May 13.2006 Eastern

[DrCavin]

Arriving that late I would get something near MCO.
Your right, you can check in everyone while he is returning the rental. He will have to have a photo-id to get back into the terminal. Then you can take him back to the CM that checked you in, don't have to wait in the line again just wait near for the CM to finish up who they are checking in currently, then they will give him his KTTW card. I have heard that some CM's will just give you your husbands KTTW card, but that doesn't normally happen.

 

[cass'mom]

Hi Everyone!

I've been lurking and reading and wasn't sure if I should post as we haven't really booked yet! I've been frantically getting quotes for the May 13 sailing! Anyway, I decided to post cuz I'm just so darned excited. We went on a 3 night DCL Wonder back in August of 2002 and I have been dying to go back ever since!! It's me, my DH, my DD (who will be 6) and my other DD who will turn 3 on May 19. When we went last time, my 1st DD was turning 3 the following week after we sailed so we got to celebrate her birthday on board! So it's only fair my other DD get to do the same right?

Also, like pooh we are celebrating our wedding anniversary on May 18th!! It will be 10 years. I always said I wanted to do something really special for my 10th. What can be more special than DCL?

This whole trip started out as a 7 day to WDW. I've never been there. So is it weird for me to be cruising without ever having gone to WDW? Anyway, the whole thing got changed when my cousins and aunt wanted to go but they had been to WDW so I thought, hey let's do the Magic!!!

Okay now that you know I am nuts, I just wanted to say thanks for all the wonderful tips you've all offered and I hope to book this thing this week! Although it seems all the Cat 10's are almost gone as I will have to book it GTY. Is that bad to book GTY? I can't get worse than a Cat 10 right?

Thanks guys!

Darvina

 

[DrCavin]

Welcome CassMom or should I say neighbor??? We are also from Ohio, about an hour from C-Town...

Nothing bad about booking a GTY, it just does not allow you to pick which room you want. You are guaranteed a room in the category you booked. Check with all the popular TA's if you havent already, they may be able to let you pick your room & save you some money

 

[Piglet_Pooh99]

We will also be celebrating our anniversary on May 18th. I just don't know whether to go go Palo's for our anniversary or on monthers day. big decision. or one of those nights we could just have a romantic room in our room and have dinner brought to us. I have been told that since we are in a suite that for dinner room service you can order what they are serving in the dining room!

 

[cass'mom]

Well, we are booked. I'm so excited!!

DrCavin, thanks for the info! We ended up booking a Cat 9 through DU. I was just so scared to book GTY and end up in noisy room. I never even noticed you live so close! We live 25 minutes east of Cleveland in the burbs. We've passed through Massillon a number of times!

Piglet_Pooh...Ooh, I like the dinner in the suite idea! Nice and quiet!

So where do you guys stay the night before? How do you get good rates? I was thinking of trying Priceline and just staying near MCO like we did last time?

 

[SQUIGGLE]

Welcome to the group cass'mom. Glad to see we are getting more DISers for our cruise.
Right now we plan on staying at the Raddison. We've stayed there before and it has worked out well. Anyone else thinking of staying there Friday night?
Piglet_Pooh - dinner in your suite sounds nice and romantic.
Everyone have anice weekend.
fran

 

[DeeCeeSW]

Hi Fran!
We were thinking about the Radisson if we end up driving to CB (we may stay by MCO if we get in too late). What kind of rate are you getting?

 

[DrCavin]

Last time we stayed at the Holiday Inn in Cocoa, NOT Cocoa Beach. It had just opened & was really nice. Great pool for the kids & was like $60 a night. It is about 20 minutes from the terminal. The Radison wanted about $120 a night & it was booked up over a year out.

Ron Jon had just opened as well, but we already had HI booked. Some fellow Disers stayed at RJ & they said the pool was really awesome. We have not decided where we are going to stay this time. www.dcltribute.com has some great info on most of the areas hotels.

Hope everyone had a great weekend...

 

[SQUIGGLE]

Haven't booked yet; didn't think May would be too crowded. But after reading Dr Cavin's post think I will check it out as soon as I'm done here.
Only 305 days to go. I know I'm ready right now!
fran

 

[DeeCeeSW]

Thanks, DrCavin! As I mentioned earlier, we will probably arrive at MCO late in the evening, but we are now considering going down on Thursday night instead of Friday, giving us a full day and night at the beach prior to the cruise. I am trying to use my miles to get DS a free ticket but flights are (already) limited. The way it looks now, there is a flight going down, but nothing returning!

I have Hilton points that could be used for the Doubletree Cocoa Beach but I am not seeing/reading much about the hotel. Everyone mentions the Radisson and Ron Jon, but it seems that we do not have $$$ in the budget for either place. I think I have seen the HI Cocoa come up on PL.

 

[DrCavin]

I read some reports a while back that the Radisson was not getting good reviews by Disers... I think it came down to which part of the hotel they put you in. I have not seen any bad recent reviews, but then I have not read many reviews on it at all. Seems like if someone asks how is XYZ, you will get a ton of posts... If I was going to spend $100+, I would definitly look at RJ's as my #1 choice...

 

[cass'mom]

Is staying near the Port better? So do you rent a car from MCO then? I'm so confused about what to do. We have 7 travelling so we'd need a minivan. Is it easy to get to the Port from MCO? Last time we just used ******** and had them drive us all from the Amerisuites (I got a $49 rate and it was decent) near MCO. What's more cost effective? I don't think we can afford the Radisson. Help me guys!

 

[DrCavin]

I wouldnt say one is better than the other. It is about an hour drive from MCO to the port. Can you can get 7 people & the luggage in a van?? The luggage is usually the killer!!

You have plenty of time to get a hotel, the Radisson was booked with some convention when we tried last year. I think there are a lot more choices now as well.

 

[cass'mom]

Yea! We hit the 9 month 4 week mark!!

For those of you that fly down, how soon do you book your airfare? When we cruised in 2002 we planned the whole thing in a month so there wasn't this nerve-wracking waiting and I knew that everything had to be done immediately!

Hope everyone is well!

Darvina

 

[DrCavin]

Last time we booked about 6 months out. Airtran was had a special, so we figured it wasnt going to get any cheaper. I just tried looking on Airtrans website & it only goes to March '06... Are you flying out of Cleveland? Continental usually has some good deals...

 

[cass'mom]

DrCavin, Thanks for the heads up...we considered flying out of Akron if it was much cheaper but so far it looks like we'll go to Hopkins. My travelling party is very loyal to Continental so that's all I was focusing on. My friend is flying down to WDW in Dec on USA3000 and for her party of 4 is only paying $500! They don't have our dates yet but nearby dates run about $650 for a family of 4. I'm weird though and would rather spend more and be on Continental, maybe due to my fear of flying!

 

[huey duey & luey]

Just wanted to say . We are all booked, category 8. it will be myself, dh adn dd 4, ds4, and ds 4 and also my friend her dh and their dd 4. How did you finfd out what rooms you have already?

 

[DrCavin]

Just wanted to say . We are all booked, category 8. it will be myself, dh adn dd 4, ds4, and ds 4 and also my friend her dh and their dd 4. How did you finfd out what rooms you have already?

I hope you typed too many ds4's, because a cat 8 will not hold 5 We requested room 6550 when we booked. Had it last time we cruised & it worked out well.

Be sure to join our Yahoo group that we have setup...

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DisMay2006/

 

[cass'mom]

Hi huey luey & duey!
We got our room numbers, 2134 & 2136, when we booked. I hope they are okay. We purposely upgraded from Cat 10 to Cat 9 so we could know what rooms we had. I was afraid to book gty having 2 staterooms I didn't want us separated all over the ship.

 

[huey duey & luey]

I hope you typed too many ds4's, because a cat 8 will not hold 5 We requested room 6550 when we booked. Had it last time we cruised & it worked out well.

Be sure to join our Yahoo group that we have setup...

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DisMay2006/

no 3 is right. My dd will actually be staying in my friend's room ( it is her godmother0, and our 2 daughters will never separate anyway