How was the Member Cruise this year??

[kamgen]

I havent seen anyone post yet...
How was it?? We opted to skip, so I was curious:
who were the special guests?
gifts?
Announcements??

Thanks!

 

[kamgen]

Anyone????

 

[vek239]

I didn't go but I heard from someone who did; here's some of their thoughts:
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".... It was good. Not great. Food was excellent as expected. On board entertainment was also good. We took part in the Alani DVC site in Oahu review..... DVC was also offering really good pricing & discounts if you bought into Alani.

They had a premier movie, Secretariat.... highly recommend seeing it. Stage shows were Disney quality.

Ducky Williams presented and was very good. Interesting history with Disney.

DVC gave away lots of gifts, pins, bags, and such. Very nice. If you do go on the MC, take a separate bag to carry the gifts off board, yeah there's that many...

That's it. It wasn't a bad cruise, but we won't do next years cruise. We'll use our points to go to Alani.... "
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We'd like to hear from others who were on the cruise, too.

 

[WDWLVR]

That is pretty much the take I've had from reading some posts on this years cruise. Sad to say we were very disappointed with last years cruise and the years before which is one of the reasons we didn't go this year. Looks like our decision has been made for next year as well.

What always made the Member Cruise special for us was the great guests that DVC would bring on. In the past we've seen Art Linkletter, Roy Disney, Richard Sherman, Marty Skylar and many others. While I love Ducky Williams and think Susan Egan is a wonderful singer they are repeats to the DVC Member Cruise. Nothing really fresh and new. After 2006 DVC made it pretty clear they wanted new cruisers on board (the 2007 cruise was the one that they had a lottery to open to first time Member Cruisers first and then everyone else).

Even the gifts seem to be recycled yet again as I read they gave out the small suitcases for the 4th year in a row (different graphics each year but still). I swear (and I told DVC this in a letter last year about our disappointment) that someone in marketing much be related to someone making these little suitcases.

It seems like the biggest things everyone on this years cruise loved (at least from what I read hear on the DIS) was getting to meet everyone they were cruising with from the DIS, and the FE gifts of the DIS group. Both of those can be had on any cruise if you participate in the cruise meets thread for your cruise. Sure you have the added bonus of all being DVC members which helps but is that really worth the extra $$$$ DVC is asking for this cruise? I don't think so.

Still if you have never been on a DVC Member Cruise than what they plan you might really like. I just think we have been spoiled by some really great ones (2005 and 2007 stand out in my mind as the best) and DVC just hasn't been able to measure up to those in the last couple of years.

 

[kamgen]

I am curious who the celebrity guest were. In 2008, some of them were great....but we haven't heard about this year.
Wonder what they will do on the Dream....just seems like a lot of points when we can cruise another time for less, like we are doing this year.