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

[mom_rules]

A tag fairy is a magical be-ing that adds the little color comments under your user name. You can never been sure when you may get tagged!
(My tag used to be different colors too but somehow it has been changed back to black)

 

[ssnyder]

Thanks to everyone for wishing me luck on my career change. I broke the news to our director today. I went in and pretty much said "since you are laying off a bunch of people anyways, would you mind if I was one of them. Oh, and sometime in the next six months please, since I've got this cruise I want to go on." There was a little bit of panic, which is kind of funny since I just gave 6 months notice. That's a lot more notice than they were planning on giving us, for crying out loud.

 

[CSNYDER]

Was that the same conference where a group of us borrowed your VW van to pick up a keg of guinness, tried to tap it in the back of van, and it sprayed all over the ceiling?

Yes, I found out about it when I noticed that someone had beer on the back of their shirt. They informed me that it had dripped there from the ceiling. Thank god for rubber floors.

 

[BobandLee]

Thanks to all for the advise and well wishes, we sold the house…… got a good fair price. Now we get to be buyers. Lynn will be here tonight and we will start our new castle quest at 0900. We really do live in a van down by the riiver....

Learning Mac computer right now, different , really used to IBM and some of the commands are hard to find, I will get it eventually.

Great news on the house Scott.
Watch that living in a van, down by the river. Snow's a comming.

Sorry to hear about the Mac.

 

[EpcotKilterFan]

I am getting a bit tired of all this rain!! I could really use some sun right now But have to wait for that. I am in Northeast Ohio, we don't see the sun until April

Starting to think about how to get from the port to the airport. On the All Med sailings thread someone posted a few sites that I may look at:

Resorthoppa and

Bilai Limo

But I guess I should worry how to get from Barcelona to Paris too!!

Deb

 

[mom_rules]

I thought the DCL transfers from airport-port-airport were quite reasonable plus takes the hassle and guesswork out of things.

 

[tig82174]

I thought the DCL transfers from airport-port-airport were quite reasonable plus takes the hassle and guesswork out of things.

I agree! Jason and I got the DCL transfers, too...because they just take some of the guesswork out of it and make getting from Orlando to the port and then from the boat to the Barcelona airport one less hassle to worry about.

We are going to have a car the whole week we're in the World prior to the cruise and we just made arrangements to take our car back to the airport on Saturday the 12th in the morning and hop on a DCL bus to the boat from there.

 

[milestogo]

ScottH, don't know how I missed your posting that you sold your house Congratulations, that is some great news.

Well, we went to the CAdv trick or treat last night. It was really fun. They had lots of candy stations that moved very fast. They had some cute craft areas that we didn't have time to do. They had some really fun dance areas with characters one with Sully and one with Pluto. I was surprised that the rides were open - we weren't expecting that. There were a lot of characters out throughout the park. And it was a warm night, which we were not expecting... 90 degrees today!!!

It sounds like the WDW nights were more elaborate than CA, we didn't have a big parade or a headless horseman. But it was really well organized, fun music, very cute and a lot of fun stopping points. I have a feeling that over time it will develop as WDW has... how many years have they been doing Mickey's not so scary halloween party? And did I understand that it was a big parade with floats?

One thing that was a bummer... We couldn't get any of the pins we were looking for because they were limited to 500. We were only allowed to purchase them on the night we had tickets for the event (not during the daytime when visiting the parks), so the pins sold out the first night on 10/13 and nobody else could purchase them even though we had tickets. It was an unfortunate disappointment, so I'll suggest that they limit it to a smaller number per ticketed night.

PS: in case anyone else was there last night, I was the only Edna Mode! My date was a 3 foot Captain Hook.

200 days today!!!!!

 

[tig82174]

ScottH, don't know how I missed your posting that you sold your house Congratulations, that is some great news.

Well, we went to the CAdv trick or treat last night. It was really fun. They had lots of candy stations that moved very fast. They had some cute craft areas that we didn't have time to do. They had some really fun dance areas with characters one with Sully and one with Pluto. I was surprised that the rides were open - we weren't expecting that. There were a lot of characters out throughout the park. And it was a warm night, which we were not expecting... 90 degrees today!!!

It sounds like the WDW nights were more elaborate than CA, we didn't have a big parade or a headless horseman. But it was really well organized, fun music, very cute and a lot of fun stopping points. I have a feeling that over time it will develop as WDW has... how many years have they been doing Mickey's not so scary halloween party? And did I understand that it was a big parade with floats?

One thing that was a bummer... We couldn't get any of the pins we were looking for because they were limited to 500. We were only allowed to purchase them on the night we had tickets for the event (not during the daytime when visiting the parks), so the pins sold out the first night on 10/13 and nobody else could purchase them even though we had tickets. It was an unfortunate disappointment, so I'll suggest that they limit it to a smaller number per ticketed night.

PS: in case anyone else was there last night, I was the only Edna Mode! My date was a 3 foot Captain Hook.

200 days today!!!!!

Ok...first, and perhaps I'm displaying my own ignorance here (which I too often do! )....what is an "Edna Mode"??

Now...about the Not So Scary Halloween Party....I didn't know how long it's been going on....but I knew who would..."Anita Answer" the Q&A columnist for www.allearsnet.com (if you have never visited that site or read her column.....it's a must-check for me every Monday when it's updated!!). Sure enough in her archives I found the answer....the first ever MNSSHP was held in 1996. And yes, the parade includes floats. Some fancy floats that are not, to my knowledge, in any other Magic Kingdom Parade. All the characters are in Halloween costumes themselves (....Tigger was a skeleton, Minnie was a witch, Daisy Duck was a princess,....& the cast of Alice In Wonderland were all wearing masks of each other.....Alice was the Cheshire Cat, the white rabbit was the mad hatter, etc.). There is a stronger presence of the villains including a really great float with the wicked queen's magic mirror at the top.....the ghosts and otehr characters from the haunted mansion have their own float (including a life ghoul band on a float)...and there's an awesome cast of ghoulish gravediggers which is a bunch of guys who look like zombies and do a choreographed dance with shovels that involves a lot synchronized banging and twirling and scraping of their shovels on each other and the ground....it reminded me a lot of the show "Stomp"...and is particularly impressive because when the metal of their shovels scrapes the pavement it throws sparks up all over the place....VERY cool. All of that in addition to specially themed fireworks, tons of candy and dance parties (much like you described at DisneyLand).

Not to gush TOO much, but the Halloween Party at the World is a definite must-do for any avid Disney person. We LOVED it and will definitely do it again.

 

[milestogo]

Fireworks... we didn't get fireworks. I'm stunned at how much bigger it is in Orlando. I guess we have a few years to catch up.

Edna Mode is the Wardrobe designer in The Incredibles. Cast members kept coming up to me and making a big deal about being Edna. Outside of that mostly all the people dressed up like the Incredibles kept saying, "Oh my God you're Edna!" It was very funny. Type in Edna Mode in your search bar and you'll see her pictures.

 

[tig82174]

Fireworks... we didn't get fireworks. I'm stunned at how much bigger it is in Orlando. I guess we have a few years to catch up.

Edna Mode is the Wardrobe designer in The Incredibles. Cast members kept coming up to me and making a big deal about being Edna. Outside of that mostly all the people dressed up like the Incredibles kept saying, "Oh my God you're Edna!" It was very funny. Type in Edna Mode in your search bar and you'll see her pictures.

Got it! I just didn't know her name...sounds very cute. WEre there lots of creative costumes there? I have to say one thing Jason and I thought was that the crowd in the parks were not that original with their costumes...I'd say the night we went it was about 70% pirates!!!! (Some of the pirate costumes were very fancy, mind you, but not altogether original.) We're already trying to think up some creative and fun (Disney-themed, of course! ) costumes we can make for future parties.

 

[milestogo]

Yes, it was the year of the pirate here too. In fact, I was traveling with a pack of pirates (I was the only non pirate!) There were some fun ideas, 2 people dressed as the CDA (Monsters Inc.), Thing 1 and Thing 2. Since they are not allowed to wear masks and anything too scary it does limit the outfits a bit for the grown ups. It was mostly Disney costumes. I told everyone I was with about Padalyn's 3 blind mice picture - which was great.

 

[CACruisin']

Hello all. When last I checked in this cruise was not looking too good for us. DH had a work conflict. Last week though, he asked if I had cancelled yet (no!). He said there was a slight (very slight!) chance that he would not need to attend his conference after all. : it is a slim hope, but I'll take it!!

On other topics, I thought I read some where that DCL was offering prepaid gratuities for the repo cruises? Has anyone else heard/read this?

Milestogo: Were the halloween decorations at DL neat? I'm trying to figure out when we can go see them. Darn school schedule thing keeps getting in the way though!

Hope everyone is having a great week!

 

[milestogo]

There were more decorations at DL than at CA (surprisingly) mostly at the entrance. I was expecting more like Christmas, but I think it's going to take a while to get that elaborate. Do let us know if you can get up here before it all changes, we'd love to see you again. And don't let your ressies go until you have to.

Did all the Californians see that Wicked is coming back?

 

[tig82174]

Hello all. When last I checked in this cruise was not looking too good for us. DH had a work conflict. Last week though, he asked if I had cancelled yet (no!). He said there was a slight (very slight!) chance that he would not need to attend his conference after all. : it is a slim hope, but I'll take it!!

On other topics, I thought I read some where that DCL was offering prepaid gratuities for the repo cruises? Has anyone else heard/read this?

Milestogo: Were the halloween decorations at DL neat? I'm trying to figure out when we can go see them. Darn school schedule thing keeps getting in the way though!

Hope everyone is having a great week!

I haven't seen anything about prepaid gratuities....what would the benefit of that be over, say, just charging the gratuities to your onboard account when you disembark? And if you prepaid and then you got exceptional (or substandard) service and you wanted to augment (or lower) your gratuity amount....how would that work? Have they done something like that in the past? In fact...do we even know what the suggested gratuities for such a lengthy cruise will be? We've never been on longer than a 4 day...so I guess we hadn't really even thought about gratuities! (Thanks for bringing it up!)

I saw pictures online of the decorations at Halloween in CA...and I have to say they look amazing....maybe it's because we were there at the BEGINNING of the halloween celebrations in Orlando (in mid September) but I don't remember the decorations being nearly as elaborate or fun. I'm SOOO jealous about the retheming of the Haunted Mansion in CA with Jack Skellington and a Halloween-Christmas theme....they didn't do anything that snazzy in Orlando when we were there.

 

[DCL Repeaters]

Hello all. When last I checked in this cruise was not looking too good for us. DH had a work conflict. Last week though, he asked if I had cancelled yet (no!). He said there was a slight (very slight!) chance that he would not need to attend his conference after all. : it is a slim hope, but I'll take it!!

On other topics, I thought I read some where that DCL was offering prepaid gratuities for the repo cruises? Has anyone else heard/read this?

Milestogo: Were the halloween decorations at DL neat? I'm trying to figure out when we can go see them. Darn school schedule thing keeps getting in the way though!

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Hi all, My DH and I are booked for the 5/12 repo although not 100% sure we're going. We were on the Magic last week and thanks to these boards I re-booked the cruise and was given 10% off, $250 on board credit AND pre-paid gratuties by DCL. I did not see the pre-paid gratuties advertised in any liturature on DCL, but when I asked about it it was indeed given to us. These incentives are being given to those who book on board only. I do not believe if you transferred a reservation to either repo that you are grandfathered the gratutity bonus. Transferred ressies were given 10% off and $250 only. Gratuties for the 14 day Panama cruise last year were $152.50 per person. Hope this helps!!

 

[tig82174]

Hi all, My DH and I are booked for the 5/12 repo although not 100% sure we're going. We were on the Magic last week and thanks to these boards I re-booked the cruise and was given 10% off, $250 on board credit AND pre-paid gratuties by DCL. I did not see the pre-paid gratuties advertised in any liturature on DCL, but when I asked about it it was indeed given to us. These incentives are being given to those who book on board only. I do not believe if you transferred a reservation to either repo that you are grandfathered the gratutity bonus. Transferred ressies were given 10% off and $250 only. Gratuties for the 14 day Panama cruise last year were $152.50 per person. Hope this helps!!

Interesting...sounds like you got a sweet package. So what exactly does "prepaid gratuities" entail?

And if you haven't been officially welcomed "aboard"...then WELCOME!

 

[DCL Repeaters]

Interesting...sounds like you got a sweet package. So what exactly does "prepaid gratuities" entail?

And if you haven't been officially welcomed "aboard"...then WELCOME!

Thank you for your kindness! We hope we can go.....

Prepaid gratuities are the usual gratuities to your head server, server, ***'t server and stateroom host. DCL will be paying the minimum of $152.50 per person. Not sure how this all will be handled once on board.

 

[tig82174]

Thank you for your kindness! We hope we can go.....

Prepaid gratuities are the usual gratuities to your head server, server, ***'t server and stateroom host. DCL will be paying the minimum of $152.50 per person. Not sure how this all will be handled once on board.

So DCL is basically paying the gratuity for you? And you're not responsible for that expense? Wow....that definitely sounds like a deal! If that's seriously the deal....for a cabin with 2 people that's a savings of over $300....which frees up money for a nice couples cabana massage and a hefty tip to the masseuse!! hehehe

 

[milestogo]

Welcome DCL Repeaters Hope you do indeed make it onboard.

Erik, I'll ask DH what the gratuties were on our last cruise (7day) I know it was a lot!) Prepaid, never heard of that - very interesting.

We are going to bring other goodies this time for the crew... like videos/movies and I heard chocolate was something that they were always looking for as gifts. Any other ideas anyone?