March 22-29, 2008 - Here Before You Know It!

[gimpeaux]

Yes, lflynn, please make it a two-year-reunion of our DIS crew! Spring 2008 dates came out November 1. Hope you can make it!

 

[dlf246]

Howdy Gimpeaux, Geffric, Skibum, Iflynn, and Camom3:

Imagine my surprise when I log on and find all of you going! This thread feels like old times. Our schools must be in sync across state lines!

We too hoped for an Eastern, though with DD6 I was worried about her seeing more than she should (skin) in some ports. We love, love Cozumel so will be fine, IF WE DON'T get diverted to Costa Maya again....

On cost, we were surprised by our actual cost going up more like 30%. When you say it went up 20%, are you factoring in the discount you already had coming? I know DCL fares always go up, but we should all occasionally log on and ck fares in case there is a temporary drop, which we could call and claim. (disclaimer: our ressies include air and pre-lodging.. possibly playing a role in higher increase?)

May I second one of yours suggestion to move earlier the Cruise Meet time to avoid the noise. My kids are really into the sail away party. And I doubt none of us plan on arriving late!!

Lastly, I assume most of us are at the whim of a school changing spring break... ours waits on Little Rock public school decision which is not pinned down until mid-2007!

 

[geffric]

dlf246 The problem is that Easter is Sunday March 23rd in 2008; that is why the cruise is double what we paid in March 2006.

Our school district has issued their calander for school year 2007-2008 and both of my boys are off from Thursday March 20th - Monday March 31st.
That is the good news in this scenerio, we can leave on Thursday night or early friday morning instead of having a harrowing experience trying to fly on friday night.Plus we have 1 more day of vacation. Worls out just great for us on that count.

We are booked in the same room as before ( 5020) but the cost may not be justified for us and we may move to the summer of 2008 if DCL goes to Alaska or we may stay the course.

 

[llp479]

Just booked tonight. As of now we'll be in 7505 and 7507, me, dh, dds who will turn 14 on the cruise, and dd almost 11. Of course I'm going out on a limb and assuming that the district will do SB that week. Will find out for sure sometime late Jan or early Feb.

Did a 4 day for SB in 2006 with some friends, so we thought we would give the 7 day a try. The girls are very excited!

 

[gimpeaux]

llp479 - Welcome aboard! Hope your spring break timing works out so you can join us. As you may have gathered, several of us met up on these boards before we cruised this past spring on a 7-day Magic Western Caribbean. It's a great bunch of people, and I hope you can be part of spring break 2008.

dlf246 - Hey there! Glad to hear from you again, and to hear that, if the school calendar cooperates, you will be with us. Like geffric, our school district is nice enough to announce school calendars two years in advance, so we were able to move our ressies to this week as soon as DCL started taking 2008 reservations. This time, break for DD (soon to be 13, and 14 by time of cruise) starts that Friday, so my guess is we may head down to Florida that Thursday and get in a full day of sightseeing on Friday before heading over on Saturday to sail.

I did the math again and the cost difference for us is in fact about 20% over last time. I'm sure part of that is normal inflation, and, like geffric, I'm sure there is a premium for Easter week because it's likely to be spring break for so many folks. That's comparing cruise-only cost last time to cruise-plus-vacation-insurance this time, with no DCL-purchased airfare either time, figuring in whatever discount we received for booking onboard. (We bought insurance last time through a TA.)

Given our snow day on Friday (8-9"), and the wind chills since then (10 to 15 below this morning), I am longing for tropical heat. And only 469 days to go!

 

[llp479]

Thanks for the welcome! You are correct that the fact that it's Easter is inflating the price. We're planning on converting the reservation to DVC points and they charge higher points for holiday weeks.

Know what you mean about the snow, we got about 14" last Friday and today I was "lucky" enough to accompany my dd's class on a field trip to the Sears Tower. We took Metra and while waiting almost froze to death! Spring Break 2007 can't get here soon enough - warm sun and sand - can't wait!

 

[gimpeaux]

Best wishes to all of you and your families for peace, joy, and good health throughout the coming New Year!

 

[geffric]

Best wishes to all of you and your families for peace, joy, and good health throughout the coming New Year!

Thanks . Happy New Year to you and your family. Now our cruise is only 1 year and 3 months away. YEAH!!!

We just got back from a wedding in LA. The weather was great.

 

[lflynn]

I just got our spring break dates 2008. We are in for the March 15 Eastern cruise. anybody else?

 

[gimpeaux]

lflynn, rats! You missed our cruise by one week -- maybe we'll see you at the port as you leave and we board....

 

[geffric]

Well i am sorry to tell you this but I have jumped ship. DH and I decided to do the Eastbound repo cruise instead. Have a great time. I'll be thinking about you during that week.

 

[skibum]

We ended up moving this ressie to the May 10th Westbound Repo through the Panama Canal.
Still not sure if it will work - 11 days off of school for the DD's - but we will talk to their teachers early next year. It will truly be an educational experience, but we will not be going if their grades are not stellar.
Have fun on your cruise - we are on that same cruise next month.

 

[gimpeaux]

geffric and skibum - we are realllly sorry to hear you have jumped ship. It would have been good to get the whole gang together again. But have a great time on your cruises, and I'll be sure to let you know how it goes next March.

 

[pop5]

Hi all, we are on this cruise too. We are taking the eastern in just 3 weeks and then will be looking foward to this western. I have 5 ds and a dh going. looking foward to getting to know all of you.

 

[lajones81]

My sister and I are thinking of cruising! Maybe we'll see you there!

 

[DisneyMom92]

Having cruised a couple weeks ago on the Western, my sis and I thought we would try something new, an LA cruise in summer 2008 right before school starts. Thought it would be perfect. Reserved it while still on board as a surprise for kids, now 11 and 14. Told them the last night on board and they were thrilled to have another to look forward to.

Then, on the way home, 14DD announces that she wants to go back next spring break as several new onboard friends have already booked. We discussed it all the way home, don't want to reschedule LA cruise because adults really want to go, so we are trying to get onboard for the Spring Break trip too!

Hope to see some of you there.

 

[MN Dis Fans]

I booked this cruise several months ago online ; and then re-booked while we were on board our March 2007 Eastern cruise. I saved several $ hundreds of Dollars on our connecting SPH's!

The 2007-2008 school calendars have just come out for our area, and I did in fact get it right, so we'll see you all on board.

Our cast consists of me the DH, DW, and 2 DS's. They will be 12 & 10 when we cruise next March.

DisneyMom92: It looks like we'll be doing 2x cruises together?

pop5: Sorry we didn't catch up with you on the March 17 - 24, 2007 Eastern. Hopefully we'll see you on board this time around.

Paul

 

[lflynn]

i'm gonna miss you guys!

 

[DisneyMom92]

MN Dis Fans

That's great! I didn't get to meet any Dis board people onboard, at least not that I know of. We met lots of wonderful people, as did the kids. The oldest, my 14DD made plans to meet several same time next year. Hopefully they will let my then 12DS into the Stack so that he can have a little better time. Don't get me wrong, he had a blast, but was expecting to meet more friends. He is used to hanging out with older kids and the kids his age didn't like girls and he didn't like that much. since he loves them!

 

[llp479]

We're all set. I guessed correctly for Spring Break and DVC finally released points for 2008. Upgraded our plans for Deluxe OV as opposed to Deluxe inside. Prices were actually down from when we originally booked.

Twin dd's will turn 14 while on cruise, and youngest dd will be almost 11. Now we're into the planning phase. Should be able to book airfare soon. Can't wait!