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

[GoofItUp]

Looks like we will be with you, too. We have a Cat 9C Gty booked at the moment. There are 4 of us: Dh, myself, 3 yo DS and 1 yo DS (who will be 4 & 2 at time of sailing). This is our first DCL cruise, but we have been on NCL, Celebrity, and HAL previously. In fact, we did this same itinerary on NCL last Nov.

We are also traveling with my cousin & his wife & 2 kids (5 yo DD & 3 yo DS).

We are all planning to do a day or two or three at DL before the cruise. My family went last fall when we did our NCL cruise and spent a couple of days there, but my cousins family has never been. And his wife is almost as much of a Disney addict as I am! Plus, I'd really like to see the Colors show they just put in.

I would love to do the FE thing. I just read about it last night and it sounds very interesting and fun -- especially for my 2 little guys! I'm just trying to decide now if I want to try and make my own FE or buy one. Plus what "stuff" we'll bring along for others. I think it will be fun to do roam the ship with the kids looking for the other FE to drop our gifts in. Hope that lots of people sign up for this!

 

[SmoothSailing]

We just changed our 7 day Eastern to this Kids Free cruise. We'll be traveling with our daughters, my brother and his family, and my mother in law. Should be fun!

 

[princessdaisy]

Hi gang,

My sister and our 8yr old boys are booked on this cruises. Will be my sis' second and like my 12th! Was on the Magic's first year sailing and numerous time on the Wonder and Magic. This will be first time out of LA and on the Mexican Riviera...so looking forward to it!!

-Steph

 

[boiseflyfisher]

We'll be joining you! This is our very first cruise and we are so excited! We have a lot to learn in the next few months. We are booked a 9D Gty. Our party includes DH, me, our 10yo DS and our 8yo DD.

 

[mrosen]

Welcome to so many of you who have also booked.

I was on the DCL site to see what you could reserve and looks like this ship might be pretty well full.

We booked our airfare tonight. Looking to spend a few days at Disneyland before the cruise. Haven't booked a hotel yet for that. Anyone have any opinions on Disney hotels at Disneyland vs other hotels in the area around Disneyland?

 

[2littlegirls]

mrosen, I am with you.
Any ideas about hotel yet? We will be flying in the night before and would like to get a hotel that we can see the Wonder come when we wake-up on Sunday

 

[GoofItUp]

We booked our airfare tonight. Looking to spend a few days at Disneyland before the cruise. Haven't booked a hotel yet for that. Anyone have any opinions on Disney hotels at Disneyland vs other hotels in the area around Disneyland?

When we were there last fall we stayed at the Fairfield Inn located across the street and about a block down from the DL entrance. It was a very easy walk -- even for us with 1 wheelchair & 2 strollers! There were several others that looked just find between where we were and the parks, too. Remember, these are older hotels, so you have to expect some wear and tear, exterior corridors on most, etc., but for $75-80/night (what we pd at FFI), it was just fine. We are now DVC members and are *considering* a splurge at the VGC this time, but not sure if we will do that or not. Personally, I don't think I'd pay the cash rate at the DL hotels to stay there, and I'm a die-hard, stay-on-property person when I go to WDW.

mrosen, I am with you.
Any ideas about hotel yet? We will be flying in the night before and would like to get a hotel that we can see the Wonder come when we wake-up on Sunday

Just wanted to comment that you probably will not see the Wonder come in unless you get up REALLY early. Unless DCL does something different than most cruise lines, they will probably dock in the wee hours of the morning. Someone else can correct me if I'm wrong, but on all my cruises I don't think I've ever been awake when the ship got to the home port. They're usually eager to get there early, get everything cleared through customs, get the old people off and the new people on.

Glad to see this group growing! So looking forward to our cruise!!

 

[ssawka]

We are so excited! We just booked this cruise this week. This will be our first DCL cruise. I've looked at them before, but they always seemed too expensive, but this one with the "kids sail free" promo is very manageable. We are staying in a Navigator's Veranda. Can't wait!!

Now to find reasonable airfare between DC and LA!!

 

[mrosen]

We are so excited! We just booked this cruise this week. This will be our first DCL cruise. I've looked at them before, but they always seemed too expensive, but this one with the "kids sail free" promo is very manageable. We are staying in a Navigator's Veranda. Can't wait!!

Now to find reasonable airfare between DC and LA!!

Welcome!! I think this KSF promo made this cruise very attractive.

I also jumped right on finding reasonable airfare. I found some pretty good RT prices flying from East Coast to West Coast and booked the other night as I was afraid prices might go up and didn't think it was likely I would find much cheaper than $300/per person total cost a RT ticket we got.

 

[ssawka]

Welcome!! I think this KSF promo made this cruise very attractive.

I also jumped right on finding reasonable airfare. I found some pretty good RT prices flying from East Coast to West Coast and booked the other night as I was afraid prices might go up and didn't think it was likely I would find much cheaper than $300/per person total cost a RT ticket we got.

Which airline are you flying? I've seen some very good fares from AirTran, but I am not a huge AirTran fan as the have a habit of continually changing flights. I'm now debating whether I should take my chances and book on AirTran or wait for Southwest and Jet Blue to release their schedules.

 

[mrosen]

We booked on American. I looked at American and Delta and found rates that were both similar. I looked at Airtran and could have saved a little per ticket ($20). I have no real experience there so opted not to book that.

For us the southwest flight choices wouldn't be so good (2 stops). And I wasn't sure how much we could really save that route by waiting. I never looked at JetBlue.

 

[ssawka]

mrosen, I am with you.
Any ideas about hotel yet? We will be flying in the night before and would like to get a hotel that we can see the Wonder come when we wake-up on Sunday

I made our hotel reservation already. We are staying at the Doubletree in San Pedro, it is about 5 miles from the cruise terminal and they offer free transport to the terminal. Our plan is to arrive in LAX late and take a towncar to the hotel. Then get up in the morning, have breakfast, and get to the cruise as soon as they allow check in.

The Doubletree is $135 a night with a AAA discount. Not sure what the standard price is.

 

[ssawka]

We booked on American. I looked at American and Delta and found rates that were both similar. I looked at Airtran and could have saved a little per ticket ($20). I have no real experience there so opted not to book that.

For us the southwest flight choices wouldn't be so good (2 stops). And I wasn't sure how much we could really save that route by waiting. I never looked at JetBlue.

Southwest and JetBlue don't have these dates on their schedules yet and probably won't until Aug/Sep. Not sure I want to wait that long. I did find a flight on Frontier that has a layover in Denver, but flying into Denver in January would leave me a bit nervous. One of the problems we have is that we would like a later flight since DW works Saturday mornings and dosen't want to miss 2 Saturdays in a row.

 

[mrosen]

Southwest and JetBlue don't have these dates on their schedules yet and probably won't until Aug/Sep. Not sure I want to wait that long. I did find a flight on Frontier that has a layover in Denver, but flying into Denver in January would leave me a bit nervous. One of the problems we have is that we would like a later flight since DW works Saturday mornings and dosen't want to miss 2 Saturdays in a row.

I understand your concern on flying through Denver in winter. In our case, we are flying through DFW going and through Chicago on return. I didn't want to fly through Chicago during winter but we certainly didn't want to on the way out. We hope we won't have an issue flying home - time will tell if we regret that choice. We had some trouble on the flight times. We had a little more flexibility going as we wanted to spend a few days in Disneyland and we've got a flight that leaves early from east coast and lands in LAX 10:30AM. Coming home, we ended up not being able to fly home day we get off the cruise and are spending night. We considered a redeye but with 2 kids wasn't sure that was the best option so we are on a really early flight out of LAX day after.

 

[mrosen]

Anyone have any suggestions on hotels near LAX? We get off the cruise and won't fly out til the day after (very early flight out). We have to find a hotel for one night after the cruise and as we are flying out of LAX, figure its best to just find something close to LAX that hopefully has some form of transportation to get us to the airport for our early flight.

Going, we fly in a few days beforehand and will stay either at one of the Disneyland hotels or a hotel right around Disneyland so we can spend a few days there as our kids will enjoy this. They've been to WDW a bunch and have asked about Disneyland so this is a perfect chance.

 

[ssawka]

I understand your concern on flying through Denver in winter. In our case, we are flying through DFW going and through Chicago on return. I didn't want to fly through Chicago during winter but we certainly didn't want to on the way out. We hope we won't have an issue flying home - time will tell if we regret that choice. We had some trouble on the flight times. We had a little more flexibility going as we wanted to spend a few days in Disneyland and we've got a flight that leaves early from east coast and lands in LAX 10:30AM. Coming home, we ended up not being able to fly home day we get off the cruise and are spending night. We considered a redeye but with 2 kids wasn't sure that was the best option so we are on a really early flight out of LAX day after.

I'm a bit concerned about the flight home as well. I saw I can get an AirTran flight leaving at 2:00 PM, which I think should be fine. The ship is suppose to dock at 9:30. So I would hope we could be off the ship by 11:30. Do you think this is over optimistic?

 

[mrosen]

I'm a bit concerned about the flight home as well. I saw I can get an AirTran flight leaving at 2:00 PM, which I think should be fine. The ship is suppose to dock at 9:30. So I would hope we could be off the ship by 11:30. Do you think this is over optimistic?

A 2PM flight time out should be fine. I'm not sure the 9:30 time is when the boat docks vs their published time for folks being off the ship - suggest calling Disney to confirm that.

I called Disney about the times but it was to ask about what time do you recommend for a flight. I actually talked to them twice. First time I called was told their advice is do not book a flight going home til 12:30pm or later when I asked about times out of LAX. The 2nd time I called, I called to discuss what airport they recommend flying out of. While there are airports apparently closer to the port, they recommend LAX and its the only airport they will do any ground transportation to/from. That agent told me she would not book a return flight til 2PM or later. I questioned this for a reasons including how I was told a different time before. The only input that agent gave me was she has flown in/out of LAX before and her concern is the traffic and time to get to LAX and if there is an accident, we could get stuck for sometime on the highway and she wouldn't take that risk on a flight time. Additionally, she claimed going through security at LAX is time consuming given # of travelers. So this was all part of why she felt 12:30 might be too tight vs 2PM or later flight being best.

While the ship says 9:30 deboard time, the process as I understand it is similar to what we went through on the Med cruise we took in the spring. Those with main first dining time will go to breakfast first that morning and have to go early. On that cruise in spring, we had to be out of our staterooms by 8AM and breakfast was like at 7 or 7:30. We left ship right after breakfast after they have cleared customs in port (they announced customs was cleared during our breakfast and some folks got up immediately to leave). Second seating on dining goes next. As they have another cruise coming on, they wanted everyone off no later than 9:30 as they need some time to get ship ready for the next sailing where folks can board starting at 1PM I think. I know on the Med cruise we were on, they announced day before cruise was over if you have a flight to catch by a 10:30, please see them with paperwork to show that as they will work to arrange for you to get off as early as possible.

In our case, we saw a 1PM time to fly home but by the time we finally went to book, the lower cost on the airfare for that leg went alot and our options unless we went to pay more was to do redeye or take early flight out the next morning. We would have booked that 1PM flight home if the cost didn't jump up as much as it did (sigh) so we were bummed when so quickly the low fares for it disappeared.

If you were to call Disney to get a time they recommend to book after, not sure what time you will get since I was given 2 different inputs: 12:30pm and 2PM. I was surprised at the 2PM or later, the 12:30pm or later time didn't surprise me. Regardless, based on what I was told, your 2PM flight should be fine.

 

[ssawka]

A 2PM flight time out should be fine. I'm not sure the 9:30 time is when the boat docks vs their published time for folks being off the ship - suggest calling Disney to confirm that.

I called Disney about the times but it was to ask about what time do you recommend for a flight. I actually talked to them twice. First time I called was told their advice is do not book a flight going home til 12:30pm or later when I asked about times out of LAX. The 2nd time I called, I called to discuss what airport they recommend flying out of. While there are airports apparently closer to the port, they recommend LAX and its the only airport they will do any ground transportation to/from. That agent told me she would not book a return flight til 2PM or later. I questioned this for a reasons including how I was told a different time before. The only input that agent gave me was she has flown in/out of LAX before and her concern is the traffic and time to get to LAX and if there is an accident, we could get stuck for sometime on the highway and she wouldn't take that risk on a flight time. Additionally, she claimed going through security at LAX is time consuming given # of travelers. So this was all part of why she felt 12:30 might be too tight vs 2PM or later flight being best.

While the ship says 9:30 deboard time, the process as I understand it is similar to what we went through on the Med cruise we took in the spring. Those with main first dining time will go to breakfast first that morning and have to go early. On that cruise in spring, we had to be out of our staterooms by 8AM and breakfast was like at 7 or 7:30. We left ship right after breakfast after they have cleared customs in port (they announced customs was cleared during our breakfast and some folks got up immediately to leave). Second seating on dining goes next. As they have another cruise coming on, they wanted everyone off no later than 9:30 as they need some time to get ship ready for the next sailing where folks can board starting at 1PM I think. I know on the Med cruise we were on, they announced day before cruise was over if you have a flight to catch by a 10:30, please see them with paperwork to show that as they will work to arrange for you to get off as early as possible.

In our case, we saw a 1PM time to fly home but by the time we finally went to book, the lower cost on the airfare for that leg went alot and our options unless we went to pay more was to do redeye or take early flight out the next morning. We would have booked that 1PM flight home if the cost didn't jump up as much as it did (sigh) so we were bummed when so quickly the low fares for it disappeared.

If you were to call Disney to get a time they recommend to book after, not sure what time you will get since I was given 2 different inputs: 12:30pm and 2PM. I was surprised at the 2PM or later, the 12:30pm or later time didn't surprise me. Regardless, based on what I was told, your 2PM flight should be fine.

Thank you for this info, it is really helpful!

I did a search of other airports in the area, and I'm actually seeing pretty good deals flying into SNA (Orange County) instead of LAX. It's about 8 miles further, but that's OK. Do you know how much the Disney transfers are? I priced a town car going to SNA and it is about $77. I'm thinking that might not be much more than 3 transfers from Disney. The flights also go through DFW, which I feel more comfortable about than DEN.

 

[GoofItUp]

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?

 

[ellie0311]

I am really looking forward to the Spa and Palo. We, (DBF and I) decided both Brunch and Dinner at Palo this cruise.