September 30, 2012 Dream vacation

[WeLuvDCL]

Florida resident rates were released also a few days ago, we booked on the first day. The military and FL rates are the same. They are not posted under special offers on the website yet, but if you click on "Search for a cruise" and then "Find cruise", a different cruise search window shows that allows you to enter a "Special Offer". Type in FLR for florida resident or "MTO" for military. The codes never change so I often go on and search because Disney doesn't put them under special offers right away, sometimes takes a week. And your travel agent may not be informed by DIsney either.

 

[Momto3cuties]

I never thought to ask, but what do I need to prove FL residency? My husbands grandfather recently signed his Boca Raton house over to us. Of course it is not our primary residency, but we are there 3-4 times a year and are now paying taxes . We don't have a FL drivers license, so wondering what (if anything) we could use. Or if this even qualifies as residency -

 

[twoWDWfools]

Please remove us from the list. We had to cancel before final payment was due but I had been holding out hope we could re-book. Just found out this morning that is not going to happen.

Have a great time everyone.

 

[hamm1207]

Please remove us from the list. We had to cancel before final payment was due but I had been holding out hope we could re-book. Just found out this morning that is not going to happen.

Have a great time everyone.

Sorry to see you leaving! Hopefully you will get to get on another cruise later on this year!

 

[IknowDoYou?]

First of all, let me send my deepest apologies for my lack of presence around here lately. After we booked our excursions at the 105-day window, I failed to notice that I no longer received DISBoards updates via email, and I didn't think about it at all until I booked our rental cars this morning. I'm not sure why the connection was made (probably because someone on DISBoards initially helped me figure out the car rental scheme a few years ago), but I immediately thought "Fish Extender List!!!" followed by some inappropriate words.

Second, I just re-read all 14 pages, and I've noticed some new additions to the group (Yay!). I'm planning on combing through it again to make sure the spreadsheet I created is up date, but before I do so, I wanted to see if Sarah (rightfully) took over duties on the FE list. If not, I'll update it immediately and will add the link to my signature.

Finally, if I am indeed still the point person for the FE list, I'd recommend that we do a "soft" cutoff date of September 1st. This would give those who either need time to get their gifts together, more time, or those who are leaving home earlier than the rest of us, enough time, to get things together. Being a soft date, though, would allow latecomers to join in, under the understanding that they may not be able to receive gifts from all groups/cabins.

Thoughts?

Again, sorry for the mixup.

Ryan

 

[akheila]

Ryan welcome back...funny how things get away from us until we have something to jog our memories.

I think a soft cut off is a good idea, much of my supplies have arrived already and I am starting to worry that I won't have enough if we get too many more!

 

[Momto3cuties]

A soft cutoff date of 9/1 works for us too! With school starting around then and leaving a few days before the cruise, I know the cutoff date will help me keep some sort of sanity

Sarah - We are in connecting staterooms, but I am going to have one FE that includes all of us and will hang it by room 2014. Not sure if you need to update that to the FE list - just figured it might be easier for people and less confusing if we used one stateroom # for the FE. Thanks!

 

[IknowDoYou?]

We are in connecting staterooms, but I am going to have one FE that includes all of us and will hang it by room 2014. Not sure if you need to update that to the FE list - just figured it might be easier for people and less confusing if we used one stateroom # for the FE. Thanks!

Does your FE have five slots? If not, and you end up having to get two FE's (I don't recall if this is your first time around), you might have to have one on each door.

 

[Rather Be At WDW]

Another vote for a 9/1 cutoff. I will certainly try to accommodate late comers if I'm able, but I would like to have a definite time frame for the "minimum" at least.

Welcome back, Ryan!

 

[mamiof2]

First of all, let me send my deepest apologies for my lack of presence around here lately.

Finally, if I am indeed still the point person for the FE list, I'd recommend that we do a "soft" cutoff date of September 1st. This would give those who either need time to get their gifts together, more time, or those who are leaving home earlier than the rest of us, enough time, to get things together. Being a soft date, though, would allow latecomers to join in, under the understanding that they may not be able to receive gifts from all groups/cabins.

Ryan

Glad to see u back!! i PM'd u a while back to see if you & your family were all ok. As far as the "soft cutoff", we did kinda decide on doing that very same thing. we thought 30 days, so Sept 1 is just perfect. (and that day just so happens to be my birthday! 37 years young! Wow thats a big number!! )

 

[IknowDoYou?]

Glad to see u back!! i PM'd u a while back to see if you & your family were all ok.

Thanks for checking in on us. That's the weird thing, too - I didn't get an email notifying me of the PM, either. Odd....

Ryan

 

[Momto3cuties]

Does your FE have five slots? If not, and you end up having to get two FE's (I don't recall if this is your first time around), you might have to have one on each door.

It is our first time, but I have decided to do 4 slots for our FE, with DH and I as one. Hoping it's just the beginning of our Disney cruise days and figure that we may one day try for a family stateroom...although I anticipate we will be spoiled with 2 connecting staterooms!

For those of you that are veterans to DCL - if we decide to book while onboard is it 10% and an OBC as well? And am I right in thinking I can move the date? I know 2014 dates aren't out for the Fantasy yet and I think that is what we'd be looking at.

 

[IknowDoYou?]

It is our first time, but I have decided to do 4 slots for our FE, with DH and I as one. Hoping it's just the beginning of our Disney cruise days and figure that we may one day try for a family stateroom...although I anticipate we will be spoiled with 2 connecting staterooms!

Ahh, that makes sense.

For those of you that are veterans to DCL - if we decide to book while onboard is it 10% and an OBC as well? And am I right in thinking I can move the date? I know 2014 dates aren't out for the Fantasy yet and I think that is what we'd be looking at.

That's correct. You get 10% off of whatever rate you have booked at the time, and it is movable (you'll sometimes see it mentioned as "'walking' a 'dummy date'"). The OBC is dependent on the length of the cruise, as well as what status you have (silver, gold or platinum).

What we tend to do is rebook on board using only the two adults (you can add the kids later) so that you don't have to put a deposit down for the entire group, using the furthest out date (that isn't a special event - don't book Christmas of 2013, for instance), for the shortest cruise, in the cheapest stateroom. This dummy date will grant you the smallest deposit, but will lock in the 10% and OBC perks.

Once you find a hard date (this should be done earlier than later, as the rates only go up), you move the dummy date, add the kids, and since the stateroom type and cruise length are locked in, you'll know what your OBC is, and the 10% will be taken off of the total price of the ACTUAL cruise you're taking.
**One thing to note when "crunching" the numbers, though, is that they base the taxes off of the MSRP, not the discounted fare, so you can't take the grand total and take 10% off.**

Does that make sense?

 

[IknowDoYou?]

Oh, and I forgot to mention...

If you think you'll ever do it again, rebooking on board is one of the highest priorities in my mind. 10% and the OBC can go a long way, and the deposit is 100% refundable, so if you change your mind, or you never find a new date even after "walking" it a few times, you haven't lost any money. The second you walk off that ship, though, you're paying full fare and zero OBC.

 

[mamiof2]

... and figure that we may one day try for a family stateroom...although I anticipate we will be spoiled with 2 connecting staterooms!

For those of you that are veterans to DCL - if we decide to book while onboard is it 10% and an OBC as well? And am I right in thinking I can move the date? I know 2014 dates aren't out for the Fantasy yet and I think that is what we'd be looking at.

yes you are right! i cant remember the OBC amount for sure, but i'm thinking $100 for 4nt cruises & $200 for 7nt cruises. and yes you can move the date and even change the number of nights while keeping the discount & OBC. on last year's cruise, we actually booked a 7 nt. we later decided to downgrade to a 4 nt for this year. we did this w no problem, keeping the discount. but obviously they bumped us down to $100 for the OBC rather than the $200 which would've been for the 7 nt. i know that you can keep postponing as long as you need to. Keep in mind that you need to pay a downpayment while on board. i believe it's 10 percent. This year on board we will be booking a 7 nt cruise for Sept 2013!

i was wondering why you got 2 staterooms for your family of 5?? is it just because you wanted the space? i thought there were lots of single staterooms that acommodated 5 ?? no??

 

[mamiof2]

gosh ryan, you type fast! we must've been typing at the same time answering that question, but u beat me to it!

 

[mamiof2]

**One thing to note when "crunching" the numbers, though, is that they base the taxes off of the MSRP, not the discounted fare, so you can't take the grand total and take 10% off.**

Whaaaat???? how is that fair?? grrr! if you buy something on discount at the store, you pay tax on sale price! not the original price!!
we have booked on board twice and have not realized that!

 

[IknowDoYou?]

Whaaaat???? how is that fair?? grrr! if you buy something on discount at the store, you pay tax on sale price! not the original price!!
we have booked on board twice and have not realized that!

Same thing happened with us. I didn't notice it until our third cruise when I ran the numbers before moving the dummy date, then got the quote from my TA. They didn't match, and then I noticed that the "tax" line was the same. Called the TA, and she confirmed that taxes aren't discounted.

 

[SonyaShay]

Only 50 days!!!!!

 

[SonyaShay]

Looks like we will be joining all of you on this cruise! Third cruise, but first on Disney. I am SOOO excited, as it's my 40th birthday present to me (lucky DH and kids get to enjoy, too). Not quite ready to run the ToT race before the cruise, so I opted for the Happy Haunted 5K! It will be my first 5K, but I figure since I am turning 40 it is time to try something a bit out of my comfort zone . We'll end the cruise with a 5 day trip down to Boca Raton to unwind and really, really relax (as I anticipate we will be busy on the cruise!)

I was reading about the FE and would love to join if it's not too late. Cruising will be myself, DH, DS (8) DS (5), and DD (3). Waiting for travel agent to firm everything up, but we have 2 ocean views on hold on deck 2.

Beth

BETH---according to the roll call list you are next door to us! SO EXCITING!!!!!