are already using them in Oct). The problem we have now with them is that the non-stop is in the a.m. We need to fly in the afternoon or evening and DW wants to go down on Thursday. We could do the Friday a.m., but she doesn't want to. Plus, for the sale this time, you can't fly back on Sundays. We want to spend the night at WDW after the cruise. The Saturday afternoon flight is on sale. It would be a possibility, but my concern would be if they move it to the a.m. as they did for October. We don't want to connect on the way down, but I don't see a problem connecting on the way back. So if they did switch it, it would be fine in my book. DW feels different.

I even offered DW the option of going down on MW and coming back on AirTran. She didn't want to do it. We could have gotten two free flights down on MW for 30k FF miles (15K per one-way ticket), used my voucher, and got the cheap seats back on Saturday on AirTran. I thought it was a good alternative. We would go out Thur afternoon and come back on the $69 airfare.

Where we stand right now is we have 2 FF seats on hold until the 20th of this month on MW, departing on Thur p.m. returning Sun night (we originally were planning on going back on the 11:50 flight out of Tampa, but decided to look into booking a Deluxe room that Saturday and using the pool for the day on Sunday. Hope it's not to cold. ). I'm holding out hope that MW will drop the price before then. Then I may use my voucher and save the FF miles for one of the seats. If not, we will use all the miles and purchase DW's ticket for $305.

Did you ever call AirTran to see if they would change your flight to the non-stop on Friday? Just curious.

Jeff

P.S. Did you get my pm response to your pm? I thought I sent it requesting receipt, but I haven't seen anything saying you got it. If not, let me know. I'll resend.

 

[gydell]

Living in Atlanta we always use Delta but the with the Airtran sale last month and the condition Delta is in we decided to use Airtran. We have already change our flight for a day early than first planned. They had no problem with changing it since it was the same fare and did not charge us anything. I would think that if they change the flight time that they would also change you to another flight of your choice. It may be worth a try.

 

[JLDSMD]

gydell,

They, AT, did let us change our flights without any problems when they changed the outbound for Oct. They originally rescheduled us for a 10:20 a.m. flight, but that conflicted with DS's school, so we went for the 4:?? something flight. That got moved to 3:55, but that was actually better for us. They did move our connection into MCO a couple of times as well (not to mention 2 changes to our return flight). If we would have booked the non-stop (was way too much when we booked) we would have had to connect anyways. They dropped it from that day for some reason (or it got full, but it's not there the week after either). The best thing is that AT has assigned us seats now on all 4 flights. The tickets originally stated that due to the low fare, assinged seats are not available until check-in (which, btw, would be the day before if you check-in online. Anyone going back on Saturday may want to use the internet cafe on board to check in if your seats aren't assigned).

In Craig's (the4nitz's) situation, he booked the morning connecting flight but now AT changed the non-stop from 6:?? p.m. to 8:?? a.m. They made the change the day after the sale ended. If it would have been at 8:?? a.m. during the sale, I'm sure Craig would have booked that one.

Have you ever gone AT before? I think they will be around for a while. These smaller, regional, lower-cost carriers I think will be the main carriers in the future. They aren't having the huge losses the major carriers are having.

I'm hoping for JetBlue to enter our market. A co-workers husband works for them and the rumor is they are waiting for MW to go out and take their gates in MKE. Would hate to see MW ever go out (helps with competition), but if we were going to replace them with someone, JetBlue would be top of the list.

Jeff

 

[need_a_Disney_fix]

I finally have a chance to pop in and say hello to everyone. I made our reservations for our towncar. With a DIS sponsorship, you get a really nice discount for FL Tours. So check that off my list. I made ressies at the Radisson, but leaving that option open and watching hotel rates for that Friday night. Time is a ticking away!!!

 

[gydell]

Jeff - No I have not gone AT before because I want assigned seats but with the price I will be geving them a try for Dec. and Jan. How did you get them to give you asigned seats? If I were Craig I think I would check with them if I wanted the non-stop flight. They can only say no. Thanks

 

[JLDSMD]

gydell,

Not sure how we got it. I know when we had the first major change (on the outbound) I told them for the inconvenience that they should compensate us by giving us assigned seats because they never notified us about the change. The agent said I would have to talk to customer relations. I never did.

In the interim, our flights were changed numerous times.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, we got a call from AirTran telling us our flight had changed and that we should call them. They also said we'd get an email from them. I checked online and the flight times didn't change from the last time I checked, so I thought we totally got moved around. Then I went into our reservation and it was still the same. However, this time I could see the seats were assigned going down (I would have rather had the return flights assigned since we'd be on the boat the day before). So I called them, since they told me to, and asked the agent if anything had changed. She said no. Then I asked her about the seats, and she said they were all assigned already. So I don't know if anything ever got noted on our record that we requested assigned seats due to the inconvenience, or they just did it because of the change. The only other thing I can think of is that we booked so early, and now that the schedule was set, they decided to assign seats. Either way, we're happy.

At least with AirTran you can get an assigned seat if you check-in online 24 hours prior. On Southwest, you have to show up at the airport, get a boarding group (I believe they have five) and then it's take what you want when you get on board. If you board in the last group, you get what is left. Furthermore, Southwest always overbooks their flights. If you watch those airline shows on cable, not sure of the name of it, one of the problems is always dealing with overbooked passengers. We will NEVER fly Southwest no matter how cheap they are. At least not with a child.

All I can say is check your reservation about a month or two out and see if they assigned you a seat. Ours were assigned about 8 weeks out.

The other thing is, go online the day before the flight and check-in. If you can, try to check-in prior to 24 hours. I'm not sure if they are on a hard 24 hour or just the day before. Unfortunately, we'll all be enjoying Castaway Cay and won't be able to check-in exactly at the 24 hour mark, but I think I'd rather enjoy the sun and sand than planning my trip back to the cold.

Jeff

 

[soccrmom65]

I am a frequent flyer of AirTran and really love them for their prices. I have flown the BWI to MCO route several times and never had a problem. I also put clients on AirTran every day. As for your seats yes you can go online 24 hours in advance and pick your seats...but now to promote the reason for a travel agent.....mememememememe.....if your travel agent books your air he/she can book your seats for you at that time without having to wait for the 24 hour mark....this is an added bonus with using an agent...just wanted to toss in my two cents...we are booked on AirTran for January and I really don't anticipate any problems...so lets keep our fingers crossed.

 

[the4nitz's]

Soccrmom65

I did not know that a TA can book seats early. If I knew that I would have checked with our local TA. You learn something new every day!! Thanks for the info.

 

[soccrmom65]

My neice is interested in email back and fourth with a few of the other little girls on our sailing. If you have girls from 8-12 please feel free to have them email her and she will write back. Her name is Katie and she will be celebrating her 10th birthday two days before we sail. Her email is angelface08@hotmail.com. In the subject please put disney so she knows it is somebody from the trip.

Are we there yet.............

 

[plenam]

Looks like our cruise is just about sold out, all thats left is Cat.4.

Brett

 

[the4nitz's]

We must be a very popular group of Disney people and everybody wants to cruise with us!!!! At least we can think that!! Craig

 

[JLDSMD]

Brett,

We are getting full, but I am seeing Cat 4 through Cat 10 available. I think you must have tried it with 2 kids, correct? With 2, I came up with only Cat 4 and Cat 5. When I tried with only 1, the following came up:

Cat 10: GTY Only
Cat 9: 6 of 179 rooms available
Cat 8: GTY Only
Cat 7: 19 of 30 rooms available (this is actually up from 3 weeks ago)
Cat 6: 12 rooms
Cat 5: Didn't recheck, but had 69 rooms 3 weeks ago
Cat 4: Didn't recheck, but had 29 rooms 3 weeks ago

I only reverified the room numbers that were available when I check ALL rooms in each category 3 weeks ago. There may be some that showed as unavailable then that are now, but I doubt it.

Cat 11 and Cat 12 are not available for reserving, even at GTY status.

Jeff