January 13, 2007 - 7 Night Magic Western

[szewong]

Oh and on weight gain, I think we did ok. I gained 3 lbs, wife didn't gain any and I think baby lost a pound. I believe mostly because baby is allergic to cheese and ice cream so we didn't have a lot of those.

Sze

 

[szewong]

One other note. Did anybody actually join the DVC during the crusie? I think it's a good idea but it's still a lot of money so I didn't want to do it right away. I guess I'll go over to the DVC forum to check out some info.

Sze

 

[DiaLady]

One other note. Did anybody actually join the DVC during the crusie? I think it's a good idea but it's still a lot of money so I didn't want to do it right away. I guess I'll go over to the DVC forum to check out some info.

Well it's good to know someone else felt the same way we did . . .LOL. DH struggled about joining. In the end, we opted not to do it. I had researched it a bit after the last trip. It's a good deal if you like to go to the parks. We like to cruise Instead we booked another cruise Szewong, I'd love to hear your assessment once you critically review the material.

 

[Luckymomoftwo]

We joined DVC about 10 years ago (the prices were MUCH lower then). I have second guessed our logic of purchasing the DVC several times, but then when I do my calculations, we are way ahead. We go to Disney World or DCL almost once a year. We have spent 10 nights at Old Key West twice in December in a two bedroom suite, we have done a 3 day cruise, a 4 day cruise, a SS Member Cruise (I think 5 days, but I don't remember for sure) and two 7 day cruises. Even if we saved as much money each month that we pay for our DVC loan and dues, we would have never been able to take those vacations! And we get to vacation like this until 2042!! You can also check into the re-sales on the DVC...you might be able to pick up some points at a more reasonable price, but you may not be able to use them right away depending on if the seller has used their current use year points.

We absolutely love being members of DVC and we love the perks!! I know it's not for everyone, but if you are a Disney fanatic (like we are), I don't think you can go wrong with joining DVC.

 

[ldeninge]

Hi all,
we're home, too - a wonderful cruise - beautiful weather, everything went smoothly. Sorry, we also didn't make any of the DIS meets (didn't see anyone at the terminal, and arrived too late for the breakfast, since we had our character breakfast that am). However, I enjoyed meeting SzeWong and lovely family at Flounders, SopandBass and their DD (our DD had fun playing in the club with her), running into Bytor and kids at breakfast - who were very sunshiny.. and Vulcandream was kind enough to say hi in the hallway - so got to meet him. Also we saw several DIS signs on stateroom doors - so that was fun. (we spent lots of time walking the hallways to get our little guy to nap...)

thanks for the pirate goodies, SopandBass - DD loved it!

Unfortunately, we arrived home to several inches of snow!
My DH is full of complaints upon returning home -apparently my domestic skills are NOT up to par with our stateroom host Craig and our servers Mo & Claudio. His complaints are as follows:

1. Upon stepping out on deck, he had to return inside for a coat.
2. Upon the second visit on deck, he had to shovel a strange foreign substance off the ground.
3. The bathroom towels are not being changed frequently enough.
4. The floor show last night was boring.
5. There was no mint on his pillow today.
6. He was unable to receive his requested entrée (chicken soup), due to inadequate kitchen supply.
7. Dinner tonight received the following review:
Ham - too stringy
Potatoes - too hard
Broccoli - too cold
Cheese sticks - lumpy
DD-5 was unhappy that her marinara sauce for the cheese sticks was not in the shape of Mickey.
DS-almost 2 keeps wimpering 'Mickey Bar, Mickey Bar...'
There was no dessert menu.
The stateroom is a mess.
The garbage wasn’t emptied this morning.


AND MO, CLAUDIO & CRAIG ARE ON THEIR WAY OUT OF KEY WEST TONIGHT!

How will we survive?????

 

[cepmom]

hey everyone!!! Glad to hear that everyone had as great a trip as we did. The weather was absolutely perfect....I had been reading various accounts of cold weather from other trip reports and I am very glad we were as lucky as we were!

I did get to meet pdarrah and her lovely family, skylynx and impala, and sopandbass and her lovely family. I had been looking forward to meeting others, but forgot about the sail away party meet and had to rush off to get ready for Palo on the morning of the breakfast meet.

Speaking of Palo ~ wow! I had heard great things about the brunch before, but this blew me away! The food was fabulous and our server, Corina, was outstanding. DH and I agreed we liked the brunch better than dinner. That is a must do for our next trip.

We rebooked a 4 night for 2008 with two stops to Castaway Cay.(well a dummy date that we'll have Dreams switch on the 31st) DH and DD17 really want to pair the next trip with WDW, so I had to "settle" for a 4 night. The double dip makes up for the shorter cruise though One day at CC just isn't enough.

Thank you again Pamela for the pirate goodies....the kids were so excited. How nice of you! Thank you also for hanging with us on the snorkle/stingray city trip. Darrah is a great kid! I hope he enjoyed his trip to stingray city....finally!

I wanted to get to a DVC seminar, but never found the time. Just as well I guess, as we will have college to pay for in a couple of years anyway

Weight gain ~ 4 lbs. I truly tried to be good....I had lost close to 11 lbs before the cruise and knew it was going to be hard to resist all the goodies! Oh well ~ as Vulcandream put ~ it was all worth it! Back to normal tomorrow.

 

[Ginny]

I am so excited!! I have wanted to join DVC for a very, very long time but DH hesitated......repeatedly. Close friends of ours have been members since 1997 and have really enjoyed and used their membership. I have read the DIS DVC Board for several years, as well. Up to this trip, we have used "military roll-over rates" to stay at multiple WDW properties and really enjoyed special rates for accomodations that were beyond our expectations and pocketbook. But, with the wonderful, new expansion of Shades of Green, it meant that we stayed at SOG or paid the "Rack Rate."

I had intended that the cruise would be my Birthday Present, so when DH gave me my birthday "box" before we left the Beach Club for the ship, I was very surprised and touched. I truly thought it was a Beach Club Bathrobe but when I opened it, it had all of this DVC merchandise. Since he had been so adamant about not joining up to now, I thought maybe he just wanted me to feel like "one of the group!" So, I oohed and ahhed appropriately over the individual items. There was a magnet and Beach Towel and Beach Bag, etc. He finally looked at me and said, "You aren't getting this, are you? Honey, your present is that you can have your DVC membership!!"

We intended to purchase a resale but the great price offering onboard, coupled with the 6 month backdate and the extra $$ bennies far outweighed the resale market so we jumped in. We actually went to the Cove Cafe after the "group meeting" on our first Day at Sea and compared the resale rates and available contracts with what Disney was offering. Based on our research and what I had learned previously, we had specific questions for Dave when we met privately with him. We both really liked his style and felt very comfortable.

Plus, even if we committed on the Magic, there is a grace period now that we are back on dry land.................. but we are both delighted with our purchase and moving forward. And, after rechecking the resale market again today, and speaking to our friends (who bought when it was in the $50- 60 / per point range), we are thrilled.

Also, we bought three parcels (which I had learned about from reading the DIS DVC board) and figured if we didn't end up using all of the points, we could easily sell the smallest parcel because people like small contracts.

I think folks can run the numbers several different ways and come up with whether it is a great buy or not..................but, for me, it is very special and I'm so happy. I think the stars all aligned and it was meant to be....my own version of Disney Magic.

All I can say is that if you are thinking about DVC, do your homework so you know the right questions to ask and really feel comfortable with your decision to move forward. Maybe this cruise wasn't the right time for you and, looking forward, there is the new Animal Kingdom Lodge that will begin construction soon and others are on the way which may be a better fit.

 

[sopandbass]

Sounds like a good time was had by all. Wasn't that a great week?

It was so nice meeting some of you -

Pam and family (thanks again for putting together the website)
cepmom and family - Jennifer, I'm still impressed that you could keep the cruise a secret until the final moments
Bytor's family - I'm with James - the lifeboat drill is a nuisance when you want the fun to begin and never stop!
ldeninge - Lauri, I'm glad our DDs had a chance to meet and play
Vulcandream - I'm sorry we never had a chance to talk theatre

I think I may write a trip report if I can find the time soon. We really considered joining the DVC but didn't yet. Maybe next cruise...

I know Jennifer (cepmom) booked another cruise. Did anyone else find it difficult to stay away from the Future Cruise Desk? We were in Palo on Thursday night and Toni, our server, told us about the Califonia announcement and I almost left my chocolate souffle sitting there to run out and book the Panama Canal crossing because I remembered how it sold out so quickly the last time. But the chocolate souffle is REALLY good so I finished it and went to the Future Cruise desk the next morning only to discover that I could fill out a form (to ensure receipt of a room credit) but couldn't actually book until January 31. So, we are seriously considering booking the August 17, 2008 cruise. I'm not sure I could withstand 2 weeks of that much fun and our DD might be impossible to live with after that.

I'm glad everyone had a great time! We are all blessed!

Peace,
Sharon

 

[mtt-swd]

We also booked onboard with a dummy date to get the credit and discount waiting for the opening of the dates for the california trip. We will be bringing the Magic home in August. At first, we were thinking of bringing the magic to california, but don't want to take DS out of school for that long. Our entire party of 13 people had a wonderful time. Only 1 piece of lugguge got left on the dock, never made it on the truck to the airport. Disney will be sending it back home. I know we had a dis member in the next room as my family, room 6588, sorry I didn't make any of the dis meets just too busy with the other 10 people in my party.
Did anyone else have trouble getting their kids out of the stack? It seemed DS met quite a few people in the stack. We had a little bit of trouble getting him back to the stateroom at a decent hour, since we could not sleep until he was back. As soon as we arrived home, my DS was on the computer talking with the friends he had met on the cruise.
I did see a few dis members on board, from their pictures on pdarrah's site. Thank you pdarrah for all of the work that you put into your site for all of us.

 

[DiaLady]

LOL . . I guess if we didn't meet on this cruise, perhaps we'll meet on the return trip in August. We did the same thing. . . booked a dummy date to make sure we got the credit. I'm so proud of DH for wanting to do this! It will be a great experience for the kids (and adults, too).

Have a super day!

Theresa

 

[blacksmithcrm]

We booked a dummy date too! Not quite sure yet when we'll go back, but it really helps to know that indeed we will go back. 17 days at sea with disney and I still want more!

Thanks to everyone who put this together (and the pirate goodies too). You guys rock!

 

[pdarrah]

Hi Everyone!

We got home last last night and I have a million things to get done at the office today - so just a quick note now....

We had a GREAT time and it was fun meeting some of you. We also booked a dummy date and filled out the form for the canal crossing. If we can afford it, we will bring the magic home in August 2008! (If not, then maybe a special Western that fall ...)

Nearly everything on this cruise was perfect - the only negative I can think of was injuring my arm in Cozumel (I'll provide details later) but even that didn't slow me down too much. If you saw someone with the entire underside of their arm bruised and swollen - that was me!! We even got to watch the end of the Bear's game at the airport last night since our flight was slightly delayed.

I'll try and write more later or maybe tomorrow (we have choir practive tonight).

Pdarrah

 

[CTPinkPrincess]

One other note. Did anybody actually join the DVC during the crusie? I think it's a good idea but it's still a lot of money so I didn't want to do it right away. I guess I'll go over to the DVC forum to check out some info.

Sze

We did! Based on our recent vacation history the offer was just too tempting to pass up. I am suffering a bit of buyers' remorse, but that's just something I go through after any major purchase.

We also re-booked for next Feb (an Eastern itinerary) and requested a quote on the Mexican cruise for next summer (we'll switch the Feb ressie if the quote for CA is comparable).

 

[Bytor01]

Man with all of you joining or thinking of joining I wish I would have known. DVC was the best purchase we ever made. I love ours and we have only been members 4 years. Hey, if its not to late maybe you can get something if you mention me as a referral. Just say ooppps sorry I forgot my friend Tim Nolan from Wantagh,NY told me about DVC. Of course, if any of you want to get in I could be your referral. And, if anyone has any questions, let me know I can answer any of your questions.

As for the cruise. What a great time. Probably one of the best vacations we have ever had. Everything we did and planned worked out perfectly. As this being our first cruise ever we are definately hooked. I wish I would have known about booking a dummy date. Great idea because we will definately want to go again. Probably Jan 2009.

My favorite part, if I only had to pick one which was almost impossible probably was the shows at night. They were all tremendous. Outstanding productions and great singing and acting.

My kids never wanted to leave the kids club. They loved it. My daughter fell in love with one of the counselors. I believe her name was Ali. Darn it if she did not exactly sound like Minnie Driver the actress. Our servers Okim and Ricardo were great. After Tuesday we actually got another Asst. Server, Peter. He was "Earning his Ears". So we were really spoiled. Ronald was great and he kept everything running smoothly. Talk about running smoothly Gerich our stateroom host was unbelievable. Boy when Christian said when we left the room and you came back everything was always done. Damn he was definately talking about Gerich. This guy was amazing. Our favorite towel animal was the shark that looked like a sand shark of course wearing my sunglasses.

Did anyone try the wine package? We did and the wine was fantastic. We also did the wine tasting and I did the beer tasting twice. What a sucker I was. I was sucked in and couldn't stop trying things out. The wife and I went in to Who wants to be a Mouseketeer and lo and behold my number was called first. I won a nice pin and a laser etched glass cube with the words "Who wants to be a Mousketeer?" on it for answering 5 questions right. What a great time we had.

Man, too much to talk about. One bad thing though. I ordered one of the 2-D crystals from Shutters and was told to pick it up at the end of the cruise (7am Saturday). Yep, you guessed it, the crystal is floating around in the Caribbean Ocean right now. It is visiting St. John and St. Martaan this week. I called up after getting a big runaround but finally got the people who are in charge of Shutters (on land) and they said that it will eventually be sent to me from DCL. So that's good.

Lastly, I want to thank everyone for a great time on here and especailly to Pdarrah for setting up the board. Additionally a big thank you from myself and my kids for the pirate goodie bags on Pirate night. My kids loved them and wore many of the tatoos that night and we are still trying to scrub them off (they won't let us). Also, ldeninge once again thank you for the kind gesture of your daughter to my kids. They loved the little Mickey and Minnie ears.

Tim

PS 7 lbs for me and 3 lbs for the wife on the trip ( I drank more alcohol). But, hey I woke up this morning and lost 4 lbs of it ( Did I say I drank more alcohol).

PSS Did anyone else receive an e-mail from DCL about taking a survey, I did this afternoon. Just curious.

 

[ldeninge]

Hi all,
I'm loving the trip reports that I see popping up already from folks! So, I started one, too. I've got a couple posts on it -
It's called 'Disturbing Disney Dreams' because we were all so sleep deprived!

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1333631

Keep the others coming- it's making me enjoy reliving the fun memories.
Lauri

 

[sopandbass]

Well, I filled out the form at the Future Cruise Desk about the August 17, 2008 cruise but now I'm freaked out that they won't call with information before January 31st. Does anyone know what time the phone lines open up on January 31st so we have at least a chance of getting on the ship? heheheh Clearly, I'm going through major cruise withdrawal!!!!

 

[blacksmithcrm]

You know, with all of us who booked real dates, dummy dates, and DVC dates, it'd be a shame to let this thread drop. We're all still aboard in a sense. We've just changed the times!

Happy Days!

 

[JLDSMD]

We intended to purchase a resale but the great price offering onboard, coupled with the 6 month backdate and the extra $$ bennies far outweighed the resale market so we jumped in. We actually went to the Cove Cafe after the "group meeting" on our first Day at Sea and compared the resale rates and available contracts with what Disney was offering. Based on our research and what I had learned previously, we had specific questions for Dave when we met privately with him. We both really liked his style and felt very comfortable.

Plus, even if we committed on the Magic, there is a grace period now that we are back on dry land.................. but we are both delighted with our purchase and moving forward. And, after rechecking the resale market again today, and speaking to our friends (who bought when it was in the $50- 60 / per point range), we are thrilled.

Also, we bought three parcels (which I had learned about from reading the DIS DVC board) and figured if we didn't end up using all of the points, we could easily sell the smallest parcel because people like small contracts.

I think folks can run the numbers several different ways and come up with whether it is a great buy or not..................but, for me, it is very special and I'm so happy. I think the stars all aligned and it was meant to be....my own version of Disney Magic.

All I can say is that if you are thinking about DVC, do your homework so you know the right questions to ask and really feel comfortable with your decision to move forward. Maybe this cruise wasn't the right time for you and, looking forward, there is the new Animal Kingdom Lodge that will begin construction soon and others are on the way which may be a better fit.

May I ask what incentives they were giving out if you signed up while on the ship (extra weeks, low apr if you took a loan, bonus points, etc.)?

Also, what is the minimum buy in if you buy directly from DVC? Is it 150 points?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Patio_29]

I was so excited about this trip and we were ready to rebook onboard, but it didn't go as planned at all. As they say when it rains it pours, we had a luggage issue at WDW. They kept telling us the suitcase was in their possesion when in reality they didn't have it (I found this out at 1am after 4 phone calls). DME never picked it up and it went to unclaimed baggage. I finally got to bed at 3am and we had to delay getting to the port by 1 1/2hr. Upon our arrival, we got checked in and I realized I didn't have the dining rotation I had requested (late seating APL). I had called twice the week before to confirm our Palo's reservations (private room) and the rotation request. I was told not to worry I definately had that rotation. It was disappointing to have been told twice that I definately had a specific rotation and then get our room key and see that I didn't. Okay I wasn't thrilled, but such is life. When we got to our rooms, 6th floor aft there was a weird smell in the hall and in our rooms too. It smelled like sewage. The people across the hall said they'd already complained, but we called too. They were nice, but really couldn't fix it. I got 6 other people to book this cruise with us and now there was the smell of sewage. My MIL considered getting off at Key West. They tried a bunch of different things, but in the end we requested new rooms. There were none, the cruise was sold out. It was not the experience we were expecting after sailing on the Wonder in October '05. I was feeling so discouraged. The last night of the cruise it was back in full force. We discovered the people across the hall from us had sewage come up in their bathroom. The smell was horrible. The Club fed my son a cheese sandwich eventhough they were aware he had a dairy allergy. Luckily he was fine just a little upset stomach. The Vista Spa handed out my room key to someone else by mistake. Our server was not great, we all ended up agreeing we wanted a new server and they did manage to do that. I'm just so disappointed. I planned this trip for sooo long and it just didn't go the way I expected. The last thing was my father-in-law became ill on the ship. He went to the doctor's they said it was a sinus/throat infection and gave him medication. On Sunday, he was taken from the Contemporary by ambulance and was just released from the hospital today. He had pneumonia. So our stay at Disney afterwards wasn't all that great either. There were some highlights...the Palo's private room was great and Carmen our server was UNBELIEVABLE. We had a magical night there with the whole family (my MIL's best friend and her two daughters and families booked the same cruise on my faith in Disney) to celebrate my in-laws 25th. Our brunch was also unbelievable. And watching my DS's happiness while snorkeling for the first time. Castaway Cay was beautiful and the weather was great. I just wish I could've come here and said the cruise was amazing. I was sooooo looking forward to it. The Disney Wonder was completely WONDERFUL!!! For those of you who rebooked (we didn't although we'd planned too), I hope you have a wonderful cruise. I think we're going to be taking a Disney break for a while.

 

[skylynx]

Good grief...it is astounding how people on the same cruise could have such polar opposite experiences...I'm so sorry about your disappointment, Patricia. Hopefully you'll give DCL another chance to redeem itself in the future.

We had our enormous duffle bag disappear from the baggage claim in the terminal Sat. morning. Long story short...turned out someone else mistook our bag for theirs and took it all the way to North Carolina before they realized they had the wrong bag. We saw the bag they left behind...it was half the size, weight, and not even the same color green. Go figure. (I am now going to festoon our luggage with huge flourescent ribbons and tie ping pong paddles to the handles from now on.)

We had a nervous two days wondering if it would turn up, and what would happen if it didn't. All our snorkel gear was in there, along with some less than fragrant laundry and our two Ritz Carlton bathrobes we drag along on every cruise, plus one of my formal gowns, my DCL beach bag that's no longer available...argghhh! We got the call on Sunday that the bag was found and going to be picked up and Fed Ex'ed to us on Monday. It arrived at our home Tuesday in perfect condition (whew). DCL did also shear the wheel of DH's Mickey Mouse suitcase, which we now call draggage instead of luggage. Still working on resolving that. The silver lining in this story is that we didn't have to tote that bulging duffle bag of stuff we weren't going to use all over WDW and the airport..it just appeared at our doorstep!

When we got to Wilderness Lodge after the cruise, there was an invite in our room plus a $100 gift certificate if we went to a DVC presentation. We never got to do it on the cruise, so we decided to go during a park hop transition and pick up some $$. Well, we're now DVC owners. Our guide agreed to give us the same deal everyone on the ship got with the incentives and discounts even though it was actually the day after the big 15th anniversary sale ended ( I saw some of our fellow cruisers took advantage of it, too.) We have always been major skeptics about the opportunity cost ratio about DVC (and in fact, remained skeptics up until about five minutes into the presentation). We sat down and ran all the numbers, looked at DH's bonus check, had a beer, and decided to do it. We wanted to buy at WL to increase our chances of getting reservations there, but our travel patterns mostly call for short term (3 month) planning, so instead we went for the better dollar value and longer contract term. I have to confess now I have been a regular visitor on the DVC disboards, and they're just as nutty as we are.

Trip report coming soon...it was so nice to meet everyone we did get to see face to face...