From WDW to DL With Love - January 06, 2011 part 3

[orlandothebeagle]

Good Morning, Happy Cruisers!

Glad to here that 'someone' knows 'something' about the white board group! There have been a few inquiries

Lovely Sunday here in New York State. I shall spend the day out doors, probably reading and cooking on the patio. Wish you were here!

Lynne, I finished a really good biography the other day - "The immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot. Hope the ones I have saved for the cruise are as riveting.

Happy Day, all!

I wish I was there too, I could just see it, Me having a chilled white wine, reading a book, you cooking,

 

[DVCinderella]

I took a look yesterday and saw availability in pretty much every category. You may be right - now is probaby about the time we'll start seeing cancellations.

So the question is - will they do category 12? If so - how big a discount? Kids sail free? I think they'll definitely do something to try to fill the boat.

If discounts are offered, will it most likely be after we are all PIF? Then if they add an incentive like "kids sail free", we'd have to cancel and rebook, and thus lose our deposits, right? Just wondering what the chances are DCL will offer any incentives before the PIF date.

Is it a bad sign that they are already offering "kids sail free" on the early Mexican Riviera cruises, but not ours?

I just don't think the past PC cruises are a good gage because they took place in May & August, when more kids were out of school. I'm really hoping this is a tougher cruise to sell out, and something good comes our way!

 

[aan1701]

If discounts are offered, will it most likely be after we are all PIF? Then if they add an incentive like "kids sail free", we'd have to cancel and rebook, and thus lose our deposits, right? Just wondering what the chances are DCL will offer any incentives before the PIF date.

Is it a bad sign that they are already offering "kids sail free" on the early Mexican Riviera cruises, but not ours?

I just don't think the past PC cruises are a good gage because they took place in May & August, when more kids were out of school. I'm really hoping this is a tougher cruise to sell out, and something good comes our way!

I think they just may come out and I will jump on it fast. Well depending on the deal. For instance, since I work in the travel industry, I hope this cruise goes to a "Interline" rate. If that happens I will get %50 off my room rate, and paid standard tips. So if to save over $2000.00 and lose my $600.00 deposit I am so fine with that as I still come out $1400.00 ahead.

 

[danfromca]

If discounts are offered, will it most likely be after we are all PIF? Then if they add an incentive like "kids sail free", we'd have to cancel and rebook, and thus lose our deposits, right? Just wondering what the chances are DCL will offer any incentives before the PIF date.

Is it a bad sign that they are already offering "kids sail free" on the early Mexican Riviera cruises, but not ours?

I just don't think the past PC cruises are a good gage because they took place in May & August, when more kids were out of school. I'm really hoping this is a tougher cruise to sell out, and something good comes our way!

I agree with you that past PC cruises are not a good gauge. I think a better comparison might be the transatlantic cruises.

So let's consider the Sept. Eastbound which is currently offering category 12 at $79.16/day. This is a tiny discount from category 11 which is $81.31/day (these are fares for 2 adults not including taxes/fees). They also seem to have great availability.

Lowest cost availability today is cat 11A at $145.93/day. Cat 10B (which is where I'm at) is 154.60/day
With the on board discount, it's $141/day - maybe $131/day after the OBC. Assuming we lose the deposit on a rebook, that's another $20/day meaning financially it would make sense to rebook at cat 12 for anything under $111/day. (Of course we would be taking the risk of ending up in a smaller cat 11 cabin).
Without the onboard discount for a cat 11 it's $145.93/day less the loss of $600 deposit - so it would make sense to rebook at cat 12 for anything under $105.93/day.
Assuming the TA fare of $79.16 is as low as they would go, there's the option of saving about $400/person for the cruise if they come up with category 12.

This would only help those who are currently at category 11, or are willing to give up their larger/outside cabins to get a discount. What DCL does not do that I've seen is lower the prices of existing categories.

It will be very interesting to see what they end up doing.

 

[ACDSNY]

This would only help those who are currently at category 11, or are willing to give up their larger/outside cabins to get a discount. What DCL does not do that I've seen is lower the prices of existing categories.

It will be very interesting to see what they end up doing.

Whatever DCL does won't matter to us as we we don't have any kids with us and I don't want an inside cabin.

Good luck to the rest of you.

 

[Johngar]

Not sure if anyone has posted this yet (didn't want to look through all the posts), but here the schedule for the NFL playoffs, which start while we are on the Panama Canal cruise:

Jan. 8-9 -- Wild Card Weekend (two games Saturday and two games Sunday)

Jan. 15-16 -- Divisional Playoffs (two games Saturday and two games Sunday)

And, no, we do NOT know who is playing yet. (I have to add that since when I worked in the sports department at our newspaper, someone called us in October and asked the date of the Super Bowl. I told her and then she asked, "And do you know who is playing in it yet?")

 

[aan1701]

That is funny. If we knew who was playing, I could afford the Walt Suite. I personaly don't care to much about the NFL but I do care about the ESPN and ABC basketball line up.

 

[sak0526]

I had figured white boards where were we could each buy a wipe off board to put on our doors for messages. then i see someone considered them for fe gifts. What are teh wb's then? or is it just that few buy them so they'd be given them?

just came back from a suprisingly lovely family reunion not far from Macon/Warner Robbins Georgia. DH's relatives whom he had not seen in 22 years when we last went down there. some he hadn't seen in much much longer than that. His sister went with us as did one DD and b/f. SIL had seen a few since then but not in oh 15 years. It was really nice. They live in a huge mansion (only mentioned because of this next fact) where they hosted the reunion for...95 people!! We expected about 25! It was much further extended family than i'd have guessed but they were very excited to see us. SIL lives in NJ and we're in Maryland so they were really pleased we'd made such a big effort to come. It was very nice.

Back to the real world of going off to earn enough to pay for DS college and for excursions!

Have a good week all!

Sherri

 

[ACDSNY]

I had figured white boards where were we could each buy a wipe off board to put on our doors for messages. then i see someone considered them for fe gifts. What are teh wb's then? or is it just that few buy them so they'd be given them?

The white board group will be giving them out as their FE gift, so if you're participating in the FE gift exchange then you'll be receiving one.

 

[LindaBabe]

Good Morning, Happy Cruisers!

The white board group will be giving them out as their FE gift, so if you're participating in the FE gift exchange then you'll be receiving one.

That's right! I'm sure Glindamood will be posting more information as we go forward on the whiteboard group as will Tinksmom for the Bracelet group.


Basically these groups join together to buy more expensive items for the FE instead of individual items. They will likely come with a list of the people who funded the item.

sak, that sure is a lot of family! Glad you had a good time We'll be in that area next month on our drive south. DH wants to visit the museum at Robins AFB.

Started my packing list this morning - can't WAIT!

Happy Day, all!

 

[granmaz]

I haven't started packing for our TA cruise in September yet!!! I can't pack till the day before, though I have a box or two collecting things.

We will have about 9 or 10 weeks from arriving back from that vacation to setting off on this one, and it includes Christmas. I had better not put too much weight on as I have bought lots of new clothes for both trips!!!

 

[DisneyCruiser83]

Hello everyone! I have not been around in a while. But, now that we are getting closer, I thought I would jump back in. I hope everyone has been well and getting ready to go. DH and I are very excited!

 

[JenKatt]

Happy Monday?!?!

Jeff is working on the website. Not sure if he got everyone done that sent him a PM. I'll get after him to finish it tonight.

PIF is today for those of us in suites. I sent my first (of many I'm sure) emails to conceirge (everytime I say that I think of Lilo and Stitch) about the excursions. As to when the heck are they going to be released. I got a canned Disney response of we'll be releasing them soon! Great! But when? If we didn't have DS, I wouldn't care so much. But I don't only want to do a bus tour of a port, Jack (DS) is far to active to sit on a bus. Plus, what fun is that? Looking at what Disney offers for little ones, we'll be booking a lot on our own simply due to that fact.
We won't be bringing a stroller either on board. One, the ones that you can borrow from DCL are more that adaquete, and two, Jack stopped using one at WDW awhile ago. We still bring it now and then, but he rarely uses it.
Back to work...

 

[Tigfanjeff]

Whatever DCL does won't matter to us as we we don't have any kids with us and I don't want an inside cabin.

Good luck to the rest of you.

Well, considering we are now officially 10% of the boat (and nearly 11% of the staterooms) we should have just gotten together at the beginning and asked for a group rate



BTW, the website updates are now in full swing. The list itself is current. The map will be current soon. My goal today is to get the rest of the 2005 (and all of the 2008) navigators up.

 

[granmaz]

Thanks Jeff. Really appreciate all you do!!

 

[Tigfanjeff]

2005 Navigators are all up. There are two sets of links, one for direct download (which will pop the pdf up by itself in a new window for the people that can't get the windowed mode to work) and windowed mode (the way it had been displaying).

 

[Tigfanjeff]

Thanks Jeff. Really appreciate all you do!!

Thanks. It's been very hectic the last 2 months. For those that don't know I umpire Little League baseball. When tournament time comes around, I actually umpire in two districts, which also happen to be in two different sections (Little league hierarchy 101 - local league -> district -> section -> state -> region -> international) so I'm in a lot of demand. I think between around June 1st and July 31st, I umpired about 50 games of baseball. I'm hoping next year will be my call to regionals, which is basically my audition for a World Series job (yes, you can watch me on ESPN or ABC if I make it there).

Now that all of that is over (and I took the last week for mental health), I'm back in the saddle on the website.

I've gotten through ALL the PMs and almost all of the e-mail (I missed 1 Stateroom change) so please verify everything.

Also, as PIF is coming up, I'm going to start going through and verifying that everyone is still on the boat. I don't want a repeat of 2005 for the poor people staying across the hall from me

 

[JenKatt]

Also, as PIF is coming up, I'm going to start going through and verifying that everyone is still on the boat. I don't want a repeat of 2005 for the poor people staying across the hall from me

Hey they got lots of nice stuff!!! (Including the original fish extenders!)

 

[Tigfanjeff]

For those who don't scroll all the way down on the who is going list

257 people in 95 staterooms, traveling as 85 parties.
This is 10.71% of the normal guest capacity(2400) of the Wonder.
This is 9.52% of the maximum guest capacity (2700) of the Wonder.
This is 10.83% of the available staterooms(877).

And shame on *ALL* of you who missed my typo (I had 2 l's in traveling) for as long as I have been posting these updates. (Canadians and Brits excepted as you spell it wrong in those monarch type places - No clue for you Aussies what you do )

 

[Tigfanjeff]

That is funny. If we knew who was playing, I could afford the Walt Suite. I personaly don't care to much about the NFL but I do care about the ESPN and ABC basketball line up.

I can tell you exactly who is playing. The champion of the AFC vs the champion of the NFC.