20050514..May 14, 2005...Official Check in Disney's 1st 14 Day thru Panama Canal Part 4

[kpros]

Just a fair warning-points are going up April 1. The DVC sales person can do everything via email or fax and you get your points awarded within 24 hours of when you initiate the paperwork. I know someone that actually just did this between yesterday and today.

Linda

I confess, Shari and I did it.

Ken

 

[Hygiene99]

I confess, Shari and I did it.

Ken

Great Job K & S

We just need to add More points. lol Peter

Thank you Linda !

 

[kpros]

Great Job K & S

We just need to add More points. lol Peter

Thank you Linda !

I get the feeling that "we just need to add more points" is a common saying within the DVC.

Ken

 

[Scott H]

Hate to tell you guys this, but I'm sure Scott will also agree. We have never regretted our decision into buying our initial points (nor any of the add ons). We have done so many cruises and trips to WDW on points, and it sure has been nice not to get out that credit card to pay for any of that stuff when we are at the mousehouse!

What she said is oh so true.

I get the feeling that "we just need to add more points" is a common saying within the DVC.

I am currently working on a program to curb theeffects of addonitis. I plan to mass market it to DVC owners and use the profits to buy more DVC points.

 

[Mickey&JoshNut]

I am really conflicted about this cruise too. For last year's Repo, I could not wait to book!!! But now, I keep saying I want to go, then I look at the numbers and the ports, and the numbers, and the ports.... and I keep thinking that a Hawaiian cruise would be so much cheaper, with a lot more ports. But it wouldn't be Disney. Guess I have to make up my mind beore Tuesday..

This is me exactly except mine is Alaska instead of Hawaii....while I think that the Med Repo would be fun....I look at the cost and the ports and I just don't find it that exciting....not as much as the Panama Repo....I think we will be passing on this Repo cruise and hope that Disney goes somewhere just as exciting in 2008.

I will man the Live thread from here in my family room!!!!!!

 

[EpcotKilterFan]

I am really conflicted about this cruise too. For last year's Repo, I could not wait to book!!! But now, I keep saying I want to go, then I look at the numbers and the ports, and the numbers, and the ports.... and I keep thinking that a Hawaiian cruise would be so much cheaper, with a lot more ports. But it wouldn't be Disney. Guess I have to make up my mind beore Tuesday..

Then Elaine

This is me exactly except mine is Alaska instead of Hawaii....while I think that the Med Repo would be fun....I look at the cost and the ports and I just don't find it that exciting....not as much as the Panama Repo....I think we will be passing on this Repo cruise and hope that Disney goes somewhere just as exciting in 2008.

I will man the Live thread from here in my family room!!!!!!

You know I was going back and forth on this one too

At first I was disappointed by the ports. But the more I looked at them and talked with a friend, these ports are not the "normal" places to travel to. They are a bit more exclusive than what the Med cruises are doing. It is "easier" to travel to Italy than it is to Cadiz, Canary Islands and Gibraltar.

Several people have said to me that you can do this much cheaper. But even they said, you will be with friends and that is alot!

We are not adventurous travellers. Having three ports, and nice ones after some research, Disney makes it easy for me. Just like Tom McAlpin said, we want to make it easy for our guests. I will get my feet wet with European travel. If I like it, another trip that is less expensive can be in my future.

The price is the bigger issue. But as long as it does not go into the stratosphere, I will go on the May repo cruise. Yes it is priced alot higher than other lines, but I know what to expect and that is a huge thing for me.

Using DVC points to pay for the cruise was an option for a little bit, but I just do not have enough of them to cover it. Maybe next time

Debbie

 

[Mickey&JoshNut]

Is anyone watching The Apprentice??????

They are showcasing Norweigan Cruise Line's new ship "The Jewel" which is absolutely incredible....Mom commented "I wonder how much it costs to cruise"....so I checked out their site and found a 14 night transatlantic cruise leaving from Miami to Barcelona April 30, 2006....the itinerary is incredible with stops in the Azores, Portugal, Rome, Florence, Nice and Barcelona....the price of this cruise is 1/2 the cost of DCL....granted you don't have the Disney Magic but for 1/2 the price Mom and I might look into cruising NCL in the future just to see what it is like....

 

[seaulater]

Is anyone watching The Apprentice??????

They are showcasing Norweigan Cruise Line's new ship "The Jewel" which is absolutely incredible....Mom commented "I wonder how much it costs to cruise"....so I checked out their site and found a 14 night transatlantic cruise leaving from Miami to Barcelona April 30, 2006....the itinerary is incredible with stops in the Azores, Portugal, Rome, Florence, Nice and Barcelona....the price of this cruise is 1/2 the cost of DCL....granted you don't have the Disney Magic but for 1/2 the price Mom and I might look into cruising NCL in the future just to see what it is like....

We have cruised NCL and did not like it at all. I guess we are spoiled by the personalized service we receive on DCL. With freestyle dining, you never have the same waiter more than once, so every night you are repeating what you want when you sit down, whereas I know on DCL that from night one when I tell them what I want to drink, or how I like my food prepared, I never have to explain again. Also, we found that when we went to dinner nightly, we always had to wait outside for 15-20 minutes to be seated because there was a long line up of people. You couldn't get lobster in the main dining room. You had to go to one of the others where they charge you a $10 cover fee for person. Anyway, we weren't impressed. Doubt we will ever go on NCL again (unless someone gave me a free trip!)

Linda

 

[Pappy]

whilst the excitment of visiting europe is to be expected, please be aware that some of the ports of call can be a little surprising..eg tenerife..

this is a major vacation destination for holiday makers from the uk, holland and germany.

the centre of the island is very steep and infact is an inactive volcano (mt teide) The north of the island can be very wet and the south sheltered side can be very hot and dry.

It has been alleged that the island is very over developed and that time share building and selling is the islands major industry!!

Heavy drinking/partying is not unknown amongst the many bars and clubs. Whilst the drinking age on the ship may be 21 in spain its a lot lower. In fact sometimes it seems that bar owners will sell to anyone that can hold a glass.

Further information is of course available on the web. an example of the sort of holidays offered by uk holiday companys can be found at www.thomson.co.uk

All in all I would not make tenerife my number one destination..thats why I come to Florida.

PS.. if you get to Italy and consider a car hire,, remember that Italians are known all over Europe for their style of driving (This is the home of Ferrari!!) and most cars available for hire will be very small by US Standards and will almost certainly be manual gear box.

 

[Mickey&JoshNut]

okay...so have any of the Repo'ers that were on the waitlist been called by DCL yet???????

ohhhhhhhh Celeste

 

[krdisneybound]

okay...so have any of the Repo'ers that were on the waitlist been called by DCL yet???????
ohhhhhhhh Celeste

Yep - I got called today at about 4:00 pm. Asked me which one i wanted to do, took all the information and then asked for my credit card info.

They even are asking for passport numbers at the time ressies are taken now.

Funny thing, I HAVE NOT put in my name for contact as of yet. Do not know how I got called. I choose the room and everything. I had to tell the agent that I had to confirm with my other parties I would be traveling with to see what was final for all of us.

Still not sure what to do and which one to take yet.

For cat. 11, in handicap rm. - 6147 - which I usually am given, it was $3,500 pp, dble occupancy. Deposit was $500 pp.

Have no idea how my name got on the list. Very confusing

 

[Mickey&JoshNut]

Kay....how cool that you got on the Unofficial/Offical Waitlist and didn't even know it!!!!!

So how was your cruise you recently took? Was it on the Costa Magica?????

 

[krdisneybound]

Kay....how cool that you got on the Unofficial/Offical Waitlist and didn't even know it!!!!!
So how was your cruise you recently took? Was it on the Costa Magica?????

If you really want to know, here is what I posted on the Costa website. My first Costa and my last Costa cruise.

Crusing on the Magic on June 10th (7 day) with 3Dan and his family - I'll be in heaven again

HERE GOES:

We boarded the ship without any problem whatsoever. Probably due to my scooter and they took us out of the line and we were the 2nd family that boarded.

We were the first to leave the ship also, due to the scooter, most probably. We left on a different deck than the regular passengers also. Not crowded at all. I have to give them credit for that.

I did speak with several others and they complained about standing in the line to check in for over 1-1/2 hours and more. I didn't have to go thru that.

There was lots of help from porters in the terminal.

I AM BACK.................... and glad to be back

ZERO QUALITY ON THIS SHIP - Costa Magica

BUT - she is beautiful and we didn't even get to see all of her - she is hugh and really beautiful

Even with the low prices and specials, don't waste your time or energy or money

I doubt if there is hardly anyone who books a second time. Soon they will run out of people

............. we booked a hdcp room. GUESS WHAT - as Bill said - it was designed to MAKE YOU HANDICAPPED, IF YOU WEREN'T ALREADY . lol

It was a room with BUNK BEDS !!!!!!!!!!!!!! go figure.................
I was eventually told that it was a room for one person. I in not certain words let guest services know that they had all of our information beforehand and this should not have happened.

The first night they brought in a roll a way bed --------------

the 2nd day they did move us to another room with an upgrade and it was nice there

Not one show was over 30 minutes in duration

Our room keys had to be validated each day - that was a pain to keep going down to guest services to get a new key - your keys have too much information about you on it, if you were to lose it

The internet is 50 cents per minute and it takes about 8 minutes to get signed on and very, very slow. I went on and sent two e-mails and it ws $14.50. No flat fee for the internet. I didn't use the Internet after that

Food was never, never hot at any meal. You eat in the same dining room each night. There are several buffets all over the ship, so that was good.

We wanted prime rib one night when it wasn't on the menu and we could not get it. On other cruise lines I have always been able to do this.

Each and every time an announcement was made, it was done in 5 or 6 languages right in a row and it got to be really unacceptable listening to all that. Even at Bingo and the shows.

SMOKING is not controlled on the ship either. There were no smoking signs at the eating tables outside on the decks and people would sit down and smoke anyways. It even came thru the cabin walls.

The kids would go in the adult pool and no one would say anything to them. Even the adults that were in the pool. They would just get out and sunbath.

My camera broke and the lens would not open on the 2nd day. I took it to the photo shop and asked them if they knew anything that could be done to fix it. They wanted me to buy a new camera and when I wouldn't, after that, they would not even look at us when we would go back to look at the pics. We didn't have anymore made either and only bought one each of me and one of Harry. We have too many from other cruises anyways.

None of the crew would smile as you walk around. They would actually keep walking and not even say anything to you. JUST NOT WHAT WE ARE USED TO WHEN WE CRUISE.

I have been on many cruise ships including QE and QE2, RCL, NCL, Celebrity and DISNEY. Now Celebrity owns Costa, so that surprised me very much.

It is probably a good thing I wasn't on Princess this week, as she is the one that caught fire and one person passed away from it. Horrible thing to happen.

Here is the site: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11975460/

Never, never have I complained about a cruise or given a negative with one of the questionnaires.

Of course, being an Italian ship, the crew was basically Italian and they spoke all the languages. But they are originating in the US and should cater to us. Everyone pretty much spoke English but wouldn't 'cause the crew spoke to them in their language

One good thing is that the last two days of the cruise, we were able to give housekeeping all of our clothes and they washed and folded everything for us for a flat fee of $19.99 and all we had to do is put them in the suitcase and when we got home, they were ready to be put back in the drawers or on the shelf. That was very nice.

Sort of like WIFE SWAP

I did meet quite a few people on the cruise and that was very nice. Several of them live pretty close to me and we'll probably be cruisin again with each other. There was a group of us of about 35 or so and we had a meet and greet and that was very nice.




SO THERE -----------------------

 

[Mickey&JoshNut]

Kay....thanks for the report....will cross them off any potential cruise list no matter how cheap they are offered

I had heard that a 15 year old girl went overboard on the Costa Magica...sure hope this wasn't during your cruise.

 

[krdisneybound]

Kay....thanks for the report....will cross them off any potential cruise list no matter how cheap they are offered

I had heard that a 15 year old girl went overboard on the Costa Magica...sure hope this wasn't during your cruise.

We were talking about that while onboard. Supposedly she was PG by a crew member and he didn't want her to keep/have the baby so she jumped overboard. The ship did a search and rescue and did find her. She was OK - I think it was two weeks ago before our cruise.

Actually the ship missed a port because of it.

Edited to add: a crew member in the dining room told us this

 

[Mickey&JoshNut]

We were talking about that while onboard. Supposedly she was PG by a crew member and he didn't want her to keep/have the baby so she jumped overboard. The ship did a search and rescue and did find her. She was OK - I think it was two weeks ago before our cruise.

Actually the ship missed a port because of it.

Edited to add: a crew member in the dining room told us this

Wow....I wonder if that is another case....We heard on one of our news programs that during spring break.....this 15 year old was served underage and was drunk and "fell" overboard from her family's verandah at the aft of the ship....the program even had copies of the bar invoices and her signature was readable on the first two and by the 5th one it was a scribble.

 

[krdisneybound]

Goodness - wonder now if there was two also

 

[BobandLee]

Bob and Lee... hope you're having LOTS OF FUN at WDW!!!

Thank you thinking about us Georgie. Tell Joe we said "HI"
Will miss you guys on the 11 day.

 

[BobandLee]

GOOD MORNING EVERYONE
60 beautiful sunny degrees here in Central Florida.
Sorry to hear about the snow up north and west.

Been great here so far. Met Webray (Cheryl & Bob) over the weekend. Good time with them. Yes, Elaine, we cheated on the Mouse and went to City Walk.

Have been to the Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom so far. Epcot tomorrow.
Last night we ate at Whispering Canyon. It was good, but not as crazy as we thought it would be. Today it is off to the Grand Floridian as Lee wants one of these.

Will work on my tan the next few days for the grass skirt. (see the 11 day thread)

 

[Q's My Princess]

Greetings from Ireland!

We are having a grand time...here is how we spent our morning...

On Sunday we are meeting Ashley & Karen (ashleydoc) for dinner in London.