Steve and Sue and the Wonder-ful DVC Member Cruise **Updated 11/1** COMPLETE About This Page:

[rescuesk]

Ok, here it goes....another trip report! Now, those of you who have read my trip reports before know that I am not always....well.....timely in finishing them up. In fact, I think there's a 2004 trip report with my name on it somewhere in cyber space waiting to be finished. BUT....I have been preeeettttyyyy good about my cruise trip reports. So as this is a land and sea trip, I am going to start with the sea and we'll see about the land!

Who: Steve and Sue, DVC members, 4th time cruisers, Castaway Club members

When: The cruise is September 21st-25th. Our vacation is Sept 19th-28th.

Where: The Radisson at Port Canaveral, The Disney Wonder, Animal Kingdom Villas

Why: Read on.....

This trip started out not as a DVC member cruise. Confused? Yeah, me too!

After our 7 day cruise last May on the Magic , we booked a return cruise while still on the ship. How did that happen? Well, we went to talk to the cruise agent, Lesley, about booking a 4 day cruise in 2008, possibly 2009. While we were discussing dates, she said those magic two words...


"DOUBLE DIP"

Oh dear lord I am doomed. Steve looked at me like I had three heads as one of those heads sunk to the cruise desk. "What's that?" he asked innocently. Lesley started to laugh and pointed at me and said "She knows!" I told Steve he needed to read the Boards more often, and that a double dip was two stops at Castaway Cay. Oh, we were doomed from that point on. We booked, paid our deposit, got our receipt, and walked around in a daze.

Fast forward to around September of 2007. We got that wonderful notification that DVC was planning it's annual member cruise. Gee, it sounded nice, but we were booked for late August and even a diehard vacationer like myself couldn't really justify two cruises in such a short time frame. Oh well, maybe one day I will get to do a member cruise. Anyway, they sell out so quickly... And, we don't have enough points... And it's so close to my birthday... on and on and on I went.

Now, fast forward to November 17th. The DAY!!! You could start calling member services at 9 in the morning, and maybe get a chance at a stateroom. Oh, this would be nice if we didn't have another cruise booked, if we had enough points...yadda yadda yadda. I was spending the day with some friends from Connecticut Christmas shopping, and I still do not know what possessed me to throw the mailer into the car. 9 AM came and went, I was travelling on 84, and that mailer was calling my name. Oh, what the heck, let me give it a try. It was now 10:00, and all the rooms would be gone, right? I called about 20 times, and kept getting a busy. Finally, on try number 21, I got through, only to be put on hold. I was on hold for at least 20 minutes, and then! a MS rep answered. I told her that I wanted some info on the cruise, I was interested in booking but wasn't sure if it was possible. I pulled over to the side of 84, hoping that I wouldn't have to explain to some CT state trooper why I was parked on 84 in the "no stopping except for emergencies" zone. Not sure if this would have qualified as an emergency!

I told her we were thinking about a category 6 or 7, but could do a 5. Was there anything available? her answer floored me..."Yes! We can get you a category 6 with no problem!" OK, now let's talk about points. I had my American Express card in my hand by this point. I had used up (or so I thought) my points for our December trip. But when she checked, MS had borrowed SSR points from my next use year to get us in at SSR within our 11 motnh booking window. I had a plethora of VWL points left (albeit to borrow) that...are you ready for the second flooring moment of the phone call...PAID FOR OUR CRUISE!!! The WHOLE THING!!!

By now I was shaking, I was so excited. We finished all the formalities, and by the end of the call, we were booked in a Category 6 stateroom for the DVC Member Cruise, all gratuities included, two stops at Castaway Cay!!! I hung up the phone and called DH, who couldn't quite wrap his mind around it. It took him almost the whole day to get it! Needless to say, I was a bit excited when I met up with my friends at the mall!

Next....let the planning begin!!!

[iamgrumpy]

Yay another Report by Sue

So does this mean you have 2 cruises booked? or is that a detail I missed?

More please

[Mulan2]

I'm so excited for you! One day, a DVC member cruise will be in the works for us as well. Have a wonderful vacation and can't wait to hear your TR!

[rescuesk]

Originally Posted by iamgrumpy

Yay another Report by Sue

So does this mean you have 2 cruises booked? or is that a detail I missed?

More please

No, only one! I'll get to that in the next installment!

[Colexis Mom]

Yay........you're doing a TR Great start More please

[Grammy Grumpy]

Awesome! I too was wanting to do that cruise, but after just getting off the eastbound repo cruise I couldn't justify the additional time away from work. If only I had gone ahead with my retirement. Oh wait, I wouldn't have the money to go then! Why or why is it always the eternal battle over available time and available funds??

I KNOW you guys will have a great time, can't wait to hear more!

[DyanKJ130]

I'm so glad you started!! I've been waiting for this one!! I remember when you booked this one....I told Jeffrey that when we finally 'do' a cruise, it HAS to be a double dip! Can't wait to hear more

[lauren-roxy]

Great start Sue!!!

[rescuesk]

And so, let the games begin!

Once the shock wore off, the magnamity of what we had just done sank in! I waited until the paperwork arrived in the mail confirming our cruise, and then I called Disney Cruise lines. I told the very deep-voiced CM (think Barry White) that I needed to cancel my scheduled cruise. He was very sympathetic, but then I told him we had booked a DVC member cruise! He congratulated me, and assured me we would have a wonderful time. My account was credited, and we were set!

Now, about this time, we had started in earnest to plan our UK vacation. I am really not talented enough to plan two vacations at once, so this one took a bit of a back seat to the more current UK trip. I did, however, manage to figure out that a few favorite Passporters might indeed be around the area the same time we were! Seems like there was a "Great American Road Trip" in the works as well as a few other assorted PP vacations. So, if we went to WDW for a few days after our cruise, not only would the company be great, but....we would be in the most magical place on earth for my birthday!!!

And so our plan was this: fly down Friday, stay in the Cocoa Beach/Port Canaveral
area till Sunday, cruise, leave Port Canaveral on Thursday, go to AKV for 3 days, fly home Sunday.

The very first thing I did was check my DVC points. Hmmm....I had 8 left. Not quite enough for the days I needed. Not to fear, my DSiL loses points every year, so a quick call to her netted a few rented points. On the first day of our 7 month window, in February, I called and got a studio at AKV with a Savannah view! We have never stayed there, and I was pretty excited to get the ressie! In March, I booked the Radisson at Port Canaveral. We got an awesome deal that included parking and breakfast! Then I started to fare watch. Southwest opened their dates in April, and the first weekend, they gave a 15% discount! The fare came to $90 one way, and with the rumblings of higher fuel prices, I didn't think I was going to do much better. : I am glad I grabbed that fare, they haven't really come down in price! In June, I rented our car, and in August, reserved our airport parking. In early September, I went back on Dollar's website and got a really great rate on the same car! I modified our rental, and we were good to go!

Next....the ADR's and more friends are joining us!

[RobDVC]

Great plans, Sue!

[JoanW]

Oh man you guys are soooo lucky! I see it's just two days away!

[rescuesk]

The booking/ADR saga....

With the bulk of the planning done, it was time to concentrate on booking things like Palo reservations and ADRs. I still can't wrap my mind around 180 day ADR's, and that deadline had come and gone like the wind. The group travelling needed to make some decisions, and, frighteningly, they left this up to ME! "Well, it's your birthday trip!" I knew that I wanted to do something fun for my birthday dinner, so I chose WCC. And then Friday was the opening of the F & W festival. And of course, our traditional farewell breakfast on Sunday at Maya Grill. And should we do the dining plan? Oh, the decisions.

Now...most of you know that I work as a paramedic. I can make life and death decisions in the blink of an eye. I can operate with life saving speed with nary a second thought on calls. I can protect life and limb with blinding accuracy when it comes to my patients and my crew. But when it comes to WHERE TO EAT....fugettabout it! Maybe I'll just eat cheese sandwiches...

So after a million PMs back and forth, things were decided. Then, in the midst of all this, my friend Linda from work asked me a simple one line question...

"When are you guys going to be there?"



Why?

Turns out she and her DH (my supervisor) are going to be there the same time we are! Now this is not a bad thing, Linda and I are very close, and we can usually put work stuff aside when we are together. We have travelled with them before, also. But...oh my, onto plan C!

So I ended up on the phone with a wonderful CM from Disney Dining who helped me put it all together. When I came to the Boma ADR, which was for a group of 14, she told me she needed to transfer me to group dining. Uh...OK. She transferred me and they were able to make our ADR, but I still don't know why I needed to go elsewhere. There is no guarantee on my credit card, no special instructions...oh well, it's done.

Then came my 90 day mark for booking reservations on the cruise. I waited up until midnight so that I could compete against the 2500 other DVC members, 2490 of them who were probably also Castaway Club members. I watched the minutes tick by, refreshed, tick, refresh, tick, refresh...it's midnight, Cinderella! I refreshed, clicked on my link, and got told... YOUR CRUISE IS NOT PAID IN FULL!!! Say WHAT? For 10 minutes I cannot get into my reservation to do anything. By now I am fuming, so I go to the "Contact us" part of the DCL website and fire off a very vehement email. I then log out and log back in, only to now be able to make the ressies. But guess what? (You already know where this is going.) All the Palo brunch ressies are gone. I did snag a dinner ressie and a massage, but I was really angry. I went back to the DCL Contact us site and sent another email that I had fixed the problem but could not get what I wanted. Guess which email Disney chose to answer? Yup, the second one! "We are so happy that you were able to get on our website! Have a magical cruise!" Grrrrrrrrr..... Hopefully when we get on the ship, there will be ressies left for brunch.

We were just about done with the planning. In early September, we realized we had no breakfast ADR for the morning of my birthday. We decided to go to Spoodles, and I was able to grab a 9 AM ADR. While I had the CM on the phone, I asked about getting anything on Thursday at Tony's, Steve's favorite place. I told her we were flexible with times, and she got me a 2:30 lunch! He doesn't know it yet, it's a surprise!

The last thing I did for planning was to cancel our massage. We had a couples massage booked on Castaway Cay, but with heating season coming, $278 plus tip seemed a bit over the top. So we plan on enjoying our day at Serenity Bay without a massage, but I think we will have a great time anyway!

Next...getting ready to go...TOMORROW!!

[Colexis Mom]

Great updates Sue!! Love your plans!! Sorry about the problems with the DCL website (seems to be a common problem at midnight)! Hopefully you can get that brunch!!

I can't believe you're leaving tomorrow!!

[lauren-roxy]

Sounds like you are getting things in order. Sorry about the website snag, but I'm sure you will get some Palo ressies!!

[rescuesk]

And...we're off! (Almost! )

With everything pretty much in place, it was time to just count the days! I had a heavy work schedule this week, but ended up getting my Wednesday day shift covered because I needed to wait at home for a futon delivery. Actually, it was a good thing, because I got quite a bit done.

In no particular order, in the last 48 hours, I have:
gotten my hair cut
bought KSC tickets at AAA
finished a scrapbook that is going to my DVC rep (20 pages)
4 loads of laundry
did the mending and the ironing
balanced the checkbook, sent out birthday cards and paid the bills through next week
finished and mailed a DVD to my cousin
picked up our prescriptions
washed the car
mowed the lawn
got gas in the car
cleaned the house
went to the vet and then dropped the puppies at "camp"
dropped 2 of the kitties at "Aunt Margo's" (my friend who watches them)
arranged for care of the other 2 kitties with my nephew
went to the bank (two different banks)
got my nails done
visited my Dad, did his shopping
got our boarding passes
worked from 6 PM till 6 AM last night
dumped the old futon mattress in the trash
took out the rest of the trash
updated my pre-trip report twice!

Now I am off to pack! Our flight takes off at 2:15 tomorrow, vacation, here we come!!!