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

[tig82174]

Debbie, those pictures are amazing! WOW. I hope things do calm down soon. What bizarre weather we have had for the past year.


Happy Belated Birthday Tig!!

Thanks so much.....you guys all rock...so sweet to say happy birthday....I even got a ahppy birthday email from the disboard webmaster which I thought was cool....heheh (not as cool as the birthday email Mickey sent me through my Disney Insider emails...but really, who can compete with Mickey? hehehe)

 

[padalyn]

Gee - I feel a little left out...my birthday was Aug 8th and I didn't get an email from the webmaster....

Oh Well...happy birthday Tig...

My hunny's birthday is this weekend - so we are going to celebrate it by shopping - a gyrls favorite pasttime

 

[tig82174]

Gee - I feel a little left out...my birthday was Aug 8th and I didn't get an email from the webmaster....

Oh Well...happy birthday Tig...

My hunny's birthday is this weekend - so we are going to celebrate it by shopping - a gyrls favorite pasttime

aw.....HAPPY BELATED SWEETIE!!!!

I"m sure it's just because i put my birthdate in my profile when i registered my screen-name....so I"m sure it's just an automated thing....but still very cute

 

[CareBlair]

Does anyone have any info on how this cruise is selling? Book now, or book later and risk being shut out or paying a higher price? If we book now & prices are reduced to fill the ship, can we re-book at the lower price? I read somewhere that if there are cabins available nearer to sailing date that Disney advertises that to employees and gives them a crack at the discounted cabins before they would release them to the public. But since these cruises are so far away, I wonder if that will be their strategy. Easier to fill cruises to nearby Caribbean than all the way to the Med, I would think. Any ideas?

 

[milestogo]

Hi Guys,
I've been painfully busy here attempting to meet those goals we set up to accomplish before the cruise. Finished another class and began 2 more, I'm chained to my computer writing, researching and preparing 4 new presentations for our lecture series. I've been so focused on the crunch of preparing new presentations before school begins that I haven't been excercising and felt just awful.

So, I took CACruisin's advice and went to Sea World at night and had a wonderful time! Thanks!! And how was your vacation?

While planning out our Sea World at night adventure, looked up Littleowensmommy info to meet up you guys for your trip our here and realized we had missed you by a week! Some welcoming committee we are I'm sorry we missed you, I could have used the break from work. How was house hunting for your move back west?

Then I realized I missed some birthdays... Happy Birthday(s) Tig & Padayln

DH has been taking DD to DL so I can focus on the work. During the summer I prep the business for the entire year and he takes care of her and during the school year he travels on the lecture tour, so we trade off. DD is beginning her first day of preschool tomorrow, so I don't know how focused I'll be! We did take an afternoon to go look at our dream real estate (it really helps keep me motivated when I'm doing these major projects.) In our WAY overpriced market of So. CAL we have a glut of houses on the market. So, we headed out to the open houses for a few hours. Of course, when you can't move... you find your dream home! We found a gorgeous one level pool home overlooking the ocean, the islands, the marina in a 10 school district near all of our favorite things. UGH Later that night I dreamt that we gave up the cruise and DVC to afford the house. DH said, "UH, I think we'd have to give up a little more than the cruise!" So, I'm working hard on making the magic happen....

Then I saw Debbie's picture updates and it really puts life into perspective doesn't it? Keep up the good work, Debbie.


PS: Padalyn, DH looked for your pin, but no luck. We'll keep our eyes open.

 

[tig82174]

Does anyone have any info on how this cruise is selling? Book now, or book later and risk being shut out or paying a higher price? If we book now & prices are reduced to fill the ship, can we re-book at the lower price? I read somewhere that if there are cabins available nearer to sailing date that Disney advertises that to employees and gives them a crack at the discounted cabins before they would release them to the public. But since these cruises are so far away, I wonder if that will be their strategy. Easier to fill cruises to nearby Caribbean than all the way to the Med, I would think. Any ideas?

All good questions, really.....I think when it comes down to it there's a little bit of a "blackjack" game....book early and be sure you get the room you want or book later and hope for cheaper tickets....Probably everyone needs to prioritize what's more important...value or accomodations. The other way to go is to research booking through a 3rd party travel agency. We, for example, book all our cruises, including this one, through mousearsvacations.com As part of the incentive to use their service they guarantee that no matter WHEN you book your trip, if Disney offers a lower rate or fare or deal after you've booked, they will adjust the cost of your trip to reflect the LOWER balance. So in that instance it was pretty easy to say yeah let's go ahead and book our cruise way in advance....because their staff will be watching price deals for us and if an opportunity arises to pay LESS...they'll snag it for us.

 

[CareBlair]

Thanks for the insight, tig82174.

I do have a tendency to overanalyse.....

But here's another thing I worry about.....

From DCL's Terms & Conditions:
"Disney Cruise Line may in its sole discretion and without prior notice change, substitute, postpone, cancel or deviate from any scheduled sailing, itinerary or call at any port, and may substitute another vessel for the ship, and shall not be liable for any loss or damage incurred by a Guest as a result of any such change, substitution, postponement, cancellation or deviation."

How likely is this to happen? We will all have worked so hard making air arrangements to FL and back from Barcelona, more than likely with heavy change penalties. The airlines will not be sympathetic to this type of situation and will be highly unlikely to waive any penalties.

I guess this is part of the "blackjack game"....or "Russian roulette" maybe? Is this a risk I need to be willing to take before I plunk down my hard-earned money?

I don't mean to rain on the parade, just trying to get some feedback on how you more experienced DCL cruisers look at it.

 

[padalyn]

Thanks so much Miles for looking for the pin - it was a long shot I think. I will see if I can trade for it whilst at the pin event in 2 weeks at WDW.

Thank you for the birthday wishes - I didn't mean to sound whiney...I was actually busting Tig's chops a little

 

[padalyn]

I do have a tendency to overanalyse.....

But here's another thing I worry about.....

From DCL's Terms & Conditions:
"Disney Cruise Line may in its sole discretion and without prior notice change, substitute, postpone, cancel or deviate from any scheduled sailing, itinerary or call at any port, and may substitute another vessel for the ship, and shall not be liable for any loss or damage incurred by a Guest as a result of any such change, substitution, postponement, cancellation or deviation."

How likely is this to happen? We will all have worked so hard making air arrangements to FL and back from Barcelona, more than likely with heavy change penalties. The airlines will not be sympathetic to this type of situation and will be highly unlikely to waive any penalties.

I guess this is part of the "blackjack game"....or "Russian roulette" maybe? Is this a risk I need to be willing to take before I plunk down my hard-earned money?

I don't mean to rain on the parade, just trying to get some feedback on how you more experienced DCL cruisers look at it.

hmm - well - I just jumped in and book it - I figure that I can always cancel if the area of the world "heats" up a little more than I am confortable with. The cancel policy thing - I am sure you would be able to get all the cruise money back, the flight is another issue - you often can get a credit for a flight not used. So, one could simply decide to take the time to go to another locale for a vacation. Say, Paris, Tokyo, HongKong, etc...

I booked on the first day and so far the prices have only gone up! I am in a Cat 6 for the crossing, and a Cat 7 for the 11 day. We are on deck 6 both cruises. (my hunny and her mom's friend are flying to Barcelona to meet her mom and I for the second cruise - thus the room change!)

Disney does drop the cost - about 3 days before the sailing usually - they also will upgrade a paying guest and put cast members in the bowels of the ship. I know someone who was upgraded for the Panama cruise - went from a Cat 10 to 9 at a small fee to them (about 200 I think she said).

I usually book with DCL directly for the short cruises - but the long haul ones I use a TA so there is some safety net in that. We have NOT booked our airfare yet (much to my frustration - we can't seem to come to an agreement as to where to fly home from - Barcelona or Paris!). The airfares have dropped in the last couple of weeks which is promising.

Of more concern to me is the luggage issue if we decide to go to Paris - the small commuter planes do not allow 2 checked backs and the carry on size is VERY limited. I had this trouble when I flew to St. Louis from Newark earlier this year - my carryon ended up as checked since it didn't fit in the small overyhead area.

Any one have comments about the luggage thing?

 

[mom_rules]

Also a concern I had-I tend to overpack anyway-but with a 3 or even 4 week vacation I can't even imagine the luggage I'm gonna have! I know I can do laundry onboard but to be honest who wants to do work on vacation. If I must I must but would prefer not to!

 

[Scott H]

Yes overpacking is an issue, it will work out, just gotta be smart. We have a 33 lb total fro Tanzania, so we can do it, just gotta wear teh same thing a couple of times.

Been in Dallas for a conference, very good . It was hot here.

Travel home today.

Enjoy the day kids, got too much to do for the 11 Day, adn other trip planned before this one.

 

[milestogo]

The Dallas heat made our news last night! HOT!!

Padalyn, you weren't being whiny, I love getting my Minnie B'day greeting, I'd be bummed if I didn't get it.... silly as it may be.

We haven't booked our return either yet. Can't decide where to fly back from or to either. I heard that DCL has alternate plans if their are "issues" in the Med. We figure they will go west, but wherever this cruise goes we'll go on it because its the fun of the ship, we don't really care where it goes. Even if they stayed in the Carribean we'd go... but Hawaii would be better.

 

[tig82174]

Ditto Ditto!!

I know it's a lot of money and time and planning....but to aleviate some of your fears CareBlair....I can say that I have complete confidence that Disney will do everything possible to make sure there are not changes or problems with our fabulous vacation. Most those disclaimers are all "lawyer talk" (sorry to any lawyers on the board! ) anyway in my opinion. And to be perfectly honest I trust Disney's abilities to make things run beautifully and smoothly better than I trust most the governments of the world!! LOL

As far as the luggage issue goes....the last I spoke to the airline rep. I was told that on our flight from Barcelona back to Orlando we could each have one small carryon and 2 bags coming in at the metric equivalent of just under 45lb. without any penalty....which is not that dissimilar from domestic flights really. Jason and I HAVE resolved ourselves to doing laundry during the vacation at the midpoint somewhere...but in the long run we figured that we're going to have SO much time aboard the ship to enjoy all it has to offer this time (we've never take a cruise this long before) that on one of the days at sea it's worth the sacrifice to give up a couple hours to do the laundry if it makes our luggage more manageable and keeps us from paying fines...besides Jason and I spend most of our time on these trips just hanging out with each other...so we'll just play cards on the floor of the laundry room or something *lol* (On the cruise itself you'll often find us playing ping pong on deck.....we hadn't ever really played ping pong together before but on our cruise in February on the Wonder we got addicted and spent time until the wee hours slapping that little ball all over the deck! hehehe )

 

[jasonroo]

From DCL's Terms & Conditions:
"Disney Cruise Line may in its sole discretion and without prior notice change, substitute, postpone, cancel or deviate from any scheduled sailing, itinerary or call at any port, and may substitute another vessel for the ship, and shall not be liable for any loss or damage incurred by a Guest as a result of any such change, substitution, postponement, cancellation or deviation."

I agree, in the company I work for a lot of the licensing agreements cover the worst case scenarios. Even though we say we are not responsible "legally" for the things our clients do wrong in reality we will do everything in our power to help our clients and to correct their mistakes.

I have confidence in Disney to make all their cruises a success, but if a hurricane wipes out Florida you can't very well blame them for wanting the right to cancel a cruise.

If you are still concerned you should look into getting travel or vacation insurance.

 

[milestogo]

J&E, You'll be shocked at how fast the trip goes, even with all the days at sea.

 

[Scott H]

I'm afraid you will find it difficult to sit on the laundryroom floor to play cards, the laundry room is not that big.
Lynn

 

[tig82174]

I'm afraid you will find it difficult to sit on the laundryroom floor to play cards, the laundry room is not that big.
Lynn

Yeah you're right....I actually knew that because we always make the laundry room one of our first stops onboard to try to get our ironing done before there's a rush for the irons at dinner time......and besides...apart from the space issue I'm not sure I'd want to sit on that floor anyway....*shudder* hehehe

 

[CareBlair]

We're in...on...all aboard...chips ahoy...whatever you call it! Cabin 2601. Picked up four guidebooks for Barcelona alone. I do like to be prepared! See y'all on the poop deck! Can you say "poop" on the DIS?

 

[milestogo]

Welcome Careblair!

Did anyone see the Cheetah Girls 2 movie on Disney Channel this weekend? The entire movie was filmed in Barcelona. It looked quite pretty. I've been renting all the travel videos from the library.

 

[tig82174]

Welcome Careblair!

Did anyone see the Cheetah Girls 2 movie on Disney Channel this weekend? The entire movie was filmed in Barcelona. It looked quite pretty. I've been renting all the travel videos from the library.

WELCOME CAREBLAIR!!

We were visiting Jason's family most of this weekend and they don't get the Disney Channel...so we didn't see the Cheetah Girls movie....but I'm going to look for a rerun this coming week if I can....like I said, I have a guilty obsession with all the fun teeny bopper stuff on the Disney channel....in fact we were listening to Radio Disney in the car while we were driving up to Jason's folks' house and we were just saying that we really really hope that they play lots of stuff from High School Musical (one of my all time faves!) at the sailaway party or some of the family friendly dances b/c we love the soundtrack to that movie! ...and i like most of what I've heard from the new Cheetah Girls movie, too.