This 2017 PTR is all over the place!! Updated 08/21/17 Nearly time!!

[bcwife76]

So I don't know if this is going to come off as whiney/woe is me/you are full of first world problems kind of thing but here it goes....confession time: so many people are talking about the 2017 dates (when will they be released, etc) and so many people are talking about Alaska - will they go there in 2017. \

And now I'm reading more posts about those cruising to Alaska this year and I keep thinking "WE were supposed to be going to Alaska, we had it booked. WHY did we change??"

I think I'm just mourning the fact that we will not be on the August 15th Alaska sailing and I'm having a huge pity party. Hello - how pathetic is that, right? The cruise we are taking in January will be fantastic, I know it will be!! I honestly AM looking forward to it. And I know Alaska isn't going anywhere. We WILL rebook for 2018 (if I had my way, it would be 2017!) So why am I dwelling on this?

Someone feel free to smack me.

 

[chunkymonkey]

So I don't know if this is going to come off as whiney/woe is me/you are full of first world problems kind of thing but here it goes....confession time: so many people are talking about the 2017 dates (when will they be released, etc) and so many people are talking about Alaska - will they go there in 2017. \

And now I'm reading more posts about those cruising to Alaska this year and I keep thinking "WE were supposed to be going to Alaska, we had it booked. WHY did we change??"

I think I'm just mourning the fact that we will not be on the August 15th Alaska sailing and I'm having a huge pity party. Hello - how pathetic is that, right? The cruise we are taking in January will be fantastic, I know it will be!! I honestly AM looking forward to it. And I know Alaska isn't going anywhere. We WILL rebook for 2018 (if I had my way, it would be 2017!) So why am I dwelling on this?

Someone feel free to smack me.

LOL I know, I feel the same way because one of the cruises I was thinking about was the Magic from NYC this fall. It's right in my backyard, in fact where I work now in NJ, I can SEE the port from across the river and I see cruise ships leaving all the time. I'm gonna be really really sad when I see the Magic pull away and I'm not on that ship. I will be holding a pity party for myself too.

 

[luvpooh]

LOL I know, I feel the same way because one of the cruises I was thinking about was the Magic from NYC this fall. It's right in my backyard, in fact where I work now in NJ, I can SEE the port from across the river and I see cruise ships leaving all the time. I'm gonna be really really sad when I see the Magic pull away and I'm not on that ship. I will be holding a pity party for myself too.

I'll wave to you from onboard on 10/15!

 

[bcwife76]

I'll wave to you from onboard on 10/15!

Meanie!! lol

 

[chunkymonkey]

I'll wave to you from onboard on 10/15!

AAAAACKK soooo JELLY!!!!

 

[luvpooh]

Meanie!! lol

AAAAACKK soooo JELLY!!!!

Haha! I wasn't trying to be mean! I said I'd wave, not give her the 'official NJ greeting' lol.

And you're jealous? I'm jealous of you, you went to Remy twice! And I have a feeling V&A too. I think I have Chuck E Cheese in my near future, if you REALLY want to be jealous!

But to be fair, I am hoping to book the Panama Canal for my 40th next year!

 

[bcwife76]

Well time is ticking along and we are now 9 months (and 3 days!) away from our cruise!

Airfare continues to be expensive so it's almost guaranteed we will be driving down to Seattle (3 hour drive) and flying from there to Houston. The $$ savings are quite substantial (as much as $700) so even factoring gas, one night hotel in Seattle and a couple of extra meals (parking is a wash, about the same price at SeaTac as YVR) we're still going to come out far ahead. Still haven't booked it yet, mind you.

We are now 6 weeks away from our trip to Maui! We booked a luau last night through Maui Adventures, got a stunning deal for a luau at the Hyatt! Will be sending in the final cheque for our condo rental at the end of this week, too.

We are now 4 1/2 months away from our Disneyland & Universal trip! Will be booking tickets to Medieval Times by the end of this month as I found a coupon code that expires April 30th (though the prices seem to be valid through September) for $20/off per adult and $10/off per kid. I wish DL would release their park hours more than 6 weeks in advance. Ugh. Planning on buying our tix for DL and Universal directly from their respective websites as we are looking at purchasing only single day tickets. I want to convince DH to do two days at DL/DCA this trip (last day is supposed to be a 'down' day) but until the hours are released I don't have much 'ammo' to present him with, just speculation on the hours at this point. I know, I know, I was perfectly fine with a down day on our last day when we booked this trip but how can I be there and NOT go to the parks again? Heck, he can have the kids at the water park all day and then I'll go by myself

Waiting not-so-patiently on DCL to release the rest(?) of their 2017 dates. Will be eyeing an August Alaskan cruise, but in all honesty, I'm also eyeing an Alaskan cruise on the Carnival Legend instead

 

[chunkymonkey]

How exciting that you have all these trips planned - so you have something to look forward to in the meantime! lucky!!

Ii hear you about the airfare. Sometimes traveling by car to a further airport can mean significant savings. Good luck!

I'd do a park day too... I totally think 1 day isn't enough at DL/DCL so 2 would be good!

Im' also waiting for the rest of 2017 to be released!!!

 

[bcwife76]

How exciting that you have all these trips planned - so you have something to look forward to in the meantime! lucky!!

Ii hear you about the airfare. Sometimes traveling by car to a further airport can mean significant savings. Good luck!

I'd do a park day too... I totally think 1 day isn't enough at DL/DCL so 2 would be good!

Im' also waiting for the rest of 2017 to be released!!!

I don't think we've ever had this many trips planned at once lol

I still need to PM you for Maui restaurant/food suggestions!

 

[chunkymonkey]

I don't think we've ever had this many trips planned at once lol

I still need to PM you for Maui restaurant/food suggestions!

Sure anytime!!

 

[bcwife76]

Ok, so any way I can add a 3rd ticker to my siggy?

I just booked us on the 5 night Alaskan cruise leaving August 2 2017!!

 

[chunkymonkey]

OMG so awesome for you! yay!
I confess...I just booked us on the 7-night Alaska leaving Sept 4th. Didn't even tell DH yet but it was just a courtesy hold by my agent. Good news is that we can apply the onboard booking discount to the cruise!

 

[bcwife76]

OMG so awesome for you! yay!
I confess...I just booked us on the 7-night Alaska leaving Sept 4th. Didn't even tell DH yet but it was just a courtesy hold by my agent. Good news is that we can apply the onboard booking discount to the cruise!

Oh my gosh, squeeeee!!!! I was considering the cruise before that one (August 28th) but dh just really doesn't want to spend so much more for Alaska, so 5 night was the 'compromise' lol

There will be a lot less kids on your sailing because school goes back in session here September 5th and probably a lot of kids from the US are already back in school by that time.

 

[bcwife76]

Well I managed to get my 3rd ticker in, it's just cut off at the bottom lol I'll leave it like that until after our Disneyland trip I guess

 

[bcwife76]

So flight prices to Houston from Vancouver still stink. Grrrr......

They aren't much better from Seattle unless we want a non-direct flight.

Biding my time.

Booked our hotel in Galveston for the night we plan to arrive (January 12th), Harbor House. Got a great price on Booking.com and can cancel without penalty up until 3 days before hand and they didn't even require a deposit so really I had nothing to lose. Can't book our hotel on the other end until we decide on our flight (I know we won't fly out until the day AFTER we disembark - just don't know if we want that other hotel stay in Galveston again or Houston).

And that's really the extent of my update for this trip at the moment! We leave for Maui in 10 days, woohoo!!!

 

[jtba]

So flight prices to Houston from Vancouver still stink. Grrrr......

They aren't much better from Seattle unless we want a non-direct flight.

Biding my time.

Booked our hotel in Galveston for the night we plan to arrive (January 12th), Harbor House. Got a great price on Booking.com and can cancel without penalty up until 3 days before hand and they didn't even require a deposit so really I had nothing to lose. Can't book our hotel on the other end until we decide on our flight (I know we won't fly out until the day AFTER we disembark - just don't know if we want that other hotel stay in Galveston again or Houston).

And that's really the extent of my update for this trip at the moment! We leave for Maui in 10 days, woohoo!!!

10 days!!! that is coming up super fast, woohoo!!!!!!

 

[bcwife76]

10 days!!! that is coming up super fast, woohoo!!!!!!

I know! Next week is the mad scramble to get a few last minute things done like travel medical insurance and getting some US $.

I really should change the title of this PTR as I seem to talk about more than just the Bahama's cruise! It's like the 'everything but the kitchen sink PTR' !

 

[bcwife76]

Ok so I've changed the title of my PTR because it really IS all over the place!

We have changed our cruise. AGAIN.

Yep.

Getting to Houston and then on to Galveston for our Wonder cruise was just getting to be a bit ridiculous. Flight prices were still too high, getting to Galveston was proving to be difficult and expensive and the thought of going on the Wonder twice in 2017....even with it being reimagined....meh. I know, #firstworldproblems, right?

A couple of months back I had suggested to my DH that we change our cruise to one out of Florida but he was less than receptive "we've changed it enough already, let's just leave it."

Then he saw me struggling with all the above issues. Two nights ago, on a whim, I checked the price of the Fantasy cruise leaving a day later (January 14th) and checked airfare prices to Orlando. Yes, the cruise is a bit more $$ (more on that in a minute) but the flights are cheaper! Go figure! So I broached the subject to DH again and this time he was all for it.

I hadn't even made any changes and I overheard him that night, as he was reading with our 7yr old, saying things like "and it's a different ship! And lots more to do! and it's Star Wars!" etc. I have never heard him this excited about any of our cruises before lol so I figured we were making the right choice.

So Tuesday morning I called DCL - I was on the phone a total of 12 minutes, including hold time! She was super helpful and our cruise was moved - again. Yay!

But then I looked at flights again that night.....none of them are direct from Vancouver to Orlando (which I knew anyway) and no direct flights from Seattle either (and flying out of Seattle is actually more expensive!)

And my anxiety set it. The flight I was looking at goes through Toronto. In January. Yeah. What if the flight is delayed due to weather? What if our connecting flight can't get to Orlando that night? (and no we were not looking at flying in the day of, don't worry lol).

So this morning, my mind in overdrive, I vented to my friend Pam and to the lovely @DnA2010 - both of whom talked me off the ledge If we went down to an Oceanview (we had a verandah booked) it would save us $600USD. This 'saved' money could then be put toward an extra night in a hotel and even possibly a visit to Epcot!

Talked to DH and he was like 'heck yes, I don't need a verandah, we can join the porthole club instead!' yeah....um.....ok.....but I digress lol

So I just went online and changed to an oceanview (all the inside rooms are taken) and now we'll fly out of Vancouver on Thursday January 12th via either Toronto or Los Angeles, getting into Orlando around 10pm or 11pm (which is still early since we'll be on West Coast time). Rent a car and drive to WDW! Thinking of a Value hotel (but we'll see later in the Fall when hopefully some deals come out) and probably do Epcot for one day! Before driving to Port Canaveral on the morning of Saturday January 14 for our SWDAS cruise!

*phew*

You still with me?

Up next: @chunkymonkey and @jtba keep your eyes peeled for a Maui mini-TR!

 

[Hundredacre]

So timing is an interesting thing. After everyone went back to work and school in early January I got a call from a lawyer to say that my dad has passed away and that I was one of the beneficiaries of his estate. Very long story short, we were estranged for the last 4 years (he did some truly awful things to me and my husband) and no one told me he was sick/dying/died. Great family huh?
He also died without a will; the laws in our province state that spouse (his 3rd wife) is not entitled to the entire estate if there are children from a previous marriage (me from marriage #2, a horrible half brother from marriage #1). Yada yada yada, cutting to the chase, I'm getting an inheritance.

Turns out we could have afforded the Alaskan cruise after all too late to change it back at this point as the rates have continued to climb so yes, we'll be booking a placeholder on this upcoming cruise, hopefully for Alaska 2018 (probably won't do 2 cruises in 2017).

So yep, Alaska is just postponed. But we're both truly excited about this upcoming cruise!

Last night I received the first part of my inheritance (the rest will not come until next year at some point I believe) so while we are being responsible with the bulk of the money, we did 'splurge' and upgrade our stateroom from an inside to a verandah! I'm thinking, however, that after this cruise we'll be spoiled and will not want to go back down to an inside cabin (split the difference for the next cruise, do an oceanview? lol)

Just started reading this... how awesome that you are getting an inheritance!

 

[bcwife76]

@Hundredacre it seems to be stalled at the moment. So not sure when the bulk is going to come through. At this rate I'm not expecting any more until mid 2017 at the earliest.