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

[belle2011]

Beach - yes, Galveston is the closest to Houston. There is parking along the seawall. It's not the white sand and clear blue water you see in the Caribbean, but it is sand and ocean. You will think Castaway Cay is much prettier. (When we took my daughter in September she opted to skip the beach - six years old - which was a surprise because she love swimming.)

San Antonio - Riverwalk - we always love eating at Boudro's. You can dine along the river or indoors, lunch is less expensive, and they do take reservations. Reviews are here.

Sea World is smaller than Orlando but still good. It now has the new water park integrated.

Thank you,
We usually go to the beach near Nice and it's not sand more rocks so even if it's not white sand I think we are all going to enjoy it.
According to the reviews Boudro's seems really nice.

 

[NancyIL]

I hear you about taxes on FF miles -- that is why we did not cash in on our American miles to fly home. We ended up purchasing tickets for not much more out of pocket, or could have had ridiculous connections.

The taxes on my one-way flight home from Barcelona are $48 - but that's because all of my flights are on American Airlines-operated planes. I am flying Barcelona to JFK, and then 3 more flights within the US (hoping to make that 2 more!). The taxes would've been $100 more if I had chosen British Airways from Barcelona to London, with AA flights to the US from there, and even more if the London to Chicago flight had been on BA.

 

[MandyGirl]

The taxes on my one-way flight home from Barcelona are $48 - but that's because all of my flights are on American Airlines-operated planes. I am flying Barcelona to JFK, and then 3 more flights within the US (hoping to make that 2 more!). The taxes would've been $100 more if I had chosen British Airways from Barcelona to London, with AA flights to the US from there, and even more if the London to Chicago flight had been on BA.

That was our issue - BA codeshare flights and because we are not flying from home from Spain post-cruise. When we were originally looking to fly home from Venice, everything was a BA codeshare and weird connections using AA miles. Such as fly into one airport but have to change to another airport in the city for the connection (mainly London and New York connections, or weird hours). If just me and hubby, no big deal, but with two little ones and a mother-in-law, more than I wanted to deal with. One flight was $370 in taxes per person. (crazy!) We decided it was easier to just take the train from Venice to Milan, spend a couple days there, then fly home on tickets that were not too much more in cost - saving the miles for another cruise. Our other issue was that we tried booking flights within the week AA announced their schedule for our timeframe (we knew some flights are so limited and available frequent flyer seats go quickly). Since then, they have added more flights with AAdvantage seats, of course after we purchased our tickets. We saw more options if flying home from Madrid or Barcelona, and had no issues booking tickets to Barcelona for the WBTA, but ending up in Venice for this trip threw us a curveball with flights home on miles. Gosh darn it, Venice better be worth it

 

[binkytell]

I would also like a little more planning time - Can we decide how many each group will be split into? At least then I can decide how many groups to commit to as I am planning for one of my FE items to be per cabin.

Of course we can decide Sara.

How many cabins will we split the groups into for the Fish Extender?

How about 15, 20, 25???

Will go with majority of the people who respond to this

 

[MandyGirl]

Of course we can decide Sara.

How many cabins will we split the groups into for the Fish Extender?

How about 15, 20, 25???

Will go with majority of the people who respond to this

15 cabins... with the option to join more than one group for those who like to give to all? I know a pain in the rear to coordinate...

I think we had 15-20 cabins and no more than 40 passengers per FE group on WBTA, but I also know Pat messaged me more than once to vent

 

[MandyGirl]

Can y'all believe this thread is almost a year old? It's been almost a year since several of us booked on opening day?? Craziness!

 

[MandyGirl]

Thank you,
We usually go to the beach near Nice and it's not sand more rocks so even if it's not white sand I think we are all going to enjoy it.
According to the reviews Boudro's seems really nice.

Sand versus rocks

Yes - Boudro's is good. We reserve ahead, and if good weather sit along the riverwalk. Ducks swim by, the riverboats go by, and the waiter may bring you (or your kiddos) something to throw to the ducks to eat. Great for people watching, too! Plus the food is good.

 

[Tink1987]

Can y'all believe this thread is almost a year old? It's been almost a year since several of us booked on opening day?? Craziness!

I know - I cannot believe it's been almost a year since we booked!

 

[MandyGirl]

We saw more options if flying home from Madrid or Barcelona, and had no issues booking tickets to Barcelona for the WBTA, but ending up in Venice for this trip threw us a curveball with flights home on miles. Gosh darn it, Venice better be worth it

Curiosity (and avoiding a morning workout ) got to me, so I had to see what they had currently for AAdvantage miles.

Venice to come home around our dates:
VCE-LGW, overnight 12-hr layover, LGW-MCO, 3 hr layover, MCO-DFW
$287.50 per ticket because mainly on BA codeshare (only option available with 30k miles)

Milan has a decent flight a few days later on a carrier I've never flown, but it wasn't a carrier option when we booked. $61.30 taxes for 30k miles

And if we were flying home from BCN after the EBTA then there were more days with 30k choices, overnighting in Germany for $152.70

Still feel okay going the Iceland route, although more $$$ out of pocket but somewhere we have never been to do a stopover. Guess I have to like it - they were nonrefundable - but I have already told hubby about the rumblings of a possible 2014 WBTA and we have the miles in the bank

 

[kaseyC]

We are using United miles for all flights for this trip and even with taxes and fees the savings are substantial especially for a family of 5. We are using 387,500 miles plus $802 in cash for taxes and fees. For our family this is a major savings. This is our breakdown:

3 ORD to IAH - UA Econ-12,500 miles plus $2.50 pp
2 ORD to CPH - LH Business - 50,000 miles plus $35.70 pp
3 BCN to CPH - LH Econ - 12,500 miles plus $48.10 pp
5 CPH to CDG - SAS Econ -12,500 miles plus 27.50 pp
5 CDG to ORD - AC/UA Econ - 30,000 miles plus $88.40 pp

We don't have any funky outrageous connections. As a matter of fact, we have a couple non-stop flights and the others only connect once. I was also able to book so that me and my two youngest DDs will meet DH and DD17 when we all connect in Frankfurt on June 1st. We will all fly to Copenhagen on the same flight.

The good thing is we have a lot of flexibility. We can change or cancel these flights up until the day we fly for no fee with the miles redeposited into DH's account. So I can continue to stalk the website hoping they open up more Saver Awards for a non-stop flight home from Paris.

 

[Tink1987]

Curiosity (and avoiding a morning workout ) got to me, so I had to see what they had currently for AAdvantage miles.

Venice to come home around our dates:
VCE-LGW, overnight 12-hr layover, LGW-MCO, 3 hr layover, MCO-DFW
$287.50 per ticket because mainly on BA codeshare (only option available with 30k miles)

Milan has a decent flight a few days later on a carrier I've never flown, but it wasn't a carrier option when we booked. $61.30 taxes for 30k miles

And if we were flying home from BCN after the EBTA then there were more days with 30k choices, overnighting in Germany for $152.70

Still feel okay going the Iceland route, although more $$$ out of pocket but somewhere we have never been to do a stopover. Guess I have to like it - they were nonrefundable - but I have already told hubby about the rumblings of a possible 2014 WBTA and we have the miles in the bank

Rumblings of a 2014 WBTA? I am behind - tell me tell me

 

[binkytell]

Can y'all believe this thread is almost a year old? It's been almost a year since several of us booked on opening day?? Craziness!

No way!! We're only on thread 1 as well x

 

[MandyGirl]

We are using United miles for all flights for this trip and even with taxes and fees the savings are substantial especially for a family of 5. We are using 387,500 miles plus $802 in cash for taxes and fees. For our family this is a major savings. This is our breakdown:

3 ORD to IAH - UA Econ-12,500 miles plus $2.50 pp
2 ORD to CPH - LH Business - 50,000 miles plus $35.70 pp
3 BCN to CPH - LH Econ - 12,500 miles plus $48.10 pp
5 CPH to CDG - SAS Econ -12,500 miles plus 27.50 pp
5 CDG to ORD - AC/UA Econ - 30,000 miles plus $88.40 pp

We don't have any funky outrageous connections. As a matter of fact, we have a couple non-stop flights and the others only connect once. I was also able to book so that me and my two youngest DDs will meet DH and DD17 when we all connect in Frankfurt on June 1st. We will all fly to Copenhagen on the same flight.

The good thing is we have a lot of flexibility. We can change or cancel these flights up until the day we fly for no fee with the miles redeposited into DH's account. So I can continue to stalk the website hoping they open up more Saver Awards for a non-stop flight home from Paris.

Wow - those are AWESOME!! For the 2011 WBTA, we had no issues going DFW-JFK-BCN. Super easy, only one connect, all on American, and the fee per ticket was cheap. In fact, although our littlest one was only 15 months and could have been a lap child (save the 30k miles), we traded in the miles for her to have her own seat. Worked great so we could strap her carseat in and let her sleep on the overnight portion from JFK-BCN... except that she decided to sleep on ME that leg. I looked across the aisle and would see hubby and the 5 year old eating their meal, sleeping peacefully, etc. Figures. AA lets us watch flights as well to change as long as not changing the city-pair.

We have a trip to Costa Rica this spring and were able to a get nonstop flight going there, but no luck using miles coming back so we purchased tickets and have to connect in Florida for the return.

 

[MandyGirl]

No way!! We're only on thread 1 as well x

Yep. Barely over 4 months away from embarkation at that. Pretty sure we were on Part 4 on the WBTA. Was it Mary that was packing all the shoes on that one?

 

[MandyGirl]

Rumblings of a 2014 WBTA? I am behind - tell me tell me

Someone from our 2011 WBTA facebook group started researching ports and their port calendars for 2014 this past week. September is showing some ports that are in line with the crossing that has Disney on them. Speculation is the Wonder because she may be due for the next major dry dock but she did post that it said Disney Magic. Ports in May and September, with St Maarten showing up in September.

Of course we had seen the same for 2013 and it didn't happen... but there is possible home for WBTA 2014

 

[Tink1987]

Someone from our 2011 WBTA facebook group started researching ports and their port calendars for 2014 this past week. September is showing some ports that are in line with the crossing that has Disney on them. Speculation is the Wonder because she may be due for the next major dry dock but she did post that it said Disney Magic. Ports in May and September, with St Maarten showing up in September.

Of course we had seen the same for 2013 and it didn't happen... but there is possible home for WBTA 2014

Oooh interesting news!

Thanks for sharing

 

[margaretstahl]

We are also using my United miles to head back from Europe. I'm a million miler flyer on United.

We're flying Southwest from Denver the night before - cheapest option for us (it's actually more that what I paid for the trip back). I'm a little nervous about Southwest, but United's fares just aren't competive down there right now, which is odd since both Denver and Houston are hubs for them. I could have gone to Austin or San Antonio for about the same price, but then would have to rent a car, so that wasn't feasible either. We're taking the DCL transportation from Hobby on Saturday morning.

Chuck

I love flying Southwest Airlines. No bag fees. Southwest has never cancelled a flight I have been on. At times they have been extremely late due to weather along the route earlier during the day but they have always gotten me where I have wanted to go and got me back home. I would pay the extra $10 to get an early number so you will not have trouble getting seats together.

 

[NancyIL]

Someone from our 2011 WBTA facebook group started researching ports and their port calendars for 2014 this past week. September is showing some ports that are in line with the crossing that has Disney on them. Speculation is the Wonder because she may be due for the next major dry dock but she did post that it said Disney Magic. Ports in May and September, with St Maarten showing up in September.

Of course we had seen the same for 2013 and it didn't happen... but there is possible home for WBTA 2014

I posted on another thread why I think the Wonder will go to Alaska and the Magic will go to Europe in 2014 - just as they have done in the past: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=47162213&postcount=1508 The Wonder can go through an extensive dry dock on the west coast, just as ships on other cruise lines have done.

 

[binkytell]

Curiosity (and avoiding a morning workout ) got to me, so I had to see what they had currently for AAdvantage miles.

Venice to come home around our dates:
VCE-LGW, overnight 12-hr layover, LGW-MCO, 3 hr layover, MCO-DFW
$287.50 per ticket because mainly on BA codeshare (only option available with 30k miles)

Milan has a decent flight a few days later on a carrier I've never flown, but it wasn't a carrier option when we booked. $61.30 taxes for 30k miles

And if we were flying home from BCN after the EBTA then there were more days with 30k choices, overnighting in Germany for $152.70

Still feel okay going the Iceland route, although more $$$ out of pocket but somewhere we have never been to do a stopover. Guess I have to like it - they were nonrefundable - but I have already told hubby about the rumblings of a possible 2014 WBTA and we have the miles in the bank

VIA SCOTLAND

 

[MandyGirl]

I posted on another thread why I think the Wonder will go to Alaska and the Magic will go to Europe in 2014 - just as they have done in the past: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=47162213&postcount=1508 The Wonder can go through an extensive dry dock on the west coast, just as ships on other cruise lines have done.

The port calendars she found did show the Magic. Someone on that FB thread had asked about the Wonder, but what you have said makes sense. Either way, a Disney ship doing a possible WBTA...