WDW Commando Club

[csmommy]

Along with what you do, we DH & I have:

Disney Visa - we save our points up for our every other year trips.
My Points - Cash that out for a shopping trip & then put that money into our Disney fund.
Citiforward - Cash points out for a VISA gc
Pay Day - Put the "rounding" amount aside, ie.-if check is $525.50 then $5.50 gors towards Disney Fund.

 

[LAS321]

My planning isn't nearly as intense as yours!
I always throw my spare change in a jar and cash it in throughout the year and that strictly MY souvenir money. This way I never feel guilty about splurging on something I really want. About a month out I start filling my mousekeeping envelopes ($3 a day for DD and I). This year Stop and Shop had a deal that if you bought $50 in gift cards you got a $15 coupon. So I bought $225 in Disney cards and saved $60...not bad. I use my Discover rewards for the year to buy the plane ticket...I still obsess that I have enough money and usually bring too much anyway!
We're down to 18 days!!!!

 

[juliebug1997]

I suppose that DH would love for me to come up with some spending strategy but I like things the way they are now. I pay for the housing, tickets (APs now), and dining plan and then the things like Pirates and Pals and Wishes Dessert Party. He pays for everything else, so air and all the things once we get there.

Commando,
We're doing a five day late next June and then a few days once we get off the boat. If you haven't been on the cruise, it's a lot of fun. There are still some ways to be commando.

 

[DisGal520]

above post made me wonder.......hmmmm


who goes commando planning ON the Disney Cruise??

 

[supersuperwendy]

My planning isn't nearly as intense as yours!
I always throw my spare change in a jar and cash it in throughout the year and that strictly MY souvenir money. This way I never feel guilty about splurging on something I really want. About a month out I start filling my mousekeeping envelopes ($3 a day for DD and I). This year Stop and Shop had a deal that if you bought $50 in gift cards you got a $15 coupon. So I bought $225 in Disney cards and saved $60...not bad. I use my Discover rewards for the year to buy the plane ticket...I still obsess that I have enough money and usually bring too much anyway!
We're down to 18 days!!!!

We have a big mickey mouse cookie jar that we put our WDW money in! It also has my mousekeeping tip envelopes in it. We haven't gotten any gift cards yet for the next trip..so it's mostly change!!

 

[speedo]

Can I join:
On my most recent trip in June I got to Magic Kingdom an hour before it opened and left at 2 am after EMH was over. Only break from MK was dinner at California Grill!

Oh and great tip about the transportation cards - that is new to me - I'll have to remember next time I go to WDW.

 

[juliebug1997]

above post made me wonder.......hmmmm


who goes commando planning ON the Disney Cruise??

Well, it's sort of an easier going commando, unless you must do everything. We would get our navigator every evening and take a look at the offerings and see what we wanted to do (character meetings, tours, visits to the kitchens for classes, etc). So we would plan out the night before. On the boat, though, you can't plan out where you're going to eat for dinner (breakfast and lunch are entirely different), unless of course you want to stay on the boat at Castaway Cay (they end lunch on the boat quite early since there's the feast on the island). We did a lot but not nearly everything and we would get in bed around 11 PM and be up by 7 AM most days. Of course, we were at the pool by 10:30 AM most mornings.

 

[speedo]

I agree you can definitely still do commando planning for a cruise, although it is not to the extreme that I plan my WDW visits.

Before I book I look at reviews of ship rooms and categories to determine which one I want, its location on the ship - deck, forward/mid/aft, starboard/port. Before my window opens for booking dining/excursions, I look at the ports of call and available excursions. I comb through disboards for any info on the excursions. I am also planning to book a cabana so been reading reviews on their locations and offerings to figure out which one I want ahead of booking. As my window draws closer I get the most recent navigators to determine the schedules for formal night, pirate night, etc. so I can book my dining at Palo/Remy on the night I want to. As soon as my window opens I will be up at midnight booking the cabana, palo and remy reservations, and the excursions I have planned. Next step is to continue to look for updated navigators to plan what I'd like to do once on board. I also look at Disboards for updates on movies showing on board. Then it is time to create my packing list and laying things out to pack. Before arriving at the port I have a good idea of everything I want to do and something of an itinerary but it is flexible with changes in the Navigators. So each night I will sit with highlighters and the navigator for the next day to determine what I want to do.

Is that enough to be considered commando planning?

 

[Disney Commando]

Can I join:
On my most recent trip in June I got to Magic Kingdom an hour before it opened and left at 2 am after EMH was over. Only break from MK was dinner at California Grill!

Oh and great tip about the transportation cards - that is new to me - I'll have to remember next time I go to WDW.

You are member #163 Nothing like a 16-18hr day of touring

 

[Disney Commando]

I'm glad to see we are pretty much on the same page on taking care of some funding for our WDW trips in advance

csmommy - you got it pretty much covered all the way around, I'm not cashing out my Disney reward dollars this year since I was going to pay for next years meals with them & now with a cruise in the works also I'm kinda glad I didn't since I'll have a few hundred Dis dollars to put towards it

LAS321 - I did use the Stop & Shop promo (already had WDW GC in place) used them for Home Depot (got $75 free food ) I did tell my wife if they ever do it again I want to buy like $2000 of WDW GC's in $50 pops, pay for them with the Dis Visa ( $20 rewards + $600 free food) then pay some of the trip with the GC's & of course pay visa bill when it comes so I don't have to pay the intrest Covering the plane tickets is a big expense out of the way

supersuperwendy - I have never even thought about tipping Mousekeeping, how much are you supposed to leave them Can't believe I've overlooked this

Julie & speedo - I'm glad you brought up Cruise's, this is all new to me, I'll be honest I'm going to need some help As far as being Commando on a Cruise if there is any group out there that can come up with a Commando type plan it would be us After all 1 main thing you need to be to be a Commando is to be versatile

Julie- good chance we will be at WDW at the same time in June

 

[APB513]

I agree you can definitely still do commando planning for a cruise, although it is not to the extreme that I plan my WDW visits.

Before I book I look at reviews of ship rooms and categories to determine which one I want, its location on the ship - deck, forward/mid/aft, starboard/port. Before my window opens for booking dining/excursions, I look at the ports of call and available excursions. I comb through disboards for any info on the excursions. I am also planning to book a cabana so been reading reviews on their locations and offerings to figure out which one I want ahead of booking. As my window draws closer I get the most recent navigators to determine the schedules for formal night, pirate night, etc. so I can book my dining at Palo/Remy on the night I want to. As soon as my window opens I will be up at midnight booking the cabana, palo and remy reservations, and the excursions I have planned. Next step is to continue to look for updated navigators to plan what I'd like to do once on board. I also look at Disboards for updates on movies showing on board. Then it is time to create my packing list and laying things out to pack. Before arriving at the port I have a good idea of everything I want to do and something of an itinerary but it is flexible with changes in the Navigators. So each night I will sit with highlighters and the navigator for the next day to determine what I want to do.

Is that enough to be considered commando planning?

Wow Speedo That is truly commando planning. We are sailing on the Disney Dream next month.

Where do you go to find Navigators?

Thanks!

 

[juliebug1997]

Julie & speedo - I'm glad you brought up Cruise's, this is all new to me, I'll be honest I'm going to need some help As far as being Commando on a Cruise if there is any group out there that can come up with a Commando type plan it would be us After all 1 main thing you need to be to be a Commando is to be versatile

Julie- good chance we will be at WDW at the same time in June

We would look and see what characters were going to be out. On your first day they give you kind of general list of all the activities, so we did know that the princesses would be out after everyone left for Nassau and on the day at sea. Well, it's a no brainer when you should go see the princesses, and boy were we right!!!! When, we scoped out the line on our day at sea, the line was back to the other set of elevators down by Animator's Palate (best restaurant, hands down by the way). We were so sad that we never got to see a movie in the theater but that's something we're going to try for the cruise next year.

This may sound weird, but I would be honored to meet Commando #1. My DH is ready to get back to WDW in order to start collecting the transportation cards.

 

[Disney Commando]

This may sound weird, but I would be honored to meet Commando #1. My DH is ready to get back to WDW in order to start collecting the transportation cards.

How nice I'd be honored to meet you and your husband also You just gave me a idea If we are there the same time in June and since your DH wants to get these cards, maybe we could meet up in the mid-afternoon and see how many cards we can score in a hour I'm sure he will be hooked

Speaking of meets if anyone else will be at WDW August 21-27 and would like to meet up, let me know

 

[Disney Commando]

I was just checking park hours and it seems I've gained 2 extra touring hours Back in Feb HS was having EMH till 10pm now it's 12am

It's important to check every once in a while, You never know, seems like every year I come across a change

 

[juliebug1997]

I was just checking park hours and it seems I've gained 2 extra touring hours Back in Feb HS was having EMH till 10pm now it's 12am

It's important to check every once in a while, You never know, seems like every year I come across a change

I totally agree. There were some things that we wouldn't have known for our trip in March if I hadn't checked a couple of days before we arrived.

 

[Disney Commando]

Score Picked up my paperwork from AAA for the trip, seems like they added a new perk a few weeks ago

MK Fireworks Viewing - Preferred viewing area for Wishes Nighttime Spectacular at the Plaza Landing (next to Dessert Party), I was home 5 mins before I was on the phone making a ressie, we got Sun the 21st our 1st day

 

[jmm476]

Score Picked up my paperwork from AAA for the trip, seems like they added a new perk a few weeks ago

MK Fireworks Viewing - Preferred viewing area for Wishes Nighttime Spectacular at the Plaza Landing (next to Dessert Party), I was home 5 mins before I was on the phone making a ressie, we got Sun the 21st our 1st day

Nice! I'm glad they added that perk. As soon as enough people know about it though, it will be just as hard to reserve as preferred parade viewing. Do they still have that or did fireworks replace the parade?

 

[speedo]

Very cool about the preferred viewing. I heard about the dessert viewing but not the preferred viewing. Can't wait to hear how you like it!

Sorry I haven’t been back in a few days but here are the links I use in commando planning a Disney Cruise:

General Discussion board for Disney Cruise

One stop shopping for all of your questions in alphabetical order!

Navigators!

Stateroom Reviews

Cruise meet ups

 

[Disney Commando]

Nice! I'm glad they added that perk. As soon as enough people know about it though, it will be just as hard to reserve as preferred parade viewing. Do they still have that or did fireworks replace the parade?

When I booked in Jan, the parade viewing was already terminated, I was told yesterday that the fireworks viewing was not suppossed to start till 2012, but they started it the beginning of July

 

[GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes]

Very cool about the preferred viewing. I heard about the dessert viewing but not the preferred viewing. Can't wait to hear how you like it!

Sorry I haven’t been back in a few days but here are the links I use in commando planning a Disney Cruise:

General Discussion board for Disney Cruise

One stop shopping for all of your questions in alphabetical order!

Navigators!

Stateroom Reviews

Cruise meet ups

These are excellent resources and will tell you most of what you need to know.


Here’s a few general things I’ve learned about Disney cruising (I’ll use references for the Dream in my examples, but they apply to all ships)

If you want any chance at being chosen as the “First Family” for that cruise, you better be in the terminal as early as possible, and there need to be something interesting about the group (IE, matching custom shirts, several kids of varying ages, traveling with several generations in the same party… something that stands out and makes for a good story).

Being at the terminal early dose not necessarily mean that you’ll get on the ship early, but it certainly helps. First… no one get onboard before 11:00. Second, the Concierge folks get on first (right after the “Family of the Cruise”). Third, after that you’re boarded in groups based on a “Boarding Number” card. They hand these out at the time you check in to the terminal. But… even if you are part of boarding group 12, you’ll still generally be on board before 12:30 (unless you arrive latter)

If you’re not all that hungry, head straight for deck 11 and hit the pool (carry swim suits and/or a change of cloths when you board). The crowd will only get larger as the day goes on and they will start closing everything down as the time for the lifeboat drill approaches (and you must take part in the lifeboat drill… no exceptions).

Lunch options… most folks head up to Cabana’s for lunch, but you can also go to one of the main restaurants (usually “Enchanted Garden”) and they will be serving an excellent buffet. It’s quieter, calmer, the food is good and you can bring your carry on bags with you and just set then against the wall or by your table. It also a good time to take a few pictures of one of the main dinning rooms if you want

No one gets into their cabin before 1:30. Period. If you have to carry on bags, make sure they are easy to carry, pull, drag or what have you, because you’ll need to keep with you until the staterooms are opened.

Your first Navigator will be in your Stateroom when you get there. Take it with you when you leave the room, but you can also get extra copies at the Purser’s Desk in the main lobby. Highlighters are a good idea for marking the things that you wan to get into.

They purposely schedule most of the major shows/events so that you can get from one to the next, to the next easily. If you see that one thing is ending just and something else is beginning, don’t worry, you’ll have time to get from one venue to the other without missing a thing (this include the schedules for the movies)

Te best time to do the “extra things” on the ship are when every one else is off the ship. Not everyone can take advantage of this, but suppose that you have either already been to Nassau or don’t have any excursions planed for that day. Then this is the time to get to the pool, ride on the AquaDuck (over and over), take part in the Detective Agency challenge, hit the miniature golf course, or spend extended time in the hot tubs.

When you get to Castaway Cay, hop on the tram and ride it all the way down to the last stop (Pelican Point). It will be far less crowded, so you can get a good to excellent spot on the beach and pick up any rented gear (snorkels, floats. Ect…) while the crowds are low. As usual, the earlier that you are out on the island, the better the pickings.

Just a few thoughts...