January 8, 2006- 4 night Wonder- Anybody else coming with?

[sapphire33]

Geez Cruisin, you make one little phone call...
Definitely keep us posted. If they have all those rooms left then you'd think they could upgrade you just to make you feel better. It is the least they could do!! If you can't get the Walt Disney suite, tell them you'll settle for the Roy!

I'm surprised the upgrades have not been offered already if there are higher category rooms available. You'd think they'd want to get last minute takers for the less expensive rooms with the cruise coming up so quickly, then upgrade those of us who booked this trip long ago. It also makes me very curious as to how the upgrades work.

Last night I had my kids coloring printouts from the Castaway Club Web site to use as magnetic door signs. I also printed out some of their favorite characters for the door and made one for the family. I don't want to go "overboard" (please pardon the pun ) but just put up a few things to celebrate our trip. Anyone else creating any door decs? I've got to get one of those lime green Mickey heads from Home Depot to ID myself as a DISer.

Besides getting our tree this weekend, I'm hoping to vacation shop - you know, pick up all those odds and ends for the cruise and WDW like sunscreen, ponchos, antibacterial wipes, etc, and start organizing all of it. It will make me feel like we're ready to go!

 

[Cruisin]

I finally got on the DCL reservation check area and everything is back the way it is supposed to be.

Yes, you'd think they'd at least open up some of the bottom category cabins and encourage sales. There would probaby be some people who would go if they got good deals instead of all of the higher priced cabins sitting there unsold.

Time will soon be here when we find out our cabin assignments. Still dreaming of upgrades but I'm just happy to know that I will have a cabin

 

[attagirlx2]

Just wanted to say goodmorning! We only have 35 days 16 hours or so til the cruise!!!!!!!

Off to watch DH run a marathon this morning...he's using it as a training run for the Half Marathon and Marathon at DW. Crazy man!

Surprising the girls with Disney Princesses on Ice this afternoon...I am looking forward to it. I love iceskating.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

 

[Cruisin]

 

[attagirlx2]

Went to Disney's Princesses on Ice Sat. night and they have this plastic Cinderella you can sit next to and have your picture taken for a gazillion bucks! My DD (4) saw it and really wanted to have her picture with the plastic Cinderella. I, of course, burst her bubble and said no way! I kept thinking to myself, in 30 days you can have your picture taken with the REAL Cinderella, for free and it will mean so much more! But since it is a surprise, I had to keep my mouth shut. I know she's thinking I am the meanest mom in the world for this...until the next thing comes along and I will be the meanest for another reason. Luckily sometimes I'm told that I'm the best mom and all I've done is given her a hug or kiss.

 

[JoyCrazy]

Long post please bear with me

I'm so glad you've had your cabin nailed down Crusin". I'm a little shocked that they wanted to charge you 1500 just to add your doughter! She'd be staying in the room with you right?

attagirlx2 I don't know how you can keep a secret like that. You must be bursting. I have a hard time not telling everybody what I got them for christmas. Your girls are going to be so happy though

sapphire33 I am so doing Door Magnets. My sister likes the idea because It'll make our door easier for the kids to find.

I'm having so much trouble getting ahold of our new travel agent. We booked with AMA and our original Agent quit, got fired, or disappeared off the face of the earth (all they said is "He's no longer with us.") and this agent will now be handling your account.
We were a little weirded out by the whole thing because we went into the agency to talk with our agent, found out he no longer existed there, we then talked to this nice agent (who was not our new agent) and she pointed out our new agent (who was busy with other customers). We went in to pay for the trip. We paid and went home. I've called 3 or 4 times since that day. (I work nights and it's hard to get ahold of me and hard for me to make appointments) and every time I get her voicemail. I tell her to call me back before noon anyday. She has never called. I called the other day and the receptionist answers. I explained politely that I'd been havong a hard time getting ahold of my agent. The receptionist said she's right at her desk and doesn't appear busy why don't I but you through. I said great I got her voicemail again. I called back and the receptionist said "Oh she must of just picked up the phone is there anything I can help you with" she answered my questions and I'm more upset. She said that we couldn't request a fight time. That Disney would pick it for us. She couldn't even tell me what airport we'll be flying out of. (We're halfway between our two major cities) For international flights we have to be at the airport 3 hours in advance. It only makes sense to allow another hour for problems. We live 1hr and 45mins from one airport, 2hrs and 30 mins away from the other. Then we have an 8hr plus flight. Naturally we would like a flight that didn't depart a 4pm. The whole day would be shot. We'd like to get in early enough to do some shopping at Walmart. Alot of the stuff would be way cheaper to buy down there.
Deep Breath Release the stress.Whosh.
Tomorrow it's my day off so I'm going to see if I can swing by there. (it's in Red Deer a fair sized city 45mins from us) I'm going to have a list of questions and will not leave until they've gone over them all. I'd also like to know why my TA can't return my phone calls. But I will not loose my temper. I will remain calm. Honest.
Sigh we've never travelled before, We decided to go through a TA to insure a pleasnt trip. Have someone experienced smooth out the bumps.
The only good thing about it all is if we're in Red Deer already maybe I can talk my sister into going to see HP4. Our town won't be getting it anytime soon!

.

 

[Cruisin]

I'm so glad you've had your cabin nailed down Crusin". I'm a little shocked that they wanted to charge you 1500 just to add your doughter! She'd be staying in the room with you right?

Good luck with that travel agent thing JoyCrazy. I think I'd be hounding her until she does something for you

Yup, she'd be in our cabin with us.

Seem like a ridiculous price to me since it's over 3 times the amount we paid for each of the rest of us to go

You'd think they'd be glad to get the extra money out of the cabin, since I'm sure that every cabin sleeps 3 people.

She's 18, so she wouldn't be taking up space in any children's programs either.

Since we won't pay that price for her to go on the cruise with us she is going to be driving down to Florida with us and spending a few days at the parks. Then on the way to the ship, we are going to stop at the airport and put her on a plane back home (to Detroit, which is one international border and 1 1/2 hours away from home really). There's the possibility that our son might come along too (he's 22) then she won't have to travel home alone. If he doesn't come, she says she doesn't care, she will negotiate the airport on her own if it gets her to Florida for a vacation Of course, we will have someone meet her at the airport and drive her home.

 

[branv]

JoyCrazy - have you thought about switching TA's? Now I may be waaaay off on this, but it may just be a matter of speaking with the new person you want to take your account, and having them transfer it for you. It sounds like the people on this board use Dreams Unlimited alot, and I've used Magical Journeys in the past (and for this trip...except the cruise part, which I did on my own) to great satisfaction. Granted, DU and MJ's are online and you deal with them via internet, but I've always gotten an answer to my emails within a few hours and they are very respected.

It just seems like you deserve much better treatment then you're getting. I would be afraid that if the person can't return my calls, what else are they not doing? Plus, it doesn't sound like this agency deserves your commission...considering the level of service you're getting, you could have done all this on your own with less hassle! That's just crazy!

I hope you get this settled to your satisfaction one way or the other. I know how frustrating this kind of thing can be. Let us know what happens.

 

[VickiHD]

Hi everyone!!!! Boy a lot has been going on the past few days, I had a lot of reading to catch up on. DH and I had a wonderful time at Disneyland. The weather was warm and sunny except for Fri. night we had a little rain. The Candle Light Precession was beautiful to see.

JoyCrazy....I'm sorry you are having to deal with TA issues. I hope everything works out. Can you get DCL involved? Explain what has been going on, and maybe they can do something. It's worth a try.

attagirlx2...You will love the Grand Californian. There is a huge fireplace with rocking chairs in front of it. They have a story teller that stops by to tell some bed time tales to the kids (and adults too). It's is a great place to unwind after a long day at the park.

Today my goal is to unpack and start putting things a side for the cruise. I will even try to put up some more Christmas decorations.

 

[sapphire33]

Happy Monday! HAHA... if that isn't an oxymoron!

I'm definitely having one of those days in which I should have just stayed in bed. Nothing is going right. To make it worse, the atmosphere at my job has been going downhill ever since I got a new boss a few months ago, and today more changes are taking a toll on me. I'm STRESSED!!

By the content of these posts and with the holidays looming, it seems we're all going to enjoy a little R n R in January!! Now to just make it through another 30 or so days.

Joy Crazy - I hope you can get the attention of your TA at the office. If not, find another agent. When booking my WDW trip, I got a rude and not too helpful AAA agent. So I called back and talked to someone else. He's been terrific, giving me suggestions about the parks and acting like an old friend instead of my TA. Talking to someone else might make a lot of difference!

 

[UGAFan0829]

Good evening everyone. I hope everyone had a good day. Sapphire33, I sure hope that things get better with you. I know how it is to be stressed out from work...
Joy Crazy, I am sending good vibes your way that maybe things will straighten up with your TA.
We are trying to get our tree up and then getting new living room furniture tomorrow...so that's something to look forward to.
I can't belive that we are almost under a month to go. I was dreaming about the cruise last night. I told the DH that I think I am more excited about this cruise than the 1st...
Woke up this morning to hear that one of the local radio stations is doing a contest to give away a 4-night Disney cruise. I wanted to call in and tell them how exciting it was and that we were getting ready to go on our 2nd cruise, but I figured that they would think I was a little crazy!!

 

[branv]

We're never going to get those @#$@ room numbers!!

Nevernevernevernevernever!!! GAAAAAAAAH!



Ok, I'm exaggerating, but it sure feels like it's never gonna happen! I find that I bargain with myself..."ok, today you're ONLY going to check ONE time in the morning!" And even worse, I start thinking I'm getting omens, "whoa, the data is really loading slowly this morning. I can feel it, it's going slow b/c there's more info to pull up!" Then when it still pulls up saying "Guaranteed", I get paranoid that I'm going to be that one person on every trip thread who's the last person to get their info.

Lord help me. I'm going to end up having to be tranquilized before this is done I can't tell if DH is afraid of me at this point, or highly amused...

 

[Cruisin]

For some reason I haven't even been able to access that part of the DCL site for several days now

That is more frustrating that always seeing guaranteed

 

[TNTcruise]

I'm traveling on the Jan. 5th 3-day Wonder cruise and no cabin assignment for me either. It's driving me crazy!!!! Today is the 30 day mark, so I thought for sure that today was going to be my lucky day. Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

 

[branv]

For some reason I haven't even been able to access that part of the DCL site for several days now

That is more frustrating that always seeing guaranteed

Cruisin' I think you are having the same prob I've been having, but I found a way around it, hopefully it will work for you. When you click on "My Disney Cruise", you get that error message, right? Well, if you click "log out" and try again, it usually works for me! Let me know if it helps you too.

 

[Cruisin]

Cruisin' I think you are having the same prob I've been having, but I found a way around it, hopefully it will work for you. When you click on "My Disney Cruise", you get that error message, right? Well, if you click "log out" and try again, it usually works for me! Let me know if it helps you too.

Yup, that's when it happens.

I will try logging out, actually I was wondering if that might make a difference but hadn't gotten around to trying it yet.

TNT , so you're going to take the ship out the cruise before us and work out any kinks huh

Don't forget to leave us some food for the buffet.

 

[JoyCrazy]

Another Long Post Sorry.

Thanks everyone for the advice and concern. . We did manage to go to Red Deer even though it was storming like crazy up here . High winds, snow, freezing cold and once we hit the city slipperly like you wouldn't believe. We decided to get three things done 1. get me an Optometrist appointment and hit Lenscrafters for new glasses {same mall). 2. goto Tony Roma's for lunch! 3. Go to AMA (It's AAA down in the states) and ask some tough questions. Well I got my glasses. (prescription Sunglasses as well because they were having a sale that got me two for cheaper than one would of cost me )
We got stuck at Lenscrafters a long time because we had to wait for my financing to go through. At first she said 15mins you can go wander the mall while you wait if you want. When we got back (It was my first trip to Bower Place Mall and I still can't believe that they don't have a bookstore!) She explained that she still hadn't got a reply and that she'd call them. So she calls ... they say we can't read the fax... she sends it again and asks for them to get back to her quickly because the client was waiting... Well to make a long story short the wait for the glasses was two hours so we were going to hit Tony Roma's and maybe AMA if we got out on time. We never left the mall. By the time the financing came through the glasses where almost done. We hit the food court to save time cause we knew we had to head home quick and pick up the kids from their afterschool activities. We just made it. (None of this was Lenscrafter's fault. by the way. ... my sales agent was fantastic and hugely helpful it was my first time there and I'm definitely going again) I've also been needing new glasses for a year. It was last December when I broke mine. I can get by but I get headaches. So I'm really excited to be sitting here with them on while I type.
So in the morning I'm going to call AMA and ask to speak to my agent one more time. If I get the runaround I'm calling DCL (Thanks Vicki) and explaining the situation. Then I'm calling AMA and asking politely for another agent.(Thanks sapphire33 and branv) I'll simply say that I'm concerned that if she's too busy to return my calls (she's never even called and missed me) that she's probably too busy to handle my account. I hope they work on commission . Unfortunately it's not an option for me to switch agencies because the trip is already paid for and we'd loose our $1500 deposit ouch. So my fingers are crossed and my toes too. Thanks again everyone you've all sure helped me feel better

 

[sapphire33]

A mall without a bookstore is like a cruise without a buffet.

 

[TNTcruise]

Yup, that's when it happens.

I will try logging out, actually I was wondering if that might make a difference but hadn't gotten around to trying it yet.

TNT , so you're going to take the ship out the cruise before us and work out any kinks huh

Don't forget to leave us some food for the buffet.

Hey Cruisin, Hopefully I'll leave you some food. What is it they say..... "you gain a pound a day on a cruise" That why I'm only on a 3 day cruise

Just got my cabin assignment. Upgrade from a 12 gty to a cat. 9 Oceanview on deck 1. I'm actually disappointed, I don't really like the lower decks, I'd rather have an inside cabin on deck 6.

 

[Cruisin]

Just got my cabin assignment. Upgrade from a 12 gty to a cat. 9 Oceanview on deck 1. I'm actually disappointed, I don't really like the lower decks, I'd rather have an inside cabin on deck 6.

Yeah, I'm glad you got your cabin assignment.

I also read that someone on the Jan 7th Magic sailing got theirs too.

That means that ours should be next

I'd love to have the upgrade that you received

But if you don't like it maybe you can switch it. I'm sure that someone else would love to have the outside cabin.