Hey! July 30th, 2005 cruise to Mexico DISfriends!

[jfis1020]

I tried back in January to book the Dolphin Encounter. Unfortunately, Disney bought EVERY spot for that day. You can't get in unless you book with Disney!

 

[LiserAnn]

I tried back in January to book the Dolphin Encounter. Unfortunately, Disney bought EVERY spot for that day. You can't get in unless you book with Disney!

Jenny-did you also try vallartaonline? Because I was able to get the Pirate Sail through them and so did the other families that are sailing with us. They offer both the Swim with Dolphins ($130.50 adult or child) and the Dolphin Encounter ($54 adult or child) which I'm pretty sure is the same one DCL offers because they're both at the Dolphin Center. Just to test it, I tried to order it and they had availability! It's my understanding that since they're a tour broker they get a small portion of "seats" for every tour they offer and of course once their reserved seats are sold out that's it. It's worth a try. They also offered other dolphin tours, didn't look at them much but there were several beyond the two above. I do know the dolphin excursion through DCL sells out within the first hour at the 90 day mark. I believe our 90 days is May 1st, but I'm not 100% sure so call DCL to find out for sure when you can book and then make sure you start calling a few minutes before they open. It reminds me of getting up at 4am to book priority seating at the Royal Table in Cindy's castle at WDW.......the things I do for my kids (my 6 year old is in love with Cinderella)

Oh and if you book through vallartaonline, there's a section where they ask for a hotel or phone number where you can be reached in PV. I put that there wasn't a phone available (which is true, right?!) but I didn't make any mention of being on the Magic because I was afraid then they'd "deny" me (and they didn't ask if you were from a cruise ship). Not sure if they would deny me but I didn't want to take a chance. I know, I'm a naughty girl .

Here's a linke from cruise critic where cruise passengers share the positive experiences with vallartaonline: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=90888&highlight=vallarta+online

 

[littleowensmommy]

I called the Marigalante Pirate Ship directly and they told me that the ENTIRE ship is reserved for DCL on 2 August 2005. I would check this out again with Vallartaonline.com and Marigalante Pirate ship to be sure you actually have a spot on the cruise.

 

[lwilliam]

glad to hear from you again - keep in touch, please.

Can you believe i have nothing to say....oh, wait, there has
got to be something. Haven't booked any excursion - any tour,
anything - AND, I'm not even worrying about it. I think I may be
in trouble??????

So cute, one of my students wrote me really cute post-it notes all over
my office, it really picked me up this morning. I love my university
students, it is the faculty I have a "problem with". (AND, my own
children that I have a problem with - their moods, their tempers, their
laziness, etc. etc. etc.). - Lucy

 

[LiserAnn]

I called the Marigalante Pirate Ship directly and they told me that the ENTIRE ship is reserved for DCL on 2 August 2005. I would check this out again with Vallartaonline.com and Marigalante Pirate ship to be sure you actually have a spot on the cruise.

Thanks for the heads up! One of the gals we're sailing with contacted vallartaonline a few months back and they said they had spots on the Margilante for sure, even though a cruise ship would be in port (she asked). But just to be safe, I emailed them with my paid confirmation that I received from them attached to my email and I asked point blank about the Magic being in port that day and did they in fact have spots even though a cruise ship was in port that day. We'll see what they say. I had read on cruise critic that because they're a tour broker they usually have a few spots reserved for all their advertised tours even when cruise ships are in port. Other cruise line passengers have been able to avoid booking through their ship by going through vallartaonline. I'll keep you all posted, should have an answer today!

Littleowensmommy- are you still cruising with us in July? We haven't heard from ya in a while, nice to "see" you!

 

[LiserAnn]

I just confirmed with vallartaonline about our Pirate Sail excursion. I have to say, they offer excellent customer service (english is a tad hard to read, but you get the gest), which is what I had read on cruise critic. Here's their response:

Dear Lisa,
good morning

thank you for booking with www.vallartaonline.com

regarding your question, you can be sure that your reservation is confirmed for Pirate Land Marigalante, and I talked with them and they have available August 02, 2005. Maybe it is an strategy to sell the tours to all his passengers, I don't know.
If you need one more reservation for your friend you can reserve with us, everything is ok.

If you want, you can call to the tour operator, the phone number is:
To call us from the United States or Canada
011+52(322)223-0875

Saludos!!

Flor
Concierge

So feel confident in booking with them. They have a lot of tours in PV and several different dolphin tours.

Lisa

 

[jlawall]

hey all....soon we will be in the 2 month range...how amazing is that??

I think we will spend our last day in Cali in Santa Monica, checking out the beach and shopping....(the Friday before!)

 

[jlawall]

Whew, I just retrieved us from the second page...........come on people.......we gotta keep this thread hopping!!

 

[jfis1020]

Hi all! With my kids baseball starting this Saturday (yeah right! It's suppose to rain all weekend!!!! ) I fear a soon to be "melt down"!!!! Just kidding! I am, like all others, so ready for school to be over!

This weekend I plan to book the dolphin excursion with vallartaonline. I can't seem to get the computer away from DH and DS11. I am lobbying for another p.c., but with the trip the summer and the redecorating I just did, I don't see that in my near future!!!!

Anyway, I think we are going to limit ourselves to just that excursion. I am hoping with the aid of the May 28th crew and those to follow, I can find a beach for us to visit without booking something through Disney. I may not now do the horses just for $$ reasons, but I am still keeping that option open.

We are now set in LA for the 5 days prior to the cruise. I still need to do car investigating, but am thinking shuttle from DL to port and port to LAX. We have our baseball tickets now ready as well. DH bought us some nice "club" seats with in seat wait service. The Padres rep told him they make a mean margarita! Guess I'll have to find out for my self. It may take a "few" to do that!!!!

 

[LiserAnn]

Jenny-I hear ya! I think we're only going to do the Pirate Sail...still deciding on whether to do Randi's Happy Horses in Mazatlan. My DS3 may be too young...I'll have to give it some more time. He's still not potty trained - I can imagine getting him trained a month before the cruise. We'll get to Randi's and halfway into it he'll need to go to the bathroom...might not be a good idea for us.

I think you'll be happy with vallartaonline!

 

[kndyglr]

Okay so I am officially checking in for the July 30th Mexico cruise!! I am new to the boards -- actually part of Lisa's group (Liserann). It will be me, my DH and DS8 and DD4. I can't believe it's coming up so fast. We are all getting so excited. Looking forward to meeting all of you...

Liz

 

[LiserAnn]

Let me be the first to welcome my friend Liz! Finally!!!! Now these people will believe there are three other families coming with me on this cruise. I was starting to feel like they might think I made my friends up.

Liz-don't be afraid of Albill...I know some posts back he threatened something about bringing along his thong , but he's really harmless. Geez, still can't get that visual out of my head........

 

[kndyglr]

I booked my Dolphin Excursion through Vallarta Online~just waiting on my confirmation from them. So much cheaper Thanks for all your help and advice Lisa!!
So about the thong~you aren't talking about shoes are you???hehe

Gotta go make sure the ds is doing his homework

Liz

ps--I need to figure out how to put one of those ticker deals on here...

 

[jlawall]

Welcome Liz,.....check out the website under them....it's alittle tricky but so worth it!!

 

[littleowensmommy]

Hello All,

Yes we are still cruising with you in July. I just paid off the cruise so I can book shore excursions at the 90-day mark.

Regarding booking with Vallartaonline.com, I am hesitant to book the Pirate Cruise with them. I hope it goes smoothly for you Lisa but I called Marigalante directly in January and they told me that the entire excursion was reserved for Disney Cruise Line that day. I have emailed them twice since reading your post regarding booking through Vallartaonline.com and they have not replied. I also emailed Vallartaonline.com and I received a reply that was similar in wording to the reply they sent you about your specific reservation. The broken english makes me nervous. I like to save money as much as anyone but I think I would worry too much about a possible problem with the reservation booked outside of Disney. This will be our third Disney Cruise. It is true that Disney does jack up the prices on tours but you gain the convenience of knowing that everything is taken care of. Regarding the Dolphin encounter in Puerto Vallarta, I called them directly in January as well and they too said that every spot was reserved for Disney on that day. If you do encounter a problem with your reservation on 2 August what recourse will you have? There will be no representative from Vallartaonline.com available to assist you. We are cruising again next year on a 7-night with 2 stops at Castaway Cay. We will have a port call in Cozumel. We were in Cozumel last year on our Western Caribbean Cruise. We did the Dolphin Encounter there. It was more expensive than booking directly with Dolphin Discovery but it included admission to the park and taxi fare. Next year we will book directly with Dolphin Discovery so we can reserve the Royal Dolphin Swim which is not offered through Disney. I feel comfortable enough getting there on our own as we are now somewhat familiar with the area.

Has anyone booked REAS reservations yet? I called Debbie today and she told me to call back 30 days out. That seems wrong to me.

Lisa, I'm not trying to discourage you and I sincerely hope all goes as you have planned. I am just not comfortable. I do hate to spend the extra money for my peace of mind. I just wish I could get a straight answer from either Marigalante or Vallartaonline regarding how many people the ship holds and how many reservations Disney Cruise Line is holding. I'm sure it is going to be a very popular excursion so I would assume Disney would indeed book the entire voyage if at all possible.

Kathy

 

[LiserAnn]

Liz-go to Tickerfactory.com to set up the counter. It basically writes the code (?? not a computer person here). You then copy it. At the top of your DIS boards screen there's a menu bar...select "user CP" and once it goes in, as I recall, click on "signature". You then paste it in there. If I recall correctly they explain how to do this at tickerfactory.com. Oh, and ummm regarding the thong thing....we're all pretty confident it didn't involve shoes.......

Hi Kathy! Glad to hear you're still with us!! Are your friends still traveling with you? Last you posted you said your friend's DH wasn't going to be able to come due to military duty and she was thinking of canceling but you were trying to encourage her to still come. Regarding the excursions - I hear ya about your hesitations regarding vallartaonline and fully appreciate your valid concerns. Personally I did extensive research about them on cruisecritic.com. On that site, I found several posters, one of which whom cruised Princess - they booked the pirate sail through vallartaonline, even though Princess had it "all booked". They went on the priate sail with people who paid more from their cruise. They're the largest accomodations/tour broker in PV and they have a huge office right on hotel row near the Sheraton in PV. They also have the largest internet cyber cafe in PV. Through my research (I think I missed my calling in life) I also learned the owner of vallartaonline is good friends with the owner of the Margilante. BUT, having said all this, I wouldn't want anyone to book with vallartaonline without having done their own research and without feeling confident that the tour will be available for them when they get there. I'd feel horrible! For our family, I feel confident it'll all work out and if it doesn't it won't be the end of the world for us...I know we'd get our money back...and my "frugal" DH would be fine having the money in his pocket again. He feels we should just all be happy hanging on the boat....

 

[LiserAnn]

Has anyone booked REAS reservations yet? I called Debbie today and she told me to call back 30 days out. That seems wrong to me.

Kathy-I'm with you! I called Debbie and got the same response (but this was a month ago). I thought to myself, well, what's the point 30 days before, some of the spots could already be gone. I know on the regular Caribbean itineraries they book 4 months in advance. I did read on another thread she's just buried with repo REAS requests and people who are cruising EARLIER than us are still getting that response from her .

Oh well!

 

[littleowensmommy]

Hi Lisa,

No, our friends won't be sailing with us this summer. DH will be deployed from the end of May through August and DW doesn't wan't to travel alone with 3 DSs. It was going to cost her over $17K to take her parents along to help with the children. Her youngest will only be 2 and he wouldn't be able to go to the kids' club so it wouldn't be much of a break for her. They have rebooked to join us on the 24 June 2006 cruise with 2 stops at Castaway Cay. It will work out so much better for them as this will be their first Disney Cruise and they will get not one but 2 days at Castaway Cay. Their youngest will be 3 on 30 June 2006. Since he will be under 3 on the day of embarkation he cruises for free. They just have to pay port charges for him and since he is within one month of his 3rd birthday he can go to the kids' club assuming he will be potty trained. I took advantage of that magical month when we cruised last summer just ahead of my DD's 3rd birthday. They are going to join us at WDW in October for MNSSHP and F&W.

Lisa, you certainly did your research about Vallartaonline.com. You have alleviated my fears about dealing with them.

Kathy

 

[lwilliam]

This is my 5th cruise with Disney and I've never felt so good about a
cruise because of all the help EVERYONE has been - I feel sorry for
Lisa, we depend on her alot, since she is from CA. I don't want to
rush the time until the cruise (at 51, you try not to rush TIME )
but I'm more excited about meeting all of you, spending time with
the DISers, running into all of you on the ship, I've kind of ignored making
any plans for excursions.
My boys and husband took a non-Disney booked tour, swimming with
stingrays in Grand Cayman, we also had advice from DISers and it turned
out PERFECTLY.
May I also say, Kathy, I'm sad for your friend's deployment - I'm scared
and upset over this situation in Iraq, and having an 18 yr. old son doesn't
make me feel any better. I pray for all troops and their families.
Anyone seen Bill lately?
Everyone have a nice weekend - I'm spending time INDOORS, my allergies
are at their peak for spring. - Lucy

 

[kndyglr]

Hi littleowensmommy,

I just booked the Dolphin Encounter through Vallarta Online~guess we'll see what happens. Regarding the REAS, my TA said the same thing~30 days out~but this is my first Disney Cruise, so I don't know if its normal or not.

Liz