July 28, 2007 - "Rome-ancing the Mouse Cruisers" -11 days!

[MrsJobba1]

Good Morning All!
Helen- I hope your recovery is not due to something serious. I think a trip in an RV would make anyone feel better! Just don’t overdo!


I wonder if there are penalties for cancellations???


Have a great day all!
Sallie

Hi Sallie & Anna,
Thank you for the good luck comments! At the beginning of March I had quite major lower abdominal surgery. Therefore the need to rest. However I am really amazed at how well I feel all things considering. And I am determined to be fit for the summer!

I emailed DCL to ask what the cancelation policy was for the excursions and this was their reply ;
All onboard services can be booked or cancelled up to 2 days prior to
vacation commencement. Excursions are subject to availability and/or
cancellation based on weather, itinerary changes, and attendance.
Children under 18 years of age must be accompanied by an adult on
excursions.


I totally agree with you when you said "I am going to look at these stops, as quick glimpses of beautiful places, so that I will know where I want to travel back to for longer visits."
You have to remember as well, this is a holiday and you shouldn't try to do too much in one go, other wise you'll need a holiday to recover from your holiday!

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Okay, I'd like to see some feed back from previous cruisers on both Disney and other lines. Is it really possible that the excursions would fill up the first day or sothat they go on sale and not be available for anyone who tried closer to the cruise?
I just can't believe that any cruise would sell out excursions, with a very few exceptions for exclusive ones, so fast that those who might have waited for whatever reason would be shut out. It would seem to me that at that point many people who planed on taking a cruise and found out that none of the tours they were interested in were available would simply cancel. I can't imagine any cruise line shutting out passengers from these. It would be nothing but a money loser for the cruise, both on lost revenue from people who cancel, but also for people who couldn't get one, or any, of the excursions they wanted. As well as bad PR.
I don't mean people deciding the day of the excursion that they want to go, but a reasonable time ahead, even up to a week before the cruise. This just doesn't make financial sense.
What has previous cruisers' experience been?

All I can say is Shore trips do sell out, and have done so, I struggled to get onto a Dolphin one at Acapulco it went every hour on the hour from 8am, I got 3pm.

I also struggled with one at Cozumel. And nearly lost that, all booking at 00.01 release time.

I got a pm Cabo trip when I wanted an am one.

I personally think Rome, and Naples, and Florence will go first and fast, the others are more spread out.


The only thing to balance this is how many people have booked private tours such as myself.

I have known DCL to add additiional shore trips when they have sold out, as you sau its money for them.

As they havent done the Med before no one know's I would say be fast!

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Hi all,

Hope you all had a great weekend.

Thought I'd tell you about my spending, i've gone a bit mad on ebay and got some really good bargins.
Over the last week I've got
An Italian phrase book & Guide
An Spanish phrase book (yes another one)
An Franch phrase book
A guide book about Pisa
A guide book about Sardina
A guide book about Sicily
A guide book about Naples and the Almalfi coast.
And yet another Barcelona book.

Well Im starting to get cabin fever having to stay in and my doc says im not allowed to do too much, so guess I'll just have to read.

I am really looking forward to the weekend though, we have a large motorhome (RV) and we are going away.

We have 3 dogs and we are in a flyball club.

Flyball is a fun team sport. From a team of up to 6 dogs you select four to run a heat. It is a relay race.The dogs race against another team in another lane, over 4 hurdles , retreive a ball from a box at the end of the lane, and then return back over the 4 hurdles. Then the next dog in the team goes. The winning team is the first to get all 4 dogs back without any faults. I have competed with Ben for nearly 3 years now.

Well this weekend Floss my youngest dog will have her first competition. My friend is going to run Ben for me in his team (Cleveland Hurricanes) and Im going to try with Floss. (Dont tell the doc )I will have a lot of support and its only a case of standing and letting go of her at the right time. Floss' team is the Cleveland Tiny Twisters. Hopefully she'll do ok, as because i've been out of action so to speak she's not had any practice for 7weeks

I'll let you know how we get on

These are some photos of Ben from last year

And one of Floss just running

This is Sally the O A P (She is 14yr old bless her)

1/ Love the dogs.
2/ Been to the library to get all the travel books out!

 

[kyla]

I can't see the dogs for some reason. Stupid work computer.

I too compete with my doggies, but its in agility. I have 3 dogs. Two are aussies and one golden. The golden is retired and one aussie is just a pup, so I'm competing with one dog right now although both aussies are herding sheep. I'll get pics up when I get home.

 

[kyla]

I was on the Panama Canal cruise and didn't book my excursions til about a week after they opened up the reservations. I was surprised to find that some of the excursions had filled but I think I got most of what I wanted. The CS said that the excursions filled up within 3 hours of opening. Maybe with the Med cruise, Disney might handle things differently?

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

reminder Re Palo's Private Dinning Room If You Said You Were Interested In Brunch Before Pm Me With Your Dcl Ressie.​

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Re booking times on the Med excusions thread.

Having gotten up at 1 a.m. (MDT) this morning (4/2/07) to book, I can tell you that it is currently 12 am PDT/1 am MDT/2 am CDT/3 am EDT. If there were any daylight savings time issues with the system, they've been corrected.

8AM UK

 

[MrsJobba1]

No Sunday lie in !!!

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

No Sunday lie in !!!

No can go back to bed after though! and better than 3am

 

[MrsJobba1]

Not sure who this applies too,

But if anyone is in a suite and booking thier excursions 105 days out - could you let us know what excursions have the multiple time options?
Thanks

 

[MrsJobba1]

Hi,

I asked this question on Cruise critic; Where to eat in Barcelona, Marseille, Villefranche and Palermo? and got some good recommendations.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=9648694#post9648694

 

[bridegirl]

I just called DCL to triple check and was told that my booking time would be April 14 at 12:01 am (we are PST).

We are concierge and have already paid in full.

The bad news is they cannot link our staterooms, which I was hoping they could - to avoid some rooms getting excursions that other rooms get locked out of as they sell out. We have four Category 3 suites and I was hoping we could get one group ressie but they said it's not possible. So...we will go one room at a time and make our ressies.

We haven't even chosen our excursions yet, and we are going to go private in Rome, so hopefully there won't be too much that we miss out on. Last time I made a bunch of spa ressies and then I didn't really want to go to the spa - we were having too much fun and I felt like I could spa back at home.

Pixie dust,

Susy

 

[bridegirl]

Oh and yes, Andrew, you totally got me, I checked the DCL website twice to try and see what you were talking about. It was late at night here on the 31st and I wasn't even thinking about April or April Fools. I was in a mad rush trying to pick excursions (we are about to leave town for spring break).

I see that you are also on the EB Repo 2008 (as are we) so I think between the two trips I will find a way to get you back on the joke.

Pixie dust,

Susy

 

[eeyorelvr10]

Hey everyone - we were back on page 2 again so I'm posting to bring us up again - OK - you all are scaring me again - excursions booked up within 3 hours! Say it isn't so!

Ok so another question here - at 12:01 on 4/29 we can book online or do we have to wait until lines open? I've never booked online and I'm getting reaaly scared - any help for th newbie excursion booker?

Did I mention I'm horrible with decisions? As someone mentioned - this is the Med and so not sure how things are going to go - but I was told last cruise when I tried to book via phone that the excursion was booked or unable to book but that DCL always tried to save some spots for those that have no compter access therefore there 'might' be some spots that you'd have to check onboard - I did - there were - and I went so that's another fallback hope this helps some.

I'm holding onto that thread of hope in case I don't get the ones I want - I can do just about anything I hope as long as I get the ones I want in Rome - how many feel that way? BTW, just my opinion here but with the prices their charging for these Rome and other trips - you'd think they'd do everything possible to get as many possible on these excursions - let's hope anyway - if they don't want my $ I'm sure I can figure out some way to spend it elsewhere!!!

Truth be told it would probably be with Disney anyway! Have a nice day all!

 

[AnnaS]

Don't know if this will work or if I am doing this right, This is from dcl thread

Warning: Some Med Excursions Filling Up Very Early

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just a warning to other cruisers going to the Mediterranean this summer--some of the shore excursions are filling up extremely quickly. Personally, I was unable to book my preferred excursions in La Spezia (Florence/Pisa) and Villefranche (Nice/Monaco) exactly 75 days prior to departure. (Yes, it is my first Disney Cruise). I've had other data points given to me that indicate people have had problems booking even at 105 days out.

So far, Disney has not provided anyone with a very satisfactory backup plan. There are multiple problems:
Once your booking window arrives,if you book your second choice excursion that runs at the same time (frequent for these all-day exucrsions in Europe), you can no longer check availability of your first choice excursion. If you later want to check via the web site, you have to *cancel* your second choice excursion to even see if there is availability of your first choice, risking the loss of your second choice excursion just to check!
There is no such concept of a waiting list for these excursions.
Disney is unable to say (yet--still waiting on a response) whether there will be additional capacity added to address these high-demand excursions.
You *might* be able to check via the telephone every day to see if availability has opened up.
You'll want to be sure to have a second and maybe even a third-choice in mind for the major ports. If you have your heart set on a particular destination you might want to book a private tour instead.

Bottom line: I think Disney misestimated the audience for these cruises--unlike the Caribbean, people are going on these cruises are much for the ports as the cruise experience itself.

 

[AnnaS]

Page 2

Okay - I was trying to do some research on the cruise ...... com website - not sure if I am allowed to type in site. I am not a registered member and I would rather not register on another site. Anyway - I would love to see if there are any reports/reviews for the Obia port.

I would love to know if all the beaches are private. Couldn't a cab take us to a beach for a few hours (like everyone, included ourselves have done in the caribbean?).

I am really not sure what I want to do here. I keep going back and forth.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

As posted before, I suspected the most popular would go fast, DCL doesnt have a track record here, so I booked private tours in the major places.

 

[AnnaS]

As posted before, I suspected the most popular would go fast, DCL doesnt have a track record here, so I booked private tours in the major places.

Andrew did you book a private tour in Obia?

I am soooo undecided here. I would love to do the beach one - perhaps we should just go with the $59 one - not sure if the other one is worth and extra $60 each for 2 2/12 hours of beach.

I would love to know if we can grab a taxi (and pick us back up) to take us to a beach - would of course prefer one with restrooms (snack/drink availability would be great too).

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Andrew did you book a private tour in Obia?

I am soooo undecided here. I would love to do the beach one - perhaps we should just go with the $59 one - not sure if the other one is worth and extra $60 each for 2 2/12 hours of beach.

I would love to know if we can grab a taxi (and pick us back up) to take us to a beach - would of course prefer one with restrooms (snack/drink availability would be great too).

The only places I didnt book a private tour was Obia and Sicily, both are lower on my priority list. I havent the book here but read the book on Obia in my local library and they are many local beachs not the far away from the town center.

I did some websearchs back a while, there on my other computer so I cannot put the link on now but there is a lot locally, DCL also has a good port description.

For anyone not getting the shore trip they want at the other ports you can contact the people I am using, the links were posted before on this thread.

 

[eeyorelvr10]

OMG! Say it isn't so - what exactly may I ask is anybody doing? Holy Cow - this means I have to go back to 3rd and 4th choices! Not fair - not fair - I thought I was doing good in picking my first and 2nd - ok - back to the drawing board.!