May 18, 2013 MAGIC EBTA - Who is with us?

[claudia_oh]

For those that have already done this cruise before, what is the earliest time that we should book a return flight home?

 

[kaseyC]

Does anyone have information on hotels in Galveston? We are planning to fly in the day before we depart. I would also be interested airport hotels in Houston because we may fly in the night before, stay near the airport and use DCL transportation in the morning.

 

[janey2000]

Hi there,

We've now confirmed and booked ready to go.

A big to fluffy bunny for pointing me in the right direction for booking. $200 OBC sorted which is a bonus.

We are Paul 35, wife Helen 40ish and daughter Grace who will be 4 when we sail.

This is our 2nd cruise and our 2nd transatlantic with Disney.

Looking forward to meeting you all.

Paul

Hi Tubbsteruk

Hope you don't mind me asking but who did you book through? We are planning on taking this cruise (time booked off work) but don't want to book it until January time unless a really good price comes up (I remember Jan 2011 the price of this cruise for the May 2011 was about £800 cheaper for us than it is now). Have you thought about flights, the prices seem more than the cruise?!

We are also from the UK, second Disney cruise and have a daughter who will be 4 at time of the cruise!


Thanks

Jane

 

[MandyGirl]

I called one Galveston hotel on rates, and was told they would not have rates for May out until at least August - so definitely don't stress over Galveston hotels yet. There are several hotels around both Hobby and IAH depending on which airport you fly into.

Galveston is one of those places you can see in a day. We've done day trips there, but I think only once in my 37 years have we spent the night there. If you are accustomed to the beaches of the Caribbean, you will be disappointed with Galveston beaches. The attractions there are nice (Moody Gardens, water park) and the Strand is neat to walk through, but it's not a top destination IMHO. I could almost relate it to cruising out of Port Canaveral - everyone flies into Orlando, but very few actually stay in the port area. Galveston does have nicer amenities in the port area as far as hotels and some attractions, but as a lifelong Texan, it's just not a big destination for us personally. In fact, we have yet to take our two kiddos there. This will most likely be their first trip there unless we take a weekend trip down there.

 

[kaseyC]

I called one Galveston hotel on rates, and was told they would not have rates for May out until at least August - so definitely don't stress over Galveston hotels yet. There are several hotels around both Hobby and IAH depending on which airport you fly into.

Galveston is one of those places you can see in a day. We've done day trips there, but I think only once in my 37 years have we spent the night there. If you are accustomed to the beaches of the Caribbean, you will be disappointed with Galveston beaches. The attractions there are nice (Moody Gardens, water park) and the Strand is neat to walk through, but it's not a top destination IMHO. I could almost relate it to cruising out of Port Canaveral - everyone flies into Orlando, but very few actually stay in the port area. Galveston does have nicer amenities in the port area as far as hotels and some attractions, but as a lifelong Texan, it's just not a big destination for us personally. In fact, we have yet to take our two kiddos there. This will most likely be their first trip there unless we take a weekend trip down there.

Thanks, definitely not stressing just kind of wondering. We have a large number of non stop early morning flights out of Chicago to Houston so I'm really leaning towards flying in the morning of the cruise and taking DCL transportation to the port. The girls will then miss one day less of school.

Hope everyone has an enjoyable Memorial Day weekend.

 

[Tubbsteruk]

Hi Jane

We booked through dreams unlimited and they quoted the same price (in $'s) as Disney but gave $200 OBC and no credit card booking fee like we get charged in the UK.

For flights we are looking at using avios (airmiles) for one way business class into Houston or Dallas. If you collect Tesco clubcard points and convert them it adds up quite quickly. We had the same issue with one way airfares last year for the WBTA and ended up booking the cruise through virgin just for ease of use of a flight home from Orlando.

From speaking with people on the cruise Icelandic air are quite good for one way flights but I'm not sure if they fly into Texas.

Hope this helps and you can join us

Paul

Hi Tubbsteruk

Hope you don't mind me asking but who did you book through? We are planning on taking this cruise (time booked off work) but don't want to book it until January time unless a really good price comes up (I remember Jan 2011 the price of this cruise for the May 2011 was about £800 cheaper for us than it is now). Have you thought about flights, the prices seem more than the cruise?!

We are also from the UK, second Disney cruise and have a daughter who will be 4 at time of the cruise!


Thanks

Jane

 

[speicher46]

My family and our good friends will be on this cruise. We did the EBTA in May of 2011 and it was absolutely the best vacation of our lives. We are sold on transatlantic crossings and cannot wait to do it again. We had a celebration when the countdown got under one year! There will be seven of us in total and I am sure it will be an awesome time!

 

[bobbiwoz]

There's a Texas memorial in Galveston. I enjoy historic sites like that, but we are still planning to stay in Houston & taking Disney's shuttle because of the lack of one way car rentals. If that changes, we will spend the night in Galveston.

 

[wickesy]

I just booked our flight 'across the pond' for the cruise. It cost us £223 to top up our miles and £911.38 plus 37,500 miles for the flight - so for the two of us to fly premium economy with British Airways it only cost us £1,138. We were expecting to pay at least that much EACH so we're very happy. It's looking like flights home from Barcelona with BA are going to be around £50 each so, all in all, not bad at all.

 

[kaseyC]

I just booked our flight 'across the pond' for the cruise. It cost us £223 to top up our miles and £911.38 plus 37,500 miles for the flight - so for the two of us to fly premium economy with British Airways it only cost us £1,138. We were expecting to pay at least that much EACH so we're very happy. It's looking like flights home from Barcelona with BA are going to be around £50 each so, all in all, not bad at all.

That's a great deal, especially for premium economy. We will be using miles for our international flights too.

 

[Dizneycrazee]

I just booked our flight 'across the pond' for the cruise. It cost us £223 to top up our miles and £911.38 plus 37,500 miles for the flight - so for the two of us to fly premium economy with British Airways it only cost us £1,138. We were expecting to pay at least that much EACH so we're very happy. It's looking like flights home from Barcelona with BA are going to be around £50 each so, all in all, not bad at all.

Great Price for PE.

Im looking at aer lingus from dublin, their business class is supposed to be superb, but with a 7yr old in tow, dont think it will be worth it !!


We have decided we are going to get married in Ireland a couple of days before this cruise so this is now gonna be our "honeymoon"

Weve been together 12+ yrs and like I say have a 7yr old in tow so I guess there wont be much shenanighans going on...

Bren

 

[wickesy]

Weve been together 12+ yrs and like I say have a 7yr old in tow so I guess there wont be much shenanighans going on...

That's why Disney invented kids clubs.

Congratulations and hope you have a great wedding day.

 

[Maza]

I designed them and organized the ordering from a company I found. They shipped them to me and I mailed them out to those who had ordered and pre-paid via PayPal. There was a learning curve with the process but overall it went well. If there is any interest, I might be able to come up with something for our cruise.

The October Hawaii cruise has asked about doing shirts. I gave them the design and info on ordering but because I am not on that cruise I'm not taking that task on for them. I gave the file and info to someone on the cruise who agreed to organize it for them.

I loved your shirts. I would be up for anything you might come up with

I just booked our flight 'across the pond' for the cruise. It cost us £223 to top up our miles and £911.38 plus 37,500 miles for the flight - so for the two of us to fly premium economy with British Airways it only cost us £1,138. We were expecting to pay at least that much EACH so we're very happy. It's looking like flights home from Barcelona with BA are going to be around £50 each so, all in all, not bad at all.

Seriously? Who did you book with this late out...coz I ave tried via TAs and direct with airlines...and no once will let me book anything yet...need to wait another 26 days or so.

Great Price for PE.

Im looking at aer lingus from dublin, their business class is supposed to be superb, but with a 7yr old in tow, dont think it will be worth it !!


We have decided we are going to get married in Ireland a couple of days before this cruise so this is now gonna be our "honeymoon"

Weve been together 12+ yrs and like I say have a 7yr old in tow so I guess there wont be much shenanighans going on...

Bren

Congratulations....lol
We are also most probably going to fly with Aer Lingus. We will be in Ireland a couple of days before departure....can't remember why, but we defiantly have a reason...so TA out of Dublin will be grand.

 

[wickesy]

Seriously? Who did you book with this late out...coz I ave tried via TAs and direct with airlines...and no once will let me book anything yet...need to wait another 26 days or so.

I booked direct with British Airways. Flights were released on Friday I think but I couldn't book with miles until last night.

 

[Tink1987]

Are you flying into Houston Wickesy? We were thinking of flying out a couple of days early to spend some time there....

 

[valbob89]

I loved your shirts. I would be up for anything you might come up with

Everyone seemed to really enjoy the shirts on our Hawaii cruise. I've been thinking about what kind of designs we might have on a group shirt and magnets for this cruise. When I come up with something I'll run it by the boards and see if there is any interest.

I took down the link to the website I was working on, which was going to include our rollcall, when someone with a lot more web development experience offerred to take it over. But I haven't heard anymore about it. Perhaps I'll use my web to post possible graphics we can use.

Val & Bob

 

[wickesy]

Are you flying into Houston Wickesy? We were thinking of flying out a couple of days early to spend some time there....

Yes we are but only the day before the cruise. We'll probably go straight down to Galveston and stay there overnight but I haven't decided how we're going to get there yet.

 

[spark21]

We just booked to do this cruise while on the Wonder in Alaska - from the people I spoke to on that cruise quite a few people will be doing this one

 

[Dizneycrazee]

Everyone seemed to really enjoy the shirts on our Hawaii cruise. I've been thinking about what kind of designs we might have on a group shirt and magnets for this cruise. When I come up with something I'll run it by the boards and see if there is any interest.

I took down the link to the website I was working on, which was going to include our rollcall, when someone with a lot more web development experience offerred to take it over. But I haven't heard anymore about it. Perhaps I'll use my web to post possible graphics we can use.

Val & Bob

Would go along with anything you come up with shirt/magnet wise ect.

How about a FB page if its easier to arrange? Sorry Im a bit computer illiterate so cant help with the web stuff

Bren

 

[Dizneycrazee]

Are you flying into Houston Wickesy? We were thinking of flying out a couple of days early to spend some time there....

We are flying into Houston, hopefully on the Wednesday. Hoping there will be some things to keep our dd(7) occupied, there has to be a zoo of some kind Im sure.

Yes we are but only the day before the cruise. We'll probably go straight down to Galveston and stay there overnight but I haven't decided how we're going to get there yet.

I think we may be hiring a car and driving down from houston on the Saturday morning . Must have a look to see whats in Galveston.

Bren