I won a 3 night cruise on Millionaire at Disney Studios!

[hightown]

Won on 10/16. We just got back from the world last night so now I need to brush up on the cruise and of course the first place to go is the DIS Cruise Forum!

Will be reading up but wondering if there's anyone here with experience with winning a cruise from Disney. Would like any any information or to hear about your experience with booking, adding on nights or additional cabins. Were you able to add land portion. How were you treated? Any upgrades etc.

It's for 4 but the cabins are so small. It's just my DD10 and I (no DH). I could take my folks but really don't want to share the cabin. It looks too close for comfort with 3 adults and DD. Wondering if Disney will credit the cost for third and fourth toward a 2nd state room.

Anyway, if anyone out there won from Disney, would love to talk/email with you.

Sharon

 

[JJsmama]

I have no idea about your questions, but Congratulations! That's very exciting!

 

[PoohJen]

Hi Sharon!!!
I was there in the studio audience when you won!!! My mother was so excited for you, she wanted to take a picture!!! (She saved a piece of the purple steamers). I did not fare half as well as you did with the answers that day!

I can't answer your questions, but wanted to say Congratulations!!! Your win was an exciting part of our day at MGM!

 

[StuartMI]

Way to go million-point-winner!

 

[christinou]

Congratulations, this is great, The cabins are on the small side, but you really do not spend much time there, you could give your parents the bed, have your daughter on the top bunk and you on the bottom. I would bring my parents unless you really don't get along that great with them....
Have fun planning.

 

[tkd lisa]

Congratulations! There was someone who won this who came to our Friday night cruise chat for a while. I'll ask a friend to see if she remembers his screen name. I think he was cruising this fall.

It's very exciting!

 

[Ralph&Pam]

Originally posted by hightown
Won on 10/16. We just got back from the world last night so now I need to brush up on the cruise and of course the first place to go is the DIS Cruise Forum!

Will be reading up but wondering if there's anyone here with experience with winning a cruise from Disney. Would like any any information or to hear about your experience with booking, adding on nights or additional cabins. Were you able to add land portion. How were you treated? Any upgrades etc.

It's for 4 but the cabins are so small. It's just my DD10 and I (no DH). I could take my folks but really don't want to share the cabin. It looks too close for comfort with 3 adults and DD. Wondering if Disney will credit the cost for third and fourth toward a 2nd state room.

Anyway, if anyone out there won from Disney, would love to talk/email with you.

Sharon

First, congratulations! It's an exciting event.

I will report back next week. I won the cruise last year and we sail this Thursday. We upgraded to a Cat 4 cabin to get more room. There will be three of us traveling, me, DW, and our adult DS.

I have had a number of conversations with the DCL prize program coordinator regarding our trip. He is an excellent cast member who bends over backwards helping you plan your trip.

When we inquired about the possibility of adding a second cabin to the prize (to get more room, at that time we expected our adult DD to join us as well), the price was very high, since all four passengers must stay in the same cabin to qualify for the included airfares, transfers, and tips. A second cabin was priced at the going rate with no credit for the third and fourth passengers. That's when we decided to upgrade from the Cat 9 of the prize to our Cat 4. I'll let you know how this works out for three adults after we return.

Gee, I'm getting excited. In 48 hours, we should be on our way to the port.

Ralph

 

[hightown]

Thanks for the congrats and well wishes!

Jen, how cool that you were there! I thought the audience was really terrific. Wishing you and your Mom luck the next time!

Ralph, thanks for your answers and I can't wait to hear about your trip. Will have to look into upgrading perhaps. How far ahead did you schedule? Are you adding on a WDW stay too? I'd like to schedule the air to have a few days at beginning and end for the world. I know that would be my expense but hate to come all the way from Colorado just for three nights. Have a fantastic trip! I can't wait to hear more!

Sharon

 

[Mboothby]

Didnt' Dave from the Passporter win one of these cruises awhile back? You might contact Dave and Jen at Passporter.com and ask. I could swear he posted about winning a cruise. I bet he could help you too.

Mandie

 

[cristit14]

Just wanted to say Congrats to a follow Coloradian. I am just west of you in Littleton.

 

[lovesgrumpy]

CONGRATULATIONS!!!! What a wonderful prize to win. Have lots of fun!!

Lovesgrumpy

 

[luvalldisney]

We had 4 adult females in a category 9 cabin. The bed can be separated into 2 twins, the sofa turns into a bed and there is a pullman over the sofa. It took some adjustment, but the only time we had a problem was on "packing" day, since we only had 2 hours in which to pack and put our stuff out in the hallway. You know how much ladies pack---we had a suitcase and carry on for each person. I would take your parents and have a great time. BTW our ages : daughter 25; me 53; mom 77 and mother in law 87. We had a blast on the 7 day and are already planning a return in 2007 for mom's and mil's 80th and 90th birthdays!

 

[Ralph&Pam]

Originally posted by hightown

Ralph, thanks for your answers and I can't wait to hear about your trip. Will have to look into upgrading perhaps. How far ahead did you schedule? Are you adding on a WDW stay too? I'd like to schedule the air to have a few days at beginning and end for the world. I know that would be my expense but hate to come all the way from Colorado just for three nights. Have a fantastic trip! I can't wait to hear more!

Sharon

We scheduled tomorrow's cruise last March, once our work schedules were clearer for the fall. There are lots of cruise dates "blacked out" for prize winners, so it was a challenge for us. Summer dates would have been easy for us to do, but everything was blacked out, along with the long holiday weekends during the school year.

We didn't add on a WDW stay. We're DVC members, so we get plenty of opportunities to visit the World. Actually been there three times already this year (January, March, and June).

Because of our schedules, we wouldn't be able to add any days at this time of year. Actually, our original dates were a better choice for us, since I had a long weekend over Columbus day and would not have missed work on the Friday. The Wonder ended up going into dry dock two weeks later than originally scheduled when the 2004 cruise dates were published. As a result, our first choice date ended up in the middle of the dry dock period. Our departure date of October 21 is actually one day late relative to the 1 year anniversary of my "win" (I was on sabbatical last fall so we were able to spend a week at the Food and Wine Festival; won't get that opportunity for another 6 years). We were accommodated in the rescheduling since the printed information we received from the Disney-MGM Studios prize coordinator had shown the dates we wanted as being available, but when I sent in the form, this had changed.

Long story now longer, I never asked about adding days of land time at my own expense while still taking advantage of the airfares. Since it appears that DCL books blocks of seats from particular gateway cities to Orlando (and perhaps other destination airports in Florida as well), these are likely on the days cruises arrive and depart from the port (or the day prior to departure when connections demand it). With the 3-day, this might mean you could fly into Orlando on Sunday (when the 4-day would be departing) rather than Thursday (when the 3-day departs) and then return on Sunday. That would be the travel cycle for someone who booked air with their cruise as part of a 4-day land/3-day sea vacation, so flights should be available. You might even ask about upgrade cost to add the land portion of such a trip, although I've always suspected that booking the land portion myself would save some money (and with DVC, we'd be unlikely to want to do that in any case if we cruise again).

Ralph

 

[MM2U2]

Congratulations! I'm so happy for you. Disneyland discontinued the " Who Wants to be a Millionaire" show because too many annual passholders were winning the cruises. Happy cruise planning!

 

[MarcyIn Florida]

Wow, how exciting!

Any tips for getting in the hot seat or making it all the way to the top? (do you have to reach the million dollar level to win the cruise?)

 

[BCVOwner2002]

Congratulations!! That's awesome to win the cruise. I'm going to make sure I go to Millionaire on my next trip to Disney! Annmarie

 

[rwade428]

I was there with my sister last April and went all the way to win a cruise!! Talk about exciting. I'm willing to answer any and all questions...bring 'em on!!

I am taking my 3 sisters and yes, you can expand to land and sea. 2 of the sisters have never been to WDW so we had to do that. We got 3 days on land and 4 at sea and the additional cost is about 1600 dollars. We're all very excited about this once in a lifetime trip and everyone has been great...from cast members to DCL.

I was the one a previous poster mentioned that visiting the cruise chat.....but I'm a she,,,,,,,not a he.

Any questions...bring em on

 

[tkd lisa]

Yep yep yep, it was rwade! Every time I thought about asking Mary (wdwlvr) if she remembered your username, it slipped out of my mind. Glad you found this thread, and again, congratulations to all the winners!!!!

Come join us in cruise chat tonight, we'd love to have you!

 

[CRSNDSNY]

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

 

[PoohJen]

Okay, question for RWade and Sharon...

I can never seem to get the timing down on answering the questions while in the audience. Example - I went a long way in getting all the questions right last week (up to the point where they show your standings for the first time), knowing the answers before the lights lit up, but never in the top ten. So...it's timing. I can't seem to figure out the timing for plugging in your answers.

Any insights? Thanks!