I will try my best a writing a nice trip report (sorry for my poor spelling) of our Wester Carribean cruise.
I guess you can say this all started last summer when I asked for the disney DVD to be sent to my house. Mistake #1 - Watching the DVD with the children in the room. Right away they wanted to go on the DISNEY BOAT. Keep on asking and telling us that is what they want for the family yearly trip. Well be ended up doing Disneyland instead of the boat. So why is my trip to Disneyland linked to my cruise. We ended up taking a bump on the flight and each of us ended up with $400 travel vouchers. MONEY for a flight for the Disney cruise.
Okay I was looking and looking at times and prices of Disney Cruise and where I wanted to see. Over Christmas I talked with my couise who just got back from the Disney cruise and said he loved it along with his family. OKAY i am ready for book. I did want a later 7 day cruise in May but May 5 was the last 7 day till September. Okay May 5, 2007 would be our date. With a smile I booked and thougth being my DS 7th birthday on May 5th I do not have to have a birthday party....
Well I ended up finding the DIS board in Febuary or March. I had to read every thing and anything I could get on Disney cruise. I wanted to be ready I wanted to know what to do... Trip reports and travel tips. I noted all and printed off what I needed. So I have a nice 3 ring binder of what is good for a the disney cruise.
What tips I loved:
The shoe orginizer for all those little things... Loved it..
Extra food for the shows and movies..... saved some money
Card to use for the safe..
I remember reading somewhere. Plan for the best and go without having high expectations. That is what I was hoping to do.
Booking the cruise was easy to do. I e-mail my TA and they did all the work. Charged my credit card every 2 weeks till it was paid for. But getting the Airline was a challege. Anyone who had taken a bump and gotten travel vouches. Well you cannot use them over the internet. You have to purchase your tickets in person at a Delta ticket agent. Well living 2 hours away from any airport or ticket agent. Then the fair you find online is not the fair they delta rep is getting. I found tickets for 426 but he kept telling me they were 725 a person. :yikes: Finaly I got an agent who found out how to get me the 426. Awsome I only had to pay 26 per person to get a flight to Orlando. Still had to get down to the airport and get the tickets.
Okay got the tickets time to get a hotel room for Orlando. Being on the West coast you have to get there a day ahead. Well I wanted to save money and still be close to the airport. I bought the bus transfer before I read and found DIS. So I knew we were going to take the Disney bus line to get to the Cruise. Well I am a Hilton Honors member and have enought points for a free night :smile: I logged online and found Embassy Suites was close to the airport and free shuttle. Okay I thougth I booked for May 4 till may 5th. Well I was checking my April Charge card statement and found a charge from Embassy Suites Orlando. PANIC... I booked my hotel for March 4 and 5th. I was on the phone ASAP and the nice guy on the other line put the money back into my card and rebooked me for the correct date. SO I did end up with a room May 4th.
Thursday May 3rd, last day of work for 10 days. My mind really wasn't there and the day just didn't go the way it should have. I was hoping to leave by 5:30 to head down to the airport but didn't get to leave till 7 pm. Okay checking in the hotel at 9 pm with 2 sleepy children. Trying to get all the bags out of the van and into the hotel room. 10 bags and no luggage dolly to carry the bags. Took 6 trips and 40 mins. Finaly about 11 we get to bed. 6 am wake up call for the 8:30 am flight. Left the car at the Hotel and took the shuttle to the airport. I have taken many delta flight and used the Kisok at SLC many times. I had my confirmation number and I was ready to check in. Okay I got clear to where it was say check you in and print the boarding pass. Well ERROR unable to check you in. WHAT??? Okay try again. still unable to check you in. SO I had to wait in line to talk to a person. Well it is 7:45, seems that the flight is full and they wanted to put on a stright flight but that too was full. Okay 3 phone calls later I recieved our boarding passes. Well I guess alot of people are fly out of SLC on friday morning. It took 20 mins to get pass security. Walking fast we arrived at our gate about time our zone was being called. Finally on the plane to Alanta via Orlando. I only had 40 min layover time in Alanta. FINALY something went right. We arrived 3 gates away from where we would take off. Quickly running to buy pizza for my children, because they were boarding the plane. We made the plane okay and finished yummy pizza (think we were just hungry). Arrive in Orlando. I had checked my 4 luggage one peice for each of us. Okay 3 made it and 40 mins of watching the same luggage going around and around. I made my way to delta luggage. Seems like my last luggage was not on our plane but on one an hour later. SO I had to wait an extra 30 mins for one bad. Met a few nice people who's luggage also was not our flight.. Finally all of my bags arrived and caught the shuttle for the hotel. At least I can get a good night sleep...
More to come..... A trip full of suprizes...
.
I guess you can say this all started last summer when I asked for the disney DVD to be sent to my house. Mistake #1 - Watching the DVD with the children in the room. Right away they wanted to go on the DISNEY BOAT. Keep on asking and telling us that is what they want for the family yearly trip. Well be ended up doing Disneyland instead of the boat. So why is my trip to Disneyland linked to my cruise. We ended up taking a bump on the flight and each of us ended up with $400 travel vouchers. MONEY for a flight for the Disney cruise.
Okay I was looking and looking at times and prices of Disney Cruise and where I wanted to see. Over Christmas I talked with my couise who just got back from the Disney cruise and said he loved it along with his family. OKAY i am ready for book. I did want a later 7 day cruise in May but May 5 was the last 7 day till September. Okay May 5, 2007 would be our date. With a smile I booked and thougth being my DS 7th birthday on May 5th I do not have to have a birthday party....
Well I ended up finding the DIS board in Febuary or March. I had to read every thing and anything I could get on Disney cruise. I wanted to be ready I wanted to know what to do... Trip reports and travel tips. I noted all and printed off what I needed. So I have a nice 3 ring binder of what is good for a the disney cruise.
What tips I loved:
The shoe orginizer for all those little things... Loved it..
Extra food for the shows and movies..... saved some money
Card to use for the safe..
I remember reading somewhere. Plan for the best and go without having high expectations. That is what I was hoping to do.
Booking the cruise was easy to do. I e-mail my TA and they did all the work. Charged my credit card every 2 weeks till it was paid for. But getting the Airline was a challege. Anyone who had taken a bump and gotten travel vouches. Well you cannot use them over the internet. You have to purchase your tickets in person at a Delta ticket agent. Well living 2 hours away from any airport or ticket agent. Then the fair you find online is not the fair they delta rep is getting. I found tickets for 426 but he kept telling me they were 725 a person. :yikes: Finaly I got an agent who found out how to get me the 426. Awsome I only had to pay 26 per person to get a flight to Orlando. Still had to get down to the airport and get the tickets.
Okay got the tickets time to get a hotel room for Orlando. Being on the West coast you have to get there a day ahead. Well I wanted to save money and still be close to the airport. I bought the bus transfer before I read and found DIS. So I knew we were going to take the Disney bus line to get to the Cruise. Well I am a Hilton Honors member and have enought points for a free night :smile: I logged online and found Embassy Suites was close to the airport and free shuttle. Okay I thougth I booked for May 4 till may 5th. Well I was checking my April Charge card statement and found a charge from Embassy Suites Orlando. PANIC... I booked my hotel for March 4 and 5th. I was on the phone ASAP and the nice guy on the other line put the money back into my card and rebooked me for the correct date. SO I did end up with a room May 4th.
Thursday May 3rd, last day of work for 10 days. My mind really wasn't there and the day just didn't go the way it should have. I was hoping to leave by 5:30 to head down to the airport but didn't get to leave till 7 pm. Okay checking in the hotel at 9 pm with 2 sleepy children. Trying to get all the bags out of the van and into the hotel room. 10 bags and no luggage dolly to carry the bags. Took 6 trips and 40 mins. Finaly about 11 we get to bed. 6 am wake up call for the 8:30 am flight. Left the car at the Hotel and took the shuttle to the airport. I have taken many delta flight and used the Kisok at SLC many times. I had my confirmation number and I was ready to check in. Okay I got clear to where it was say check you in and print the boarding pass. Well ERROR unable to check you in. WHAT??? Okay try again. still unable to check you in. SO I had to wait in line to talk to a person. Well it is 7:45, seems that the flight is full and they wanted to put on a stright flight but that too was full. Okay 3 phone calls later I recieved our boarding passes. Well I guess alot of people are fly out of SLC on friday morning. It took 20 mins to get pass security. Walking fast we arrived at our gate about time our zone was being called. Finally on the plane to Alanta via Orlando. I only had 40 min layover time in Alanta. FINALY something went right. We arrived 3 gates away from where we would take off. Quickly running to buy pizza for my children, because they were boarding the plane. We made the plane okay and finished yummy pizza (think we were just hungry). Arrive in Orlando. I had checked my 4 luggage one peice for each of us. Okay 3 made it and 40 mins of watching the same luggage going around and around. I made my way to delta luggage. Seems like my last luggage was not on our plane but on one an hour later. SO I had to wait an extra 30 mins for one bad. Met a few nice people who's luggage also was not our flight.. Finally all of my bags arrived and caught the shuttle for the hotel. At least I can get a good night sleep...
More to come..... A trip full of suprizes...
.
I am sure by the time I start my tr it will all come flooding back to me!
