May 12, 2007 -- Taking the Magic to the Mediterranean -- 14 day Repo Cruise! Part 2

[mom_rules]

gydell...

i just checked last night on DCL for prices (because the DIS was down and nothing else to do...) and noticed the cat 12 had dropped again...i emailed my TA and she rebooked us this morning....ADVICE from another DISer that I did not do...have your TA transfer all your Palo/excursion ressies too!

that did not happen for us and i was able to rebook everything except Palo brunch...i will have to rebook onboard...i was able to keep my tips paid and $250 OBC

my TA said DCL will credit my credit card back about $1600 within about 4 weeks (why can they take payments and they go through that day but refunds take forever!!! ) so i should have the $$ back by the time we cruise...

i am a cheapskate at heart and when the price went down yet again I could not pass it up, especially when that amount will pay for all of our excursions!

Not so lucky with Cat6 staterooms-ours hasn't changed at all.

 

[seaulater]

Boy is my computer acting up!

My computer crashed at work, so I have been without for the last two and a half days and it is driving me crazy!

Hopefully, I will get it back today!

 

[seaulater]

I do think this is why they are trying to fill the ship. Plus all the money that DCL will make on the extras - pixs, drinks ,and did I say pixs!

Don't forget those LE pins!

Just think, if the ship is not full, the pin lines won't be as long!

By the way, at the last minute on the 11 Night Wonder in September, in order to fill the ship, I was told the TA's were offered a rate of $25 per day to book and then they had to attend the DCL presentation. There were plenty of staterooms available a couple of days out, but when we got to the port at the crack of dawn and got inside the terminal there were NO upgrades, as the ship was completely full.

 

[pooh & tinker]

Six here too-any idea what's up?

yes I am, it is strange.

 

[Takia]

Wow!! I am a TA, and I got an email from DCL yesterday about this cruise and about the substantial discounts. For me, it is a savings of over $4,500 for a family of 3!! I SO may do it!! Congrats to all of you that have the major savings going on!!! Hopefully your TA is really nice to you as there are major incentives to "rebook" your cruise right now!! Hopefully I will see you all there! Now, I just gotta get the airfare so close to sailing.......

 

[NHdisneylover]

Wow!! I am a TA, and I got an email from DCL yesterday about this cruise and about the substantial discounts. For me, it is a savings of over $4,500 for a family of 3!! I SO may do it!! Congrats to all of you that have the major savings going on!!! Hopefully your TA is really nice to you as there are major incentives to "rebook" your cruise right now!! Hopefully I will see you all there! Now, I just gotta get the airfare so close to sailing.......

I'm so glad to know Disney is being nice to the TAs. Our TA is always so nice to us. I hated to ask her to do anything more (rebook), it is great to know she is getting some good things out of it as well.

 

[Scott H]

Kewl you all are getting discounts, that is the bummer of using DVC points. I think they did lower the points once. But it is a rare situation.

Sorry to hear about the computer probs, At work After certain things happen I get to crash in on computers.

 

[milestogo]

Here is what I woke up to this morning:
Hi Kelly,
Sorry you had to point this out to us. I typically catch price changes and would have adjusted the rate down and then called you. I have reduced the rate. Your cruise total is now $2186.58 (that is just over $52 per person per day). I am very pleased for you. We will send you an adjusted statement during the next week. $800 will becoming back to you.

I just spoke to Disney and they said you have prepaid gratuities. I am not sure why and neither was the agent I spoke to but she did confirm you have them.

Tom



We are so doing the happy dance this morning!

Yes, Hadley, we went through about 200 DVD's this morning and are bringing at least 30 to give to the crew members as extra goodies. And I heard that Walmart phone cards are a big booster shot for them. I was thinking post card stamps would be good too for them to send post cards home. Also, I think you can give american express gift cards - does anyone know about that? We were thinking about our cast members in the oceaneers club, who will be very close to our kids after 25 days onboard.

Ken, what kind of bike do you ride?

Is anyone watching the dancing with the stars? Zoe is in love with it. "Mommy can we do the waltz or cha, cha, cha?"

 

[kpros]

Ken, what kind of bike do you ride?

Hi Kelly

Congrats on the savings - I'm with Scott, it's nice that people are getting great discounts, but not for us using points. Oh well.

You asked about my bike - I've got a LaMond road bike - not a super expensive one, just a middle of the road model. Had it for 4 years now and have put about 11,000 miles on it. This years Arthritis Ride will be its 4th trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles.

Ken

 

[milestogo]

We were originally DVC points for this cruise and cash for the 11 night, thanks to Kathy (Littleowensmommy) teaching me a few things I was able to switch to them. The price has gone up a lot for the 11 night, so I'm glad we got the points that we did, but this is an amazing change and surprise. Jonathan doesn't know yet, so I can't wait to tell him this morning. This helps with the whole idea of paying for the annual passes and adding an entire week in December to Orlando.

Bikes: Zoe just got her first little 12inch Trek and was so excited!! I have a Bianchi, but my knees don't allow me to do distance riding anymore. And Jonathan has a Klein that he had custom made quite a few years ago and is still an avid cycler. But since we got a big screen TV in living room and has been working triple time to do this vacation, he has been putting it on the windtrainer and watching TV while he rides

 

[tazzmacd]

Well I already booked a cat 12, called the TA this morning and she is looking into it for me. Not sure if she can do anythign for me or not. We shall see. Mine could be close to a $1400 Cdn savings, here's to hoping

 

[tig82174]

Yeah it doesn't appear that the discounts are really going to people in the higher priced stateroom categories....but I shot a quick message to our TA anyway just to see if there's any kind of price break available to us (not taht I don't think we've ALREADY made out like bandits to be perfectly honest......so if we don't get one then I'm definitely not going to cry....but if we DO.....then maybe another spa treatment? )

I finished making our pirate costumes yesterday.....nothing super fancy but enough to show we put in an effort. I went thrift store hunting looking for some cheap stuff that I could cannibalize so that I wouldn't have to make them from scratch and I actually found two (women's) white shirts that had fun collars so I bought them and then went over to JoAnn's and got matching fabrics and basically cut the collars and chest panel and cuffs out of the shirts and then constructed the torso and sleeves and spliced them together so we'd have fun poofy pirate shirts. Also picked up a couple cheap pairs of piratey looking pants and worked in some sparkly fabric to use as belt sashes and head scarves/bandanas (our signature colors...Orange/me and Blue/Jason). I'm sure I"m the only pirate alive with an orange sequined sash for belt ...but who can really resist orange sequins, now, really?????

Also, although I have not yet officially heard about the tropical dinner...I presume from all of you there will be one and I could NOT find any Disney tropical shirts I liked....but I DID find in JoAnn's fabric (while I was shopping for pirate material) a fun tropical colors Mickey cotton print...so I decided to MAKE tropical Disney shirts for Jason and I.

I swear between all the Disney ties, these matching shirts, and our pirate costumes everyone aboard who doesn't know us is going to think we're Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum!!!


Erik

 

[Michelle2]

Don't forget those LE pins!

Just think, if the ship is not full, the pin lines won't be as long!

By the way, at the last minute on the 11 Night Wonder in September, in order to fill the ship, I was told the TA's were offered a rate of $25 per day to book and then they had to attend the DCL presentation. There were plenty of staterooms available a couple of days out, but when we got to the port at the crack of dawn and got inside the terminal there were NO upgrades, as the ship was completely full.

Yes this is true, I am a TA and was tempted by the 11 night Wonder deal, but could not go since I had a cruise a few months later. They did offer incentives to us for this Med transatlantic as well as a few select Med sailings as well, and that is why I am on it now....just too good to pass up! They are not having any DCL presentations to go to this time though...at least they haven't told me.

 

[seaulater]

So after I posted this morning I figured I better go into DCL and check my reservation.

ALL OF OUR SHORE EXCURSIONS HAD DISAPPEARED!

I called DCL and was told "well, we don't show that you booked any shore excursions". I knew for a fact that this was wrong, but I didn't have the printout or numbers to prove it, but littleowensmommy (Kathy) does! Her kids are linked to our room (even though they aren't staying in it) and she had the printout!

I was able to re-book on line everything but one thing, and Kathy is working on that while she talks to the concierge desk to get Amy and Owen's excursions all rebooked.

Anyway, you may want to go back in and re-check all your shore excursions to make sure they are still there.

I asked DCL if the price drop would have anything at all to do with it and the CM said no. That wouldn't affect the excursions at all. Yeah......right........

 

[gydell]

Mine are all gone too. Called DCL and they pulled up my new ressies and my old one with the excursions and said they would take take care of them for me. Not sure I trust them since they messed up to begin with, so I will be checking my ressies all day just to be sure. All of you that said you could save $800 - check again because the DCL CM gave me that figure but she had the wrong price. I saved $1650 to down grade from an 11 to a 12 so the cost is $2186 for 2 adults and 1 child.

 

[Michelle2]

Congrats on everyone who got such a huge savings! That is awesome!!

By chance I went in to see if excursions and Palo opened up, and there they all were. Palo brunches and dinners on sea days were available (many choices), and the horse school excursion that I was sad about was back.

Everyone, please check your excursions, (including Palo) there was so many available, that I hope no one lost what they originally had booked....

 

[milestogo]

I'm sure I"m the only pirate alive with an orange sequined sash for belt ...but who can really resist orange sequins, now, really?????

I swear between all the Disney ties, these matching shirts, and our pirate costumes everyone aboard who doesn't know us is going to think we're Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum!!!


Erik

Check your PM and email, I'm trying to reach you to call me!

 

[milestogo]

yes, all my excursions are gone too!

 

[tig82174]

AAAAAAHHH!!!!

My TA just replied that she was able to get us just over $100 back but now all MY excursions are gone too!!!!

TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!!

I'm going to try to rebook them now.


Erik

 

[cupcake]

Good news ... got the $800 adjusted for our gty 12. Wow, what a fabulous price!

However ... all our ressies are there except our Palo brunch!! Naturally, there is no availability to rebook. Emailed our TA, and am hoping DCL will just fix it.

Cupcake