Feb 20, 2011 - Presidents' Week - Mexican Riviera

[Señor DonDuck]

Thank you Elaine for putting this together!

 

[LKFan]

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!

Wow, that's early to get a room assigned on GTY. Did you get the same category that you booked?

 

[winnypooh]

Just wondering if anyone here booked with Dreams unlimited? Currently we're booked directly with Disney, and I was wondering if it's worth moving the reservations, or if I should just leave it be?

They said they can try to get us the same onboard credits even though we are a transfer.

BESIDES the onboard credits, I'm not sure there's any benefit in moving the reservation, so far Disney has been good to us for the booking.

Thanks,
Wendy

ps - am I seriously the only person that is super excited about the cruise, and it's only August?

 

[minie_meese]

We are getting really excited too but we have 2 vacations before the cruise. We usually only do one vacation a year so this is a bit unusual for us. Our one non-Disney vacation is this month. Once summer is over I think a lot of people will start getting excited (especially for those of us up North). We'll start pulling out our Fish Extenders and making door magnets then.

As to your Dreams Unlimited Question - we have booked both with and without a TA. We use Dreams. For our first cruise I was really happy to have a TA. Tracy from Dreams was terrific in answering all of the detail questions I had. We had 5 reservations and everything went perfect.

For our second cruise we did it ourselves and it was fine. I knew what I was doing. That cruise went fine too. I didn't need to talk to the Disney Cruise Line staff very much before that cruise. I was kind of glad because while some of the DCL folks were very good, there were others who were not that knowledgeable.

For our Mexican Cruise we are using Dreams again. We transferred the reservation while on board for our last cruise because I knew we could get the shipboard credit. I'm glad we transferred the reservation. One day I received an email saying the Kids Sail promotion would save us so hey were going to apply it. At that point I had not even heard of this promotion. While we lost the shipboard credit when we added the promotion, the savings with the Kids Sail Free was more. The TA explained the differences. The other thing I like with Dreams is that I can get to my reservation quickly and easily on their website. I find the DCL website pretty cumbersome to look at reservations. Dreams does business vial email and not generally via phone so there can be a lag in getting a question answered. I know some people have not liked that. With that said I've always found Tracy very responsive. When she is going to be away there is someone monitoring emails. If you book Palo, Spa appointments or excursions you will still do that on the DCL website. I can't speak for others, but things have worked for us.

Hope this helps

Elaine

 

[Mich123]

I'm super excited about the cruise, too! Next week, Southwest opens up their ticketing through February and I'm contemplating my flight options.

I haven't used Dreams Unlimited, but I have used a TA both times, first time AAA, second time with MEI & Mouse Fan Travel. Both have been great and both made the adjustment when the KSF came out. There have been a lot of complaints on this board about AAA and I didn't have any, I switched to MEI based on a friend's recommendation. I'd also note that both times I adjusted, I kept my onboard credits (not that it was a ton of $$, but I'm glad it was still there).

 

[CeCe]

LK Fan,
We did get the category we booked (10B). I figured that with the promotion, the ship would sell out, so I chose one that I would be comfortable with. Our last cruise we booked a guarantee, and the room number was posted about 60 days before sailing. We did get an upgrade that time, from a 12 to a 9. The first time we cruised with DCL, we booked and chose an assigned cabin in category 9, but when we got to the port, they had changed us to an 8, and also the 2 other cabins in our party. I'm still not sure how we got so lucky to get those upgrades. We assumed on the last cruise we would since you can't put 4 people in a 12, but we never imagined getting moved up to a 9. I was surprised to having this cabin assigned so quickly, but it was a relief to know that we were assigned a good location that had good reviews on it.

 

[LKFan]

LK Fan,
We did get the category we booked (10B). I figured that with the promotion, the ship would sell out, so I chose one that I would be comfortable with. Our last cruise we booked a guarantee, and the room number was posted about 60 days before sailing. We did get an upgrade that time, from a 12 to a 9. The first time we cruised with DCL, we booked and chose an assigned cabin in category 9, but when we got to the port, they had changed us to an 8, and also the 2 other cabins in our party. I'm still not sure how we got so lucky to get those upgrades. We assumed on the last cruise we would since you can't put 4 people in a 12, but we never imagined getting moved up to a 9. I was surprised to having this cabin assigned so quickly, but it was a relief to know that we were assigned a good location that had good reviews on it.

Thanks for the reply. We originally booked an inside but upgraded to a 9C when we found one available. My husband was poking around and found a 9B for $20 more so upgraded again. We are currently at a 9B GTY and I doubt we'll change that.

 

[Mich123]

This morning I booked our flights with Southwest--they just opened up reservations through March 11th. I was able to get some good deals, and use a free ticket, but the cheap seats are going fast! We (and I use that in the royal sense) decided to fly into San Diego and out of LAX. I had been thinking about Orange County, but it seemed that most people on the cruise board were flying in and out of LAX so I went with that. We have plenty of time between deboarding and the flight, so I think it will be fine. If not, we'll do it differently next time!

 

[LKFan]

180 days! Six mos and counting!

 

[XMom]

Can't wait!!!!

 

[Aurora76]

I'm sorry to be such a newbie but what is FE? This is our 3rd disney cruise and i've never heard of this. My husband and I will be travelling with our kids 5 & 7. It would be great to get the kids involved.

Thanks

 

[Señor DonDuck]

I'm sorry to be such a newbie but what is FE? This is our 3rd disney cruise and i've never heard of this. My husband and I will be travelling with our kids 5 & 7. It would be great to get the kids involved.

Thanks

Fellow newbie here as well. FE stands for Fish Extender and hangs on the Fish hook next to your cabin door, used for receiving gifts from DIS members on your cruise (well, those that signed up for it). minie_meese posted some wonderful information on FE at the top of page 5.

The DIS DCL FAQ also has some great info (scroll down to the F's for the FE portion)
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2068966

Hope that helps.

 

[LKFan]

Has anyone looked at the excursions available or made decisions on what they are going to do at the different ports?

 

[Señor DonDuck]

We've just started looking at the excursions. Our kids are both under 10, so we have a few less to choose from. Beach resort options don't look too bad, though. Granted, this is our first cruise, so we're just happy to be on a Disney ship.

 

[XMom]

We've just started looking at the excursions. Our kids are both under 10, so we have a few less to choose from. Beach resort options don't look too bad, though. Granted, this is our first cruise, so we're just happy to be on a Disney ship.

We also will be traveling with young ones(3,5,7) and G-ma. We are thinking of leaving them in the kids club and doing zip-lining in Puerta Vallarta. We have always wanted to do it. I really want to swim with the dolphins but we are in Cabo for such a short time that I don't want to waist all the time with that. We may go stay in Cabo later in the year, so I can always have another chance later. As far as Mazatlan, we will probably just stay on board. Not too much we want to see there. We have been on the MR Cruise 3 times previously so we are pretty much doing it for the disney ship anyway!! I'm getting so excited and aprehensive...my OCD is going to kick in soon

 

[minie_meese]

I'm sorry to be such a newbie but what is FE? This is our 3rd disney cruise and i've never heard of this. My husband and I will be travelling with our kids 5 & 7. It would be great to get the kids involved.

Thanks

I'm happy to answer any Fish Extender questions. Let me know if you are interested in joining the FE group. You can see who is participating in the first post.


Glad to see Disney finally posted the shore excursions. We have never been to the west cost of Mexico so we are probably doing some of the touristy excursions that visit different towns at the Mazatlan and Puerta Villarta stops. Not sure about Cabo. We have 2 kids under 10 which also limits our options.

 

[Aurora76]

Thank you for all the info on the FE project. We would definitely like to participate.
We've booked our flights and are really looking forward to everything. I just started to look at the excursions and with young kids (5&7)we will probably be doing the beach excursions.

We are trying to figure out where to stay in LA, we've got 3 nights before the cruise.

 

[Pooh Lover]

My kids will be 6 and 9 and I had planned on doing beach excursions with them as well. Now I'm reading that it will be cold in February! Not sure if I really want to sit on the beach and freeze. Kind of nervous about what to choose!

 

[minie_meese]

Thank you for all the info on the FE project. We would definitely like to participate.
We've booked our flights and are really looking forward to everything. I just started to look at the excursions and with young kids (5&7)we will probably be doing the beach excursions.

We are trying to figure out where to stay in LA, we've got 3 nights before the cruise.

Hi Aurora - I'll add you to our FE list on the first post.

We're still trying where to stay before the cruise. We'll be there 5 nights. We're thinking of staying a few nights in Manhattan Beach and a few nights near Disneyland. Were looking at the Carousel Suites across from Disneyland.

We're not returning until Monday morning after the cruise. For that we plan to stay someplace near LAX.

If anybody has any comments on any hotels please feel free to comment.

 

[XMom]

Hi Aurora - I'll add you to our FE list on the first post.

We're still trying where to stay before the cruise. We'll be there 5 nights. We're thinking of staying a few nights in Manhattan Beach and a few nights near Disneyland. Were looking at the Carousel Suites across from Disneyland.

We're not returning until Monday morning after the cruise. For that we plan to stay someplace near LAX.

If anybody has any comments on any hotels please feel free to comment.

Not sure if you have already planned out your 5 days but San Diego is a wonderful place to stay. There is Mission Bay where you can rent paddle boats, the boardwalk in Pacific Beach where they have the roller coaster, La Jolla which is kind of upscale but fun to browse and walk through, old town San Diego as well. It is all pretty inexpensive. If you want to spend money, there is always Sea World, San Diego Wild Animal Park or Legoland a bit north of there in Carlsbad. We usually stay somewhere in Hotel Circle off of Interstate 8 where it is sort of in the middle of everything.

If you want to stay up towards L.A. you can do Universal Studios, Olvera Street, Hollywood, Malibu, etc. I guess there is a lot to do but since we live here, we just don't realize it.

We just left Disney this morning. I did the 5K, kids did their runs and Hubby did the 1/2 marathon. We took 6 hours driving home and stopped in Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, Santa Monica, Malibu and eventually took Pacific Coast Highway almost all the way home. We forget just how beautiful our state is. Let me know if you have any other questions we could answer for you.

Charlene