November 21, 2010 Wonder 3 day - FE Info Post #70

[aliron682]

Melissa! How cool that we will be cruising together again. (and congrats on your 1000th post
JayAlly, we are definitely interested in doing the FishExtender exchange. I am sure there will be more that will insure that your daughter gets to use her Fish Extender. Can't wait to see it.

 

[jayally]

SPH room 5520 is booked! (& paid in full) I saved $210 over a regular oceanview and got a higher deck.

 

[nettii]

Hi all I hope Im not jumping the gun or any thing but I think we will be on this cruise as well. We have never cruised before so we are very excited. We just have a few loose ends to wrap up before I can book. It will be me Nettii DH David our two DS Zac 15 and Tannner 9 and my parents. Hope to make this official soon!

 

[MelissaE1]

Good morning!

Jayally, definitely interested in doing the FE thing. Our last 3 day was the first time it worked out for us (with aliron682), we were kind of last minute and had a small group, but it turned out great. It was so much fun that I hope I always get to do it on future cruises! BTW, congrats on the SPH room. Did you just now get it? They were all booked when I made my reservation. Seriously toying with the idea of upgrading from an 11 to a 9 since I will probably be spending more time in our room relaxing/reading while the two girls do their thing. I like to look out the window/porthole from the couch.

Nettii, hope everything works out and you are able to join us.

 

[jayally]

Good morning!

Jayally, definitely interested in doing the FE thing. Our last 3 day was the first time it worked out for us (with aliron682), we were kind of last minute and had a small group, but it turned out great. It was so much fun that I hope I always get to do it on future cruises! BTW, congrats on the SPH room. Did you just now get it? They were all booked when I made my reservation. Seriously toying with the idea of upgrading from an 11 to a 9 since I will probably be spending more time in our room relaxing/reading while the two girls do their thing. I like to look out the window/porthole from the couch.

Nettii, hope everything works out and you are able to join us.

I contacted some TA's to get the best OBC deal and instant impressions (who I used in the past) came back with at Cat 9 for $1611 or SPH for $1401. SHe had 1 on hold and I knew I should snag it . I tried a few times to get it on my own but they never came up. Now I know why but works out good for me.
They offered a $65 OBC which is pretty good considering I am also saving $210!

I would not do another inside cabin. I know you don't spend too much time inside but I felt claustraphobic and didn't like not having any natural light or seeing what the weather looks like. The cabin at night was pitch black. We had a veranda on the last trip and probably spent less than a couple of hours the entire 4 days on it. If it was free I would love it again but not for a few hunderd more dollars. Every penny I save on one thing goes to make something else even better.

 

[nettii]

Jayally thats a great price! Do you guys recomend going through a TA and if so do you recomend one. If you cant say on the board could you pm me. Thanks
and Mellissa I hope to join you too!

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

Jayally thats a great price! Do you guys recomend going through a TA and if so do you recomend one. If you cant say on the board could you pm me. Thanks
and Mellissa I hope to join you too!

I always use Dreams Unlimited. On our first DCL cruise I got quotes from them and another disney specialty TA. DU came in a LOT less plus I got really good OBC. Now I rebook onboard, and transfer to DU for the OBC. I have had awesome service from my TA, Tracy. DU *mostly* will communicate with you via email, which is fine with me. Since I am on the West Coast, it's a pain to deal with a TA in another time zone. I used VacationsToGo for a cruise on Princess and that was a pain. Tracy always gets back to me in less than 24 hours, often very quickly. Other people prefer a TA with regular office phone hours.

 

[jayally]

Jayally thats a great price! Do you guys recomend going through a TA and if so do you recomend one. If you cant say on the board could you pm me. Thanks
and Mellissa I hope to join you too!

That is the same price as what you would get online with Disney. The SPH room is what got me a better deal and I can live with a slight obstruction. I have used Sandy at instant impressions - Distrips@aol.com for our last 2 trips, you can let her know Michelle in CA recommended her on the dis boards! The OBC is $65 plus another $50 is you have a disney visa and she gave the kids a nice little gift of trading pins and some other things that were waiting for us in the room last time. The TA's prefer you book with them first instead of transferring the reservation as Disney does not give them as good of a commission for transfers anymore. I got quotes from 4 TA's and hers was the best (SPH room) plus I used her before and it was very smooth. She called me on Friday and we talked for awhile and then I gave her the CC to book it.

I prefer to be in control but for some extra OBC I can give up a little bit of it.

 

[MelissaE1]

Queen of justification checking in, lol. After thinking about it, I decided I should upgrade to a cat 9... natural light, DD's friend's first cruise, split bathroom, blah, blah, blah. Seriously, I am the queen. Luckily DH is a balcony guy, so he just said do it and we'll figure out where to come up with the extra. Gotta love that. Because of the onboard booking discount it came to $1,473 for the 3 of us, which isn't too terrible. (If it is, don't tell me) We got the same stateroom that my best friend and I had on our girls' cruise, a mid-ship on deck 2, which I really liked.

Think I am going to try to take a day before and go to the parks, we have passes this year and we can get the extra with the "Give a Day, Get a Day" program for DD's friend. Her mom is not a big Disney fan, so a freebie would be great. Plus I think it's a great opportunity to do some volunteering.

Hope everyone's weather is decent. We are not buried in the white stuff here on the Panhandle but it sure is cold! Brrrr!

 

[jayally]

Because of the onboard booking discount it came to $1,473 for the 3 of us, which isn't too terrible. (If it is, don't tell me) We got the same stateroom that my best friend and I had on our girls' cruise, a mid-ship on deck 2, which I really liked.

was that for a balcaony room or a Cat 9? That is a very good price. My Cat 10 SPH room was $1401 for 3 of us.

 

[MelissaE1]

was that for a balcaony room or a Cat 9? That is a very good price. My Cat 10 SPH room was $1401 for 3 of us.

Just a cat 9. I'm with you on the inside rooms... I had one booked once on my girls' cruise but upgraded to a cat 9 at the port and had to go retrieve my luggage from the cat 12... when I saw it, it depressed me because of the lack of window. I know people who love to cruise with an inside, wish I was one of them. The only reason I even booked an inside was because we had a $99 voucher cruise last fall and invited my DD's friend and her mom said no. She pretty much hates Disney and thinks they are just a mass commercial operation concerned with nothing but money. Anyway, I told the child (who is practically part of our family) that someday I would take her if her mom ever changed her mind. Well, she finally did. The kids are contributing $299 each, but I'm picking up the rest, so was trying to do it cheaply. As a family we always book with a balcony for DH, but since he's not going a cat 9 will be perfect. You could put me in anything with some sunlight and I'd be happy.

Glad you posted about your SPH - that's what got me talking to DH about the whole inside thing and subsequently changing my reservation. Thanks!

 

[MelissaE1]

Hope everyone had a nice long weekend and Valentine's Day. Our schools actually closed on Friday for a snow day here on the FL Panhandle, much to my kids' delight. It did snow just north of us (my DH and I got to drive through it while picking up our new TV) and the tiniest bit at my house, which is very near the beach and NEVER gets snow. But the fact that they shut the schools down must have amused all the northerners.

We had a nice weekend with a winning soccer game, a Mardi Gras parade, a great Valentine's dinner, and just general relaxing.

Have a good week everyone!

 

[aliron682]

We were closed on Friday too (no school for DD and now work for me!). We actually got 8-10 inches here in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. It started snowing early Thursday morning and didn't stop until early Friday morning. They did an early release on Thursday and no school on Friday which is good so that we only have to make up one day.
All that snow and cold made me wish I was on our cruise....though this weekend didn't sound so good. Hope there is not a freak snowstorm in November (unless it keeps us on the boat a day longer as opposed to cutting it short
I guess on Friday, there was snow in 49 states (all but Hawaii)...pretty interesting.
I sure hope that was our one and only snowfall of this year.

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

We were closed on Friday too (no school for DD and now work for me!). We actually got 8-10 inches here in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. It started snowing early Thursday morning and didn't stop until early Friday morning. They did an early release on Thursday and no school on Friday which is good so that we only have to make up one day.
All that snow and cold made me wish I was on our cruise....though this weekend didn't sound so good. Hope there is not a freak snowstorm in November (unless it keeps us on the boat a day longer as opposed to cutting it short
I guess on Friday, there was snow in 49 states (all but Hawaii)...pretty interesting.
I sure hope that was our one and only snowfall of this year.

That's a lot of snow for Dallas!!

I actually bet Hawaii has snow right now... usually Mauna Loa on the Big Island is white capped in the winter. I've seen it before. Hmmmm now I have to look for pictures!

 

[jayally]

For the people doing a land portion of their trip would you like to go in as a group on a photopass CD? I did this on my last trip and it worked out nicely but I don't know too much about it except I sent a portion of the CD amount and a bit to cover postage and a blank CD and the person in charge ordered it and then sent everyone a copy. I think there were 6 of us and it was about $20 a person. Would anyone be willing to set it up and make copies of the CD? Too bad photopass is not available on the ship.

 

[disneyqueen72]

Hi, I am also going to be on this cruise. This is our first Disney Cruise and we are very excited. Please let me in on all the details as I don't know what to expect! Hope to meet up with some of you guys on board!

 

[JanDave]

Welcome new cruisers!

Looking forward to this cruise as we'll be with 4 of our 6 grandkids. We are also on the 11/18/10 cruise without kids/grandkids. Never done a back to back before, so even though it's a total of a 6 day cruise, we're excited not to have to leave for home after the first cruise.

Jan

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

Welcome new cruisers!

Looking forward to this cruise as we'll be with 4 of our 6 grandkids. We are also on the 11/18/10 cruise without kids/grandkids. Never done a back to back before, so even though it's a total of a 6 day cruise, we're excited not to have to leave for home after the first cruise.

Jan

Jan, we decided to make this a back to back as well! We've never done this before either. We rebooked onboard the Magic last week for the 11/18 sailing. Heck our 11/21 sailing is free due to it being our DVC incentive cruise. So we'll have 6 days for a total cost of about $1500 for 4 of us!! Woohooo!

Christine

 

[jayally]

Jan, we decided to make this a back to back as well! We've never done this before either. We rebooked onboard the Magic last week for the 11/18 sailing. Heck our 11/21 sailing is free due to it being our DVC incentive cruise. So we'll have 6 days for a total cost of about $1500 for 4 of us!! Woohooo!

Christine

So are you going to do any Disney days at all? I have 11/15-11/26 planned but already want to add more days but I can't justify the kids missing more school.

 

[JanDave]

Jan, we decided to make this a back to back as well! We've never done this before either. We rebooked onboard the Magic last week for the 11/18 sailing. Heck our 11/21 sailing is free due to it being our DVC incentive cruise. So we'll have 6 days for a total cost of about $1500 for 4 of us!! Woohooo!

Christine

WOW Christine!!! two of us doing B2Bs and on the same cruises. We're using DVC points for both our cruises, son and D-i-L and 2 kids in a cabin, and 2 other grandchildren (their parents booked a stateroom across from us using cash). So, our cruise only cost us $95 to book it! These two cruises will be #14 and #15 for me. I'm also cruising on the Magic on 10/23/10 with one of my DDs m-i-l. Our second girls only cruise.

Jan