January 30, 2011 Wonder Mexican Riviera ANYONE OUT THERE????

[2littlegirls]

For us it is all about the ship! We could be going anywhere we don't care, we are just so happy to be going and at such a great price.

Things I am looking forward to:
Palo brunch
Character Breakfast
All the shows
Decorating our Door
Being apart of something special that my kids will (hopefully)remember.

 

[ssawka]

Hi, ssawka! I recognize you from the DVC boards. You're avatar stands out with those Mickey Ears!

Just logged in to see my reservation -- because I just like to see it there every now and again -- and saw that there are 221 days until we set sail. Good grief that's too long!

DH & I have agreed that we don't really care if we get off the ship or not in most of the ports. Our main destination is the ship itself. I'm sure we'll probably set our feet on the ground for a short while in each place, but we're looking forward to just enjoying & relaxing with our boys mostly.

So, what kind of vaction are any of you looking forward to? Relaxed? Hitting the ports non-stop? Other? Or for those of you who have cruised Disney before, what DCL-specific things are you looking forward to the most?

Hello GoofItUp! I'm with you on not getting off the boat, although we probably will. I do want to see the rock formations in Cabo, and I think one of the ports said there were cliff divers near by.

Other than that, we are just interested in relaxing and experiencing a Disney cruise. We have been on other cruises before, but we have not had the opportunity to experience DCL. I always looked and it was too expensive, but with the KSF offer it is very reasonable, especially since we rented our DVC points.

 

[GoofItUp]

ellie: I had not even thought of going to Palo's for brunch! I wanted to try it, but didn't want to miss one of the dinners for it. I think DH and I might have to schedule a brunch one day, though.

2littlegirls: Looks like our kids are about the same age, but our 2 are boys. They will be 4 & 2 when we go. I think the 4 yo will go to the kids club and be ok, but I'm a little worried about the 2 yo. Not planning to use it much, but would like for them to go while we eat dinner. We'll just see what happens!

ssawka: What?! You rented your DVC points?! I can't imagine having enough to rent! We only own 1 small contract (currently) and are scraping points together to make our vacations to WDW work. But, even if I had more points I'd be blowing them on a stay at VGC before the cruise!

 

[ssawka]

ssawka: What?! You rented your DVC points?! I can't imagine having enough to rent! We only own 1 small contract (currently) and are scraping points together to make our vacations to WDW work. But, even if I had more points I'd be blowing them on a stay at VGC before the cruise!

Well we have 275 BLT points, and that is our vacation "budget" for the year, so in order to go on the cruise we rented some of them out. That esentially pays for the cruise with a little left over to put towards airline tickets. We were originally planning on a long weekend at VGC, but when I heard about the KSF offer, I couldn't resist! I did think about staying a day or two at VGC, but it dosen't fit into our schedule and 8 nights is more than enough time away from home for DD. Now to find airfare!

 

[boiseflyfisher]

Just booked a 1br at VGC for four nights after the cruise. They seemed to have plenty of availability. Now I can scratch another thing off of the list. Still waiting for SWA to add flights for Jan and Feb and we still need to book a night near the port for the night before.

 

[ssawka]

Just booked a 1br at VGC for four nights after the cruise. They seemed to have plenty of availability. Now I can scratch another thing off of the list. Still waiting for SWA to add flights for Jan and Feb and we still need to book a night near the port for the night before.

The doubletree in San Pedro had rooms for $135(AAA) and offer free shuttle to the port.

I have also been trying to figure out flights but we want to leave Saturday afternoon and there are few afternoon flights from DC to LA. Also, I'm trying to avoid a connection, because all the connecting flight are in "snow areas" (Denver, Chicago, or Cleveland) or only have a 30 minute layover. I guess we'll just have to cough up the $ for direct flights (about $500 a person).

 

[mrosen]

What does VGC refer to? Is that Disney's Grand Californian Hotel or somewhere else.

We are considering staying at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel for few days while visiting Disneyland before we board the cruise. I just called and they aren't taking reservations yet that far out (Sept is what I was told on when to call back). I have a WDW annual pass and planning to upgrade to get dual park annual pass to get the discount for hotel (hoping they will have annual passholder rate on rooms) and also to then get admission for myself into the parks. We'll just then need to get park passes for rest of the family.

I still need to figure out hotel options for where we stay Sunday since our flight home is on Monday. Wanted to find a hotel that is close to LAX since our flight is pretty early Monday. Does anyone have a suggestion?

 

[ssawka]

What does VGC refer to? Is that Disney's Grand Californian Hotel or somewhere else.

We are considering staying at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel for few days while visiting Disneyland before we board the cruise. I just called and they aren't taking reservations yet that far out (Sept is what I was told on when to call back). I have a WDW annual pass and planning to upgrade to get dual park annual pass to get the discount for hotel (hoping they will have annual passholder rate on rooms) and also to then get admission for myself into the parks. We'll just then need to get park passes for rest of the family.

I still need to figure out hotel options for where we stay Sunday since our flight home is on Monday. Wanted to find a hotel that is close to LAX since our flight is pretty early Monday. Does anyone have a suggestion?

VGC stands for the Villas at Grand Californian. It is the Vacation Club portion of the Grand Californian. DVC members that do not own there can make reservations 7 months out.

 

[mrosen]

VGC stands for the Villas at Grand Californian. It is the Vacation Club portion of the Grand Californian. DVC members that do not own there can make reservations 7 months out.

Thanks for clarifying that for me.

 

[mrosen]

Anyone else anxiously waiting for the Disney port adventures on our cruise? I just checked again this morning and nothing though I didn't expect to see anything before August or Sept anyway.

We did book our hotel for one night by LAX. I was thinking we wouldn't get a rental car for that one day. Once we get to the hotel, anyone know if there is much to do around LAX that we could do easily by cab and w/o a rental car to spend afternoon?

I still need to do booking for a few nights when we go to Disneyland. We are looking to stay at Disney Grand Californian out of the 3 disney hotels but I can't book that yet. Does anyone have any other suggestions of a nice hotel around Disneyland within walking distance beyond the Disney ones that we might want to consider? I am thinking I might want to book one of these now and then when I can book Disney Grand Californian, see what the rates are and do I want to switch.

 

[mrosen]

VGC stands for the Villas at Grand Californian. It is the Vacation Club portion of the Grand Californian. DVC members that do not own there can make reservations 7 months out.

Thanks for clarifying that for me.

 

[2littlegirls]

We plan on staying at the Doubletree and take a shuttle from the airport. Here is the shuttle company I found that I felt was a good price.

http://www.lotustransportation.com/page1.aspx

Also, anyone heard anything about Stone Island in Mazatlan. I want to try to do it on our own but waiting to see the price DCL offers it at.

 

[ssawka]

We plan on staying at the Doubletree and take a shuttle from the airport. Here is the shuttle company I found that I felt was a good price.

http://www.lotustransportation.com/page1.aspx

Also, anyone heard anything about Stone Island in Mazatlan. I want to try to do it on our own but waiting to see the price DCL offers it at.

I also priced a towncar from LAX and it was about $90 with tip. We will probably go that route as we will be arriving late and I don't want to waste time with a shared van. I just want to get to the hotel and crash so we can get to the ship early the next day.

 

[boiseflyfisher]

I also priced a towncar from LAX and it was about $90 with tip. We will probably go that route as we will be arriving late and I don't want to waste time with a shared van. I just want to get to the hotel and crash so we can get to the ship early the next day.

I think we will be doing the exact same thing if we arrive at night. For your long trip, I think I would just go ahead and pay the extra money for the non-stop flight unless SWA will take you to a warmer connecting flight area.

 

[boiseflyfisher]

What does VGC refer to? Is that Disney's Grand Californian Hotel or somewhere else.

We are considering staying at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel for few days while visiting Disneyland before we board the cruise. I just called and they aren't taking reservations yet that far out (Sept is what I was told on when to call back). I have a WDW annual pass and planning to upgrade to get dual park annual pass to get the discount for hotel (hoping they will have annual passholder rate on rooms) and also to then get admission for myself into the parks. We'll just then need to get park passes for rest of the family.

I still need to figure out hotel options for where we stay Sunday since our flight home is on Monday. Wanted to find a hotel that is close to LAX since our flight is pretty early Monday. Does anyone have a suggestion?

My dd and I did a mother/daughter trip last January and there were some very nice AP rates. We booked PP concierge for around $220 a night. The PP lounge was going to be closed during that time so they upgraded us to the Grand concierge during our trip! It is pretty quiet at DL in January, so if you want to stay at one of the resort properties, there is no hurry to make reservations. They normally post AP rates 2-3 months out. We are planning on buying the Premier Passports, too during our trip to WDW.

 

[ssawka]

I think we will be doing the exact same thing if we arrive at night. For your long trip, I think I would just go ahead and pay the extra money for the non-stop flight unless SWA will take you to a warmer connecting flight area.

Yes, I am pretty sure we are going to get direct flights, but I want to wait until August. We have a AAA credit card that gives us AAA gift certificates and I can apply them towards airfare.

 

[mrosen]

My dd and I did a mother/daughter trip last January and there were some very nice AP rates. We booked PP concierge for around $220 a night. The PP lounge was going to be closed during that time so they upgraded us to the Grand concierge during our trip! It is pretty quiet at DL in January, so if you want to stay at one of the resort properties, there is no hurry to make reservations. They normally post AP rates 2-3 months out. We are planning on buying the Premier Passports, too during our trip to WDW.

Good to know about on AP rates. I have to look into over next week or two other hotels in the area to line up a backup option for the few nights before cruise around Disneyland. Then when I can book at Grand Californian, if I get a good rate, I'll switch since I think I prefer to stay there since this is our first time to Disneyland and likely to be the only time we'll take our kids here since we're from the East Coast and WDW is much closer for us.

 

[boiseflyfisher]

Good to know about on AP rates. I have to look into over next week or two other hotels in the area to line up a backup option for the few nights before cruise around Disneyland. Then when I can book at Grand Californian, if I get a good rate, I'll switch since I think I prefer to stay there since this is our first time to Disneyland and likely to be the only time we'll take our kids here since we're from the East Coast and WDW is much closer for us.

We'll be flying in the day before the cruise and may stay at DLR for a night if we get a morning flight. We like Paradise Pier because the rooms are a bit larger and it is normally pretty reasonable with AP rates. AP rates have been running around $149 for non-view rooms and it is just across the street from CG. You can book the Disneyland Express bus from SNA and LAX to the resort.

 

[dllocals]

We booked the KSF deal. We have two daugters, Brenna 11 and Erin 8. WE live in Pasadena, about 45 min. drive to Disneyland. Not too much to see round LAX. If you would like to save some money, try the Candy Cane Inn (candycaneinn.com), right next to the Disney property. It is about a 5 minute walk to DL.

 

[ellie0311]

I called DCL yesterday and Disney is not offering transportation from the Disneyland resort hotels to the port. Only to and from LAX before and after the cruise. Drats, there goes that plan! Guess I will have to look into rental cars and car services.