mividajp

Thank you everyone for your input! My husband travels extensively for work so we use airplane and hotel miles when we go on vacation.  Hotel prices aren't really a factor for us.  We have a 7 yo daughter that is NOT a good morning person so being able to sleep in as much as possible is a bonus.  My husband also has car rental points but they don't let us use them for same day pick up and drop off.  We would have to have at least an overnight rental which wouldn't be a problem going but would be troublesome coming back.

When we rented an SUV on our first trip it was definitely more convenient and cheaper for transporting 7 people. Plus my husband and Father-in-law took care of the car and my mother-in-law and myself took care of the kids.  I hate to try to handle all the luggage and my daughter while my husband is picking up/dropping off.  Also trying to hook back up in unfamiliar territory is sometimes frustrating.

Thank you again for your help! 

We’ve been on a DCL cruise three years ago. At the time we were traveling with 7 people so our best option was to rent an SUV. This time there will be only three of us. We’ll be flying in the night before and staying at the hotel there at the airport.  What are our transportation options? Are there any advantages to using Disney transportation?  Thank you!

We were on the Fantasy about a month ago with 2, 3, and 4 yo. We had the exact same reservations as you do. The two areas are definitely two VERY different spaces. The hallway is such that it doesn't really make it feel like they're connected.

The open house times are usually early morning and during early dinning time. Both were very inconvenient times for us.

I would suggest you do what we did. Go ahead and register her for kids club. Go check it out when you get on board the first day and see it for yourself. Talk to the counselors and give them your concerns. They are VERY helpful.

Our original plan was to drop the kids off for a specific activity that we thought they might like to do and then pick them up as soon as that activity was over with. However, for us, it never worked out that way.

We would get up, get ready for the day, go to breakfast and then decide what we wanted to do. We spent about 3hrs doing activities around the boat. Character meets, sports deck, just walking around the ship, shopping, etc. We had lunch and then put the younger ones down for a nap. They slept for about 1-1.5 hrs. We had probably 2hrs before it was time to get ready and go to dinner. (We had early dinning) After dinner there was maybe an hour before we started to head toward the show. After the show was over the kids were tired and it was time to put them to bed. We just never seemed to have any time to take them to the kids club.

I think they would have liked the kids club a lot and I think it probably would have been fine to leave them for a short period of time. Like Moki's Mom said, the areas are geared for the different age groups. The Oceaneers club has a definite small kids feel to it. Older kids would get bored very quickly.

I think it would also depend on your daughter. Is she a joiner? Does she make friends easily? Our 3 yo is very shy at first and won't generally dive right into something. She usually needs a little back up until she feels comfortable. If you drop your daughter off for a specific activity, you can tell the CMs what she's there for and they can take her over to the area and introduce her to whoever's in charge of the activity. There's a little bit more supervision with the activities and it's more structured.

From the little bit that we saw, the CMs were doing a wonderful job and the kids were all having a ball.

We were recently on the Fantasy with a 2, 3, and 4 y.o. We had balcony cabins. There was plexiglass covering the railings so the kids couldn't use them as ladders.(Thank-you DCL) However, the kids were still trying to climb on the railing and could have climbed over them if we hadn't been watching them.

My point.......It doesn't matter how many safety measures are taken. If you leave your kids to just run around unsupervised accidents can happen. Keep an eye out for any and all kids. They can find a way to do anything they set their minds to. :p

I can't tell for sure is the skyway on the fourth level of the parking garage?

You guys are awesome as always. Thanks for the picture Schmoo! We want the covered parking. Since we're traveling during hurricane season we'd prefer to have the car in the garage just in case there's hail or bad weather while we're gone.

Our PAT is 11:30am. Do you think we'll still be able to find parking in the garage?

So are they both covered or out in the open? The way it was described on the DCL website it sounded like it was gated but not covered. I thought maybe the preferred was covered versus the reg parking being uncovered.

If you live near a Part City store, they have Disney Lanyards for $1.00.

Thanks Jalves! That was actually what I was asking. I guess I should have explained a little better. On the DCL website its $120.00 for parking for a 7 day cruise. After it lists the charges for 8,10, 12, and 15 day cruises it says "preferred parking is an additional $20.00 regardless of length of cruise".

I was confused if that meant preferred parking would be $140 for a 7 day cruise or if it meant it would be $260 for a 7 day cruise.

What is the difference in preferred or regular?

I read on the DCL website that preferred parking was $20 extra no matter the cruise length. Is that $20 extra per day or just an extra $20? I'm thinking its $20/day but just wanted to double check. TIA :)

I was looking at the deck plans on the Fantasy. Our room is towards the front, just past the stairs. Has anyone had a room on deck 6? If so, how was it? Was it noisy, quiet? How were the verandas? On a thread I was searching through people were saying the verandas on deck 6 of the Magic were a little bit bigger. Is this true for the Fantasy as well? Thanks.

There was a video that somebody posted of the DCL promotion of HOTHS. Google HOTHS or look on YouTube, you can probably find it. It hits the main things that your child may or may not find scary.

Do any of the resorts on St Thomas offer day passes?

Gary, how did you find out about the KLM? Is there a website? Is the KLM the only plane coming in that day? I'm trying to plan our day and wondering if there will be more planes to see throughout the day or if that's the only one.

Yes, I was speaking of St. Maarten. We're going to have 4 adults and 3 toddlers with us. I'm trying to figure out what kind of hassle it will be to get off the ship and hire a Taxi to take us to a beach.

If we have to get off the ship, find a taxi and then have the taxi driver call another Taxi to bring car seats for the kids, it might be more trouble than it's worth.

Thanks Gary! My DH is going to be super excited. That actually works out perfect. I think I will go buy a lottery ticket. :)

Does anyone know if car seats are required in Taxis, and if so how we would go about getting a taxi with car seats in them?

My DH and I went to Maho beach in Oct about 8 years ago. My DH is a big airplane buff and wanted to see the planes fly in. When we took a taxi 8 yrs ago in Oct, our taxi driver told us there were only 1-3 airplanes flying in per day because it was the low season. Suffice it to say, we missed the planes. We didn't time it right and it was pretty much a wasted trip to the beach.

We're going to be there Sept 4 this year and my DH REALLY wants to see the planes. Does anyone know if this is still the low season and if so, what time we'd have to be at the beach to see at least one plane come in? Thanks!!

Thanks Schmoo! I've never heard of Cruise Fish. I'm going to put that one in my cruise files. Do you know if those are DCL prices or from a particular travel company?

We cruised to Hawaii several years ago. At the time my husbands company used Hertz and he had a bunch of points by the time we went on our cruise. Lucky for us we just rented a car from Hertz at every port using points. If we had to pay for the rental we probably would have gone with Budget or Thrifty.

At every port we walked off the ship right on to the Hertz shuttle with only a few other people on the shuttle with us. Less than 30min from the time we stepped off the ship we had our car and were on our way.

The Budget and Thrifty lines always had at least 80-100 people in line waiting to get on a shuttle. Some of our table mates had rented through Budget and they said it was a nightmare trying to get their car. It took over an hour from the time they walked off the ship until they were in their car. There were also some instances of people yelling at each other because somebody was taking too long or trying to cut.

When my aunt and uncle were going to do a Hawaiian cruise I told them to think about what was more important. Spending the least amount of money for a car rental or paying twice as much for the car rental but spending a lot less time in lines and less frustration.

The higher the price of the car rental, the less people are going to rent from them. Depending on your budget, sometimes it's better to spend more and have a more pleasant experience.

Schmoo, if you don't mind me asking, are you a DCL rep? I've been around and around with DCL at this point and was told only DCL reps have access to that info. It's good to know. I appreciate you putting it up there.

At this point I'm getting disillusioned with DCL. I'm getting so much misinformation. They tell me one thing, I go to confirm it, find out it's not "exactly" true, call them back to let them know what I've found out and they start back tracking. They didn't say "that", I misunderstood and then there's a brand new excuse. At this point, it is what it is, we'll go on this cruise and enjoy our time together as a family.

I will say that unless we are completely blown away by DCL, we probably won't book another DCL cruise. I would rather somebody just tell me straight up what's going on, even if it's "No, we won't do it because we don't want to and don't have to" than making up some fake excuse they think will placate me.

Thanks for everybody's response and help. I'm ready to go on the cruise and soak up some sun and sea air

My TA gave up. She did spend two hours with DCL but she gave up and said it was DCL policy and there was nothing she could do about it. I may not get what I want but I'm not willing to give up after speaking to only one manager.

Sorry BullDawg, I didn't completely understand your question. I want the end result to be that Disney gives me a verandah cabin without obstruction in any category, without charging me the difference between what we paid in April compared to what it is currently listed at. It's jumped quite a bit.

We had a 4C on our original cruise and we've been downgraded to 5D gty with a big up charge. I'm ok with the 5D gty, I just don't feel like it's right to charge us based on current cruise prices when we made our reservations in April.

If we called DCL right now and wanted to move from our 4C to a concierge than I feel they are justified in charging us the up fee based on current cruise rates. I'm also ok if they told me they didn't have any 4C cabins left and if I wanted to move to a 4A or 4B they charge me the up charge based on April prices. I'm also not asking for them to refund me the difference between the 4C and 5D category based on April prices. I'm just asking for a non-obstructed verandah on a DCL cruise without HOTH.

I've been moving up the managerial chain to try to get this resolved. It's been sad and disappointing that either DCL managers are kept out of certain loops or they outright lie.

I always try to give people the benefit of the doubt so I'm going to blame it on DCL not training their managers properly. The higher up the chain I go the more conflicting information I get. SMH:(

Sorry for the confusion. We moved it to the cruise before the one we had with the same itinerarie. Which is technically 2 weeks before our originally scheduled cruise.

I also think it's kind of "Funny" that the Holiday dates are now announced. When I first spoke to a DCL rep to confirm that the sailing was a Halloween sailing he said they were probably not going to announce them until the end of July. Makes you wonder....