Was "Live" now great memories from the 2006 DVC Member Cruise

[BriarRose59]

Hi everyone!

We arrived home last yesterday afternoon. We stayed at SSR in The Springs from Thursday until Sunday. I loved it! We have stayed in Congress Park before, but I think I like The Springs better.

Anyway, I wish I could have met more DIS members while on the cruise. My mom was traveling with me and she can't take the heat too well so I didn't even try to come up for the meet on Sunday afternoon. She got too hot on Monday at CC and was not feeling well the rest of the trip. We even shortened our days in the parks, but she just never got to feeling like herself. Oh well, she is resting now that she is sleeping in her own bed and should be better in a couple of days.

I enjoyed the cruise for the most part because I got to relax and spend time with my mom, but I have to say I was also disappointed in what I felt like was the hard sell during the On the Nose gameshow. I also agree that the gifts were lovely, but the weight was excessive. I heard someone mention that it would have been nice if they had given us a postcard on the last evening with a picture of the photo album and box and said that this gift would arrive at our home within a week after the end of the cruise. Plus now we will need to try to find acid free pages to put in the album because I won't use the pages that are in there because they will cause the pictures to deteriorate. The pins were great and the packaging was nice. The rocks thing on CC was a nice idea, but there should have been a limit of 1 rock per cabin or family. The food was great the entire cruise. I enjoyed all the speakers also. The shows were great, as I would have expected from Disney. Since I had not been on a DVC cruise before, I had nothing to compare it to, but I have to agree with the lack of theming towards DVC on this cruise and the pirate night and The Golden Mickeys being on the same night was poor planning.

A special thanks to Robin for getting the MNSSHP t-shirts for my mom and I. We wore them to the party Thursday night and had a lot of compliments. I think we sold more than one since people could see them clearly on us instead of the shirt being crammed onto a rounder in the store.

All in all it was a lovely experience. I can't wait to read more from the rest of the group and see Julie's wedding pictures.

Rochelle

 

[Copper3]

For those planning 2008 cruises, the cruises will be released on 11/1 for cruises 3,4 and 7 days up to 4/24/08.

 

[Copper3]

Thanks Jeff, just what I need......someone to help dig a bigger hole for me I usually have another trip planned before I leave Florida but I don't have any concrete plans for one just yet. That must have been why it was so hard to leave yesterday. Deanna and I have talked about coming down for a week in February when she has her Winter Break. I guess that's not too far away. I'm sure John will come with us, but it will depend on his work schedule.

Thanks for the info on the free park hopping attached to the tickets. My AP is good until Sept but Deanna's expires this Dec. I wasn't sure if I was going to renew hers or just buy her regular tickets.

When is her break? My mom was talking about bringing Casey down then if it's not too expensive to fly down. I think her break is February 19-20 for President's day.

 

[glewis1123]

Hubby and I would love to take the DVC cruise - but we have a 13yr old son - were there many DVC'ers who brought their kids???

or - was it mainly an adult cruise

I truly enjoyed reading all the updates of the cruise happenings and want to thank all of you who took the time to post.

 

[IleneF]

I usually have another trip planned before I leave Florida but I don't have any concrete plans for one just yet. That must have been why it was so hard to leave yesterday.

YIKES! Me too, Gail. I hate the feeling of no trip planned. I'll have to do something about that in a few days I guess. I'm thinking January sounds good. Maybe when Michelle goes back down to Daytona I'll sneak in a few days.

 

[#1Mouse]

When is her break? My mom was talking about bringing Casey down then if it's not too expensive to fly down. I think her break is February 19-20 for President's day.

I'm not sure of the dates, but if Feb 19 is Presidents Day then that would be the week she has off. That would be cool if she and Casey could meet. I know Casey would have had a blast with Mary, Deanna, Cameron and Nick.

 

[#1Mouse]

Hubby and I would love to take the DVC cruise - but we have a 13yr old son - were there many DVC'ers who brought their kids???

or - was it mainly an adult cruise

I truly enjoyed reading all the updates of the cruise happenings and want to thank all of you who took the time to post.

On the Member Cruises there have been alot less kids than normal cruises. Could be the time of the year that the cruises are planned. I would bet he would find someone his age on the cruise. We brought our 12 yo daughter and she had a great time with 3 kids from the DIS.

 

[glewis1123]

On the Member Cruises there have been alot less kids than normal cruises. Could be the time of the year that the cruises are planned. I would bet he would find someone his age on the cruise. We brought our 12 yo daughter and she had a great time with 3 kids from the DIS.

Thanks for the info - this will be a good incentive to our 13 yr old son - now that he's in middle school, we don't allow him to take time off of school (unless he's sick) if he falls below honor roll -

 

[Eeyore77]

Hi there everyone.... Chris and I got back to West Palm Beach on Friday AM at around 1 AM. We decided while we were on the cruise that we were going to attend the MNSSHP on Thursday so we headed right over to WDW from the port.

It was soooo nice to finally get to meet all of you guys and gals on the ship. I hate that Chris and I did not get to hang out more, but we had late dining so that seemed to interfer with going to most anything. I most hated the fact that I did not get to go to Julies Party. As a future Disney Bride Myself I think it would have been great to get to hang out with all of you, but with late dining we rarely ever got out of dinner until after 10. We did go to 80's night that night and I was chosen to be a Go Go for the second time...

Anyway I had a great time on the cruise as I could never have a bad cruise on DCL, but as everyone else has said DVC let us down. If there is another Members Cruise in 2007 we will just have to see if the points and the cost skyrocket, and that will determine if we go or not. The gifts were great and I have no issues with those at all. I already have the pins displayed in the Apt. If I could change one thing about the trip it would be that there needed to be more activities and less talks. The Roy talk was fantastic, but I felt that there seemed to be less in the activities dept. then there has been on previous regular DCL cruises I have taken. This was my first members cruise, but it was my 3rd DCL cruise.

Now on to the task of working on my wedding again. Speaking of did anyone go to Julie's Wedding? I am now counting the days till mine and until we head out on our next cruise on the Wonder for our Honeymoon.....

Thanks for all the added touches you guys gave the cruise with the stuff left on the doors and the fishes. That really was nice to feel included in a group on board...

 

[Stitch#1]

I'm not sure of the dates, but if Feb 19 is Presidents Day then that would be the week she has off. That would be cool if she and Casey could meet. I know Casey would have had a blast with Mary, Deanna, Cameron and Nick.

Do I hear a trip in my near future!?
We don't have our next trip planned yet. Right now I need to switch to holiday mode and get thru that.

 

[#1Mouse]

Do I hear a trip in my near future!?
We don't have our next trip planned yet. Right now I need to switch to holiday mode and get thru that.

I just reread my post, what I meant to say was that if Casey could have gone on the cruise she would have had a great time with Mary, Deanna, Nick & Cameron. Don't worry I'm not trying to plan your next trip - I'm having enough trouble trying to get mine planned

 

[iluvdisney]

I left WDW on Sunday and drove down and visited with my sister and her family after checking out of OKW.
Left my sister's place in Palm Bay (about an hour south of Port Canaveral) around 3:30 pm - around 3 in the morning (Monday) my eyes decided to glaze over and I stopped at a rest area in KY to rest my eyes and woke up 2 hours later and drove the rest of the way.
Of course I had stopped and filled up with gas - paid $1.99 in South Carolina and grabbed a few munchies on the road.

I arrived back at home to the baby crawling and smiling around 2:30 pm so it wasn't too bad.

Didn't even turn my computer on yesterday since I was a bit on the tired side after unpacking the car.

I just want to say that I had the best time with all of you! All of the meets and parties and fun stories made me laugh so hard that I want to do it all over again!!!

Will check in again when I'm finished unpacking and getting to the Halloween stuff around here.

 

[Stitch#1]

I just reread my post, what I meant to say was that if Casey could have gone on the cruise she would have had a great time with Mary, Deanna, Nick & Cameron. Don't worry I'm not trying to plan your next trip - I'm having enough trouble trying to get mine planned

Hey I'm always open to suggestions. Especially since we don't have anything planned right now.

 

[seaulater]

Hello all. Finally read the posts and I will try to post a trip report this weekend of our experience.

Georgie's thoughts are right on the money. Although this cruise was great, it was not outstanding. I didn't get to spend much time with everyone since I was with my mom and sister so I missed out on some of the time I usually spend with my disboard friends.

I noticed someone asked about the "rocks". Yes, I did get a rock. And I can honestly say, the rock is already in my Disney Curio Cabinet at home proudly on display. There were 80 rocks on CC the second day we were there. I was the 5th person off the ship and I walked all down the family beach to the stingrays and the family ahead of me had already picked up a "bunch". So I headed out to the bike path and that is where I found mine. I was hoping that since the rocks were numbered, one would be "special" and I would get a free cruise or something out of it HAHAHA.....but everyone received a LE hat that says "Twice the Magic" with the Disney Cruise Line ship on front and then on the side it said Castaway Cay, 2006.

Got to thinking about that and in my mind, the hats were left from the Magic's double dip at CC in 2006 and since we double dipped, we got the "Twice the Magic" hats. I value the rock more than the hat (honestly).

Anyway, I am finishing planning a conference for 130 that I am flying to Vegas for on Saturday. So, I'll work on typing my trip report and have it posted with pictures this weekend.

 

[WDWLVR]

That's the thing - we wanted the rock as a display piece not for the prize. Sadly the family that grabbed a bunch probably didn't even take them home. Too funny about the hat as we have one of those already. We did the May double dip and while they didn't have them on that cruise a kind DISer picked one up for us on the August double dip.

 

[rkdahl]

I see the 2007 DVC Member cruise is now announced and information is on the DVC Members Only web site. Looks like points have gone up about 6-8 points for basic inside/outside cabins and more for high end staterooms. Cruise is the week of Oct 21st-25th, 2007 and on the Disney Wonder again. Same route as this year with 2 stops at Castaway Cay. Also a new reservation selection process for those who have never sailed on a member cruise, that starts today!

Sure is strange they didn't announce this on the cruise last week?

 

[Mickey&JoshNut]

I see the 2007 DVC Member cruise is now announced and information is on the DVC Members Only web site. Looks like points have gone up about 6-8 points for basic inside/outside cabins and more for high end staterooms. Cruise is the week of Oct 21st-25th, 2007 and on the Disney Wonder again. Same route as this year with 2 stops at Castaway Cay. Also a new reservation selection process for those who have never sailed on a member cruise, that starts today!

Sure is strange they didn't announce this on the cruise last week?

Here's the post that I posted back on 10-25-06

I have some friends on this cruise so I have been reading the thread in hopes that they would post (hi Linda, Nancy, Georgie & Joe ).

I have read people asking about a member cruise next year but that DVC has not announced anything. I saw this post on the main cruise thread this morning and think this may be your answer as to whether or not there is a member cruise next year.

We had a 7day land and sea booked for Oct 14/07 followed by a 4 night cruise on Oct 21/07. Disney chartered out the Wonder for the Oct 21st sailing. I asked Costco to have Disney move up both our booking one week. A Costco TA called me today saying that both bookings have been moved up by one week (keeping the original price as they have both gone up $300+ each) we were also upgraded from a Cat 6 to a Cat 4

It seems DVC & DCL did have the information - strange that they wouldn't make an announcement onboard.

 

[Stitch#1]

I see the 2007 DVC Member cruise is now announced and information is on the DVC Members Only web site. Looks like points have gone up about 6-8 points for basic inside/outside cabins and more for high end staterooms. Cruise is the week of Oct 21st-25th, 2007 and on the Disney Wonder again. Same route as this year with 2 stops at Castaway Cay. Also a new reservation selection process for those who have never sailed on a member cruise, that starts today!

Sure is strange they didn't announce this on the cruise last week?

They probably didn't announce it onboard because of the way they are doing reservations for the next cruise which will basically exclude anyone who has done a memeber cruise before and wanted to avoid a little riot over that.

Set Sail on the S.S. Member Cruise 2007
Enjoy a dream vacation with fellow Disney Vacation Club Members as you experience a fantastic 4-night Caribbean cruise. If you've been unable to join us on a past S.S. Member Cruise because these popular excursions book up so fast, here's some great news. This year, Disney Vacation Club is introducing a new Reservation Selection Process especially for first-time S.S. Member Cruise sailers. From November 2 - November 19, 2006, Members who've never experienced an S.S. Member Cruise can apply for a spot to make a reservation during the first booking date on Saturday, December 2, 2006. During the second booking date on Saturday, December 9, 2006, all Members will have the chance to book a stateroom reservation on a first-call, first-served basis, while availability lasts.

 

[bonzie1]

They probably didn't announce it onboard because of the way they are doing reservations for the next cruise which will basically exclude anyone who has done a memeber cruise before and wanted to avoid a little riot over that.

Set Sail on the S.S. Member Cruise 2007
Enjoy a dream vacation with fellow Disney Vacation Club Members as you experience a fantastic 4-night Caribbean cruise. If you've been unable to join us on a past S.S. Member Cruise because these popular excursions book up so fast, here's some great news. This year, Disney Vacation Club is introducing a new Reservation Selection Process especially for first-time S.S. Member Cruise sailers. From November 2 - November 19, 2006, Members who've never experienced an S.S. Member Cruise can apply for a spot to make a reservation during the first booking date on Saturday, December 2, 2006. During the second booking date on Saturday, December 9, 2006, all Members will have the chance to book a stateroom reservation on a first-call, first-served basis, while availability lasts.

Thanks for the information! I've been off the boards, and home sick so this is the first I'm reading about next year's member cruise.

I smile about your comment about a "little riot" I think there would have been a MAJOR one on board if that announcement was made. You're going to tell people who got up early (if you were on the Weat coast), waited on hold, and were so excited to finally get a spot and book the '06 DVC Member Cruise, that because they did this, they will be shut out of the next cruise? Even now, hearing that DVC knew what they were planning all along with the advanced booking, while we were all sailing together, and telling us just how special we were on the cruise leaves a bad feeling. It also sheds light on why the presentations were so scripted.

Why not really stick your neck out and see if you could work with DCL to take both ships out (adjusting the schedule of the Magic) on an identical cruise... same itinerary... same special guests instead of punish those who really want to take a cruise. They could even plan to have the ships pass each other and do a special fireworks display...