SS Member Cruise - Final day - Final thoughts

[WDWLVR]

Day 5 – Home we go – final thoughts

This is a trip report for the special DVC SS Member Cruise held Feb. 2-6, 2003 on the Disney Wonder.

Cast: Me & DH (MarkRG). We are DINKS who love Disney. We've been DVC members since Jan. of 2000. This is our 4th DCL cruise (did 3-day Magic in Oct. '99, 7-day Eastern Magic in May '01, 4-day Wonder in May'02 and we have a 7-day Western Magic planned for 5/10/03).

Well we knew this day would come. This wonderful cruise was coming to an end. We had expected to go to breakfast, but we weren’t hungry and we were hoping to catch an earlier flight home so we skipped breakfast and got off the ship when she cleared. We were able to change to an earlier flight with American and were soon on our way to the airport. We made our 11:30 flight with plenty of time to spare and since we got our boarding passes at the pier went right to the gate.

Bye, bye Wonder. Bye, bye Member Cruise. Bye, bye all our new DIS friends!

Final thoughts:

What could have been better:

Wish the water was warmer at Castaway Cay, but I’ll take a warm sunny day with cold water any day over warm water in the rain.

Wish I had more stamina to enjoy the late night details, but it was vacation after all and I like my sleep.

Wish we had been lucky enough to get to see the Disney Suite, but we’re happy for all our friends who did.

What made this cruise special:

DVC took over the ship. We even flew the DVC flag. How cool is that! Thanks to everyone who made this cruise special. From the Member Service agents who worked that crazy Saturday, to the DVC castmembers cruising with us, and to the entire cast and crew of the Disney Wonder. You are all amazing.

Speaking of amazing. I was thrilled to get to meet so many DIS’ers. When Mark came up with the idea of the buttons I was a little skeptical, but they did their job. We got to recognize each other and a lot of others (including DVC recognized the DIS). We heard on more than one occasion “there’s more of those green buttons”.

To all who spent time with us and made this cruise special, thank you from the bottom of my heart. You know who you are. It was a pleasure sharing this great time with all of you.

Thanks to the DVC execs who thought this up and thought up all the goodies as well, we were spoiled rotten.

Last, but by no means least, thanks to my wonderful DH who caught my Disney addiction 13 years ago. Who is my best friend and favorite traveling companion. Who had the idea to make up a little button with a life preserver, a green background, and a DIS’ers name inside – that was fun!

Let’s do this again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you've gotten this far, thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did writing it.

 

[Verandah Man]

Mary,
Thank you soooooooooooooooo much for your reports, I truly enjoyed reading them, and I haven't even been on my first Disney Cruise yet. I know the work and hours Mark must have put in with the buttons. Three years ago I went with our church group to Israel. We had 43 people in our group. I was making t-shirts and sweatshirts for the whole group. I don't know how I found the time to go to work everyday. I sit here at my computer desk, look up, and there on the wall above me is our group's photo, mostly everyone wearing a t-shirt or sweatshirt that I had made. It still gives me a warm feeling when I see that photo. If you'd like to see some of my photos of Israel go to my website at VerandahMan.com, when you get there go to Disney's Vero Beach and click on the link for my webshots photos. I have many other albums on that site besides my WDW and VB photos.

Again, thanks go to you and Mark, hopefully my family can make the next DVC Members Cruise. We found out about this one much too late. It would be nice if we could have a chance to meet you and Mark!!!

 

[WDWLVR]

I think I can speak for Mark when I say it was a labor of love to do all the buttons. We both got a kick out of it. There was a lot of negative talk on the boards when the cruise was first announced and so he sent out PM's about the buttons instead of posting it on the board. The response he got from the PM's was amazing. There were a few people who wanted nothing to do with it right from the start and that was find.

Others came, got there buttons and went on their way. That was fine too. Still others came, chatted, and wore their buttons. We made an impact. Most of all, and this is what Mark wanted the most, we had an identifiable way to recognize other DIS'ers. It was great having a bond with everyone on the ship as DVC members, but this was an even deeper bond as we had two things in common. DVC and DIS.

We had wanted to get a big group shot at sailaway, but it was way too crazy. Your photo sounds great.

Hope to get the chance to meet you on an upcoming cruise or vacation as well.

 

[Verandah Man]

If I was on that cruise, I would have worn my button proudly!!!!! I think it was a "GREAT" idea!!!!!

 

[wdw1972]

Mary,

It was a pleasure meeting you finally, and a big THANK YOU to Mark for making those wonderful buttons. The cruise was wonderful, and I think it was all the dvc members that made it so great. I've been on the 4 day before, and the 7 day twice, and this one was definitely the most fun! I'll be looking forward to see if DVC does another one in 2004. In the meantime, yesterday I booked the 7-day Western Carib on 11/8/03, and I've got a 7-day Eastern Carib on another line in early June....hopefully that'll help the cruise withdrawal

 

[zurgswife]

It was a pleasure reading your reports.....I hope someday to me you and Mark....after chatting with Mark on the different evening chats..he is very much like my own Zurg (Bennet).....they would get along splendidly....Can't wait for my first cruise only 19 days......

 

[WDWLVR]

Sue - it was a pleasure meeting you as well. Don't think you'll have cruise withdrawl at all. We won't either as we are on the May 10th Western

Kim - I hope we get to meet you and Bennet as well. Mark loves the chats and I always hear him laughing - usually at something Zurg said or did. I know he got laughing last week on the cruise when he told him to send us the Bad Shoe flag and we'd get it hoisted. Enjoy your cruise. I hope you are blessed with weather as wonderful as we had. Can't wait to read your reports when you get back.

 

[RRBB]

Mary, I too want to thank you and Mark for organizing the DIS meets and providing us with the buttons. David and I (as well as Nieceosaurus and Nephosaurus) wore them proudly throughout the cruise.

The DIS presence was definitely recognized and I think everyone wearing the buttons generated lots of interest. We ran into a couple at the gate in the Orlando airport who lurks a lot. By the time we retrieved our luggage at our destination, I think they'd been convinced to join in the fun here.

 

[iluvdisney]

Mary - it was great to finally meet Mark and you! You sure did make this trip a lot of fun for everyone that had a button - we all made a connection with a smile and wave from other DISers. By the end of this cruise, my dh was enjoying meeting lots of new people! We even wore our button at WDW the past few days and some of the DVC staff would recognize them and ask all about the cruise. Couldn't wipe the smiles off of our faces when we were telling them all the fun stuff we did on the cruise! I cannot wait to do this again! Thanks again!

 

[WDWLVR]

Robin & Mary, It was great meeting you and your DH's as well. We knew we would have fun on a ship full of DVC'ers, but getting to meet all the DIS'ers was a wonderful bonus. Some, like you guys, we got to run into a lot and it was nice to take a moment and chat. Others we only saw once in a while but it was still nice to exchange a hello and a smile. It made the experience for Mark and I that much better!

Can't wait for the next one!

 

[Donna]

Mary,
It was great meeting you and Mark. It was funny, when i saw Mark wearing his button in the internet cafe and i said, "where did you get that". He said, I'm the one who made them and i said, OH, YOU'RE HIM! lol! They were so well done and so nicely packaged. Everytime i saw you guys around the ship, you were smiling and having fun. Thanks for all the hard work. We had a blast with all our friends, both old and new! Thanks!

 

[BethC]

Thanks for the wonderful reports, Mary, it was so much fun re-living the cruise.

And thanks to Mark for the buttons, they were great and we wore ours proudly!

It was a pleasure meeting you and all the other DIS'ers. I do hope they have another member cruise, we're all rooting for a 7 night next time!

 

[wdw1972]

A friend who attended one of the member updates (I skipped them) thought she heard one of the dvc cm's say they're thinking of the 7 day next time, sometime in July.

I sure hope she heard wrong!! July is so darn hot & humid, and I'd think the ship would fill up on it's own with regular guests - it makes more sense to me to book the DVC cruise into a period when they're not as likely to sell out....like fall or Jan/Feb.

I also prefer the 7-day, but I think more people I know would be able to attend if it was another 4-day....or maybe not <g>. For me, I plan my trips so far in advance, adding in a 7-day cruise would mean canceling other stuff to free up the time & points - especially since they only announce these plans at fairly short notice (7 months). It'll be interesting to see what they decide to do - I don't want to miss it, but if it's in July I may have to.

 

[WDWLVR]

Beth,

It was great meeting you and Chris as well. We will be using our DISboard lanyards on our May cruise. From reading some of the other trip reports it looks like you guys cruised back to back and were also on the Feb. 6th cruise. Am I right? Lucky you got to go to Castaway Cay three times in a week!

I'm hoping the next one is a 7 day as well and I think with all the positive response from this one it is going to be much harder to get on, but we will try our hardest!