September 29,2013 - DVC Member Cruise

We are in agreement with everyone that this situation could have easily been prevented. If you think about who books as early as we all have here, it's typically related to some very special plans.

It's been a rough few days, and as if things couldn't get more complicated.............. let me share a recent development.

A Cat R is not ever sold thru DVC (which we knew), and therefore booked our rsvp for the roy suite directly thru the DCL. But when the ship is chartered by DVC, they essentially take over the rsvps. However they're system is limited to managing all staterooms up to a cat T.

So we are awaiting a reply from DCL as to what happens in our unique situation. JQ and I are bracing for the worst.

My theory is that they DO have the ability to utilize both DVC and DCL rsvp. systems for special event sailings. It would easily work the same as it does now for every other cruise. We're talking about Divisions within the same company who already merge for cruising.

Oh and on a sidenote, today I was able to add three passengers to my BIL's cabin thru the DVC - his daughter's family incl his new grandson! They were planning to sail all along just taking their time to budget.

I found a frightening point chart and cash list from the last two Member cruises and became deeply concerned that waiting on this may result in the DVC imposing those new prices which would become unaffordable for them.

So if anyone was thinking of adding a passenger, now may be the best time.
I haven't tried to actually add a "cabin" so I'm not sure if that would work but it's worth a try.
 


poison ivy said:
We are in agreement with everyone that this situation could have easily been prevented. If you think about who books as early as we all have here, it's typically related to some very special plans.

It's been a rough few days, and as if things couldn't get more complicated.............. let me share a recent development.

A Cat R is not ever sold thru DVC (which we knew), and therefore booked our rsvp for the roy suite directly thru the DCL. But when the ship is chartered by DVC, they essentially take over the rsvps. However they're system is limited to managing all staterooms up to a cat T.

So we are awaiting a reply from DCL as to what happens in our unique situation. JQ and I are bracing for the worst.

My theory is that they DO have the ability to utilize both DVC and DCL rsvp. systems for special event sailings. It would easily work the same as it does now for every other cruise. We're talking about Divisions within the same company who already merge for cruising.

Oh and on a sidenote, today I was able to add three passengers to my BIL's cabin thru the DVC - his daughter's family incl his new grandson! They were planning to sail all along just taking their time to budget.

I found a frightening point chart and cash list from the last two Member cruises and became deeply concerned that waiting on this may result in the DVC imposing those new prices which would become unaffordable for them.

So if anyone was thinking of adding a passenger, now may be the best time.
I haven't tried to actually add a "cabin" so I'm not sure if that would work but it's worth a try.

Hi good luck with your Cat R. I hope they honour it for you. If not once onboard they will have the brits to contend with. We fight dirty lol. What is rsvp please?
 
Hi good luck with your Cat R. I hope they honour it for you. If not once onboard they will have the brits to contend with. We fight dirty lol. What is rsvp please?

Thanks paula,

Good to have you on the team! Hope we get to meet the two of you, I know my parents will have a lot to share.
rsvp is the abbreviation for reservation. I have no clue why.
 
poison ivy said:
Thanks paula,

Good to have you on the team! Hope we get to meet the two of you, I know my parents will have a lot to share.
rsvp is the abbreviation for reservation. I have no clue why.

Thanks! I really hope we get to meet all of you also. I feel I know you already. Sorry if that sounds corny! Paula and Jo
 


Hi PI
That would really be awful if they don't let you keep the Roy Suite, I know how much you are looking forward to that. :sad:

Just think, we are only a small portion of those who already had this cruise booked. At this point, there are probably many others out there who don't even know what's going on yet. Imagine their surprise when they get their phone call. Maybe we'll get lucky and the whole cruise won't be DVC. I'm not sure about them filling the Dream with all DVC members when they have already had DVC cruises in Sept '12 and another in January '13. Isn't the Dream capacity somewhere near 4,000??

I also feel for those people sailing out of Galveston that had 8 night cruises suddenly changed to either 6 night or 4 night cruises.
Do other cruiselines cancel cruises, change length of cruise, etc.....? Just curious.
Like I said, it is what it is and we'll all make the best of it.
 
They won't do a member cruise that's mixed bookings between non dvc and dvc (of course nonmembers can sail with a member). They purposefully don't sell the entire ship for the member cruise - some crew get extra time off since they aren't needed. All but the jan one have sold out I believe (jan has a few verandas left I think). They are quite popular and when there was only 1 per year they would sell out in a day.

I'd love a member cruise but it would be twice as expensive and normally must be paid in full at booking.
 
What are everyone's thoughts about flying in day of for a cruise? Really bad idea??

FI and I are trying to come up with a back up plan for what we'll do if we can't stay on this cruise for some reason. Since we've already requested time off we're still trying to work within those days. There's another 4-day that sails the 22nd, but we're getting married the 21st. Unless we could find a midnight flight, we probably wouldn't be able to leave until that morning. And I really don't want to be thinking about needing to catch a flight during our reception. :worried:

I think our other choice would just be to skip cruising all together and stay longer at WDW, but since we were planning on staying at the Poly we probably wouldn't take the full two week HM we were planning unless we give up the Poly. Sigh.

I hope everything gets sorted out soon and that most of us won't have to change any of our plans. :grouphug: I'd also take our cruise magically reappearing on the website.
 
honeymo78 said:
They won't do a member cruise that's mixed bookings between non dvc and dvc (of course nonmembers can sail with a member). They purposefully don't sell the entire ship for the member cruise - some crew get extra time off since they aren't needed. All but the jan one have sold out I believe (jan has a few verandas left I think). They are quite popular and when there was only 1 per year they would sell out in a day.

I'd love a member cruise but it would be twice as expensive and normally must be paid in full at booking.

Hmmm ... Twice the price... Paid in full... Yikes!

I have been researching options. I checked the military rates to see what might potentially be available next year. I was shocked at the cost of a 7 night on the Fantasy. I offhandedly mentioned to my husband and was surprised by his response. He decided to just see if there was a chance he could get leave and another shocker- he can. So now the dilemma, do we go for a seven night in December this year!! Or wait for this to pan out and see what happens.

If they do let us keep our reservation but it cost a lot more then we would change to another anyways. Plus I don't know if they would let us keep the same room which I picked specifically for the balcony. Oh, the 7 night would be in an inside and we have only had balcony rooms so I am not sure how tight that would be.

Ugh! This is hard!

Thoughts?

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I know a lot of us would like to go on this sailing. The reality is, it is being cancelled. At least that is the way it stand as of right now. If it turns out to be a members cruise, then they will not let non members not booked with DVC members on the ship. They might give us first dibs at the same price as we are paying in our same rooms but that's all I can think of. I am sorry if this sounds harsh, but for methereality of the situation is that I will not be cruising on 9/29/13 on the Disney Dream and need to make other plans. Fortunately I have not oone a vacation bid yet so for us it's not that big of a deal. I do feel for those that have bought airfare and are now locked in. I hope it works out.

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I understand that everyone feels the need to consider alternate plans. It's important to be prepared, but we're not giving up on this yet.

I spoke with shoreside Concierge this morning and they would only confirm that this cruise is definately "privately chartered". They claimed they don't know yet if it is the DVC or a private company. I asked her specifically what happens to my "Roy" ressie in the event of a DVC charter and she told me that each members cruise is "unique and handled seperately from all others".

Hopefully our group fits that description.

Jim
 
Jim I must say I admire you resolve. All I know is once DCL contacts me, I will be switching to 10/6/13.

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JQ:
I would say we are UNIQUE ::yes:: and should definately be handle differently:thumbsup2 They must know us!!:lmao:
 
I hope that dcl contact us real soon! Be odd if they leave it much longer and they cannot get in contact with me and dw because we are on vacation. We will actually be onboard the Disney Dream this year lol..with the phone ringing at home..
 
:maleficen I am probably the one who started this mess by asking Dreamer7787 where our cruise went when I tried to add some more family members and it had totally disappeared. I want to thank you for taking us in and for all your efforts trying to get answers. We are keeping our fingers crossed. It is a very disappointing circumstance being kept in the dark but it's amazing all the nice people you can meet along the way.
 
I agree! I am so pleased to have meet you all. Do we have enough people to charter it ourselves lol.
 
:maleficen I am probably the one who started this mess by asking Dreamer7787 where our cruise went when I tried to add some more family members and it had totally disappeared. I want to thank you for taking us in and for all your efforts trying to get answers. We are keeping our fingers crossed. It is a very disappointing circumstance being kept in the dark but it's amazing all the nice people you can meet along the way.

Honestly, it's a big thanks to you both for bringing this to our attention. I've been saying this to James privately since Saturday, that I thank Danielle a thousand times over for alerting us that night.

As soon as JQ read that post he immediately thought DVC and replied. We knew our cruise wasn't sold out because I check incessantly :lmao: on a particular cabin (#12506) we've been secretly hoping to barter for at embarkation to enjoin our little cluster.

We had worked really hard to get the DCL to unlock 12000 and 12504 which are never available online in order to connect with the Roy. At one point we had both DVC and DCL involved since 12000 is on pts. We also have 12508 as part of our group. So 12506 was my Dream cabin to grab if at all possible for 4 days of bliss!!!!

there appear to be very few concierge booked at this point (heck, we may be the only ones) and the ships inventory is wide open.

I believe we surprised a lot of CM's and created quite the buzz Sunday morning and throughout the week.

Really can't thank you enough if we manage to stay onboard at our current booking since we were able to utilize that small window of opportunity to add passengers - including my parents!
 
I hope you do not think me very nosey but I had a look at the Roy on utube. Omg its fabulous! Dcl would have to really come up with some decent alternative plan to stop me getting in that if I had booked!

In Britain we favour getting handcuffs and locking ourselves to something fixed in the room singing 'we shall not be moved ' You could try that lol..
 
I hope you do not think me very nosey but I had a look at the Roy on utube. Omg its fabulous! Dcl would have to really come up with some decent alternative plan to stop me getting in that if I had booked!

In Britain we favour getting handcuffs and locking ourselves to something fixed in the room singing 'we shall not be moved ' You could try that lol..

We did the same thing on youtube before we booked. It's extravagant but we made it affordable by applying points for two cabins and splitting the cash difference among the group. We do this as much as possible. It's a tremedous commitment of time in research and advance planning but you can travel in luxury on a beer budget :rotfl2:

This trip includes our friends Cass and Joe G (and his wife Regina). Cass and Joe are on our bowling team aptly named "The Lounge Lizards". We've been picturing ourselves "lounging'" on that balcony and in that hottub for a year!!!!!!!!!!!! Cass bought herself some "loud" and quite busy disney lounge pants to commemorate this special event.

If this cruise is a go we hope you'll drop by!
 
poison ivy said:
We did the same thing on youtube before we booked. It's extravagant but we made it affordable by applying points for two cabins and splitting the cash difference among the group. We do this as much as possible. It's a tremedous commitment of time in research and advance planning but you can travel in luxury on a beer budget :rotfl2:

This trip includes our friends Cass and Joe G (and his wife Regina). Cass and Joe are on our bowling team aptly named "The Lounge Lizards". We've been picturing ourselves "lounging'" on that balcony and in that hottub for a year!!!!!!!!!!!! Cass bought herself some "loud" and quite busy disney lounge pants to commemorate this special event.

If this cruise is a go we hope you'll drop by!

I think it sounds amazing! Love to do something like this for DW and my 10 year anniversary in 2016 ( planning ahead with points etc ). I love hot tubs! But because of a medication I am on it lowers my immune system so I cannot go in the main hot tub that others use in case of infections. So having my own would be perfect!

We would love to pop by! I would love to meet you all :-) I want some of those disney lounge pants! Where did she get them!
 
Even though we will not be cruising together anymore, I'd like to share this photo I took. One of the cool things about living in Los Angeles.
81BB7641-A051-48DE-88B9-E5072FE3FED6-12668-000004A55D658988.jpg


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