February 14, 2008 Roll Call 2/14/2008 Valentines 3-Night Wonder

[scottie]

Surfergirl, we will keep our fingers crossed for good weather this time so you can enjoy the activites, and I can enjoy relaxing on the beach with my wife.

Welcome aboard nkkilala and happy 1st anniversary!!
What kind of questions to do you have about sailing with Disney? I would suggest making your reservations for the spa or Palos online as early as possible.

 

[nkkilala]

I'm thinking about doing the Romantic Escape package.....Does anyone have any opinions ab out it?

Is it a good deal?

TIA!!!

 

[nkkilala]

How do you know your dinning rotation?? I want to make my Palo reservations but am not sure on what night I should make them..... I don't want to miss Animators Palate.

What restaurant rotation should I substitute?

TIA!

 

[scottie]

nkkilala, here is my two cents and I am sure others can provide info too!

We haven’t done the romantic escape package yet, but I have read both positive and neutral comments about it on the boards. Many seem to like it and others seem to prefer to pick and choose what they want and buy the pieces they like separately.

You do not know your dining rotation in advance of arriving at port. You will see the rotation listed on your key to the world card after checking in at port. It will reflect on the card as a series of the first letter of each restaurant. You could always wait till you get to port to see what your rotation is and then attempt to make a Palo reservation when you first board. I have heard people say they have no problem securing reservations if they do it right away during the allotted time upon boarding. We haven’t tried to do that before so I don’t have any personal experience.

If it was my first short DCL cruise and I knew I would be back to DCL down the road, I may be tempted to skip Palo for the first cruise and try the three restaurants. But again it is your anniversary cruise so maybe you would want to do the upscale Palo for a night? **Better Yet** do Palo on the same night as another restaurant and skip a show that night!?! You could do Palo either earlier or later in the evening depending on what dinner seating you have. That may be something to consider if you aren’t as worried about catching all the shows as you are about trying all the yummy restaurants.

 

[scottie]

Everyone may want to check their pricing of the cruise on the DCL website to see if you can save some $. I just noticed the cat 11 rooms are listed for approx $100 less then a few days ago but not sure on the other categories if they went up or down.

 

[scottie]

I lucked out and gave it a try to log in at midnight eastern time and secured an 8pm seating for the first night. We are looking forward to giving Palo a try after 3 cruises of skipping Palo. Should make for an extra special touch to valentines day!

 

[nkkilala]

Yeah Scottie!!! I"m so glad you got the day you wanted for Palo!!!

I was wondering, has anyone received their documentation yet? I'm wondering when it will come. I need to get it first so that my hubbie doesn't see it!!!

 

[scottie]

Final docs won’t arrive until much closer to sailing. For some reason I can’t remember exactly when right now but I am thinking a couple/few weeks before sailing at the most. Some people post that they don’t receive them until even closer to sailing. You may want to consider asking for them to be sent to another address… family, work, etc. if you are trying to guarantee DH won’t see them.

 

[nkkilala]

Thanks scottie!

I'm pretty sure he won't see them, I normally get the mail. I think he has gotten the mail 2 times since we have been married and I asked him both times!! LOL

As long as the envelop doesn't directly say "Here are your cruise documents" on the outside it will be pretty easy to pass it off as information Disney is just sending us! I get things from them in the mail all of the time so no big surprise there!!


My other "issue" about keeping this a secret is the luggage tags.......do the resemble the tags you get from magical express? Hopefully he won't pay them much attention. He never has in the past. At least these will only give me away the day of the trip!



My goal is to get off the plane and get to the main terminal. When we are there I will go into Disney mode and ask him what new things he wants to do this vacation. He'll tell me his and then I'll tell him mine! I'll say something along the lines of "well I want to try the Disney Cruise this vacation....." conservation will ensue and we will end up at the Disney Cruise Desk Check in!!!!

Here is crossing my fingers!!!!!!

 

[hueydewielouie]

Scottie...good job on the ressies at Palos. I hope you enjoy. I can't believe that it is now less than 3 months away. I really need to start packing.

nkkilala...so glad you decided to go for it and do the cruise. WHat a wonderful wife to give her husband such a great surprise for their one year anniversary. I am sure it will be wonderful and memorable.

Most of my family is jumping out of their skin they are getting so excited. This is all of our first Disney cruise. I keep telling my husband to not forget to book our next one while on board in order to get the deals. he just rolls his eyes I don't think it is working.

Isn't it great to have something so great to look forward to!!!!!!

 

[scottie]

It sure is great to know we are less then 3 months away from a great vacation for sure! Now just need to figure out what clothes to pack and I guess we will all have to wait till the time gets closer to see what kind of weather is in store for us!

 

[nkkilala]

Yeah we are all getting so close??

Does anyone care to share their plans?

We are doing the Nassau harbor Tour

Palos (Nassau night)

Snorkeling at CC

Some sort of Couples Massage (I am torn between one of the villa options or the cabana on CC,)

 

[scottie]

Sounds like good plans you have set. May want to consider the couples massage onboard as can’t be positive the weather will be warm on Castaway Cay in Feb. Very likely will be nice weather but if not I would do some research to find out how warm the cabanas feel during the cooler times of the year.

As for our plans:

Arrive in Orlando Wednesday night and spend one night in the concierge level at Animal Kingdom!

Town Car from WDW to port for a nice early arrival on Thursday (maybe by 11am).

Palos the first night, since its valentines day

Probably just get off for a few mins in Nassau to by some stuff at the straw market

Catch all the shows all the way thru for once- since this will be the first time where one of us are not having to take a child out in the middle of the show to go the bathroom etc.

Hit the clubs onboard and hang at the adult pool

Relax Relax Relax

 

[hueydewielouie]

OUr main plan is to take everything in, with this being our first Disney Cruise (and DH has already stated to me numerous times that we will not be taking another one for quite a while. Hopefully he changes his mind)

We are getting in the night before but pretty much will land, grab bags, go to hotel and go to sleep (like I will be able to sleep due to the excitement)
Get to the port as early as possible. (Want to take it all in)
Enjoy the ship
We, too, are considering the Nassau Harbor Cruise. I can say I saw Nassau, but it is economical and not too long and the family can get back to the ship.
Enjoy all of Castaway Cay
ANd then on to Disney World

I really want to watch my DS enjoy everything. He is 4 and it is all he can talk about. Now, as for the rest of my family and friends that are going, I am not sure, but it is all of our first time on DCL, so we all want to do as much as we can. Wish us luck.

Just got back from watching my sister march in a CHristmas parade in Michigan and thoughts of the cruise kept me warm We are all sooooooo looking foreward to this.

 

[nkkilala]

OK so I just received my confirmation letter.

I have a few questions as the what some of the abbreviations mean...

The first one is VPP (under it my husband and I are both listed as Yes.....This VPP is located right before the dining rotation.

The other one is that I have GTY under stateroom.... I am assuming that this means guaranteed???


Thanks for your help!

 

[scottie]

I can confirm that your first Disney cruise experience will be full of excitement and can easily be a non-stop experience!! You will feel worn out for sure after the first cruise, at least we did on the 4-night cruise!

Nikki- not sure on the VPP one that may be something to do with that package you bought? You are correct on the GTY meaning Guarantee

 

[nkkilala]

I found our from the main cruise menu that VPP stands for Valid Passport.!


ETA

After a little debate we decided that it stands for Vacation Protection Plan.......seeing as how Disney does not have my passport numbers yet.....

still crossing my fingers and wishing they get here soon.

 

[scottie]

Vaction Protection Plan sounds like a good answer!

We decided to postpone getting the passports for this cruise since they now dont appear to be needed by the govt till the summer. DCL also is only still suggesting to get them but not requiring them. I guess that we will leave us a bit more money to spend onboard!

 

[scottie]

As we quickly approach the 75 day Palo booking window for new cruisers (I think that is the right timeframe) I just wanted to let everyone know that there appears to be almost all the seatings still open for Palo on any of the three nights.

 

[nkkilala]

Thanks for the update Scottie!!

I have changed my reservation at Palo from 8pm to 6:30. I thought it might be nice to actually have some sunlight to see from the great view! I also do not want to miss the Pirate "show" out on deck with Mickey and the gang!