Feb 20, 2011 - Presidents' Week - Mexican Riviera

[LKFan]

The Manhattan Village Mall is about a mile away from the Sea View Inn; just outside the mall is a cupcake place/ bakery called Susiecakes, which has the best vanilla cupcakes EVER.

Too funny. I was just about to volunteer to drive to MB to check out the hotels so I could use it as an excuse to stop at Susie Cakes.

Seriously, MB is maybe 20 minutes away so we can drive out there to check out the hotel if you want.

 

[EricaG]

We haven't booked flights yet. They're still expensive from Atlanta right now, and I know that they often have sales to LAX that will come out a few months in advance, but not this far out.

We have enough frequent flier miles to get out there, but we're trying to decide whether to use them, or save them and try to take a trip to Hawaii in a few years. Problem is, if we're using FF miles, we need to go ahead and book this far out; if we're buying tix, we have to keep our fingers crossed for a sale and book closer to February.

Decisions, decisions . . .

 

[DVC_Chris]

We are still pondering airfare as well. Cheapest from JFK is about $433 round trip right now, a bit more than we want to spend. We will see what happens when Southwest comes out in a few weeks.

 

[Bruins]

Don't know if anyone is looking to change room categories, but we just changed from a 9C guarantee to a 9B guarantee- our former 9C is available now if anyone wants it.

 

[minie_meese]

We are still pondering airfare as well. Cheapest from JFK is about $433 round trip right now, a bit more than we want to spend. We will see what happens when Southwest comes out in a few weeks.

Don't know how accessible Westchester Airport is to you but I noticed when I booked my daughter's flight from NY that the flights from the Westchester Airport came up way cheaper than JFK or LaGuardia. My daughter lives in Manhattan and doesn't have a car so she needs to travel through one of the big 3. I used kayak dot com to do the search. Kayak uses all of the different travel search engines and gives you a lot of flexibility. You don't book through Kayak - it sends you to the airlines website or one of the travel websites, wherever it found the cheapest flights. I just checked and it had flights on the Feb 19th-27th PM or 28th AM for under $350 with taxes out of Westchester and into LAX (a few were out of LaGuardia).

There's a rumor the new Disney ship might dock on NYC in 2012 - you'd save a bundle on airfare then

Hope this helps

Elaine

 

[DVC_Chris]

Don't know how accessible Westchester Airport is to you but I noticed when I booked my daughter's flight from NY that the flights from the Westchester Airport came up way cheaper than JFK or LaGuardia. My daughter lives in Manhattan and doesn't have a car so she needs to travel through one of the big 3. I used kayak dot com to do the search. Kayak uses all of the different travel search engines and gives you a lot of flexibility. You don't book through Kayak - it sends you to the airlines website or one of the travel websites, wherever it found the cheapest flights. I just checked and it had flights on the Feb 19th-27th PM or 28th AM for under $350 with taxes out of Westchester and into LAX (a few were out of LaGuardia).

There's a rumor the new Disney ship might dock on NYC in 2012 - you'd save a bundle on airfare then

Hope this helps

Elaine

Thanks for the advice, I have checked out HPN, and while I am keeping an eye on it, it is about 90 minutes away, so it is doable. Right now the flights are around $80 cheaper per person out of there, but the times are not as convenient, and the flights are not direct, which does not quite make it worth it for me. I went to Vegas this year during President's Week, and I managed to snag a fare on Virgin for $280 a pop or something similar... so I think the prices will go down eventually

 

[minie_meese]

Direct flights are certainly better than a connection, especially in the winter - we don't have a choice from Rochester. You can't get to anyplace west of Chicago directly out of Rochester. My daughter is quite pleased that she is flying direct. We hoped to book everyone on the same flight but the cost difference was ridiculous. We're on the same flight out on JetBlue - from Rochester to LAX via JFK is $150 for us and $206 for my daughter JFK to LAX. We got $150 on Continental from LAX to Rochester through Newark on the way back but if my daughter took the same flight as us and ended in Newark she would have paid $525. Crazy - so she is on JetBlue. The layover was just too long for us into Rochester.

As for HRN, I heard the parking there is minimal and expensive and tha certainly comes into the equation too.

Good luck

 

[LKFan]

I went to Vegas this year during President's Week, and I managed to snag a fare on Virgin for $280 a pop or something similar... so I think the prices will go down eventually

Love to fly on Virgin. I believe they fly into Long Beach which would be great.

 

[winnypooh]

We've been waiting for the final school calendars to come out, and finally bit the bullet and booked the cruise. I'm from San Jose as well. This will be the first cruise for me, my husband, and my son (4.5). Anyone going to have a 5 year old on the cruise?

Excited, and nervous at the same time about the expense, but we'll see how it goes.

wendy

 

[minie_meese]

Hi all

Glad to see we have a few more people on board.

Looks like we have 17 families so far on this board (if my counting is correct). I went through the posts and summarized the families - this will help us get to know each other, help those new to DCL find the experts, and for those who want to do Fish Extenders (FE), start getting some ideas.

It's probably a good time to start thinking about FE for those who what to do them so I indicated those who were interested next to their info with "FE". Please let me know if I got any of the information wrong - and anyone who wishes to join the FE group please let me know. We'd love to have you. We don't need to get things finalized for a while but it takes some planning so I want to start getting things organized. Also, if you send me data you don't want shared on the board, please let me know. Down the road I will put together a spreadsheet for FE participants that has the participants and their room numbers.

For those doing FE you can do just one day or more if you feel like it. If you just want to give gifts to the kids, that is fine too. For those who have not done it before, there are plenty of threads on the cruise board that can give you an idea of the types of things people give. Mostly they are pretty inexpensive and simple. I put some information in a post at the top of page 5. Feel free to ask me or any of the veteran cruisers questions.

Our cruise is just a little over 6 months away! I think everyone in our family will start to get excited after our summer vacation in a few weeks.

For those Rochestarians, if you are at the Park Ave festival this weekend and find yourself on Edgerton, say high if you see anyone on the porch at 224

Cheers!

Elaine

Here is the info I have so far

Aurora76 3rd DCL cruise
BROWNSPHAN 1 adult? 2 girls - 10, 17
Bruins (Ken) and LKFan(Deb)2 adults, 1 girl 11, 1 boy 8 - 2nd DCL cruise - FE
Dishy24 2 adults, 1 boy 11 - 9th DCL Cruise - FE
DVC Chris 7th DCL Cruise
Erica G (Erica) 2 adults, 1 boy 4 - 1st DCL cruise - FE
II_california 2 adults, 2 kids - 3rd DCL cruise
Mich123 (Michelle) 2 adults, 2 girls 11, 14 - 2nd DCL cruise
mindy327 ?
minie_meese (Elaine) 5 adults, 2 girls 7- 3rd DCL cruise - FE
MonicaD (Monica) 2 adults, 1 boy 13, 1 girl 10 - 2nd DCL cruise
Pooh_Lover (Mary Lynn) 1 adult, 2 girls 6, 9 - FE
Senor Don Duck 2 adults, 2 girls 7, 9 - 1st DCL cruise - FE
silence 3 adults, 1 boy, 1 girl - 1st DCL cruise - FE
Sweetpeabass (Shannon) 3 adults, 1 boy 6 - 4th DCL cruise - FE
Vetbeth 2 adults, 1 boy 5 - 1st DCL cruise - FE
winny pooh (Wendy) 2 adults, 1 boy 5 - 1st DCL cruise
XMom 3 adults, 1 girl 3, 2 boys 5, 7

 

[XMom]

We've been waiting for the final school calendars to come out, and finally bit the bullet and booked the cruise. I'm from San Jose as well. This will be the first cruise for me, my husband, and my son (4.5). Anyone going to have a 5 year old on the cruise?

Excited, and nervous at the same time about the expense, but we'll see how it goes.

wendy

Hi Wendy. I have 2 sons that will be 5.5 and 7 when we cruise! Are your schools out Monday only or did they use furlough days for the rest of the week? Our kids will be missing Tues-Friday.

Hi all

Glad to see we have a few more people on board.

Looks like we have 17 families so far on this board (if my counting is correct). I went through the posts and summarized the families - this will help us get to know each other, help those new to DCL find the experts, and for those who want to do Fish Extenders (FE), start getting some ideas.

It's probably a good time to start thinking about FE for those who what to do them so I indicated those who were interested next to their info with "FE". Please let me know if I got any of the information wrong - and anyone who wishes to join the FE group please let me know. We'd love to have you. We don't need to get things finalized for a while but it takes some planning so I want to start getting things organized. Also, if you send me data you don't want shared on the board, please let me know. Down the road I will put together a spreadsheet for FE participants that has the participants and their room numbers.

For those doing FE you can do just one day or more if you feel like it. If you just want to give gifts to the kids, that is fine too. For those who have not done it before, there are plenty of threads on the cruise board that can give you an idea of the types of things people give. Mostly they are pretty inexpensive and simple. I put some information in a post at the top of page 5. Feel free to ask me or any of the veteran cruisers questions.

Our cruise is just a little over 6 months away! I think everyone in our family will start to get excited after our summer vacation in a few weeks.

For those Rochestarians, if you are at the Park Ave festival this weekend and find yourself on Edgerton, say high if you see anyone on the porch at 224

Cheers!

Elaine

Here is the info I have so far

Aurora76 3rd DCL cruise
BROWNSPHAN 1 adult? 2 girls - 10, 17
Bruins (Ken) and LKFan(Deb)2 adults, 1 girl 11, 1 boy 8 - 2nd DCL cruise - FE
Dishy24 2 adults, 1 boy 11 - 9th DCL Cruise - FE
DVC Chris 7th DCL Cruise
Erica G (Erica) 2 adults, 1 boy 4 - 1st DCL cruise - FE
II_california 2 adults, 2 kids - 3rd DCL cruise
Mich123 (Michelle) 2 adults, 2 girls 11, 14 - 2nd DCL cruise
mindy327 ?
minie_meese (Elaine) 5 adults, 2 girls 7- 3rd DCL cruise - FE
MonicaD (Monica) 2 adults, 1 boy 13, 1 girl 10 - 2nd DCL cruise
Pooh_Lover (Mary Lynn) 1 adult, 2 girls 6, 9 - FE
Senor Don Duck 2 adults, 2 girls 7, 9 - 1st DCL cruise - FE
silence 3 adults, 1 boy, 1 girl - 1st DCL cruise - FE
Sweetpeabass (Shannon) 3 adults, 1 boy 6 - 4th DCL cruise - FE
Vetbeth 2 adults, 1 boy 5 - 1st DCL cruise - FE
winny pooh (Wendy) 2 adults, 1 boy 5 - 1st DCL cruise
XMomCharlene 3 adults, 1 girl 3, 2 boys 5, 7

All looks good. Thanks for breaking it down like that.

 

[LKFan]

200 days and counting!

Thanks for the FE list. Our last cruise had mostly older teens and adults. I had expected more younger kids in the group. It is nice to know ages in advance.

Thanks!

 

[winnypooh]

Hi Wendy. I have 2 sons that will be 5.5 and 7 when we cruise! Are your schools out Monday only or did they use furlough days for the rest of the week? Our kids will be missing Tues-Friday.

According to the calendar, it's listed as "February break"... no school, so that's good... there will be a camp at the CDC but we'll just skip that week.

wendy

 

[ll_california]

Welcome, Wendy!

Elaine, thanks for organizing the group list. Do you want to add it to your post on the 1st page? easier for new comers to see...

BTW, we have two girls, 11 & 13.

Looking forward to have fun!

 

[minie_meese]

Elaine, thanks for organizing the group list. Do you want to add it to your post on the 1st page? easier for new comers to see...

Thanks for the suggestion - I will do that and keep it maintained there. It will be easier for me to find too

Elaine

 

[EricaG]

Thanks for doing this! We're excited to participate in the FE gifts! I'll have to get my very talented seamstress mother to work on a nice FE for our family.

BTW, Elaine, this is actually our family's 2nd DCL cruise--we did a 3-nt. last October.

We went ahead and booked our plane tix using FF miles, so we are on our way! Yay!

 

[CeCe]

We booked our cruise during the Kids Sail Free promotion. It will be me, DH, DS age 13 and DD age 10. It will be our 4th DCL cruise, and we are excited to visit the Mexican Riviera this time. I was surprised because we booked guaraneetee this time, and have already been assigned a cabin. Also, we were wait listed for early dining and it has already been changed from late to early dining on our reservation. No I just need to get airfare!

 

[Pooh Lover]

Ooooh, CeCe, you give me hope! We are waitlisted for early dining and I didn't think we would get moved, but now I'm crossing my fingers!

 

[minie_meese]

Hi CeCe - Welcome to the cruise - I'm adding you to the list of travelers on the first page of this post. Let me know if you'd like to join the fish extender group!

Elaine

 

[winnypooh]

I'm interested in getting us onto the FE list as well...