Wonder Returns to Galveston - November 6, 2015

[ukintheus]

It still feels far out to me too, although our check in window opens next week, so that may help it feel a little more real.

 

[Huskiesrule]

So I thought I would start sharing some tips/reminders for cruisers.
1) For those who are not crafty (or just do not want to), remember you can order a customized FE from etsy. Give yourself enough time before the cruise to get your order in and shipped to you. You can also look on Amazon, Ebay or IKEA for them, although they will not be customized. For the crafty ones, there are many directions on the DISboards and the internet to get you started or give you ideas.
2) For those who are still paying off their cruise and do not like charging it to a credit card, you can use discounted Disney gift cards. The 2 popular places to purchase the discounted gift cards are Target and Sam’s Club. Target is 5% off in store and there is a thread in the cruise forum telling you how you can save more by using discounted Target gift cards for online purchasing. Sam’s sells $150 (3 $50 cards) for $142.98 or 4.68% off. Those are sold in store and online. Sam’s also sells a discounted $50 gift card – I think the savings are around 2% off on that one. The Disney gift card can be used to pay off your cruise, pre pay gratuities and pay off anything purchased onboard such as excursions. If you pay using gift cards, DO NOT get rid of the gift cards. If for some reason you cancel the cruise and have paid for it by gift cards, the money goes back on the gift cards. It would not be fun to have all your cards reactivated and you have dumped the cards.

There is my 2 cents for the day!

 

[MousseauMob]

It still feels far out to me too, although our check in window opens next week, so that may help it feel a little more real.

Ditto - it still seems too far away! You must be platinum or concierge - my check in window isn't for another 3 weeks. I think I'm more concerned about the second leg of the BTB as I'd like to score a cabana on Castaway Cay, but being Gold, I may be out of luck! Here's hoping for pixie dust!

So I thought I would start sharing some tips/reminders for cruisers.
1) For those who are not crafty (or just do not want to), remember you can order a customized FE from etsy. Give yourself enough time before the cruise to get your order in and shipped to you. You can also look on Amazon, Ebay or IKEA for them, although they will not be customized. For the crafty ones, there are many directions on the DISboards and the internet to get you started or give you ideas.
2) For those who are still paying off their cruise and do not like charging it to a credit card, you can use discounted Disney gift cards. The 2 popular places to purchase the discounted gift cards are Target and Sam’s Club. Target is 5% off in store and there is a thread in the cruise forum telling you how you can save more by using discounted Target gift cards for online purchasing. Sam’s sells $150 (3 $50 cards) for $142.98 or 4.68% off. Those are sold in store and online. Sam’s also sells a discounted $50 gift card – I think the savings are around 2% off on that one. The Disney gift card can be used to pay off your cruise, pre pay gratuities and pay off anything purchased onboard such as excursions. If you pay using gift cards, DO NOT get rid of the gift cards. If for some reason you cancel the cruise and have paid for it by gift cards, the money goes back on the gift cards. It would not be fun to have all your cards reactivated and you have dumped the cards.

There is my 2 cents for the day!

Great tips! I'll add my few.

1. Check your documentation - passport expiration's, birth certificates, etc - to make sure there isn't any surprises.
2. Purchase trip insurance (if you're so incline), before PIF, sometimes companies raise rates after the PIF date.
3. Disney Visa allows 6 months 0 interest and an OBC, when used to pay for a vacation.

 

[ukintheus]

Ditto - it still seems too far away! You must be platinum or concierge - my check in window isn't for another 3 weeks. I think I'm more concerned about the second leg of the BTB as I'd like to score a cabana on Castaway Cay, but being Gold, I may be out of luck! Here's hoping for pixie dust!

Yes, we are platinum, and just like you, I am really more waiting to try and get a cabana for our second leg. We've never been able to score one yet, so we don't know what we're missing, but it would be nice just once.

 

[Huskiesrule]

From what I was told on the last cruise, you have to be online at midnight eastern time to maybe get a cabana. The cabanas at Serenity Bay are adults only obviously so they are not as popular. We splurged and booked concierge on the Dream last cruise and had no problems with shoreside getting us a cabana and that was at around 75 days out. We actually started with adult only and switched to the family within a week of the cruise as my sister joined us. Based on the pricing now, they may not be as popular so y'all may be in luck(fingers crossed for you!). Funny thing with cabanas, regardless of price they sit empty. We were the only ones in the cabanas for most of the day and after lunch a few people randomly showed. Ukintheus, if you are online at midnight you will probably score one. Mousseaumob, depending when you check in, you may get lucky. Just remember, if they show booked up until the cruise, guest relations may have some when you get onboard. Pixie dust for luck!

 

[ukintheus]

We have tried before sailing out of Galveston but I'm sure the concierge guests got them first and I wasn't platinum then. Since then I've only tried on the Fantasy and that was a VGT rate so we were already within 75 days so no shocker there. I already have my reminder set for 11 pm CDT

I think there might be a good chance of getting one if you put your name down when you get onboard too. They are pricey and people book them and then cancel closer to the sail date.

 

[MousseauMob]

You can blame us for not getting one your last Galveston cruise! We were concierge, this was before shore side would book it for you - I asked. So I was up at midnight and snagged one! Since that was our first time to Castaway Cay and this will only be our second time to Castaway Cay, this will be the first time of trying to snag one non-concierge. I'm totally crossing my fingers! We really enjoyed it, but I also noticed a lot of them didn't appear to have people in them, I can only assume, they are booked and then people are so busy doing other things on the island they don't get to them much. We used ours all day.

 

[Huskiesrule]

Funny thing with concierge though is they hold cabanas back just for them. Shoreside will tell you that to guarantee a cabana, you are better to do it yourself as they don't do it until like 7/8 a.m. But, since they hold cabanas for concierge guests, who knows what really works.

 

[MousseauMob]

Funny thing with concierge though is they hold cabanas back just for them. Shoreside will tell you that to guarantee a cabana, you are better to do it yourself as they don't do it until like 7/8 a.m. But, since they hold cabanas for concierge guests, who knows what really works.

That is odd, and confusing. Oh well, we're not concierge this trip, so I'm just crossing my fingers.

 

[nicole1234]

That is odd, and confusing. Oh well, we're not concierge this trip, so I'm just crossing my fingers.

I am confused as to what you'll are talking about. This is our first time. Help?!?!? How do we know when our check in is? We can do that this early?

 

[Huskiesrule]

I am confused as to what you'll are talking about. This is our first time. Help?!?!? How do we know when our check in is? We can do that this early?

When you login to the DCL website, it shows you 2 dates. One date is the PIF(paid in full), which is the same for everyone and is 75 days before the cruise. The other date it gives is your check in and you do not need to be PIF to do this. I think you only need to be PIF to book excursions? My dates don't match as I am silver(cruised less than 5 with DCL) so I try to match the check in to have my cruise paid so I can do everything at one time. Now I will be even less helpful as I don't remember when the check in is for 1st time cruisers! Maybe at 75 days, maybe 90 with silver cruisers? I am thinking the info could also be in the emails DCL sends out, unless you booked with a TA, and then you go through them. DCL has 3 levels with different check in times, depending on how many cruises you have done with them to help confuse people.
Your best bet to find the date easily is to look at an email, but logging in works also.

 

[Huskiesrule]

So here are the check in dates for everyone-
Platinum is July 9th.
Gold is July 24th.
Silver is August 8th.
First time cruisers is August 23rd.

Hope this helps!

 

[Nicole Frick]

I have a question for all of you veteran disney cruisers. Is there wifi on the boat? I need to have access to my email at least once a day and I didn't know if I would have to go to the Internet cafe or if there was wifi. TIA

 

[ukintheus]

I have a question for all of you veteran disney cruisers. Is there wifi on the boat? I need to have access to my email at least once a day and I didn't know if I would have to go to the Internet cafe or if there was wifi. TIA

Yes, there is Wifi in your stateroom and other places. The wifi it isn't the fastest in the world but it works pretty well. They upgraded a bunch when they went to the new digital navigator available on cell phones and tablets. Check the paper Navigator the first day (they will be handing them out in the cruise terminal before boarding, or you can pick one up from Guest Services) and see if there is a deal being offered. Our last couple of cruises, they offered something like 50 MB of free data but you had to sign up the first day.

 

[Huskiesrule]

I have a question for all of you veteran disney cruisers. Is there wifi on the boat? I need to have access to my email at least once a day and I didn't know if I would have to go to the Internet cafe or if there was wifi. TIA

Yes, there is wifi. Watch your Navigator on embarkation day for instructions on getting the free 50mb to get you started. Somewhere on the boards is instructions on what to do with your phone/tablet so it doesn't burn through the mb's to fast, like no automatic downloads and turning off apps.
Ukintheus beat me to it, you go girl!

 

[ukintheus]

Yes, there is wifi. Watch your Navigator on embarkation day for instructions on getting the free 50mb to get you started. Somewhere on the boards is instructions on what to do with your phone/tablet so it doesn't burn through the mb's to fast., like no automatic downloads and turning off apps.
Ukintheus beat me to it, you go girl!

We were both speedy! Good point about the apps though. I know for my iphone I kill everything that's running in the background.

 

[Huskiesrule]

We were both speedy! Good point about the apps though. I know for my iphone I kill everything that's running in the background.

I can't wait to try out the text messaging feature in the cruise app. I haven't seen anything reported about it not working, so I have no reason to not talk to the rest of the family onboard. No getting lost on the ship, dang it all.

 

[ukintheus]

I can't wait to try out the text messaging feature in the cruise app. I haven't seen anything reported about it not working, so I have no reason to not talk to the rest of the family onboard. No getting lost on the ship, dang it all.

It's definitely handy and we used it a lot on our cruise with my Mum and sister. The Wave phones are just outdated now for those of us that are used to a full keyboard rather than the old fashioned way of texting.

 

[Huskiesrule]

What would we do without technology? I still remember when they use to give you a paper map of the ship! The good ole days, not sure I miss them though.

 

[MousseauMob]

Are you able to text a wave phone with the app? I have a smart phone and so does my son, so we could use the app, but my daughter does not. If she has a wave phone will I be able to text her?