January 3, 2008 3 Night Wonder

[4boons]

Thank you! Let me talk to DH -- we were thinking of trying to keep it a secret from her until Christmas. It was originally going to be a surprise for her November birthday, so she does not know anything about it yet.

Keep it a surpise, this will make a great Christmas gift.

We can intorduce the girls at a later date.

 

[wedway119]

Hey everyone! We are real excited about going and hope to meet some of you there. My DW and I went on the 4 night for our honeymoon and loved it, so I convinced my parents to take along the whole famly...my sisters, their kids, and us of course.

 

[4boons]

Welcome to the whole wedway clan.

This thread has been slow as of late, but I'm hopeful that it will start taking off soon.

The 4boons, or at least 3 of us, are looking forward to meeting you and the rest of the dis crew.

 

[wedway119]

Thank you very much for the welcome. While I am on here I just have a quick question maybe you guys can help me with. Is there any way that you can make reservations for Palo ahead of time by letting them know which restaurant you want to miss or do you have to wait till you are on board for that? When we went on the 4 night we had the romance package and they called us to set up the Palo deal and were able to make it on the day of the duplicate restaurant. I just can't remember for the life of me how far in advance that was. Any help would be appreciated!! Have a good one!

 

[barney4liz]

Keep it a surpise, this will make a great Christmas gift.

We can intorduce the girls at a later date.

That sounds good for now. So far . . . it is still a secret. We'll see how long we can keep it that way. I would like to go ahead and get her a passport, but then I suppose the cat would be out of the bag since we don't have any other travel plans.

OTOH . . . knowing about an upcoming cruise might take the pain out of starting back to school in 12 days!

 

[simzac]

Welcome to our up to now quiet thread wedway. Hope we can also meet you during the cruise. Not positive on the Palo ressie as this will be our first cruise, but memory tells me that advance ressies can be made as far out as 75 days. If I'm wrong, I'm sure someone will correct me. Less than 5 months til we sail, we are so excited.

 

[simzac]

That sounds good for now. So far . . . it is still a secret. We'll see how long we can keep it that way. I would like to go ahead and get her a passport, but then I suppose the cat would be out of the bag since we don't have any other travel plans.

OTOH . . . knowing about an upcoming cruise might take the pain out of starting back to school in 12 days!

I wouldn't wait too much longer on the passport based on how long it is taking for the government to get them out. I have mine, but the rest of our family applied for theirs back in June.

 

[barney4liz]

I wouldn't wait too much longer on the passport based on how long it is taking for the government to get them out. I have mine, but the rest of our family applied for theirs back in June.

I thought we did not really need passports yet for this trip? I was thinking it would be nice to go ahead and get mine and DD's, but not necessary? Maybe I need to re-check the dates! That would be a NASTY surprise!

eta: I just checked and it looks like we are good to go to the Caribbean by sea with no passports until sometime in the Summer of '08. I should go ahead and apply, though.

 

[barney4liz]

For those who are going to WDW before the cruise -- will you take the DCL bus to the port? I was at WDW last week visiting my brother and SIL, and seeing the DCL buses made me think that it would be fun to go to WDW for a day or so before the cruise. We will have some days left on our park passes. However, I guess we would still just drive to the port so that we can get our car and drive home at the end of the cruise. Just wondered what the DCL buses were like. They look cute.

 

[simzac]

You are correct about the passports. The decision to extend the implementation date was extended 2 days after our family applied for passports. And by the way, they arrived today, 7 weeks and 2 days after applying for them, things are definitely speeding up with processing of passports. As far as the DCL buses, they are very comfy coaches with TV's that will play some sort of Disney related videos for you while in transit. We rode on one via Magical Express this past January.

 

[4boons]

Thank you very much for the welcome. While I am on here I just have a quick question maybe you guys can help me with. Is there any way that you can make reservations for Palo ahead of time by letting them know which restaurant you want to miss or do you have to wait till you are on board for that? When we went on the 4 night we had the romance package and they called us to set up the Palo deal and were able to make it on the day of the duplicate restaurant. I just can't remember for the life of me how far in advance that was. Any help would be appreciated!! Have a good one!

I don't know if DCL can tell you your dining rotation. However, since you have sailed with DCL before, you should be able to call the Castaway Club and ask.

Upon paying your cruise in full, you can book shore excursions and Palo based on the following:
(I don't guarantee my dates so check with DCL)

105 days out from sailing:
Concierge and Suite level
9-20-2007

90 days out from sailing:
Castaway Club
10-05-2007

75 days out from sailing:
First time cruisers not in concierge and suite level
10-20-2007

If you book and pay for the romance package you can book 105 days out.

 

[wedway119]

awesome, thanks for the info...I will give them a call!

 

[simzac]

20 weeks from tomorrow we sail

 

[simzac]

Recieved our information packet in the mail today. Did anyone else get theirs?

 

[barney4liz]

Recieved our information packet in the mail today. Did anyone else get theirs?

Got it!! Haven't had a chance to peruse it yet. I brought it to work so I can peek at it over lunch. Or sooner if I squeeze in a break.

 

[simzac]

19 weeks til we sail. Only 5 families on this thread so far. Any more out there hiding?

 

[4boons]

I hope everyone has had a wonderful summer.

Just back from a week at Vero Beach Resort and waiting in the mail was our pkg. of info. for the Jan. cruise.

 

[simzac]

17 weeks from right now I might be out on deck, watching the moonlight and the sea go by. Won't be long now.

 

[barney4liz]

This will be our first cruise as Castaway Club members! Any tips on what we should expect?

I'm getting excited! My parents give us Christmas $$$ every year, and I've already hatched a plan to use the cash for the onboard booking of our NEXT cruise.

And so far it is still a secret from DD.

We will have much to celebrate -- it will be the one year anniversary of DH and I joining Weight Watchers and each losing 45 lbs. To be honest, the pics from our last cruise were a motivating factor.

 

[barney4liz]

Hi again -- I posted this on the main forum, but thought I'd add it here, too.

Can Disney Gift Cards be used on the cruise, for instance for shopping or even for the deposit on a future cruise? I am asking because my daughter's band booster club is selling "scrip" (gift cards) and Disney is one of the vendors. If I'm going to spend the money anyway, I would like to use the Disney gift cards and then her band will get 7% of the gift card price. Everybody wins!

If we can use the cards for a cruise deposit, I will ask my parents to buy the gift cards instead of giving us cash.