JoiseyMom
<font color=orange>Have you had your SPANX today??
- Joined
- Nov 5, 2003
- Messages
- 7,186
Let me start at the beginning. We first booked this cruise on Aug 2. I had seen that a friend and others got really good IGT/OGT rates for the Canadian cruises. So I priced it and saw that 2 could sail in an IGT for $1136. I was like wow
for five nights that is awesome. Then I was like..hmm
can DH go. We were already booked on the last cruise to the Bahamas on Aug 25, which we had booked when they were first released.
Ok, so I asked DH, and he was like, sure I can do that, but the person I needed to ask was his mom, who we needed to watch the kids. Well, I asked her and she said yes! So I looked at around at the best OBCs and booked with DU, and with their OBC and the Disney Visa OBC, we would have $125, which would cover our tips! Awesome budget trip right!! YEAH (or so I thought)!!!
Now, there were a lot of empty cabins in the weeks before we sailed, but right before there were two 1 bedroom suites, a cat 4A and The Roy Suite. Now the Roy was 9k to book online. Ouch, not happening but DH and I did discuss a number if it was available at the port, if we got there in time.
When we boarded a few weeks before hand they didnt open the security line until after 10:30. We planned on leaving our home at 8:30, and even with traffic I was hoping for a 10:00 AM arrival from Central NJ. DH was the navigator as I drove. We were in the car and ready to go at 8:30, and we made a quick stop for gas. At this point DH saw that there was an accident on Route 9, so he got us through past the accident via back roads.
We were doing really well until the Lincoln tunnel. DH picked the wrong tube..it took us forever to get through. We got to the Port, parked and were downstairs dropping off our luggage around 10:30, at this point DH was like, we arent going to get any upgrade. Now, we have stayed in a cat 12 before and were fine, so the cat 11B we had was fine if we werent able to upgrade. We got on the security line, and it moved quickly, I then walked very quickly (yes, I left DH in my dust he was wheeling his computer bag), past others who were walking on the slow side to the Castaway Cay Silver line and waited about a minute before we were called to check in. Check in was really quick, and they didnt take our picture this time but since we didnt plan on doing pictures, I wasnt concerned. I asked about upgrades and was directed to the supervisors desk. I was told they were at both ends. I headed toward the desk we were at a few weeks ago. Now the area I had to get to was blocked by the masses. I am not sure why these people were just standing around, not knowing where to go, so I just plowed on through, saying excuse me, pardon me, excuse me as I made my way to the next queue in front of the supervisors desk. There were two supervisors there who were busy upgrading others, and three families in front of us on the line.
One of the supervisors was the same one who helped us on the 25, but then all he had available was a 6A that only slept 3, but alas we were four. The next family, two adults and a baby were next, but they quickly walked away. I was thinking at this point, hmm..nothing left? DH was staring at his watch saying I have a meeting, I need to call in to work. I said, ok, find a place to sit and call, only one of us has to upgrade, he was like, nope, I will wait. We waited what seemed like forever and then it was our turn. We approached the desk and I asked that question, do you have any upgrades available? He said yes, he had a veranda, and the Royal Roy Suite was available and a 1 bedroom suite. OMG how much was it that all these other cruisers passed on it??? Ok, I asked what the damage would be on the Roy suite. He then looked at the infamous spreadsheet that is discussed here all the time. Wow there are a lot of boxes with numbers on that paper, and so tiny, I couldnt make heads or tails out of it especially looking at it upside down. He looks up from the sheet and tells us the amount to upgrade from our 11B to the Roy, would be $3075. Gulp, ok, I ask how much the 1 bedroom would be, and he says that would be $1700 something, I honestly dont remember the exact amount, and before I could even ask what the veranda would cost us, DH looks at me and tells the supervisor we will take the Roy. I was like WTH?? Seriously?? I mean it was above my number, but not above his. I said, can we really do this, he is like, listen, how often is this suite ever available?? This was the first time in all the NYC cruises that it was open, we got stuck in traffic, hundreds of people had checked in before us, and it was still there waiting for us. We would never pay full price for it. It was a bargain at over a 50% discount, and we would regret it if we said no. His running comment was heck, we just own a little bit less of our house!
Who was I to argue with such logic?? OMG, OMG, OMG ( I said this a lot on this cruise, just saying!). We gave the nice man our KTTW cards and got our new gold cards. We went over to concierge area to sit, we were the first ones there, but it filled up quickly, more so then on the Aug 25 cruise where we sat with our friends who were concierge.
We didnt do the embarkation photo. We went straight to Sessions where they were having the concierge reception, hoping to leave our carryons there so we could grab lunch without the bags. Jenn, our concierge, said that we should just drop it off in our suite. We went up to deck 8, went under the blue barrier, and walked to the most amazing suite I have ever seen. The door was open, and we met Albert our stateroom host. Told him who we were, and that we were just dropping off our bags. I cant count how many times I said OMG. You open the door and to your left is this mantle on top of a faux fireplace with a beautiful flower arrangement in the middle. On the wall is a collage of photos of Roy Disney. To the right is the ½ bath. As you walk down the foyer, straight ahead is the couch in the living room. To your left is a door that leads to the closet area of the master bedroom. Then to the right is the butlers pantry, which contains cabinets, a sink, a fridge, a phone, and four wave phones.
At the end of the foyer the living room opens up. Straight ahead is a couch that can seat 3, and on each side is a leather chair, 1 ottoman, and a large coffee table. Behind the couch is a wall of veranda doors. At each corner of the living room are floor to ceiling shelves that contain books and nick nacks (that are all glued down). Each set of shelves have four levels. They also have lights that are controlled by one of the many wall switches (none of them marked lol). Facing the couches and chairs was a bar area, with a sink, wine glasses and drinking glasses, and a wrapped bowl of fresh fruit. There were many cabinets, and another fridge (real fridges, not beverage coolers). The other side had a tv, dvd player, Bose sound system, and cabinets that contained another telephone and board games and toys. If you were looking towards to veranda and walked to your left you would enter the dining room. It contained a table, and seven chairs and a side table attached to the wall with the Palo menus. There was another door to the veranda here also. The second bedroom was accessed through the dining room. This room slept four. There were two twin beds with a desk/vanity between them and two beds that came down from the ceiling. There was a full bath with a Jacuzzi tub. The closet held a small chest of drawers. There was no lack of storage in this suite. There was also a tv and dvd player in here.
On the other side of the living room was the library. More shelves with books and nick nacks. Two more comfy chairs, another ottoman, and a murphy bed in the wall. This room also had a telephone, tv and dvd player, plus cabinets.
You could access the master bedroom from the library or the foyer. The master bedroom had a bed , night stands, tv, dvd player, vanity and mirror. There were drawers under the tv and doors that hid those drawers. There were two closets one had the safe, and there were two sets of slippers and two robes. The master bath was amazing. It had two sinks, a shower built for two, and a huge whirlpool tub, and a small tv that faced the tub.
The suite was surreal. It was amazing and just incredible. Now believe it or not, there were some cons. The veranda was underneath the smoking section of deck nine, and that kinda stunk. The noise from deck nine was loud. A great perk of spending so much money on this suite was free internet, but you couldnt get it in the room. You had to go on the veranda or outside the suite (very stupid).
We did spend LOTS of time in the suite. The five day is a short cruise, we had 2 ½ sea days and 2 port days. Having a concierge was nice, but took some getting used to. I am more then capable of standing on line at guest services, but I didnt have to. I gave Jenn our Disney Rewards card to put on our account, she got our tickets for the drink tasting, and booked Palo dinner for us. She also was able to get brunch reservations for a platinum friend of mine. It was nice to be a 1 percenter for 5 nights! I could so get used to it.
Any questions??
Ok, so I asked DH, and he was like, sure I can do that, but the person I needed to ask was his mom, who we needed to watch the kids. Well, I asked her and she said yes! So I looked at around at the best OBCs and booked with DU, and with their OBC and the Disney Visa OBC, we would have $125, which would cover our tips! Awesome budget trip right!! YEAH (or so I thought)!!!
Now, there were a lot of empty cabins in the weeks before we sailed, but right before there were two 1 bedroom suites, a cat 4A and The Roy Suite. Now the Roy was 9k to book online. Ouch, not happening but DH and I did discuss a number if it was available at the port, if we got there in time.
When we boarded a few weeks before hand they didnt open the security line until after 10:30. We planned on leaving our home at 8:30, and even with traffic I was hoping for a 10:00 AM arrival from Central NJ. DH was the navigator as I drove. We were in the car and ready to go at 8:30, and we made a quick stop for gas. At this point DH saw that there was an accident on Route 9, so he got us through past the accident via back roads.
We were doing really well until the Lincoln tunnel. DH picked the wrong tube..it took us forever to get through. We got to the Port, parked and were downstairs dropping off our luggage around 10:30, at this point DH was like, we arent going to get any upgrade. Now, we have stayed in a cat 12 before and were fine, so the cat 11B we had was fine if we werent able to upgrade. We got on the security line, and it moved quickly, I then walked very quickly (yes, I left DH in my dust he was wheeling his computer bag), past others who were walking on the slow side to the Castaway Cay Silver line and waited about a minute before we were called to check in. Check in was really quick, and they didnt take our picture this time but since we didnt plan on doing pictures, I wasnt concerned. I asked about upgrades and was directed to the supervisors desk. I was told they were at both ends. I headed toward the desk we were at a few weeks ago. Now the area I had to get to was blocked by the masses. I am not sure why these people were just standing around, not knowing where to go, so I just plowed on through, saying excuse me, pardon me, excuse me as I made my way to the next queue in front of the supervisors desk. There were two supervisors there who were busy upgrading others, and three families in front of us on the line.
One of the supervisors was the same one who helped us on the 25, but then all he had available was a 6A that only slept 3, but alas we were four. The next family, two adults and a baby were next, but they quickly walked away. I was thinking at this point, hmm..nothing left? DH was staring at his watch saying I have a meeting, I need to call in to work. I said, ok, find a place to sit and call, only one of us has to upgrade, he was like, nope, I will wait. We waited what seemed like forever and then it was our turn. We approached the desk and I asked that question, do you have any upgrades available? He said yes, he had a veranda, and the Royal Roy Suite was available and a 1 bedroom suite. OMG how much was it that all these other cruisers passed on it??? Ok, I asked what the damage would be on the Roy suite. He then looked at the infamous spreadsheet that is discussed here all the time. Wow there are a lot of boxes with numbers on that paper, and so tiny, I couldnt make heads or tails out of it especially looking at it upside down. He looks up from the sheet and tells us the amount to upgrade from our 11B to the Roy, would be $3075. Gulp, ok, I ask how much the 1 bedroom would be, and he says that would be $1700 something, I honestly dont remember the exact amount, and before I could even ask what the veranda would cost us, DH looks at me and tells the supervisor we will take the Roy. I was like WTH?? Seriously?? I mean it was above my number, but not above his. I said, can we really do this, he is like, listen, how often is this suite ever available?? This was the first time in all the NYC cruises that it was open, we got stuck in traffic, hundreds of people had checked in before us, and it was still there waiting for us. We would never pay full price for it. It was a bargain at over a 50% discount, and we would regret it if we said no. His running comment was heck, we just own a little bit less of our house!
Who was I to argue with such logic?? OMG, OMG, OMG ( I said this a lot on this cruise, just saying!). We gave the nice man our KTTW cards and got our new gold cards. We went over to concierge area to sit, we were the first ones there, but it filled up quickly, more so then on the Aug 25 cruise where we sat with our friends who were concierge.
We didnt do the embarkation photo. We went straight to Sessions where they were having the concierge reception, hoping to leave our carryons there so we could grab lunch without the bags. Jenn, our concierge, said that we should just drop it off in our suite. We went up to deck 8, went under the blue barrier, and walked to the most amazing suite I have ever seen. The door was open, and we met Albert our stateroom host. Told him who we were, and that we were just dropping off our bags. I cant count how many times I said OMG. You open the door and to your left is this mantle on top of a faux fireplace with a beautiful flower arrangement in the middle. On the wall is a collage of photos of Roy Disney. To the right is the ½ bath. As you walk down the foyer, straight ahead is the couch in the living room. To your left is a door that leads to the closet area of the master bedroom. Then to the right is the butlers pantry, which contains cabinets, a sink, a fridge, a phone, and four wave phones.
At the end of the foyer the living room opens up. Straight ahead is a couch that can seat 3, and on each side is a leather chair, 1 ottoman, and a large coffee table. Behind the couch is a wall of veranda doors. At each corner of the living room are floor to ceiling shelves that contain books and nick nacks (that are all glued down). Each set of shelves have four levels. They also have lights that are controlled by one of the many wall switches (none of them marked lol). Facing the couches and chairs was a bar area, with a sink, wine glasses and drinking glasses, and a wrapped bowl of fresh fruit. There were many cabinets, and another fridge (real fridges, not beverage coolers). The other side had a tv, dvd player, Bose sound system, and cabinets that contained another telephone and board games and toys. If you were looking towards to veranda and walked to your left you would enter the dining room. It contained a table, and seven chairs and a side table attached to the wall with the Palo menus. There was another door to the veranda here also. The second bedroom was accessed through the dining room. This room slept four. There were two twin beds with a desk/vanity between them and two beds that came down from the ceiling. There was a full bath with a Jacuzzi tub. The closet held a small chest of drawers. There was no lack of storage in this suite. There was also a tv and dvd player in here.
On the other side of the living room was the library. More shelves with books and nick nacks. Two more comfy chairs, another ottoman, and a murphy bed in the wall. This room also had a telephone, tv and dvd player, plus cabinets.
You could access the master bedroom from the library or the foyer. The master bedroom had a bed , night stands, tv, dvd player, vanity and mirror. There were drawers under the tv and doors that hid those drawers. There were two closets one had the safe, and there were two sets of slippers and two robes. The master bath was amazing. It had two sinks, a shower built for two, and a huge whirlpool tub, and a small tv that faced the tub.
The suite was surreal. It was amazing and just incredible. Now believe it or not, there were some cons. The veranda was underneath the smoking section of deck nine, and that kinda stunk. The noise from deck nine was loud. A great perk of spending so much money on this suite was free internet, but you couldnt get it in the room. You had to go on the veranda or outside the suite (very stupid).
We did spend LOTS of time in the suite. The five day is a short cruise, we had 2 ½ sea days and 2 port days. Having a concierge was nice, but took some getting used to. I am more then capable of standing on line at guest services, but I didnt have to. I gave Jenn our Disney Rewards card to put on our account, she got our tickets for the drink tasting, and booked Palo dinner for us. She also was able to get brunch reservations for a platinum friend of mine. It was nice to be a 1 percenter for 5 nights! I could so get used to it.
Any questions??
