May 30, 2009 - Western Cruise Magic

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Bruce - those look great, hard for me to decide which one I like the best. I think my favorite is the one with the ship and the castle.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Bruce, those are great! Hard to choose though. I guess I like the bigger ones that are clearer to read like the ones with the DCL logo on them?

 

[2BoysMom]

BTW, Brucechase, thanks for the tip on the Infinite Dress - VERY COOL!! Will have to check into it!! It may be a great way to find the board members...just look for the women wearing an Infinite Dress!!!

We'll dress up. But I may also be one of the Disboard Dames to wear an Infinite dress! I'll be one of the ones to look for.

 

[2BoysMom]

WOW....that's alot of Cat. 12's....I just hope since we have 2 booked that we don't end up too far away from each other. It might not bother my older kids but my 20 month old will be asking where's "dada"...my dh gets his own cabin to sleep in as he keeps everyone else up w/his snoring. Not sure how we'll do it the 2 nights before the cruise...I've yet to find a place cheap enough to allow me to afford booking 2 rooms

OK. Have you found a place yet? This past March 7-9, we stayed at a 2bedroom at Caribe Royale. VERY close to WDW. Full kitchen and living area. SUPER nice. The rates on the website look high, but go to Mousesavers.com first. We got a huge discount with their discount code. There is also a 1 bedroom which is cheaper, but w/ your husband, you might need the 2 rooms. One of the rooms had a King size bed, the other room had 2 Queens.

If you get the one bedroom, it is separate from the living area. Maybe your husband could sleep on the pull out couch and you and the kids can close the door to the bedroom. Would that be far enough away? My brother is also a snorer... so I have experience in this area...

Just an idea I thought I would throw out there for you.

 

[2BoysMom]

Loveysbydesign-
Whoops, never mind. I see, I think on pg 27, that you are staying on site in AKV. What a coup! You are going to be spoiled for any future trips!

Free DVC for babysitting. I think you got a great deal. Congrats.

[See guys, I'm still trying to get through all of the 38 pages....]

 

[brucechase]

Still Cat4-Cat11 open with at least 8 rooms in each cat to choose from. There are more than 8 since I typed in some numbers and they were available also. I wonder why they haven't opened the Cat12 back yet?

 

[homespun]

Let's see if any of these look good to anyone? I didn't do them in the best resolution.

Bruce - Those look great. My favorites are #3 and #4 I love the cartoon look with the black border in all caps. Great job, you're so creative!

Karen

 

[homespun]

OK. Have you found a place yet? This past March 7-9, we stayed at a 2bedroom at Caribe Royale. VERY close to WDW. Full kitchen and living area. SUPER nice. The rates on the website look high, but go to Mousesavers.com first. We got a huge discount with their discount code. There is also a 1 bedroom which is cheaper, but w/ your husband, you might need the 2 rooms. One of the rooms had a King size bed, the other room had 2 Queens.

If you get the one bedroom, it is separate from the living area. Maybe your husband could sleep on the pull out couch and you and the kids can close the door to the bedroom. Would that be far enough away? My brother is also a snorer... so I have experience in this area...

Just an idea I thought I would throw out there for you.

We booked the Caribe Royale for 3 nights after our cruise. Did you like it there. I've heard mixed reviews so any input you have would be appreciated.

 

[kcashner]

Still Cat4-Cat11 open with at least 8 rooms in each cat to choose from. There are more than 8 since I typed in some numbers and they were available also. I wonder why they haven't opened the Cat12 back yet?

The problem with this logic is that it doesn't really tell you how many unbooked cabins are on the ship...only that there are that many unassigned cabins. A lot of us here are holding unassigned cabins. When they start plugging us into the spaces, some of these cabins could disappear.

What I'm doing a very poor job of explaining is that they may sell 50 cat 12s, fully knowing that they only have 13 on board and all of those may not be available for guests. So they know they'll be upgrading at least 37 of those cabins. They may continue to list a cat 8 as available for booking, but if it doesn't sell, some of those 37 cat 12s may find themselves in cat 8s. The current FL resident rates are actually higher than what we paid for our cat 12--maybe they're trying to sell some rooms at higher prices before opening more cat 12 deals. Ah well....we'll all know soon enough.....

 

[brucechase]

What I'm doing a very poor job of explaining is that they may sell 50 cat 12s, fully knowing that they only have 13 on board and all of those may not be available for guests. So they know they'll be upgrading at least 37 of those cabins. They may continue to list a cat 8 as available for booking, but if it doesn't sell, some of those 37 cat 12s may find themselves in cat 8s. The current FL resident rates are actually higher than what we paid for our cat 12--maybe they're trying to sell some rooms at higher prices before opening more cat 12 deals. Ah well....we'll all know soon enough.....

OK, I understand, but I thought that once you actually picked a cabin number, then it got taken off the list. That is what I've seen in the past. I didn't think that they sold many of the categories above 10 as GTY. I always thought they assigned you a number right then. At that point, I would have expected to disappear off the list. I do wonder why they only show 8 cabins in each category instead of all that is available to pick? I fully expect that the majority of us here will be upgraded since so many of the 12s have sold. Last time I was upgraded to a 9 and was jumping for joy. This time, I know I will get an 11 (there are 4 of us) at least, but secretly I am hoping for a 9 or higher again. No matter what, for around $80/person/day, I am just happy to sail again.

 

[kcashner]

You are right that after someone has chosen a cabin number, it is gone from the list.

The thing is that they have 13 cat 12s and 100+ cat 11s. It is totally possible that they've sold 200 cat 11s and 12s fully knowing that they don't have that many. But they haven't sold nearly as many cat 6s as they have....so they will be doing the great person/cabin shuffle.

It really doesn't matter because there is no way that I know of to find out how many cabins are remaining at this point. There are ways you can get a good idea after they do the cabin assignments of the gtys. I'd love to be upgraded, but the FL res rates are actually quite a bit higher than what we've paid (or maybe I'm just seeing sticker shock since I have more people than usual this time)...I haven't seen rates this good for many years! For now, I'm just hanging in with my cat 12 and hoping for pixie dust.

 

[brucechase]

I'd love to be upgraded, but the FL res rates are actually quite a bit higher than what we've paid (or maybe I'm just seeing sticker shock since I have more people than usual this time)...I haven't seen rates this good for many years! For now, I'm just hanging in with my cat 12 and hoping for pixie dust.

What is the FL resident rate? I'm not sure where you find that at - even though I am not FL resident, I am still curious. Also, if I can be really nosy, what kind of rate did you get for the 12s? I thought I did great at $2400 for 4 of us, but I am always trying to learn what the best deal is ( so I can snag it next time .

 

[kcashner]

What is the FL resident rate? I'm not sure where you find that at - even though I am not FL resident, I am still curious. Also, if I can be really nosy, what kind of rate did you get for the 12s? I thought I did great at $2400 for 4 of us, but I am always trying to learn what the best deal is ( so I can snag it next time .

Hi Bruce:
Our rate in a cat 12 was $1900 for 3 with everyone over 12 years old. Actually it was something stupid like $1887. With the insurance it came to $1950 something (private insurance thru TA). Sounds like essentially the same deal you got.

The FL res rate is $1907 for 3 in a cat 11 + $100 if the 3rd or 4th person is over 12. I don't remember the other rates...just that it would cost me a small fortune to upgrade (like $800 for a cat 7)

 

[homespun]

Hi Bruce:
Our rate in a cat 12 was $1900 for 3 with everyone over 12 years old. Actually it was something stupid like $1887. With the insurance it came to $1950 something (private insurance thru TA). Sounds like essentially the same deal you got.

The FL res rate is $1907 for 3 in a cat 11 + $100 if the 3rd or 4th person is over 12. I don't remember the other rates...just that it would cost me a small fortune to upgrade (like $800 for a cat 7)

That's a great rate. Would you mind sharing the name of your Travel Agent. Seems like you got a great deal and the insurance was a deal too. Definitely something I need to keep in mind for our next trip -- hopefully 2011 on one of the new ships. Is you want to PM rather than share it here, that's fine too. Did you also get an on board credit with that great rate too? I'm guessing not, but I could be wrong.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Our cat 12 gtys (which our TA got for us with lightning speed! they were out of cat 12's and the next morning he'd snagged us two!) were:
$1906 for 3 ppl (one is child age 8)
$1337 for 2 ppl
Our older two children are obviously considered adults in both rooms since the 1st 2 in each room are considered adults.

We get the DCL onboard credit since we transferred booking onboard dates to these- and the TA is also offering an OBC.

Pretty much very clearly the cheapest (by a long shot) that we've ever cruised with DCL before! Especially since we always have to have 2 rooms- but then again it's also a cat 12 gty which we've never booked before. Our first cruise we had the SPH connecting rooms and 2nd cruise we had cat 6 with cat 11 across the hall. We have cat 10's for the TA in 2010. So this is likely the only time we'll be in cat 12- unless another bargain pops up sometime? But we really don't plan on cruising again, except for the TA in 2010, before the new ships come out in 2011.

 

[loveysbydesign]

We paid 1337 and 1581 for our 2 Cat. 12's. One has 1 a, 1 kid age 10 and 1 kid age 2, other has 1 a and 1 kid age 6. Thank you to a fabulous TA that I can't speak of on here-lol! I'm hoping we may rebook onboard for Oct./Nov. 2010 and for 2011.

 

[kcashner]

I'm not permitted to name my TA on the boards. The boards are sponsored by another TA and they have exercised their right to eliminate certain names/words/etc. from the boards including names of other travel agencies. I am more than happy to share the name of my TA when we sail, or you can e-mail me privately at kcashner@hotmail.com, but we are required to honor the rules of the boards here. Yes, I did get an onboard credit from my TA as well as a Disney Visa credit.

 

[4Fore's]

So when should we start getting our cabin assignments?

Is it at 30 days out or will they start sooner?

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

We paid 1337 and 1581 for our 2 Cat. 12's. One has 1 a, 1 kid age 10 and 1 kid age 2, other has 1 a and 1 kid age 6. Thank you to a fabulous TA that I can't speak of on here-lol! I'm hoping we may rebook onboard for Oct./Nov. 2010 and for 2011.

wow- your 3ppl in room is way cheaper than ours! by about $350 or so? Oh wait- the child age 2 is practically free so that's probably the difference. LOL

I'm not permitted to name my TA on the boards. The boards are sponsored by another TA and they have exercised their right to eliminate certain names/words/etc. from the boards including names of other travel agencies. I am more than happy to share the name of my TA when we sail, or you can e-mail me privately at kcashner@hotmail.com, but we are required to honor the rules of the boards here. Yes, I did get an onboard credit from my TA as well as a Disney Visa credit.

Ditto.. can't share the name here of our awesome TA (wonder if it's the same as you Kcashner? LOL) but contact me off the threads and I'd be glad to tell anyone.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

So when should we start getting our cabin assignments?

Is it at 30 days out or will they start sooner?

I have zero experience with this personally- but from what I'm hearing and witnessing on the board- it appears around 30 days but as late as when getting to the port. I hope we get ours at 30 days! LOL